Book Report: MANSON - The Life and Times of Charles Manson, by Jeff Guinn

First, let me lead in with this: This book was not written for us. Manson aficionados will read this book cover to cover and learn little they didn't already know. I learned little. I was also amused by a few errors that I found - however they were minor. For instance Guinn states that Joel Pugh was the father of Sandra Good's son. There were others, but you get my drift. I was also concerned that he stated as fact that Manson went to Cielo drive murder scene in the we hours of August 9, post crimes. This has never been substantiated.

But there were some positive things. For instance, he went into much more detail than any author so far into Manson's childhood. I enjoyed this part of the book. He connected the various stages of his early life in places like Moundsville and McMechen, WV. Guinn clarified for me the personalities and situations of his relatives - particularly his mother,  Aunt Glenna and cousin Jo Ann. Charlie was clearly already violent and incorrigible with his mother serving time locally for armed robbery. He had me feeling sorry for these people who were flawed but were trying to do the right thing.

Another positive for me was the picture Guinn painted regarding Manson's prison "education". He highlights that Charlie read Dale Carnegie's self-help book How To Win Friends and Influence People. Manson clearly internalized this book and course. Manson took this knowledge to San Francisco in 1967, where he used Carnegie's methods on young girls who were down on their luck and desperately searching for something.

I also thought Guinn did a nice job describing what Manson MAY have been thinking and feeling as the Spring and Summer of 1969 advanced. He describes in nice detail the stressful chain of events that  Manson banked on going his way in hopes for the career in music he needed to afford to keep his cult Family together. There was Kaufman, Jacobson, Dennis Wilson and ultimately Terry Melcher. When Melcher passed on him, his hopes of becoming a star were extinguished. Charlie then feared the unthinkable - he would become lessened in the eyes of his Family. Also, with the Family's healthy fleet of dune buggys and supplies having eaten up the lion's share of the money sucked from recruits and the number of Family members increasing there was the problem of decreasing expenses (i.e. ridding himself of useless members) while trying to acquire enough money for the eventual move to the desert. He had to act. He had to somehow prove his infallibility.

In the end, it was like playing a whole game that ends in a tie. Glad I played, but ultimately not fulfilling. Your mileage may vary.

The Netflix Companion: Skatopia (88 Acres of Anarchy)

 Note to reader: the following post is allegorical, and should not be taken to mean that Eviliz, her agents, her great aunt, her downstairs neighbor and/or her hairdresser acknowledge any resemblance between the man with the Starship Enterprise on his stomach to persons living, dead and/or incarcerated in Corcoran, CA.

Patty just saw this 2006 documentary about self proclaimed anarchist, womanizer, "skate park cult leader" entrepreneur and anger management problem sufferer, Brewce Martin (cough cough Charlie). He's a hella nice guy, but he's just been "hit with a bullshit felonious assault charge."

Brewce is extremely charismatic, and dabbles in music. He has also been skating a long, long time. His mother says that as a kid he was "violent" so she encouraged his skating as a way to channel his aggression.

At the beginning of the documentary, Brewce is living with the lovely, mohawked Halo Whitelight, mother of his 14 month old child (Brewce's other child is 20 year old Brandon "Hellskull" Martin). Halo understands that Brewce has a "fidelity problem," but she is convinced that he has recently changed for her. She is quite a firecracker and got her college's administration to start a lactation room program when her child was born.

By the end of the documentary Bruce gets caught cheatin' and Halo has moved out.

Brewce tuned in, turned on and dropped out of Generation X back in the 90's to run what appears to be the Spahn Ranch of Rutland, Ohio.

Members of his loose knit (cough cough) "Family" are known as the Citizens Instigating Anarchy, or the CIA (cough SLA cough ELF cough cough International Court of Retribution). One kid recalls being cautioned about Skatopia: "Don't go out there! They'll steal your car keys! They'll beat you up! They'll make you stay!"

 

The people of Rutland "think we are worshipping the devil out here," Brewce laughs. "I'm just keeping my cultees in line."

Brewce has got plenty of (cough) redheaded "young love" camped out on his property for a good part of the year. He encourages them to enjoy the "wonders of nature" (cough cough or you don't get off). "Papa Brewce takes care of us so we do a lot of shit for him."

He's got plenty of horny old geezers out there doing shit for him, too.

Somehow, with all the work gettin' done, everyone still remains perpetually broke. One kid actually admits to having eaten dumpster food.

These are actual people! This is not some low(er) budget reboot of "Leslie, Thy Name is Evil." Oh, and BTW: Brewce has been in Rolling Stone, just like (insert name of musical/political/religious/spaceship/personality cult leader here, cough cough).

Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll and Violence: people will always and forever love reading about lifestyles that contain them. Anyone (cough) who is perceived to have an excess of them is a very dangerous man, indeed.

Check it out!

Fillipo Tenerelli

FROM OUR FRIEND J.C.

I recently took a tour of Death Valley and surrounding areas and one thing that I wanted to check out on my travels was Bishop, California and trying to get more information on Fillipo Tenerelli. For some reason information on this case is very vague and perhaps it's because it's still considered an open and cold case.

Visiting Bishop, California I quickly realized that there were a lot of motels so finding the one Tenerelli was found dead in was impossible. I did notice a few motels that looked like they could have been around in 1969 like, The Mountainview, The Trees and the Bishop Elms. But there's no guarantee that the motel he was found in is still even around.

One other stop was where Tenerelli's VW was discarded, Father Crowley Vista. Again, there's not much here but a highway and a sheer cliff that made my stomach knot up looking over. But what did strike me as interesting was that Father Crowley Vista was nearly half way between Bishop and Barker Ranch, on the same route - no deviations.

I have read many of the Manson blogs talk about this death and some of them go as far to say that there's no way that it could be a Manson-related murder because of the distance. So untrue. Bishop to Barker Ranch is 150 miles. For those of us who have driven these desert roads, we all know that at some stretches you can easily go 80 - 95mph (though there are certain areas where it is impossible to go over 30 unless you want to go over a rail and plummet to your death much like Tenerelli's VW.) Even at proper speeds, that is 4 hours. Speeding it will be a lot less time.

One of the Mansons could have easily did Tenerelli in, drove 100 miles to Father Crowley Vista and disposed of the VW, and then headed the final 50 miles to Barker Ranch. The route is simple: 395 to 195 and then down Panamint Valley Road which is the Goler Wash access to Barker Ranch. However, there was a record flood in 1969, and Panamint Valley Road generally floods out during any flood. Going through the Mengel Pass route would add a few more hours (due to the slow speeds).

Ed Sanders wrote in his book The Family that Charles Manson did associate with the Gypsy Jokers, mostly in  San Jose. Tenerelli was a Gypsy Joker, so the connection is there. Tenerelli also lived in Culver City, which is about half way between Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It's really hard to take it as a coincidence that Tenerelli was from Los Angeles, and a Gypsy Joker AND was in the vicinity of Death Valley.

I should also point out that Ed Sanders wrote that the Gypsy Jokers were heavily into the occult, and Sanders made the point to mention that Tenerelli's VW was discarded over Father Crowley Vista, which is obviously a similar name to Aleister Crowley. Manson was apprehended October 12, 1969 which was Aleister Crowley's birthday. Odd parallels, but they are always worth mentioning.

I personally think that it would have been easy for someone like Tex Watson to get Tenerelli, stage his death to look like a suicide and then put his car over the mountainside to get rid of it. But even though Tenerelli's death was supposed to look like a suicide, and was ruled one at first, his blood was in that car that went over the ravine and his death has since been tagged as a homicide. So whoever got rid of the car was no career criminal - unless they expected the car to crash and explode like in the movies, thus getting rid of the blood evidence.

Tenerelli was killed October 2, 1969 and Tex Watson fled Barker Ranch October 3, 1969. Watson stayed in Olancha, which is directly south of Bishop on 395 so Watson knew that area. That makes Watson a viable suspect.

I am sure the authorities have taken all of these parallels into consideration and more than likely one of the reasons they were so adamant about obtaining the Watson tapes. Hopefully this case can one day be solved and since Tenerelli was involved with a gang like the Gypsy Jokers, his death more than likely a result of that lifestyle. But, that said lifestyle may have been why may have associated with Watson, the Family or even Manson.

 

DebS here to add a little something.  Thanks JC for checking all this out and reporting back to us! 

After Liz set up this post I wanted to make sure that the victim's name was spelled correctly so I went to Ancestry . com to check that out.  I found that Filippo Tenerelli's name was spelled a couple of different ways, so any misspelling of the name has not been done out of disrespect.

What I did find was very interesting.  Tenerelli was a naturalized US citizen and he had just been naturalized the July before he was killed.  I find it hard to believe that he could become a US citizen and be in the Gypsy Jokers.  They do pretty thorough background checks and I really don't think that a 1%'er would pass the sniff test.  I emailed JC about this, he agreed and said I could add the info to his post.

Though the name is spelled slightly different on the two records the birth date is the same.  The naturalization record gives a Culver City address and the newspaper articles about Tenerelli say that he was from Culver City.







Jeepers! Original Cielo owner was scared in Cielo house!

Michèle Morgan was the original owner of the Cielo house. She actually had the place custom built for her, but didn't end up keeping it, because, well, she was hearing things in it at night coming from the LIVING ROOM area! Could it be possible that a house can have bad vibes in it from the get-go? Could there have been some kind of "presence" on the actual land? Over the years, I have heard many stories about the Benedict canyon area, but never knew what to believe. Read on, and do share with us what you think:

http://truthontatelabianca.com/threads/michele-morgan-on-living-at-cielo.5419/

Brenda's gonna get married

It sure seems like just another normal day at Spahn's Ranch, but then what's considered normal at the Manson Family's commune in Chatsworth, California? Again, I'm driving up old Santa Susana Pass Road to do some more filming at the "commune"! But where does the word "commune" fit into the more proper label of gang-hangout? The young gangsters, that inhabit the old run-down western movie set, don't grow any vegetables there. They don't even grow their marijuana there. And the mind-blowing Belladonna-used to get someone to NOW - grows wild all around their Death Valley home commonly know as the Barker Ranch. No, these media labeled Hippies, shop at the supermarket just like all civilized beings-except they use the pick-up dock at the back of the store where the food is actually FREE. And "run-down old western movie set," just what is a Western town movie set supposed to look like? A Universal City amusement park with buildings two or more stories tall?

The point being, maybe all these little media misconceptions add up to a totally distorted "big picture" of the notorious Manson Family. Instead of listening to so many third-party stories, come along with me to a place where the real under-world meets "middle class" society and where "no sense makes sense."

"Good morning, my favorite actors, what's up for today" my greeting would sing out. "We've got to get Brenda to the LA free-clinic, right away" was their urgent response. Oh shit, "this doesn't sound like fun" was my immediate thought. "She's got to get her blood tested" Gypsy explained. I'm sure my responsive expression was a clear "Is it contagious"?

Gypsy quickly reversed a negative to a positive - "Brenda's gonna get married and she has to have a blood test, to get a marriage license. "But what's the hurry" I said. The girls all began to chatter, but I did recognize, "the wedding is this weekend."

Of course, now the big question is: "Who's the lucky guy and why this weekend"?

"Ron, the lawyer" - and with her trademark sheepish grin - Gypsy continued: "Mr. Hughes is going to marry Brenda and that way she will be emancipated and won't have to go back to her parents." I don't know why (there's already been massacres, missing bodies, etc) but Leslie Van Houten's attorney marrying one of the Manson Family's junior gangsters struck me kinda funny.

"Hey, do I get to film the wedding"? drooled from my wicked lips? Stares like I don't know what suddenly made the rounds. Oops, say what? Did I miss something? Then the girls all chimed in. "Sure, but you'll need lots of cameras" said one. "And there'll be a feast too," quipped another. Then, I noticed Squeaky's priceless expression of "What's going on"? But before I knew it, Brenda's rather simple legal remedy for not being ordered by the court (she was under aged) to be returned home, was turning into the wedding event of the season.

"Gee," I thought, "Will they invite ALL the lawyers and what about the Judge"? And what about Ronald Hughes, does he understand what he's got himself into? Wait till Brenda's mother hears about this, it'll be all over the high society page of the LA Times. "Pitman daughter to marry prominent attorney."

After a short while the whole Ranch was on fire with gossiping excitement and even the simple "blood-test" had become part of a grand ritual. Many piled into the bed of my pick-up and we headed off to the LA Free Clinic. All the while, the chatter of the girls continued and drowned-out the hum of my truck's engine. Typical female excitement associated with a thousand years of sacred traditional values was now actually upstaging the infamous MANSON trial.

As might be expected, upon realizing the entire scope of his "commitment" to a Manson Family darling, Ronald Hughes committed the unforgivable sin - he called off the wedding. Soon thereafter, mother nature drowned the life out of him.

As a consolation to me (for missing the wedding film event) I was invited to film Clem's infamous ritual where he puts on a black hood and hangs the judge.

Copyright 2013 Robert Hendrickson
used with permission for posting on eviliz.com

Order The Collection and take advantage of the EVILIZ SPECIAL

$89.95 for the MANSON Media Collection (the MANSON Book and both DVDs - including Priority Mail shipping. The DVDs come in smaller thin plastic cases so everything fits in flat rate package, but includes larger personalized DVD inserts. Must be purchased via PayPal or M.O. Just email rarefilms@yahoo.com for his PayPal account to send payment.

Chicken Coop, Cave and Children

5 CHILDREN, AGES 1-10 FOUND LIVING IN CAVE

Four of the youngsters believed to be offspring of Manson 'Family' member

Tom Paegel Times Staff Writer

Five Children ranging in age from 1 to 10 were found living in a manmade cave beneath a dilapidated chicken coop on an abandoned ranch four miles west of Lancaster, sheriff's deputies reported Wednesday.

Four of the youngsters were believed to be the children of Dennis Rice, a Manson "family" member who was indicted Dec. 18, 1970, along with four others on charges of having conspired to murder Barbara Hoyt, a state witness in the Tate-LaBianca trial, by giving her an LSD-spiked hamburger.

The children were identified as Kathryn Rice, 10, and her brothers, Joseph. 7, Samuel,6, Nickolas, 3.  A fifth child, a girl believed to be about 1 year old, was not identified.

2 Youths Booked

Sheriff's Sgts. Armond J Licht and Carolyn Boston went to the ranch at 4011 W. Ave. I on a tip that a 14 year old runaway girl from the Los Angeles area was living there.

The officers said they found the girl, whose name was withheld, and the five children.

Also taken into custody were two 19 year old "hippie types" identified as Patrick R. Walleman and David Lee Stoffer.  They were booked at the Antelope Valley substation on suspicion of endangering the health and safety of minor children and on suspicion of possession of marijuana.

Sheriff's deputies said the children were "very dirty", poorly clothed and appeared to be undernourished.  The were taken to McLaren Hall in El Monte.

Investigators were trying to determine how long the children had been living in the 3-by-9 foot plywood-lined cave. 

This much is known about the four Rice children:  A missing persons report was filed at Temple City sheriff's station last Feb. 14 by their mother, Sarah Rice,29, Santa Rosa, formerly of Temple City.  The report stated that she had separated from her husband and left the children in his care because she was "in poor health and not capable of caring for them."

Husband Left

The report added that Mrs. Rice understood that her husband had left the children in the custody of "members of the Manson family" when he was jailed.

She told investigators, the report said, that her husband warned her not to notify authorities because the children's lives would be in danger.

The report also stated that Mrs. Rice contacted "some Manson followers who were living in a van truck."  She said they told her they knew where her children were but would not tell her.

The whereabouts of Dennis Rice was not immediately learned Wednesday.

However Rice and his codefendants were given 90-day jail sentences after pleading no contest to a reduced charge of conspiring to prevent a witness from attending a trial in the Hoyt case.  He later was given a jail sentence in an unrelated misdemeanor assault case.

From:  The Los Angeles Times  July 1, 1971 and sent to us by Paul Dostie, thank you Paul! 

Letter from Steve McQueen to his attorney regarding Manson Family Threats

Letter written to McQueen’s attorney, Edward “Eddie” Rubin on Le Mans / Solar Productions letterhead, by Steve McQueen, documenting his concerns about Charles Manson and his murdering crew of misfits. He, as well as, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, and Tom Jones (good company…) were believed, through an investigation of the murders, to be targeted for assassination by Charles Manson’s crew.

Thanks, Rob C!

Manson Family Inspired Art

rfoster1 and I were exchanging emails about paintings of the Family done by legitimate artists.  Between the two of us we found paintings that were quite good by one particular artist, Kaye Donachie.  Her paintings have sold for big bucks at a recent auction.  Just when you think that maybe your spending a little too much on your "hobby" you see something like this that makes it all okay!

"Every mornin' our love is reborn"  Sold for $18,400.

"Red and Blue"   Sold for $6,875.

"You hear yourself say things you could never mean"  Sold for $15,000.

"Your untold dreams I love to see"

This one was not at auction

http://www.artnet.com/auctions/artists/kaye-donachie/every-mornin%27-our-love-is-reborn

The Late Dennis Rice preaching in prison

Thank you, pastor Jimmy Lee of Bullhead City, AZ. We at Eviliz are sorry for the loss of your friend.

Bruce Davis aka Hari-Kari

One of our happy readers, who happens to be a friend of mine emailed me a Bruce Davis interview, conducted a few years back in a World Magazine.

It will blow your mind a little.....well, at least it will get your attention, if you haven't read it. Ole Bruce had a thing, I guess, for wanting to blow the brains out of people, then make it look like a suicide. I suppose he had a knack for pulling off such "jobs." What talent that must take! Anyway, without further blabbering from your hostess, I give you:

Bruce Davis: Underestimating Evil by Lynn Vincent

After three decades behind bars, former Manson follower-turned-Christian believer Bruce Davis thinks the state has punished him enough-but is reconciled to the fact that God "is giving me what I need."

The first time Bruce Davis saw him, Charles Manson was lounging in an antique bathtub under a shade tree, ringed by half-naked women and smoking a joint. It was Topanga Canyon, L.A., 1968. "I thought, 'Man, this is where it's at,'" Mr. Davis remembers: "I didn't leave that house for six weeks."

Ultimately, he didn't leave Charles Manson, either. That decision would vault his life down a hideous trail that led from a hedonist's paradise of drugs and lust to what at that time were the grisliest murders in U.S. history. Charles Manson, Charles "Tex" Watson, and other Mansonites were convicted of murdering in 1969 actress Sharon Tate and her four houseguests, along with grocery chain magnate Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. A separate jury nailed Mr. Davis for his role in the Manson-ordered murders of musician Gary Hinman and ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea. When the gates at California's Folsom State Prison slammed shut behind Mr. Davis, the Vietnam conflict was evening news, Watergate was an infant scandal, and gasoline cost 36 cents a gallon.

Nineteen parole hearings have yielded 19 denials. His 20th hearing, slated for last month, was just rescheduled for the third time. And California Gov. Gray Davis has publicly declared that any prisoner with "life" in his sentence will never see freedom on his watch. But Davis the prisoner says that even if the state never shows him mercy, his is still a story about the grace and mercy of God.

I visited Bruce Davis and his wife Beth inside the California Men's Colony (CMC), a medium-security prison to which he was transferred in 1980. In the visiting room, two tables away, convicted felon and former rap-music thug Marion "Suge" (as in 'sugar') Knight talked with a silk-suited visitor. But Mr. Davis looked like a different man than the smirking stoner pictured in the pages of Vincent Bugliosi's Manson chronicle Helter Skelter. His hair has gone from brown to steely gray. He stood in his prison dungarees with a bowed, deferential posture. The man whom L.A. prosecutors once called "Manson's right-hand man" clasped my hand, bowed his head, and asked God to bless our meeting with candor and truth. Mr. Davis's cobalt eyes looked straight at mine, and he said he is sorry for his crimes.

Those crimes are among the world's most infamous. On July 25, 1969-exactly 15 days before the Tate-LaBianca butchery-three Mansonites paid a visit to musician Gary Hinman. They planned to rob him blind. But when death threats and a pistol-whipping did not produce an outpouring of cash, Charles Manson and Bruce Davis drove to the musician's home to provide additional motivation. Mr. Manson listened impassively to the victim's pleas, then used a sword to slice Mr. Hinman's left ear in half. Mr. Manson and Mr. Davis then drove off, leaving the others to torture Mr. Hinman for two more days before stabbing him to death.

A month later-two weeks after Tate-LaBianca-Mr. Davis was involved in the murder of Shorty Shea, a bit-part actor and on-again, off-again ranch hand. Mr. Shea had displeased Mr. Manson, who responded by gathering Mr. Davis, other members of the pack, and four sharpened German bayonets, plus the sword Mr. Manson had used to slice Mr. Hinman's ear. The group ambushed and killed Mr. Shea; Mr. Davis says he did not commit the murder but admits that he then followed Mr. Manson's orders and slashed the victim after he was dead.

"It was the only time Manson asked me to go on a murder," Mr. Davis says. "I didn't have the guts to say no." With police looking for him and other Mansonites, he became a fugitive, but finally surrendered to police on Dec. 5, 1970. (He didn't know that Christian relatives in Alabama had been praying he'd do just that.) Mr. Davis stood trial and, upon conviction, landed in Folsom.

There, in the fall of 1974, while standing at a water fountain, he saw hundreds of idly milling inmates in a whole new way: "Everyone appeared to have the pale of death. And I realized that the pale of death I was seeing on the others was also my own. Suddenly, I was desperate. I admitted I needed help."

That admission opened a testy personal dialogue with God, in which Mr. Davis says God reached out to him while he dug in his spiritual heels: "I wanted to reject God's moral demands, especially that His favor required my submission to the Lord Jesus Christ." But in the end, he tendered a surly, disrespectful surrender. "Okay, God," he remembers saying while lying in his cell bunk. "You say you love me and we both know that I don't love you. You say you want to help me, but I don't believe it. I've never done anything for you. But if you still love me, and still want to help me, then do whatever you can.

"That was the truth, and it was as ugly as I could give it to Him." Mr. Davis says. "And little by little, He began to transform important aspects of my life. By God's grace, in my 32nd year, I was saved."

Not everyone bought Mr. Davis's conversion story. When L.A. County deputy D.A. Jeffrey Jonas first began handling his parole board hearings in the early 1980s, he thought Mr. Davis's profession of Christianity was just another case of expedient jailhouse religion.

"I thought Bruce was disingenuous, of the same ilk as the other Manson people," Mr. Jonas says, noting that Mr. Davis and two other Mansonites all were prominent figures in CMC's Christian ministry at that time. "I thought that was about as hypocritical as you could be. Mr. Davis had never renounced Manson, but was paying lip service to spiritual values. Basically, his attitude seemed to be 'What's it going to take to get me out of here?'"

But in the late 1980s, Mr. Jonas's opinion changed. Mr. Davis, who had been reluctant to speak against Manson, finally did so. "Based on his comport after that time, I truly believe he has demonstrated that he's renounced everything Manson stood for," he says.

Tim Dailey, pastor of a church near CMC who has maintained an ongoing friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Davis since 1988, says: "Bruce Davis is a broken and repentant man who is fully aware of the devastation of his crimes." Mr. Dailey has ministered regularly to 40 CMC prisoners and their families, but only for Mr. Davis has he written a letter to the parole board: "I've got models to compare Bruce to. I saw the truth and genuineness in his life. Bruce has lived his Christian walk consistently. I have six sons and, without fear, I would have him live in my house tomorrow."

Mr. Davis has had lots of time to reflect on how he ruined his life. The son of a construction worker and an accountant, he grew up in Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee, but had a distant relationship with his father, who was often away on construction jobs. As Mr. Davis grew older his father traveled less but drank a lot, and had outbursts that were sometimes physically abusive. "My sister tried to cope by becoming a good student," Mr. Davis says. "I pacified my anger with overeating and sexual fantasy."

When he turned 20, Mr. Davis decided to put miles between himself and his family. He landed in California in 1963, where he worked as a welder and surveyor, mainly to finance his appetite for "nice clothes, motorcycles, a sports car, and drugs." In 1968 he had that first shade-tree encounter with Manson and joined "the Family." But soon Mr. Manson suggested that they all split up for awhile, and Mr. Davis headed east again, through Tennessee and ultimately to Europe, where he did the hippie-drift through Portugal, Gibraltar, and mounds of Moroccan hashish. In London, he became a Scientology devotee and worked at the cult's Surrey headquarters. But in the end, he returned to Los Angeles. Mr. Manson met his flight at LAX.

Although many Mansonites believed their leader's tales of a coming Armageddon to be called "Helter Skelter" (with Mr. Manson starring as Jesus Christ), Mr. Davis says his attraction to Mr. Manson was more pragmatic: sex, drugs, and acceptance. "I was very self-involved. Manson had a vision, and a group of ambitionless subjects. He understood what people needed and gave it to them.... I thought what I was getting was acceptance, love, and respect."

He refuses to blame drugs for his crimes, but admits that LSD, in particular, "enlarged my sense of what was permissible for me. It was all baby steps. The unthinkable became the thinkable. Then the thinkable became the doable."

Even murder. In terms of altering history, one murder that wasn't committed now seems as significant as those that were. One afternoon, Mr. Davis stood over a sleeping Manson and contemplated killing him. Mr. Manson, stoned, had passed out in a barn with a pistol in his lap. Mr. Davis thinks it was after the Hinman murder (his drug use at the time clouds the chronology), but it was definitely before Tate-LaBianca. "I could see with sudden clarity that killing Manson would be a good thing. I could've easily made it look like a suicide." Finally though, Mr. Davis was too afraid of Mr. Manson to go through with it.

Though he tries not to dwell on the past, that moment is one of "a thousand what-ifs" that sometimes season his thoughts. Mostly, though, Mr. Davis concentrates on relationships: with God, with his wife, Beth, and with their daughter.

Mr. Davis met Beth, a flight attendant with a major airline, through a prison letter-writing ministry. Beth says she began visiting Mr. Davis with the blessing of her pastor, who knew him to be a serious student of the Bible.

"I could see how much Bruce loved God, and how intimately he knew the Scriptures," she says. "He absolutely put God before everything else in his life." Slowly, their relationship grew from friendship to courtship. They were married in April 1985. "Beth has made me a whole person," says Mr. Davis. "She's so honest and open. I can't imagine now how my life would have been without her."

Six years ago, before the state of California nixed conjugal visits for inmates, Beth conceived and gave birth to a baby girl. Both Mr. Dailey and Beth's pastor Ron Salsbury call the Davises' continuing marriage a testimony to God's healing power. "When the conjugal visits ended, so did a lot of prison marriages," says Mr. Salsbury.

Mr. Davis prefers to keep his daughter's name private, but speaks joyfully of her: "She is God's greatest gift to me after my salvation and my wife." At least twice a week, she blows into the prison like a spring breeze bringing laughter and, sometimes, he says, tough questions.

"She asks why I can't come home, and what I did," Mr. Davis says. "I tell her I was involved in something where a lot of people got hurt. She asks if anybody was killed. I say yes, people were killed. I just try to answer her questions at the level she asks them. She's growing up really fast."

A painful question: When he thinks of his daughter, what does he wish?

He is quiet for a moment, then his eyes fill with tears. His hand searches for Beth's. "I wish I could take her to Paris. I'd take her across the Channel in a sailboat, then we'd ride back through the Chunnel. I want to be out and be a family. I want the most anxiety in her life to be what to feed her dolly or what movie to watch-not that her daddy's in prison."

Mr. Davis hopes for parole, but "I'm not holding my breath, I can tell you that," he says with sad eyes and a half-smile. "God's not giving me what I want, but He's giving me what I need. I don't agree that I still need it, but He's in control and knows better. I whine about it, but His message to me is, 'You so underestimate the character of sin.'"

Mr. Davis now has a ministry in prison. He spends time studying the Bible, and is working on a Ph.D. in theology from Bethany Bible College. Although he's held other prison jobs-from mopping floors to running a support group for terminally ill patients in the infirmary-he now works in the chapel, doing peer-counseling, teaching Bible classes, and leading worship.

The notoriety of his crimes, he says, gives him a platform to share the gospel. "I'm sorry to say that people here who are willing to listen have misconceptions about what's real. Should a person be listened to because he did something bad? No. But in here everything's backwards."

One thing that isn't backwards: The God who works outside prison walls works inside as well. Mr. Davis says his own change shows "that God is merciful. That there is such a thing as hope."