Charlie's grandson Jason on the 700 Club

Thank you anonymous friend, for sending this one in. It is very interesting stuff, with a photo of Charles Manson, Jr. Patty had never seen before.

Fighting Your Family's Demons
By Annika Young
The 700 Club

CBN.com: In the ring, Jason Freeman knew he had to be disciplined, focused and fearless. "The only thing that could beat me was the other guy, and it wasn't going to happen."

Like most fighters in the mixed martial arts world, Jason had a nickname. His was Charlie Manson III, a name he inherited from his dad. He was Charles Manson Jr. and I knew that Charlie Manson, Sr. was my grandfather. It was to be kept quiet, under a rug. 

His parents never married. Jason lived with his mother and stepfather who raised him. His biological father kept his distance. As the son of a notorious killer, he was fighting his own battles with depression and a drug addiction. "Earliest memories were mainly phone conversations and pictures that he sent and Christmas gifts. I don't know if he just realized that I was fine; I was taken care of, that he didn't think he needed to be there." 

One night Jason's father checked out on him for good. He killed himself when Jason was a freshman in high school. Despite their splintered relationship, Jason took his father's death very hard. "I blamed my father's suicide on my grandfather. Jason poured those emotions into high school football and wrestling. "I knew that my anger needed to be directed in a positive manner." 

Still, Jason's ties to the Manson family name haunted him, and he swore to break the cycle of drugs and violence. But his hair-trigger temper was working against him. "People knew I could fight. I would fight. I didn't have a problem with fighting. When I was provoked, I knew I could hurt somebody and I didn't want to hurt nobody." 

As an adult, he found another way to vent his anger... through mixed martial arts. But to make money, he started selling drugs, and soon started using them, too. Jason felt the consequences of his actions. "When you're on drugs that make your family not want to be around you or not like you, you don't fit in. You get mixed up into whatever kind of drug it is to hide yourself from reality. You're in a box. You don't know how to get out." 

Eventually, Jason was arrested and convicted for drug trafficking. His worst fear had come true. "I just - I don't want to fail. (I) seen it all around me, all my life."

He asked God to help. "Laid in bed probably for hours just crying and just asking for forgiveness and help; help to understand, give me some wisdom to realize the path I'm on isn't the right path."

He found a Bible, but wasn't sure where to begin. He met someone who helped. "There was an ordained minister in there for relapsing back on crack cocaine. I started asking questions and I said, 'I don't know where to start in this long Book, this Bible.' He said 'Well, just you know, read John. Everybody starts at John.' He prayed over me. I accepted Jesus in my heart. At that point I wanted to walk a different path."

He took the first step. "I went straight to the Bible and I ran every day. I stayed focused on myself. I stayed focused on understanding why I'm in here."

Jason served his time. He also met and married Audrey. He says on his journey of faith, she helped him every step of the way. "I didn't know for the longest time which way was up or down and I can honestly say when I met my wife, Audrey, it's been a rough road, but she made me who I am today."
In 2011, he decided to step out of the ring for good. Jason remembers his conversation with God on the night of his last fight. "I was asking Him, 'Why am I out here?' He said, 'I built a stage up underneath of you to speak off of and reach others.'"

Now he talks to kids about how to avoid the mistakes he made. He says with God's help he's been off the drugs and his anger is in check. He and Audrey are raising three boys and working on leaving a legacy founded on faith in God. "I got my whole family. I love it."

The kid with the notorious family ties has found his purpose through his faith in Jesus Christ. "Once people get to know me for me and not the name, I carry my own weight. I feel God moves through me like He moves through a lot of people. And if that name somehow attracts attention over to my corner, then I've got something positive to speak about."

Bugliosi Talk Cancelled

Thanks to blog reader Rosie for alerting us!

Manson Family Knives

I got a new press photo that I'd never seen before!  This apparently ran in newspapers in 1984, the back is stamped "Received Examiner Reference Library Feb 20 1985"  The caption-

"(LA 11-AUG.9) -- Manson Family Knives-- This is a photo of the various knives, and a record album of Charles Manson's songs, that were seized in a 1969 police raid on the Barker Ranch in Death Valley.  The album was sold by Family members, Lynette Fromme and Sandy Good Pugh on the streets of Independence, Calif. while Manson was in the Inyo county Jail.  (AP Laserphoto) (pjh41400mbr) 1984     SLUG: MANSON ANNIVERSARY

Julienne Busic Today

Sunset77 was recently pondering whether or not a huge, military Croatian funeral on Youtube was for Zvonko Busic, husband of Julienne, who committed suicide earlier this year? Susnset inspired Patty to start poking around until she located this website: zvonkobusic.com. Although Patty does not speak Croatian, she does know how to use Google translator. She read there that:

"In September in 1976. years, Zvonko Busic, his wife - American Julienne - and three Croats, hijacked TWA plane in New York and eventually were arrested in Paris, France. The only goal of the operation was to draw world attention to the murder, closing opponents and human rights violations committed by Croats former Yugoslav dictator.

Their only request was that the leaflets of these misdemeanors publication in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune. Although the plane was not weapons, an incident connected with the kidnapping took place, to their chagrin, the New York City police officer was killed while three others were wounded.

Zvonko Busic and received a life sentence (with the possibility of parole after 10 years for Zvonko and Julienne for eight years, recommended by the judge).

The other three Croats were given 30 years each in prison. All Bušić's co-defendants were acquitted in 1989. year. Only Zvonko remained in prison until his release in July 2009th year, almost 32 years later, the high-security section Terre Haute in Indiana."


It surprised Patty to realize that Juliana is American, and that Zvonko was obviously well regarded by his countrymen. So yes, the funeral was for the husband of the woman who Squeaky legendarily hit on the head with a hammer. Has anyone ever heard why Squeaky did that?

Thanks Sunset for the inspiration. Peace.

WHAT IS THIS and WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

Bugliosi Talks Manson

Bugliosi will be onstage at The Company Theatre in Norwell, Mass. at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 8. He will discuss that event, the writing of his book and the inner workings of Manson. The talk will conclude with a question-and-answer period with the audience.
Read more

Tickets are $33

Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures

The Travel Channel launches their new season of Ghost Adventures with a visit to Cielo Drive.  That area of Benedict Canyon is said to possess a geomagnetic anomaly conducive to the spirit world.  Yawn.  You may sense that I'm not a believer!  I'm guessing this show will either be marginally entertaining, not in the way intended to, or it will make you cringe at the lengths people will go to to make a buck.



The venerable Robin Leach contributes THIS error ridden article to the Las Vegas Sun announcing the series premier.  The show airs at 9 PM tonight, Saturday February 15th with Zak Bagans and his cohosts Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin.

From Book Review to Plagiarism to Sex Offender

This post was supposed to be called: Book Review - The Manson Family "Then and Now", by David Pietras

As someone obviously interested in the "then and now" aspect of the Manson Family, the title of this "book" piqued my interest a little bit, even though the description on Alibris was fraught with inaccuracies, misspellings and poor grammar.

After reading this, in likely slightly less time than I think Pietras spent writing it, my only question was what did Pietras do with the rest of his day? I was still unaware of what else I was about to discover or how prophetic that thought was.

You know, it's not that often that you get to bust a bad guy, but when you get to bust a REALLY bad guy you can't pass up the opportunity.

This really isn't a book. It felt more like a report a kid might have turned in in the 8th grade - you know, the one he started after dinner the night before it was due and plagiarized the daylights out of and taped in a bunch of pictures to fill up space, then took an old report out of its clear plastic cover (like these in the picture) so he could recycle it? The teacher could always tell the kid didn't write it because it was too good. My memories of those "research projects" - those of the prepubescent kids in the library copying directly from the encyclopedia - would serve me well in this case. The reasons will become clear in a moment.

Pietras quoted extensively from other books such as Helter Skelter, The Garbage People and even leaned on Nuel Emmons a bit. It felt familiar. The book is also filled with photos, all of which we have seen before and take up even more page space than the quotes from other resources. I thought to myself that if you were to remove the quoted text from other authors and the pictures, I think this would not be a book any longer, it would be an article. A well written article, but not a book. Something kept gnawing at me as I read it, I just didn't know what.

So, getting back to what compelled me to push the buy button on Alibris, the last third of the book is called "Where Are They Now?" As someone who loves the connection of the 1960's Manson Family to the 60-year-olds that they are now - the ones you might bump into at the mall, I just couldn't resist. This section begins by saying "Manson endures, even as a sixty-year old". Now, even the most novice among us knows Charles Manson is 79 years old. That sentence bothered me, so I googled it. Guess what? It is a plagiarized line. It comes from a really good article called "Charles Manson and the Manson Family" by Marilyn Bardsley. Most of us have read this at one time or another HERE in the Crime Library. So I skimmed Bardsley's article (I'm snowed in, so I had time to kill). Guess what? It was ALL plagiarized from Bardsley! Not leaned heavily on, not paraphrased - totally fucking plagiarized. In many cases he even uses the same photos Bardsley used in the same parts of her article as illustrations. Nowhere in this book was Bardsley even credited! So, I've read 2/3 of this thing only to find out that he completely plagiarized everything I've read so far.

Not to be deterred, I trudged on, only immediately to find that the next three chapters were copied word for word from Manson's Wikipedia page. I kid you not. Directly from Wikipedia!

He then reproduced a portion of the recent Rolling Stone article to address the Star saga, but at least he cites Rolling Stone.

Then when he turned the "where are they now" subject to Lynette Fromme, he went back to directly plagiarizing Bardsley - word for word. Then returns to copying and pasting from Wikipedia to talk about what has become of Tex, Sadie, Clem and so on. Pietras didn't write any portion of this book. None of it. He copied everything directly from Bardsley and Wikipedia.

I think it would be fair to guess that this book does not get an endorsement. In fact, if Marilyn Bardsley were to get wind of this, Pietras might find himself being sued. Luckily it only set me back six bucks on a used copy.

BIG THUMBS DOWN

But screw the book. Upon investigating this a little bit more, our crack team has compared his Wix page that he proudly displays in the masthead of his "book":

http://mrdavepp.wix.com/davidpietras

...with the Florida sex offender registry:

http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/flyer.do?personId=47963

Oh SNAP! It's the same guy!

Oh, he's a sex offender in NY too:
http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/SomsSUBDirectory/offenderDetails.jsp?offenderid=3593

I wonder if his Parole Officer knows about the plagiarism? I'm guessing this is not going to be his biggest problem going forward. This turned out to be a worthwhile six dollars, don't you think?

Juan Flynn Obituary

Posted HERE

My first encounter with Charles Manson

In the summer of 1968, I would make my first encounter with Charles Manson. On a typical 100plus degree day, Bob, Craig and I were returning to the San Fernando Valley from scouting filming locations in the nearby Simi Valley. As we travelled back on the Old Santa Susana Pass Road, I remembered that there was a coke machine in the saloon at the old Spahn Movie Ranch. Bob pulled up to the old western town boardwalk and I hopped out of his Dodge convertible. As I strolled toward the saloon, Charlie appeared and began walking toward me. When I was about 10 feet from bumping into him, without reason, I seemed to have walked “bam” right into a glass cylinder like a shield encircling an alien being. I made a 180 degree turn, walked back to the car and hopped over the passenger car door as I commanded, “Let’s go.” Bob started the engine and pulled away without questioning my decision to leave. He nor Craig ever complained, “Where are the cold drinks?”  Down the road I finally thought, “Why did I do that?” Not until many years later would I think, “If I had connected with Charles Manson that fateful day, could I have ended up filming the tragic events of August 9th and 10th, 1969?”