The Road To Heaven

 Back when I was researching something related to all this, I stole this image from Cielodrive. 

The photograph immediately intrigued me. The intrigue had nothing to do with that guy on the ladder reaching for the phone wires and wearing a short sleaved white business shirt like my father used to wear in the sixties. It also wasn’t because of the wall where Atkins, Krenwinkel and probably Kasabian hid while Watson murdered Steven Parent. It is behind the uniformed officer. It wasn’t the really nice striped pants on the guy pointing at the camera or even the question why one guy showed up in a tee shirt. It wasn’t the cat, either. It was the wagon in the junk pile. Why was there a wagon at Cielo Drive? 

A Bit About JF Watkins

 

We all know Michele Morgan (Simone Renée Roussel) built the house. Well, it is actually more accurate to say she had it built and then bought it but that’s a technicality. She bought the house from “M.M. Landon”. That would be Minnie M. Landon. Minnie had been married to Arthur Landon who was a contractor. He bought the lot several years before. He passed away sometime in the 1930s. They had a daughter named Opal who married a guy named John F. Watkins. He’s the guy who built the house.

 

Far from being a small-time operator, the J. F. Wadkins Company appears repeatedly in real estate advertisements in the LA Times in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Several have him advertising multi-home subdivisions. In fact, in 1942 he got in trouble for violating the regulations that limited production at the start of World War II by starting a 36-home subdivision without authorization. 

Wadkins passed away in 1943 after a horseback riding accident. Ed Sanders might add an oo-ee-oo, here: horses…Wadkins…Spahn Ranch. I was not able to find the location where Wadkins was injured. It obviously was not at Spahn Ranch.

 

 

The Michele Morgan Ghost Story

I don’t think Michele Morgan actually sold the home because of the creepy factor as she claimed in her autobiography. That story can be found, here. 

 

https://www.mansonblog.com/2013/08/jeepers-original-cielo-owner-was-scared.html

 

Later in her autobiography, she seems to contradict her own claim. She says that she sold 10050 Cielo Drive because her new husband, William Marshall, refused to live in a home owned by his wife. Obviously, Mr. Marshall was a modern, open minded and progressive male. Ok, he wasn't. However, apparently, he wasn’t above using the money from the sale of his wife's home to buy a home in his name. A home he was awarded in their divorce.

 

Bill Marshall never lived at Cielo Drive. However, Michele Morgan’s good friend, Madeleine LeBeau, was her roommate at Cielo for a time before Michele married. You might recognize her. She had a small role in the film, Casablanca. 

 

Morgan was supposed to get the role of Ilsa Lund in Casablanca, but RKO, her studio, wouldn't release her for the amount of money Warner Bros. was offering and Ingrid Bergman was cast instead. That is a bit of a shame because Morgan’s flight from occupied France is straight out of the movie. She escaped occupied France (Normandy) and first crossed Vichy France to Spain. She crossed Spain and left Europe from Lisbon, Portugal. 

 

Rudolfh Altobelli bought the house in 1963. There are several deeds changing ownership in the 1950's. But the various deeds all involve a guy named Louis Clyde Griffith (“LC”). Griffith was a theater tycoon in Oklahoma in the 1930’s and 1940’s and from what I could tell he was a pioneer of drive-in movie theaters. Everyone on the deeds from 1949 to 1963 (and there are several) are either business associates of Griffith, his attorney, or his stepson. I believe the transfers are related to a debilitating stroke he suffered in 1946 which led to him relocating to LA in 1949. Eventually the house landed with LC and LC Griffith sold it to Altobelli. The deed is dated October 17, 1963.

 

Despite the various deeds LC Griffith lived in the home throughout the 1950s. The available Los Angeles city directories consistently show LC Griffith as the occupant of Cielo Drive during this time period. The 1950 census places him at Cielo Drive with a nurse. 

______

The Tenants

Here, in order, is everyone I could confirm rented Cielo Drive or the guest house after Altobelli purchased the home until Terry Melcher and Mark Lindsay. 

 

Henry Fonda rented the guest house for a couple of months in 1964.

______

 

"One of the houses I sublet and lived in with Shirlee for a couple of months was on Benedict Canyon in Bel Air," Fonda says. "Does that street name ring a bell? Remember the place where Sharon Tate and her friends were massacred? Remember the guest house? That's where we stayed during the summer of sixty-four. It was a pleasant place. I did a lot of painting there. I had to drive in and park in the area where those violent people parked that night. I'd walk down the same path below the main house to the guest house. That's where the young guy was murdered when he made an exit at the wrong time.”

"My God, timing is everything, even outside the theater."

 

My Life by Henry Fonda and Howard Teichmann, Book Club Assoc., page 295, 1982.

______

 

For two years after Henry Fonda George Chakiris rented first the guest house and then the main house. 

 

"By now [1964]I was renting a charming guest house at the end of a pretty little tree-lined cul-de-sac off of Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills. The guest house and the main house, which I eventually moved into, were owned by a talent manager named Rudi Altobelli. One of his clients, Henry Fonda, had preceded me in the guest house. Henry Fonda was a talented artist, and a painting he’d been working on was still there on an easel.

******

 

I didn’t want to leave Paris. No one ever wants to leave Paris. But I had some packing and moving to take care of back in L.A. The lease was up on the Rudi Altobelli house I was renting off of Benedict Canyon. I’d lived in the two-thousand-square-foot guest house for a year, and then in the thirty-two-hundred-square-foot main house for another year. I’d loved it there. It was quiet and just secluded enough, very French Country, on three acres, with a pool, lots of pine and cherry trees, and a private driveway. I knew I’d miss it, but it was way more space than I needed, and I had too much traveling ahead to justify staying there anyway. Sadly, I’d see that house again, a few years later, on the news. So would the rest of the world.

******

 

Some time after the horror on Cielo Drive, I mustered up the courage to finally visit Rudi Altobelli, who’d cleaned up the house and the grounds and moved back in with a couple of guard dogs. It was eerie and uncomfortable. I didn’t stay long, and I never went back again. I’ve been told that Rudi finally sold the property, the structures there were demolished and replaced by a 12,000-square-foot mansion, and the street address has been changed to discourage the nonstop stream of trespassers, tour buses, and curiosity seekers. Some part of me likes knowing that nothing that was there in August of 1969 is there anymore, not even a single brick or stick of wood or blade of grass.

******

 

I also became socially acquainted with the extraordinary film actress Michèle Morgan. She has too many acting credentials to even try to list them here, including a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, and she was utterly charming. One night Michèle told the story of how she moved to Hollywood during World War II. She designed a French Country-style home to be built there, fairly private and only a short distance away from the heart of Beverly Hills where most other movie stars were living. But in time she was frightened to live there because she kept hearing what she described as “sinister noises,” and she eventually sold the property. 

 

The house Michèle Morgan built, the house full of “sinister noises” that frightened her, was 10050 Cielo Drive, my former residence and, of course, the house where the murders occurred. What are the odds that I would just happen to become acquainted with her, through a chance encounter with a Greek singer at an Athens I?"

 

Chakiris, George. My West Side Story (p. 118, 133, 149 and 151). Lyons Press. Kindle Edition.

______

 

I believe Samantha Eggar was next. That’s her on the cover of the April 2, 1966, edition of Hola magazine near the pool.  Here’s a couple more blurry images from that magazine. 

 

By the way, that’s Samantha Eggar in the top right photo, not Candice Bergen as most online sources claim. 

This is Candice Bergen and the source claims that it was taken at Cielo Drive.

 

I left out Cary Grant. I don’t think he ever lived at Cielo Drive. The source of the ‘Cary Grant had a bad acid trip while renting Cielo Drive’ story, as far as I can tell, originates from this gossip column I pulled from the Miami Herald (September 1, 1969). It cites Dyan Cannon as the source. 

I have five Cary Grant biographies. I am kind of a fan. Now you listen to me, I’m an advertising man, not a red herring. I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don’t intend to disappoint them all by getting myself “slightly” killed.

One of the biographies places Grant at Cielo Drive in 1940. That, of course, is not possible. The rest do not mention Cielo Drive. They mention the murders either in connection with Grant hiring a full time bodyguard for his daughter after the murders or to mention Grant being on Manson’s Hollywood Hit List.  

 

Dyan Cannon says this. Again, no mention of Cielo Drive.

"And so, Cary left for Tokyo, and I was left with the task of finding us a house to live in as fast as possible. I spent weeks looking at houses with Cary’s real estate agent. I airmailed photos to Tokyo for Cary to see. We wound up renting a home off Benedict Canyon recently vacated by the Beatles."

 

Cannon, Dyan. Dear Cary (pp. 225-226). It Books. Kindle Edition.

______

 

The Beatles House is located at 2850 Benedict Canyon. When it is listed for sale the Beatles and Grant are usually mentioned. The Beatles rented the house in August 1965. George Chakiris was renting Cielo Drive during that time-frame. 

The Newlywed Murder-Suicide 

The Melcher-Lindsay period gives us the murder-suicide myth. I am sure everyone has read this. 

______

 

"Rudy said that one of the first couples to occupy the house had been newlyweds, and on their wedding night the bride somehow learned that the groom had cheated on her in the recent past. Supposedly after the marriage was consummated and he was asleep, the new lady of the house took a large knife from the kitchen and stabbed him to death in bed. She then put a bullet in her brain using the small "lady's pistol" that he had given her for protection as one of her wedding gifts.

 

Rudy told us the whole affair had been hushed up and was never talked about because it would reflect negatively on the real estate value. He said that although the femme fatale's spirit still lingered, she probably wouldn't bother two guys -- although he warned that she didn't seem to tolerate beautiful women very well. "As long as you don't let your girlfriends stay over too long, you should be okay," he warned. And then he went back to his residence, leaving us to ponder."

 

https://www.mansonblog.com/2020/10/a-little-something-for-halloween.html

 

______

 

It never happened. No newlyweds ever lived in the home and there were only three owners prior to Altobelli. All three lived in the house and/or the guesthouse the whole time they owned the home. 

The Wagon

I am sure most of you know most of the above information. This post is about that wagon but if I had not added the other stuff the post would be really short which would be out of keeping with my post history. 

And that brings us back to Doctor Hartley Dewey and his wife, Louise. Hartley was this guy’s cousin. 

 

The Deweys bought the house from Michele Morgan in June 1943. They had three sons all of whom served in World War II. One, a bomber pilot over Europe, was missing in action for several months. 

The Deweys came to LA from Yosemite National Park. 

"Doctor Hartley G. Dewey opened the new W. B. Lewis Memorial Hospital during Christmas week 1929. The services to Yosemite rendered in this fine hospital were much needed as the increase in visitors, as well as permanent and seasonal employees, had doubled during the past decade. Dr. Dewey needed additional help so another doctor and more nurses were added to the staff. A permanent Dentist Office was also established for full time work, with Doctor Raleigh Davies in charge.

Doctor Avery Sturm joined Doctor Dewey at the Lewis Memorial Hospital in 1935. This team practiced until 1942 when Doctor Sturm entered Military Service during World War 2. Doctor Dewey’s contract was up in April 1943, so he, too, left the Park."

https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/guardians_of_the_yosemite/hospital.html

After they purchased Cielo Drive, the Deweys converted the barbeque pavilion into the guest house. They added a dressing room for the pool off the back of the house and redecorated the home. 

Their friend, Walt Disney, hand rendered images of Mickey Mouse on the walls of the bar. I don’t know if the drawings were still there in 1969. I couldn't find anything about them after the Deweys. I find that sort of surreal if they were there in August 1969.

 

The Deweys make multiple appearances on the society pages of the LA Times in the 1940s. I believe Louise was good friends with Lucille Lambert who wrote the column Confidentially. Here is an example. 

 

Ms. Lambert even wrote an article about the remodel for the Times. 

 

Lillian Gish rented the main house from the Deweys in 1945. 

She later sued the Deweys for over $11,000 for violating the wartime rent restrictions. She won. 

 

The Deweys moved to Carmel in 1949 and sold the house to Henry Griffing. Griffing worked for LC Griffith at the time. Later he attempted to launch what we would now call cable (pay) TV. In theory you could drop coins in a box on the TV and watch movies that had recently been in the theater. It didn’t catch on. Griffing died in a plane crash in 1960. 

I periodically stop at antique malls looking to replace the vinyl I sold to fund one of my obsessions when I was in college. I later married her, but I digress. 

On one such trip I wandered into a stall filled, in part, with sixties memorabilia. They wanted too much money for the 1964 GI Joe and they didn’t have any Moby Grape albums. 

 

They had a whole section of magazines dating back to the 1920s including the Manson Life magazine. I already have that one. They had several Look and Life magazines from the sixties including the walk on the moon, the assassination of Robert Kennedy and even the Mets 1969 World Series win. 

My eye, however, was drawn to another magazine less prominently displayed and sort of tossed aside with some other obscure pre-sixties titles. 

 

Here was the August 1945 edition of American Home. There on the cover, in full color, stood Louise Dewey. She was standing in front of the garage at 10050 Cielo Drive and there in the background of that photo.... was the wagon. 

 

August 1945. Ed Sanders might add an oo-ee-oo here too. Here is the whole American Home article. The text on the last page is not about Cielo Drive. In fact, aside from the image captions, there is no text.  Louise took the photographs. I also included the LA Times article about the remodel which mentions the Disney characters and, oddly, a garage 'at the foot of the hill'.  

 

https://wvw.mansonblog.com/pdf/American_Home.pdf

______

 

One more thing. 

I think most people have seen this image. It originally appeared in the November 15, 1969, edition of Paris Match magazine. 

 

The photograph was likely taken in October 1969. The photographer was standing off the north end of the porch, to the right of the walk, just about in front of the window Watson entered that night. Kasabian would have been standing about five feet to his left that night according to the trial exhibit. This is as close as we will ever get to seeing what she saw that night. How many still think she saw the pool from here? 

______

 

Pax Vobiscum

 

Dreath

 

 

 

Tate Suspect List

 

Suspects Eliminated By Fingerprints

Today fingerprints are fed into a computer and finding a match or not isn't a laborious or time-consuming process like it was in 1969 when the Tate and LaBianca murders were investigated.

So, just how did they narrow down fingerprints to streamline the process in the TLB cases?

The Henry Classification System was used categorize the different types of fingerprint characteristics that are made by friction ridges and furrows.

There are three main types of fingerprints, loops, whorls and arches. Within those three groups loops, which recurve back onto themselves to form the loops, are divided into radial loops that point towards the radial bone (thumb) or the ulna bone (pinky finger).

Whorls form circular or spiral patterns and are divided into four groups. Plain whorls are concentric circles, central pocket loops are loops with a whorl at the end, double loops that create an S-like pattern and accidental loops are irregularly shaped.

Arches make a wave like pattern that are either plain or tented. Tented arches rise to a sharper point than plain arches.

The palms of the hand also have distinct ridges and furrows. Another type of print is the chop. The chop is the side of the hand from the tip of the pinky finger to the wrist. The best example of where you might find the chop is if you were to place the sides of your hand on a window to block out glare while peeping.

No two people have the same fingerprints, even identical twins and no one person has the same fingerprint on more than one finger or thumb.

Here are the lists of the suspects eliminated by fingerprints courtesy of Cielo Drive. The second page is a list of law enforcement personnel who were at the crime scene.

The Melba Kronkright Letter

 

Cielo Drive has been gathering more and more documents for his Patreon website. Some of the things he has been able to obtain are very enlightening. Below is a letter that Melba Kronkright wrote to someone in law enforcement or the district attorney's office regarding her dealings with Charles Manson and members of the Family. One thing is certain, Mrs. Kronkright was terrified that she would be killed by Manson or his followers.

Mrs. Kronkright jumps around a bit when retelling her dealings with Manson and the Family. While it is clear that she knew them over a period of a couple of years, it’s difficult to pin down the exact timeline of each incident that she recalls.

I am not sure who Diane Adams was but think it might have been Dianne Lake. If anyone has an idea please post what you know in the comments.

This time Cielo Drive typed out the contents of Melba's letter!

 

December 15, 1969

 

Dear Sirs:

 

I keep getting phone calls that are unanswered after I speak hellow into the receiver.

 

I have also written a letter to the attorney Mr. Paul Caruso.

 

I am a widow and live alone at the above address and about two years ago I found a group of young unemployed people through a Mr. Sweeney. A service station owner here in Malibu. The group were the Charles Manson people. I needed their services to clean the stables and help on my property and home of four and one half acres in Malibu. I am in fear for my life and will give all of the reasons I can think of.

 

About two years ago as I have said Charles Manson directed various ones in his group to work at least once a week on my property. They were paid at first then I explained that a good sum of money was owed to me and that until that time I didn’t have money to continue their service of once a week. They continued to come here for at least six months from time to time and say they just wanted to help and didn’t expect me to pay them. One of the girls had had a baby and they had all been arrested for camping out on private property in Ventura county. The baby was just five days old. Mary Brunner the mother was charged with child neglect and kept in jail. Others came here knowing that I was a social worker and told me that Mary had promised to take the baby and go back to Eu Clair Wis. to Mr. & Mrs. George Brunner her parents. She was released in my custody. Mary used my address as her new address but stayed only one night. She did not go home as promised.

 

Early part of last August I received a phone call from Mary saying that she was in Sybil Brand jail and it would take sixty four dollars to bail her out with a property owners signature. I told her that my daughter is a police sargent and that if I put my name on any thing it could be traced and I would then be thought of as helping them do what got them in jail and I could be in trouble. My daughter is Mrs. Roy Hovas, Sherl Rae Hovas or Sargent Hovas. Then Charles Manson came here in the middle of the night and said that he needed money to get Mary out of jail. I told him that I didn’t have any money but if I did that I would only get myself in trouble in helping them that my daughter was a police sargent etc. He left, but I’m sure that this was the same night the couple that owned the grocery store was killed.

 

I feel had I received the money that they had been expecting me to and not given them what they asked for that they would have killed me. He had asked had I received my money as yet.

 

When Mary was in jail I called her mother to come out and get custody of the child (Michael). I again called Marys’ mother and told her after the Tate murder case was disclosed that not to ever tell Mary that I was the one that told her that Mary was in jail and to come here to get the baby.

 

At the time Charles Manson was coming here and directing his group to work he would talk to me in the kitchen about his views on the Negro situation. I told him how as a social worker I was in the mist of the Negro situation in the Gettos. He tried to discourage my efforts. Therefore, this if nothing else would have been a reason to direct the blame on the negros to have killed me. He also told me that there were many people as his followers all over the United States that at his word could start a war.

 

In my letter to Mr. Paul Caruso I gave names of most of the group that I had met at one time or another. I also told Mr. Caruso that if he defended these people to let them out on society that my death was next.

 

I just reread my letter to you and you can tell I am more than a little upset. I have pictures of Charles Manson and a picture taken by Mary Brunners mother of Mary and the baby since Mary was released if she would return to her parents. The letter from Mrs. Brunner speaks of it’s self in gratitude.

 

I don’t feel that we have seen the last of this mess. As long as the many young women that Manson fathered their children are out and about - with loyalty and love for him - there is going to be effort put forth to help him. Such as Lynn Frome, Sandy Pugh, Ella Cinders, Mary Brunner, Diane Adams and many, many more that I met but can’t recall their names.

 

I talked to Diane Adams father at the time she escaped from Silmar (indistinguishable). I told him to get Charles Manson. I said that Manson was the one that told me that he helped her escape and got her over to Arizona. Mr. Adams seemed relieved that he didn’t have to worry about her coming into his home and bringing such people and taking his car in the middle of the night etc.

 

Mr. Adams called me just before the news came out the Tate case was solved. He said that his daughter was on a boat up the coast the last time her heard from her. I know of at least three girls that have babies that know that Manson is the father. Mr. Adams also told me I was lucky to not have been killed by the Manson group.

 

I hope that something in this letter will help and because I pay three hundred dollars a month taxes that I can expect some extra thought of safety.

 

Feel free to come out and talk. Please don’t get my name in the papers or get me anymore added problems.

 

Thank you sincerely,

 

Melba Kronkright

 

Cielo Drive’s Patreon website is full of valuable information. He has obtained many documents and he is always working on getting more. The Melba Kronkright letter is one of his new acquisitions. You can view the site with a $5 per month subscription and cancel at any time. It is well worth the money.

Bruce Davis Podcasts

 

Bruce Davis was scheduled for a parole suitability hearing January 18, 2024. That hearing was continued until August 8, 2024. According to news sources the reason for the continuance was because Bruce took part in two podcasts hosted by Keith Rovere of "The Lighter Side of Serial Killers".

Keith Rovere, 51, lives in New Jersey. He has worked for the same wood flooring company for the last 20+ years, he refinishes vintage furniture in his garage, he helps minister in prison and prison aftercare in Camden New Jersey with Seeds of Hope Ministries, he writes music, he writes books and he has the podcast. Busy guy!

If I were Bruce Davis, I would not decide to make my first public appearance, so to speak, on a podcast named "The Lighter Side of Serial Killers". The name seems flippant and does not convey any sympathy towards the victims. Rovere does not offer any context as to why he chose that particular name. There really is no lighter side to being a serial killer, it's a heavy subject and Bruce Davis was not a serial killer per se. Perhaps because Rovere has a background in religious teachings Bruce deemed him acceptable. There are a lot of podcasters out there with better names who Bruce could have spoken to and not raised the hackles of the parole board.

One sentence in the article I read had me scratching my head. 

"I've yet to hear the podcast," Davis told Fox News Digital in an email, before asking about it. "Does it sound as if I'm glorifying Manson or my crimes?"

California does not allow prisoner's to have email accounts or use the internet. That does not mean that prisoners can't figure out others ways to access the internet, usually by means of a smuggled cell phone. 

Either the reporter meant snail mail or they just dropped a dime on Bruce for having a smuggled cell phone.

As far as the podcast interview goes, it was interesting. I've never heard Bruce speak at length. I did notice a few instances in the first podcast of Bruce using buzzwords and phrasing that were very similar to what Manson has said in the past.  Bruce may be stuck in the sixties, which is where Manson was stuck, but I would think that after so many years in prison with a large turnover of fellow prisoners that Bruce would have learned the contemporary equivalent of those words and phrases.

The podcasts most likely haven't done Bruce any favors. It wouldn't be a surprise to learn they earned him an even longer period before he's allowed to have another hearing.

The podcasts can be heard at most of the places where you listen to them. 

Look for Season 1 Episodes 14 and 22.

Here's the link to the podcasts at Spotify

The Bastardy Suit

We have all been told about the bastardy suit and have had no reason to doubt that it existed. There are few surprises. It is interesting to note that Colonel Scott did not dispute that he was Charles Manson's father. The only thing that did surprise me was the length of time that Colonel Scott was obligated to pay the child support. Manson would have been about ten and half years old when his father was no longer under a court order to pay the support. 

Five dollars in 1937 is equal to $105.80 in 2024.

Here is the documentation for the bastardy suit filed by Charles Manson's mother against Colonel Scott.

It's difficult to read so the meat of the judgement has been typed out.

It is the third "In Re:" on the page.

Orders                        Boyd County Court

Special Term,                      19th Day of April 1937

                                                                                                     Special Term Boyd County Court                                                                                                                 Held at the Court House thereof 

                                                                                                     On the 19th Day of April, 1937

                                                                                                      Honorable P.H. Vincent, presiding.                                                                                                                                                            

In Re: Commonwealth of Kentucky,

             on relation Cathleen Manson                                                 Plaintiff

              vs. 

               Colonel Scott,                                                                       Defendant

                                                       Agreed Judgement

      This being set for hearing by agreement of the parties on this 19th day of April, 1937, and the plaintiff being represented by David Browning, Attorney at Law and Thomas Burchett, County Attorney, and the defendant being present in person and represented by Joseph H. Spears, Attorney at Law, whereupon, came both the Commonwealth and defendant by counsel and announced to the court that the parties hereto had agreed upon a judgement, to-wit: That defendant shall pay to Cathleen Manson for the use and benefit of Charles Mille Manson the sum of $25.00, within sixty-days from this date and a further sum of $5.00 per month payable on the 5th day of each and every month for a period of eight-years beginning on the 5th day of July, 1937.

It is further agreed that the execution of bond as required by the statute be waived. Therefor, it is ordered and adjudged by the court that the defendant, Colonel Scott, is the father of Charles Mille Manson, the bastard child of Cathleen Manson, formerly Cathleen Maddox, and that he shall pay to the said Cathleen Manson the sum of $25.00 on or before sixty days from the date of this judgement, and that he shall further pay to the said Cathleen Manson the sum of $5.00 per month on the 5th day of each and every month thereafter until and for a period of eight years; the said $5.00 payments shall begin on the 5th day of July, 1937, all of which payment to the said Cathleen Manson, shall be for the use and benefit of the said Charles Mille Manson; and it shall be further ordered and adjudged by the court that the said Colonel Scott shall pay the court costs of this action.

                                                                                                                                P.H. Vincent

                                                                                                                                   Judge 

This is followed by a notary statement.

Her Parents Were In The Manson Family

Sexy Sadie

 

Who was ‘Sexy Sadie’ in The Beatles song?

Lucy Harbron

Far Out magazine

Sat 20 January 2024 20:15, UK

There have been a few instances in history where a song has proved dangerous, even deathly. But none have had as strange or as chilling of a legacy as ‘Sexy Sadie’, The Beatles’ track that has become forever tied to abuse and murder.

Sitting on the band’s 1968 The White Album, the song seems utterly harmless on the surface. “Sexy Sadie, the greatest of them all,” John Lennon sings on the track, with lyrics that could easily just be about an attractive ex-partner. Even the more cutting or critical lyrics could sit well within the realm of songs from scorned loves. However, the truth of the track is far darker than a bad breaker.

“However big you think you are / Sexy Sadie, ooh, you’ll get yours yet,” is perhaps the most telling lyric on the track. It sounds like a pointed finger or the band glaring someone down. Like the Liverpudlian quartet are calling upon karma to come after this person. 

That’s exactly what they’re doing. When the story of the song is revealed, ‘Sexy Sadie’ turns into a genuine threat. “We know the truth, we know what you did,” the band seem to be saying as they talk directly to a famous figure.

Who was ‘Sexy Sadie’?

‘Sexy Sadie’ was written after the band’s infamous trip to India to study the Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation. Part of the wave of 1960s counterculture figures fostering a new interest in hallucinogens, meditation and reality broadening, the whole band took off to the retreat along with other figures like actress Mia Farrow. 

However, they quickly felt uneasy. During their retreat, the band began to suspect that the Maharishi might not be an angelic spiritual figure guiding them to enlightenment but might simply be a crook. His followers began to feel like cult leaders, utterly controlled by the yogi who didn’t seem to practice what he preached. 

What went down on the trip inspired several songs on the record. At one point, Prudence Farrow heard that the supposedly celibate yogi had hit on and assaulted Mia Farrow, and that his advances were a common occurrence at the retreat.

It burst their bubble on the whole experience, suddenly looking at the Maharishi with mistrust and anger. To deal with the situation, Lennon picked up his pen. He said of the song, “That was inspired by Maharishi. I wrote it when we had our bags packed and were leaving.” Initially writing, “Maharishi, what have you done / You made a fool of everyone,” the name in the track was changed to stop the band from getting sued. But the pointed remarks maintain their target.

The Charles Manson connection to ‘Sexy Sadie’

If that story of deceit and abuse wasn’t enough to taint the track, the song’s dark history only got worse upon release.

The strange connection between cult leader Charles Manson and The Beatles is well documented. Manson seemed to think that the Liverpudlian band were communicating with him through secret messages throughout The White Album. He believed they were warning him of an upcoming race war that would end in an apocalypse that would make Manson and his followers the leaders and founders of a new world; he called this theory ‘Helter Skelter’. 

Manson found connections to almost every song. He believed ‘Honey Pie’ was telling him to write an album, and that that album would trigger the war. He thought ‘Piggies’’ was a warning to prepare for Black men overthrowing the establishment, to not trust the police and to take matters into his own hands. In ‘Revolution 9’, he heard warnings of an apocalypse, instructing him to dig a big hole and hide in it to emerge as the new world leader. 

But ‘Sexy Sadie’ was perhaps the track that pushed Manson’s entire theory over the edge. While the other songs were cryptic and nonspecific, leading to doubt from his followers about Manson’s message, this one felt direct and pointed. It seemed to mention one ‘family member’ by name.

Who was Susan Atkins?

Susan Atkins was one of the main members of Charles Manson’s ‘family’. She met Charles Manson in 1967 and quickly fell into his fold, where Manson would routinely drug and abuse his followers, whipping them into violent rages that he’d later use for murders.

Nicknamed Sadie Mae Glutz by Manson, upon hearing ‘Sexy Sadie’, they believed the track was directly about Atkins. Tex Watson, another member of the family, said that the lyrics fit Atkins so perfectly “that it made us all sure [the Beatles] had to be singing directly to us.” It was the final push Manson needed to enact the plot he believed the band was telling him.

In 1969, Susan Atkins, along with six other Manson family members, carried out the infamous murders of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, and Wojciech Frykowski, along with Steven Parent, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. 

Atkins, despite being rehabilitated and making statements of repentance for her crimes later in her life, served a full life sentence. At the time of her death, she was the longest-serving female prisoner in California, with the record only being surpassed by her two fellow Manson family members, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel. They claimed they were being held as political prisoners, receiving extended punishment due to the Manson family’s anti-establishment beliefs.

Original Article

Sexy Sadie lyrics

Yeah, it's getting better all the time

Is that right?

How fast John?

However you like, feel it

Sexy Sadie, what have you done

You made a fool of everyone

You made a fool of everyone

Sexy Sadie, ooh, what have you done

Sexy Sadie, you broke the rules

You laid it down for all to see

You laid it down for all to see

Sexy Sadie, ooh, you broke the rules

One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover

She came along to turn on everyone

Sexy Sadie, the greatest of them all

Sexy Sadie, how did you know?

The world was waiting just for you

The world was waiting just for you

Sexy Sadie, ooh, how did you know

Sexy Sadie, you'll get yours yet

However big you think you are

However big you think you are

Sexy Sadie, ooh, you'll get yours yet

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table

Just a smile would lighten everything

Sexy Sadie, the greatest of them all

Spiral Staircase House Identified!

 Ages ago, in 2013, the blog tour visited with Michael Channels on his Back Porch. We were treated to view his collection of memorabilia. We took lots of pictures. One picture I took was of an arrest report that Michael had where Manson had been arrested for failure to pay a traffic ticket. On that arrest report Manson gave his address as 3924 Topanga Lane, Malibu.

Brass Tacks Press, a website that features all things Topanga, has an archive of photos that includes photos from the 1960's in Lower Topanga. Among those photos is a picture of a home that looks to be all boarded up and has a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor. There is a house number visible in the picture and it's the same house number that is on Manson's arrest report! 

Photo Archive Scroll to the 1960's and the picture of the house is in that group about 3/4 of the way down the page. 

At long last the house has finally been identified.

UPDATE

I've gotten a couple of emails that say the house number is photoshopped in the image of the house. I don't believe it is photoshopped. 

David sent me a link to a piece about an artist named Earl Newman who was interviewed for Willamette Living Magazine. 

The article states in the paragraph just below the rainbow trumpet: 

He related a story about a house he’d sold to a friend in Topanga Canyon (Southern CA)… “…it was kind of a weird place, it was kind of off the main road into Topanga, the houses weren’t a big deal, I sold it to him for $5,000. He never moved in and kind of disappeared, so I went to check on the house, Charles Manson had moved in, so I kind of let it go.”

If you click on the link "Photo Archive" above and find the picture of the house, click on the picture and it will open in a new window. In the lower left corner of the picture it reads (pic:c/o Newman Family). The Newman family donated that picture to the archive. I have to believe that the picture is genuine. 

Louise LaBianca

 

Manson Family Murders: Victim's Daughter Reflects on Uneasy Journey Through Grief & Forgiveness

For me, the battle has always been one of trying to accept the unacceptable; to believe the unbelievable; and, hardest yet, to forgive the unforgivable

LOUISE LABIANCA

My father, Leno LaBianca, was killed by members of the Manson family in August 1969 when I was 13 years old. The LaBianca name became attached in the media as the Tate-LaBianca murders a few months later, which added doubly to my grief-stricken horror as a young girl. The infamous murders also ended the life of my stepmother Rosemary, a beautiful soul who had been in the LaBianca family for nearly 10 years. We spent holidays and summer vacations together every year. Dad was a proud father who took his responsibilities seriously and provided all of us with many privileged experiences — for me, private schools, beautiful clothes and gifts at Christmas and on my birthday in September every year.

I was living in Newport Beach at the time of the murders with my mother and siblings. It was a sad time for me as my 14th birthday was approaching. No more running to the front door to see my dad with his friendly, loving smile and the packages he brought to show his love. No more drives from Newport to L.A. as he sang to me a sentimental song or asked me how I was doing in school. No more greetings from Rose and her talking parrot upon our arrival. All gone because of one horrible night of bloody carnage — and for what purpose? 

According to the news reports, the Manson family had randomly targeted wealthy or famous individuals in order to gain worldwide attention. "Death to Pigs" scrawled on the walls of the family home, written in my father’s own blood. The facts were presented in daily news reports on television or in the papers, each one more baffling than the next for me. Our family was not known; had no fame or celebrity attached; and not particularly wealthy by comparison to others living in the Los Feliz area. Why did they single us out? I never could understand. I began to shut out the news but it was everywhere.

How did I cope? Mainly I turned to close friends and family members, though in all honesty I lost a few childhood friends in the beginning. We moved around; I changed schools several times; and my popularity skills were at an all-time low during those years except when I was with my family. Support groups for victims of violent crimes and their families were non-existent. Nobody knew what to say when they learned about my connection — a victim’s daughter. Their shocked looks told me all I needed to know.

A cloud of sorrow seemed to follow me everywhere I went for a while, except when I could find a quiet spot along the beach on any given day of the week. It may sound like a cliché but I found peace in the warm California sun and ocean waves. There I could find solace, swimming in the water even on blustery days, or reading for hours as I stretched out on the sand — always present, in the moment, in my own peaceful reality where I never talked about it with new people I met. Fortunately, I inherited my dad’s warm, friendly smile and zest for life. Those qualities helped me find new pathways to explore, and life became good again. Sometimes I felt a little lost, unsure of where to go next academically. I eventually settled on a path of study in childhood development. For the next 25 years of my life, I spent most of my time enjoyably with young children — my own as well as in my chosen role as a teacher.

Then the various media reports about the Manson murders came to my awareness, especially those focused on parole hearings — a long, arduous process that has been going on for several years. As a group, the LaBianca family steadfastly opposed any releases on moral and ethical grounds. Some were more vocal than others and participated in the difficult process of attending parole hearings. My cousin Lou Smaldino was one of the most active and well-known members of the LaBianca family, while I personally stayed out of the discussion. I zealously guarded my privacy for many years. Yet something changed within me on a deep level of understanding when the first parole related to the Tate-LaBianca murders took place in July 2023. Leslie Van Houten may have earned her freedom according to California laws. Indeed, she may have worked very hard to earn it. I have no idea. It’s not the LaBianca family’s battle anymore, if it ever was. The California justice system has evidently been at the helm since day one. With the possibility of several more parole releases upcoming in the next few years, speaking out publicly weighs heavily on my mind.

Did the Tate-LaBianca murders become politicized so much over the past 50-plus years while I was busy raising a family and teaching classes in California schools? I never forgot my father but I certainly wanted to forget the circumstances surrounding his untimely death. For me, the battle has always been one of trying to accept the unacceptable; to believe the unbelievable; and, hardest yet, to forgive the unforgivable. For me, the passage of time changes nothing. As a group, the LaBianca family has been strong in terms of moving on with our lives — to pursue our individual life’s dreams without falling into a clump of tears every time the justice system disappoints us and we are again reminded of our losses. For me, it is an uneasy journey that demands an inner sense of balance and integrity. The farther along the path I travel, the stronger I become as a person and as a spiritual being. The journey continues. 

Original Article