Flashback Books: Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles

Below: from flashbackbooks.com, a Canadian mail order book store run by Michael Horowitz, hippie/beat author and close friend of Timothy Leary (he is on the board of The Timothy Leary Archives).

The title alone of this religious tract tickles Patty's funny bone. How could anyone logically come up with this combination of things? The 1960's American Religious Right, that's who:

"Communism, Hypnotism and The Beatles are all instruments of (...wait for it...) THE DEVIL. Evil incarnate! Satan! Lucifer! Beelzebub! The Beast! There are subliminal messages in rock music, especially in the music of the Beatles. Play this one backwards...hear it? "Paul is dead! Paul is dead!" With their atrocious long hair, loose morals and hidden messages, the Beatles are turning God fearing clean cut American youth into Godless communists! It's true: they do it with mind control. And once our best and brightest minds have been taken over, who knows what Satan might bid them do? One moment our children are homecoming queens, football players, All-American types fixing meatloaf for the church potluck, and the next thing you know, they are eating garbage with their hands. Communally! Like communists! And even worse, the garbage will be...gasp...VEGETARIAN."

Mr. Noebel's manifesto was no longer available through Flashback, so Patty purchased copies of the 1972 and 1974 Senate Hearings on the Marijuana and Hashish Epidemic instead. And while there was nothing too compelling in them relating to our topic of study, Patty was interested to learn that the BEL was heavily involved in a passport fraud operation in order to mask their comings and goings abroad. This, the hearings read, was confirmed by Interpol, who once investigated Bruce Davis' undocumented presence in London on at least one occasion (that slippery little git).

Michael is a very nice man and he will do you right. We chatted a bit over email, and he sent me in the mail, free of charge, these photocopies of some rare BEL ephemera. Apparently, these cards were the ones that Orange Sunshine was distributed on at free concerts and gatherings. COOL SHIT. Thanks, Michael. You are positively lovely.

1960's Letter to the Editor of Chatsworth newspaper

1960's Letter to the Editor of Chatsworth newspaper.
Possibly The Valley News and Green Sheet (now called the Daily News).

Mansonsbackporch.com

This spring, Patty met Michael Channels and Stoner Van Houten on the eviliz tour. Since then, she has been chatting with them and their friends including Josh Bratt. Josh, Michael and a third who goes by "Roger Ramrodder" have a new Manson related website called Mansonsbackporch.com.

You might want to take a minute or four to browse some of the stuff they have over there. Some of the pics are amazing: Patty has not seen many of them, and Patty has seen a lot at this point. Here is just a small fraction of their cool shit:

 Thanks Josh for permission to plug y'all. Much obliged.

Charles Manson and the Aryan Brotherhood.

So, how and why did Charles Manson become involved with the Aryan Brotherhood?  This was something I had wondered about, and found some answers in a OUI magazine article written by Ed Sanders, March 1976.  Most of this article is about Squeaky and her assassination attempt on President Ford but there are bits and pieces of other information in the article, too.

"When Manson was found guilty, it was reported that he was greatly depressed over impending transfer to death row.  Maybe he was projecting his own hostilities over to potential black cellmates, but the story is that he felt in danger because of the racial issues: the PIG written in blood on Sharon Tate's door, his theories of Helter Skelter race war and so forth.  As the Tate LaBianca trial was drawing to a close, Manson, scrawny and measuring 5'2", could be seen practicing karate in the holding tank, preparing in case Black Muslims (who seemed to constitute the prime Family fear object) attacked him on the row at San Quentin.  It should be remembered that Manson was sent up for things that were not considered high-class crimes inside the prison system.  Not only had he planned a race war but he had been  convicted of ordering the death of a pregnant woman.

Law-enforcement officials believe that Manson, wanting to do "easy time" and not wanting to have some guy looking to establish a killer rep try to stick the sharpened tines of a chow-line bread fork into Manson's stomach - just as someone in the Family had done to Leno LaBianca -  negotiated with the anti-black, all white prison society known as the Aryan Brotherhood to protect him.

The Aryan Brotherhood has been described in "The New York Times" as a "neo-Nazi band of young toughs recruited largely from the motorcycle gangs of California's urban slums."  According to a source in a California law-enforcement agency, the Aryan Brotherhood began about 15 years ago, and at one point required as an initiation test the killing of a black; around 1967, this requirement was dropped.

The Aryan Brotherhood reportedly has connections with the so-called Mexican Mafia, an organization also situated within and without the California prison system, dealing in drugs, weapons and killings.  Its murder contracts are given to the Aryan Brotherhood to fulfill, according to prison officials.

Although he now denies it, the story goes that Manson ordered his remaining Family women to send nude photos of themselves to Aryan Brotherhood members in jail.  They were apparently to provide sexual and, one supposes, housekeeping favors to Aryan Brotherhood members who left prison.  And there is at least one known case of an Aryan Brotherhood member, Billy Goucher, being met by a Family associate as he left the prison.  The couple subsequently lived together until he was picked up for a decapitation murder.

Manson must have thought it was tactically smart to join forces with the Aryan Brotherhood, because in addition to his personal safety, he could keep track of wobbling followers on the outside.  The move turned out to be a great blunder, however, because, just as if there had been an Aryan Brotherhood operation ordered against the Family, the Aryan Brotherhood (particularly Kenneth Como) was subsequently able to split the remnants of the Manson group into two bitter factions: the Comoites and the Mansonites."

"Meanwhile Manson's problems with the Aryan Brotherhood began to move towards violence. Oddly enough, it appears that part of Manson's hassle with the Brotherhood was due to his not taking a violent-enough position in the anti-black movement.  As Squeaky wrote in a letter of June 1973: "Aryan Brotherhood moves much on pure hate, as they want him (Manson) to kill black because black is black.  He will not do this, and they are against him."  Around the summer of 1973, someone slipped Manson rat poison in a glass of Tang.  He chugged it down, but later was able to note in a letter that rat poison does not affect him very much, although it did provide him with a new experience.

As Manson lost the goodwill of the Aryan Brotherhood, Como, one of its leaders, was able to woo key women away from the Family, including Mary Brunner, Gypsy Share and Brenda McCann, by out-machoing Charlie.  In late fall of 1973 and early 1974, I began to hear reports from several law-enforcement sources that Manson was regressing.  He apparently was loath to leave his cell at Folsom Prison.  His fingernails grew long, and he was hesitant to bathe.  Prison officials, the reports indicated, had to use force to cut his hair.  They felt he was not communicating, that he was regressing, a common enough ailment in jails and prisons, which, if advanced enough, can turn a person into a staring vegetable."

Observations on the Hinman Case

As usual, I found myself deeply involved in reading the Gary Hinman files on the super, bad-ass site cielodrive.com. Of course, when finished, I was left scratching the ole noggin, and began making a mental list of stuff that sounded plain weird, or inconsistent with what the perpetrators say, or have said at their parole hearings. I always knew Gary's death was tragic & senseless, but I never really realized how much he suffered at the hands of the people ogres that were responsible for ending his life. Here are a few of my own, personal observations. Some of them are questions, and some are just facts from the case that are extremely horrible to think about:

1.) Why did Gary not have any defensive wounds? Was Susan Atkins really telling the truth about somebody "holding" Gary, while another one stabbed?

2.) Why did Bobby Beausoleil give Dennis Wilson's address as his own when being arrested in San Luis Obispo?

3.) Gary was last seen by a friend of his on July 25th of 69 (they were to meet at the passport office to get their passports for their trip to Japan), and this friend told police that Gary appeared nervous & distraught on the day he saw him last. Why? Had somebody already been pressuring him for money?

4.) The Tuesday before (July 22nd of 69) the murder, another friend of Gary Hinman saw him at the Corral Bar (the same bar in Topanga where Bobby & Charlie played in a band a few times together) with a white male, late 20's, with a light beard & brown, woolley hair, 5'9, around 150 pounds. This mystery guy who was with Gary was refused admittance into the club, and became enraged & caused a scene. This friend of Gary's gave a description of this person to a police sketch artist. Also, what the hell is "woolley" hair?

5.) Bobby Beausoleil, Mary Brunner, and Susan Atkins walked into Gary's house, and talked to him for a few minutes about normal, everyday things, and then all of a sudden demanded money from him. When he wouldn't cooperate, Bobby beat him. Blood splatter was all over the kitchen from the actual beating.

6.) When Bobby was stopped by the highway patrol in San Luis Obispo, he told the officer that he had bought the car from a "negro" for $200. Later on, during the interrogation, he then said that "negroes" had attacked Gary. Later on, during Bobby's 2010 parole hearing he told the board that the reason he put blame on black people is because he wanted to blame the murder on some of the "radical" people that Gary Hinman was involved with at UCLA. He also told the board that Gary was involved with black people that were radicals, and that he (Gary) was into radical philosophies, etc. Of course, he didn't want the board to think he was blaming the victim for his own death, or anything like that! (rolling my eyes)

7.) The way Gary Hinman died was atrocious! After having his face & ear cut open, he was then stabbed a couple of times in the chest. He then told Bobby "DON'T DO ANY MORE!" He was then told to start chanting again, and he did, then he got up, and went to the bathroom for a while, then came out, and lay down on the floor & passed out from being in shock. After this, Bobby went over to him, and stabbed him again.

8.) Mary Brunner stated to police that Gary Hinman was gasping for air at a loud volume, so they all took turns smothering him with a pillow to drown out the sound of him struggling. He actually died while Susan Atkins was holding the pillow over his mouth. (of course, she was always involved in murder)

9.) Manson had told Gary when he arrived with Bruce Davis "Look, you can cooperate, and give us everything you got, and you won't get hurt! I want your money, and anything else of value, or you're gonna get killed!"

10.) One more thing I thought was weird. If Bobby wasn't a "family member" as he always states now, why did he give the highway patrolman who stopped him a birth date of November 11th of 1946? Isn't Charles Manson's real birthday November 11th of 1934? Was that just a strange coincidence, or did Bobby know Manson's birthday? If he did, they must of been a little bit tighter than he lets on. Some people have said Manson's birthday is on the 12th of November, but others, including Manson say it is the 11th of November (Veteran's Day). Who knows!

11.) When Manson, and Bruce Davis drove up to Gary's house that night, and went inside, Gary apparently didn't know they were in on robbing him. Gary started yelling "CALL THE POLICE!"

12.) Gary was almost able to escape out the door, but it was locked, and they all heard him, and came running out to prevent him from leaving.

13.) Mary Brunner told the investigators that before they killed him, they had tried to talk him into joining them in the desert. They were scared that Gary would of charged them with assault if they would of left without killing him.

14.) Gary Hinman's Volkswagen bus was purchased by a guy named "Puttek." Puttek had bought it from a guy named Mark Haronson, who was described as having wavy, brown hair with missing front teeth. He looked about 29 years old, and had a tattoo on his forearm about 3 inches in length. (Could that have been Manson?)

Let me close by expressing my deepest sympathies with Gary Hinman's remaining family. I was utterly disgusted & revolted when reading this case file. From a researcher's stand point, it is fascinating, but from a human being's stand point, it is incredibly sad, and disturbing to say the least. For the full, complete Gary Hinman files, please go to the amazing cielodrive.com, who we owe a great deal of thanks to! We would not have access to these historical crime files without them! Much thanks, as always, Cielo!

Here is the link:
http://www.cielodrive.com/updates/?p=1757

Family look-alike

This is "Giselle", an Eviliz reader. Notice a resemblance to somebody?

1754 Waller Street at Stanyan : The BEL Aquarian Temple

Here is a link to Robert Ackerly aka Christopher Wheat (That's right, wheat) aka Bobby BEL and his daughter Amy in the Haight Ashbury this year, talking about the BEL's time there from 1966-1967. Robert is a founding member of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love (aka BEL, "The Tribe" or "The Church"), who gave a lot of money to the Diggers' free kitchens and the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. He has a website here and also runs Youtube Channel "Bobby BEL." At one time he had a show on NoCal community television called "Santa Cruzin'." The camera man is identified as "Brother Fleet," who has been around "since the beginning."

Some Highlights from Clip 1:

1:40: When I got to the Haight I didn't know anybody. I knew this one guy and we were going to go to Canada, but I didn't go." Canada, you say?

2:16: "I'd known him from before at the Steiner Street house. He had this crash pad. We were selling acid on the streets." Sellin' acid!

2:40 "I met these girls who had a hash connection and pretty soon it just began to blossom." Sellin' acid AND hash!

5:00 ("Rojo" or "Mojo" and (inaudible)"Dale" or "Gale") brought 500 pounds of weed in this Pink Cadillac right in the first days."

5:30 "We had three hundred pounds of pot right there in that garage."  Sellin' acid, hash, AND weed!

6:55 "We funded the free clinic." Patty wonders aloud if he ever had a seafood dinner with Gibby Folger?

8:00 "Pam's connection had this DMT." Sellin' acid, hash, weed AND DMT!

8:20 "Fat Bobby was a gay dude the Joker met in Pasadena." The Joker? Was he also a Gypsy?

9:00 "(Steve) stole the DMT connection, and took it to Laguna Beach where he blew up his house. Instant Karma." (Footnote: In hippie, "instant karma" is a catch all that means something akin to "fugettaboutit.")

Some highlights from clip 2:

1:05 "Johnny Griggs came up here when Orange Sunshine first came out...and, uh, made some phonecalls you know, and started setting up a distribution system...Elliot Miller (aka The Joker) is another brother from Anaheim that nobody knows about, and he had a whole network."

2:00:Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker were in there because these girls knew 'em. And so, uh,
they made this movie called "The Trip" or something (He means Revolution) with Today and all that. I was supposed to be in it, but I forgot about it. Spaced out."

5:40 "Diana made us these robes. Our Haight Street robes, like a monk. You know the robe, I used to take her around on Halloween when they were little kids with my shotgun and my Afghani...ha ha ha...That's right...Amy and Andrew grew up in Hawaii."  Say what? You used to wear a religious robe around the Haight? Huh.

8:00: "It first started getting weird when they did a casket on Haight Street, and buried the hippies. The hippies are dead: that means it's come to an end, you can't label us." We will call ourselves slippies, instead!

8:40: So, a lot of people started coming into the Haight that were pretty much criminals."

9:45: "Hells Angels had cops in town that worked for the police."

14:30. "So we took off, and we had some friends up in Potter's Valley...and that was the end of The Haight." FYI, people, Potter's Valley is just a hop, skip and jump from Ukiah and Booneville. The core members of the BEL were there when The Family was, too. And weren't "The Witches" dealing acid to the local kids?

Patty can only say ooEEoo so many times: so many coincidences. So many parallels. So many connections. The elder hipsters say it all the time: "What started out as a good thing went bad." They are not lying. But they are not telling the whole truth, either. The murders were horrifically shameful, especially given everyone's initial intentions. No one wanted to admit that anything they might have done personally helped to set the wheels in motion that crushed five (no, make that six. No, make that eight. No make that nine) innocent people. No one could admit to having met or having known anyone else. It was too risky, scary and shameful to do so, and it may still be, who knows?

In 1969, Charles Manson became the focus of a magnifying glass that we (all of us) used to bore a hole right through him. He was and still is the repository for a hell of a lot of guilt, and shame, and fear. Charles Manson is absolutely not a serial killer, but Patty truly believes that he was probably a "hippie mafia" middleman and enforcer. It's an important distinction, no?


And because Patty loves you, here is your lagniappe regarding the 2009 arrest of Brenice Lee Smith:

2:10: “so now that the story’s coming out, the Senate investigating is over right now uh… because of the last case two years ago… we can tell our stories and they can’t do anything to us, and all that kinda stuff.”

Sexy Sadie's Sick-Ass Art!

Susan Atkins might have passed away back in 2009, but "art" from the remnants of her diseased mind continue to fill murder auction websites. This is a woman who claimed to be a born-again Christian, and tried year after year to get out of prison on the basis that she was remorseful, sorry, and down right repentant for her sins! Ok, if that was the case, I sure would like to know what was going through her pickle-shaped head at the moment she made this:

I guess she had fond memories of leaving a bloody footprint at the Tate house the night her, and her pals decided to slaughter a bunch of innocent people, including a VERY-pregnant woman! Her footprints in blood must of been such an inspiration for this piece! This little work of art says this at the bottom:

"Anyone you know who would like to receive these monthly (something) from me, have them write to The Dove's Nest, P.O. Box 1326, San Juan Capistrano, Ca 92692-1326." I couldn't read what the description said after the word "monthly." 

Why, doesn't the widower Whitehouse (her husband) live in San Juan Capistrano, California? Were they profiting off of her notoriety? I just don't know!  I do know she used to send out monthly "Christian" newsletters from her cell, which she called "The Dove's Nest." In my opinion, this is one of the sickest things I have ever seen. No wonder she never was released. By the way, I saw this at murderauction.com. Here is the link:

 http://murderauction.com/auction_details.php?auction_search=1&auction_id=224763&option=basic_search&src_auction_id=&keywords_search=&buyout_price=&reserve_price=&quantity=&enable_swap=&list_in=&results_view=&country=&zip_code=&username=&basic_search=susan%20atkins.

An Interview with Paul Crockett

This interview is from the September/October 1975 issue of Psychic magazine.  A huge thank you to Ole JC for the tip!

Mine owner spent time with Charles Manson

Emmett Harder and his wife, Ruth, on their 61st anniversary.

BY MARK MUCKENFUSS 

September 20, 2013; 05:34 PM

Sometimes when you go looking for gold, you find it.

I was tracking down information the other day on the Amargosa Mine, also known as the Salt Springs Mine, which is between Baker and Shoshone, just off the road to Death Valley.

I’ve written about the mine in the past. Gold was discovered on the spot in 1849 by members of an early Mormon expedition. It was one of the first, if not the first, non-native gold strikes in Southern California.

I ran across information from 1993 that said Emmett Harder was the current owner. He lived in Devore. Twenty years later, he’s still in Devore and still owns the mine.

But that’s not what this column is about.

This column is about the fact that notorious killer Charles Manson is back in the news. A new biography on Manson by Jeff Guinn recently hit the shelves.

What does that have to do with Harder?

Well, after a lengthy discussion about his lifelong love of prospecting, his sporadic work at the Salt Springs Mine and his fascination with stories of lost rich deposits of gold, Harder mentioned that he also owns a mine in the Panamint Mountains near Death Valley.

The mine is near Barker Ranch, where the Manson Family lived just before and during the infamous Tate and LaBianca murders. Mansion was captured at the ranch, hiding in a small closet.

Harder, 81, said he spent time with Manson and his followers. News stories and other writings over the years bear out his account.

A Life magazine story that ran during the time of the Manson trial featured photos from the ranch.

“One of the pictures is my partner in the gold mine, standing with Charlie,” Harder said. “I’m standing right beside them but I didn’t get in the picture, unfortunately.”

He said he also was just out of the frame in a photo showing some of the young women in Manson’s group making breakfast in the ranch house.

“They were making hotcakes and we were dipping them in syrup,” he said.

At the same time, Manson was in an argument with a man named Carl Rona.

“Charlie took offense when Carl said, ‘You hippies,’” Harder recalled. “Charlie said, ‘By God, we’re not hippies. We’ve escaped from Haight Ashbury and we came down here to get away from the troubles of the world.’”

At one point, Harder said, he brought Manson to San Bernardino.

“I brought Charlie and (Charles “Tex”) Watson and a bunch of the people down from the mine with me,” he said. “They had dinner here at my house. Charlie played the guitar for my wife.”

Harder said he was close to some of the women in the group. One in particular came from a San Bernardino family he knew. Catherine “Cappy” Gilles was the granddaughter of Billy Meyers. The Meyers family owned a ranch adjacent to Barker Ranch and Gilles’ mention of the ranch is reportedly what initially drew Manson to the desert.

Gilles, Harden said, had run away from home at 14.

“I was concerned with her being with these hippies,” he said. “I tried to get her to reunite with her family.”

He’s remained in touch with some of the women over the years, including Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who was imprisoned for an assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford in 1975.

“I saw them in a whole different light,” Harder said. “These girls were all misfits of one kind or another and they were all trapped by Charlie.”

To Harder, Manson seemed inconsequential.

“He wasn’t an impressive fellow for us but he certainly impressed (the women in the Family) in a horrible way.”

Reach Mark Muckenfuss at 951-368-9595 or mmuckenfuss@pe.com

Mark Muckenfuss

Original story HERE

Thank you, Max Frost!