A look back at the Manson slayings after follower Leslie Van Houten's release | Nightline

 

Interview with a man who did time with Manson

An interview with Jamie Morgan Kane, a man who spent 34 years in the California Prison System for a murder he claims to have not committed. 

Jamie speaks on his time in some of the most violent prisons in the USA, his personal interactions with dangerous serial killers Charles Manson and Ed Kemper, and relays his eventual journey to freedom. 

He makes some very interesting comments about Tex.

 

54 Years of Remembering the Victims

 

Charles Manson and Ohio

 

Roman Polanski At 90

 Director Roman Polanski celebrates his 90th birthday on August 18th. He was the husband to Sharon Tate, and father to their unborn son, Paul Richard Polanski. Roman was friends with Voytek Frykowski from an early age, growing up in Poland. Roman was also friends with Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger.

After the Tate-LaBianca murders, Roman was interviewed by police, and subsequently conducted his own personal and private investigation of the murders at his home on Cielo Drive in Los Angeles. He will forever be a part of the immense story that is the Tate-LaBianca murders.

 

Please click on the video below to view photos of Roman through the decades.

Music by: Saint Etienne, Join Our Club, Heavenly Records, 1992.

Abigail Folger At 80

Abigail Folger would have had a birthday on August 11th, and this would have been her 80th. Please click on the video below to remember Abigail.

Music by: Paul Mauriat, Love Is Blue, Phillips Records, 1968.

 

Fugs Avalon Ballroom Poster

 

Every once in a while, you run across something that marginally has to do with Charles Manson. This is one of those things.

April 12, 13 and 14, 1968 The Fugs played at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. They were the headliners. On the bill with them were the Ace of Cups, an all-girl band that not only played all the instruments but also wrote their own music. Rolling Stone magazine did an article on them in 2022 if you want to learn more about the band. The opening act was Allmen Joy. Allmen Joy was psychedelic rock band. 

Those particular dates were Easter weekend, Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday which undoubtedly inspired the theme of the poster. It was drawn by Jaxon, a pseudonym of Jack Edward Jackson. Jackson was a co-founder of the Rip Off Press and was the art director of the poster division for Chet Helms’ Family Dog productions.

April 15, 1968 is the legal birthdate of Michael Brunner aka Pooh Bear. It’s safe to say that mother Mary was not exactly sure when Michael was born, she admits it freely, but apparently the birth was sometime around Easter week of 1968. It’s too bad the Family didn’t keep track of time and dates; they missed a golden opportunity to declare that Michael was the second coming of Christ. They were off by one day.  

The poster is set up a little like a playing card but instead of mirror images, right side up and upside down, it features an image of a serene Rasputin-ish Jesus Christ on top with the opposite, a disorganized, chaotic antichrist, on the lower half. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the lower image is the devil but it’s close.

While we all know that Manson projected a Christ like persona, whether he actually stated this himself or his followers deduced it from his many lectures, it is the lower half of the poster that contains more Manson-esque parallels.

The first thing that jumps out is the swastika that dangles overhead in the spider-like doo-hickey. There are three more swastikas in the crown.

The military medals in the poster remind us that Manson had a fascination with war, particularly the Civil War and World War II. The lone head at the bottom hanging off a ribbon used for medals appears to be the head of Hitler.

The dark pink, dare I say Barbie pink, circle on the left eye of the antichrist is reminiscent of the “okay” hand gesture Susan placed over her left eye in a photo op on one of her many trips to the courthouse during the trial.

The overall feeling of the lower half of the poster is doom with many skull-like figures. On the left, looking at the lower half reversed, there are seven skulls and seven crosses that could signify all the victims of the Tate and LaBianca murders.

The bands did not have any say-so on what the poster for their show would look like. The posters were drawn for specific shows and specific dates and were only used at that particular venue. In other words, The Fugs did not have any input as to the poster’s content.

Ed Sanders and The Fugs were not darlings of the establishment at the time. There’s a page in the FBI files on The Doors that discusses The Fugs.  It relates the damage done to our nation’s youth because of the lyrics in their songs. The Fugs were vilified in the document dated one month before the Avalon Ballroom concert.

Little did anyone know in the spring of 1968 that Charles Manson and the Family would make an about face from a slippy, dippy band of carefree souls to become one of the most discussed bands of criminals to span two centuries.

Nor, in the spring of 1968 did anyone know that a counterculture singer and songwriter, Ed Sanders of The Fugs, would write a best-selling book with multiple updated editions about Manson and his Family.

Artist Jaxon created one heck of a coincidence when he drew the poster in the spring of 1968.

 

OO-EE-OO

The poster or postcard can be purchased at Wolfgang’s or other online retailers.

The Cielo Mansion

 

 

 

Leslie is out!

2020

Out of curiosity I went to the California Inmate Locator website and looked for Leslie Van Houten.

She is no longer listed as being a prisoner of the state of California. I can only assume that she has been released to a halfway house.

That was fast!

California Inmate Locator webpage

Thanks to Jenn for providing a link to an Associated Press article to confirm that Leslie was indeed released on parole.

AP article

Newsom says he won't contest parole ruling for former Manson follower Leslie Van Houten

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will not challenge an appellate court's ruling allowing the release of former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten.

"The Governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeal's decision to release Ms. Van Houten but will not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed," said Erin Mellon, communications director for the Office of the Governor. "The California Supreme Court accepts appeals in very few cases, and generally does not select cases based on this type of fact-specific determination."

In a split ruling in May, a state appeals court panel reinstated a grant of parole for the former Manson follower overturning an earlier decision by Newsom to block her release.

Van Houten, now 73, is serving a potential life prison sentence for taking part in the killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Feliz home more than 50 years ago. 

In this September 6, 2017, file photo, Leslie Van Houten reacts after hearing she is eligible for parole during a hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California. 

In the 2-1 ruling by the panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal, Associate Justice Helen I. Bendix wrote, "Van Houten has shown extraordinary rehabilitative efforts, insight, remorse, realistic parole plans, support from family and friends, favorable institutional reports, and, at the time of the governor's decision, had received four successive grants of parole."... Under these circumstances, Van Houten's unchanging historical risk factors do not provide some evidence that she is currently dangerous and unsuitable for parole," Bendix wrote.

A state parole board had recommended parole for Van Houten in November 2021, marking the fifth time for such a decision.

Four earlier parole recommendations for Van Houten were rejected by governors, including Newsom.  

Newsom had blocked parole for Van Houten in March 2022, writing that, "Given the extreme nature of the crime in which she was involved, I do not believe she has sufficiently demonstrated that she has come to terms with the totality of the factors that led her to participate in the vicious Manson Family killings. Before she can be safely released, Ms. Van Houten must do more to develop her understanding of the factors that caused her to seek acceptance from such a negative, violent influence, and perpetrate extreme acts of wanton violence."

"More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal offenses, the victims' families still feel the impact, as do all Californians. Governor Newsom reversed Ms. Van Houten's parole grant three times since taking office and defended against her challenges of those decisions in court," said Mellon.

Van Houten was convicted of murder and conspiracy for participating with fellow Manson family members Charles "Tex" Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel in the August 1969 killings of grocer Leno LaBianca, 44, and his 38-year-old wife, Rosemary, who were each stabbed multiple times in their Los Feliz home. 

The former Monrovia High School cheerleader, who was 19 at the time, did not participate in the Manson family's killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in a Benedict Canyon mansion the night before.

A request in May 2020 to release Van Houten, who was then 70, on bail or her own recognizance due to her high risk of contracting COVID-19 was denied. 

Original Article