Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson Hardcover (67 page)

In September filmmaker Kenneth Anger rented a Haight theater:
Perry,
The Haight-Ashbury
, p. 231; Sanders, p. 25.

None of the Haight turmoil was reflected:
Livsey, p. 201.

The kids were shunted aside:
David E. Smith, M.D., and Alan J. Rose, “The Group Marriage Commune: A Case Study,”
The Journal of Psychedelic Drugs
, September 1970.

none of the hard stuff:
Phil Kaufman interview.

Charlie expected rapt devotion:
Patricia Krenwinkel interview.

struggling to remember spur-of-the-moment lyrics:
Leslie Van Houten interview.

The best way to get them, Charlie knew:
Susan Atkins, with Bob Slosser,
Child of Satan, Child of God
(Bantam, 1978), p. 84.

Of all the followers who came to Charlie:
Susan Atkins compiled or contributed to three books about her childhood and experiences with Charlie Manson:
The Killing of Sharon Tate
by Lawrence Schiller; her own
Child of Satan, Child of God
, co-authored with Bob Slosser; and “The Myth of Helter Skelter,” an
unpublished memoir written with her husband, James Whitehouse, which can be viewed at
www.susanatkins.org
. In 2011 I met briefly with Whitehouse, who said he would consider talking to me about his late wife, and in a subsequent message he agreed to answer questions submitted to him by e-mail. After many months he cited a factual error in one of the questions and refused to communicate further. I’m particularly sorry because, according to Leslie Van Houten, Whitehouse continues to provide legal services to women at the California Institution for Women.

As soon as she turned eighteen:
Atkins, pp. 49–52; Sanders, p. 19; Livsey, pp. 35, 178–86; Bravin, p. 70.

Susan visited some friends at their Haight apartment:
Atkins, pp. 1–9; Lawrence Schiller,
The Killing of Sharon Tate
(Signet, 1970), pp. 81–84; Atkins unpublished memoir.

Charlie took his women up to Sacramento:
Patricia Krenwinkel interview.

other women in the group would get pregnant:
Smith and Rose, “The Group Marriage Commune,”
The Journal of Psychedelic Drugs.

That made them regular patrons of the Free Clinic:
David E. Smith interview.

In the early fall, Charlie took the bus out:
In describing his meeting and subsequent confrontation with Dean Moorehouse, Charlie always claimed that Ruth Ann was present at her father’s house and begged to come with him, but her father refused. This cannot be the case. According to California state records, Ruth Ann married Edward L. Heuvelhorst on May 20, 1968, legally emancipating her from her parents. If Ruth Ann had been at her father’s that day and wanted to leave with Manson and the rest of his followers, she could have. But every reliable account has Ruth Ann joining the group after it moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

but he was mollified a few days later:
Sanders, p. 17.

The girls considered him to be a pompous lightweight:
Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel interviews.

This crazy man was about to murder him:
Manson tells this story in Emmons,
Manson in His Own Words
, pp. 121–22, and Gregg Jakobson later heard it described by several witnesses. In some versions, Dean Moorehouse was accompanied by a friend who put the shotgun to Charlie’s head.

L.A. reps who came to check out San Francisco talent:
Charles Perry, Lorraine Chamberlain, and Gregg Jakobson interviews.

Everyone knew that the fabled Beach Boys:
Kent Hartman,
The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret
(Thomas Dunne, 2012), pp. 153–55.

four of the five Byrds didn’t perform at all:
This is true: Gregg Jakobson interview; Hartman, pp. 97–101.

“No matter how”:
Priore, p. 22.

Chapter Eight: L.A.

Interviews with Mary F. Corey, Gregg Jakobson, Leslie Van Houten, Tom Hayden, A. J. Langguth, and, especially, Joe Domanick, David Dotson, and Gerald L. Chaleff helped me better understand the unique atmosphere in Los Angeles during and after the Watts riot of 1965. For anyone remotely interested in that subject, Domanick’s Edgar Award–winning
To Protect and to Serve: The LAPD’s Century of War in the City of Dreams
, is essential and gripping reading.

Chronology is inevitably questionable in this part of the Manson saga. Charlie and his followers (soon to be known as the Family) were nomadic even when they were in L.A. In between city residences, they toured in the school bus. Nobody was keeping track of departure and arrival dates, or how many days were spent on the road. It may be, for instance, that Dianne Lake joined just before they drove into the Mojave Desert rather than after (and her name may be either “Dianne” or “Diane”), or that Sandy Good became a full-fledged member prior to Phil Kaufman leaving (Phil doesn’t think so but isn’t certain). So some of the sequences of events described here are best guesses, but the events themselves are factually presented based on interviews and descriptions in previous books, documents, and articles, all noted.

Los Angeles became a place:
Mary F. Corey, Joe Domanick, David Dotson, and Tom Hayden interviews.

As many as one thousand flooded in each week:
Joe Domanick interview.

A pragmatic approach to controlling vice was necessary:
David Dotson and Joe Domanick interviews.

lectures assured them that Martin Luther King Jr.:
David Dotson interview.

One evening in the early 1960s:
Gregg Jakobson interview.

These neatly separated communities:
Gerald L. Chaleff interview.

Gangs fought each other:
Mary F. Corey interview.

Watts adults were no better off:
Tom Hayden,
The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama
(Paradigm Publishers, 2009), p. 141; Tom Hayden, Mary F. Corey, and Joe Domanick interviews.

California Highway Patrol officer Lee Minikus didn’t expect trouble:
Joe Domanick,
To Protect and to Serve: The LAPD’s Century of War in the City of Dreams
(Pocket
Books, 1994), pp. 179–85; Hayden, pp. 141–42; Theodore White,
The Making of the President 1968
, p. 31; Mary F. Corey, Tom Hayden, Lorraine Chamberlain, and Joe Domanick interviews.

in December it reported in stark, prescient terms:
Domanick,
To Protect and to Serve
, p. 191.

For Chief Parker, the 1965 Watts riot offered a welcome chance:
Ibid., pp. 185, 192–93.

Now blacks in every part of Los Angeles:
Mary F. Corey interview.

Whites venturing into Watts:
Carlton Stowers interview.

Hordes of wannabe musicians made their way to L.A.:
Gregg Jakobson and Lorraine Chamberlain interviews; Hoskyns,
Waiting for the Sun
, pp. 83–88; Michelle Phillips,
California Dreamin’: The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas
(Warner, 1986), pp. 78–79.

Melcher quickly determined:
Hartman, pp. 96–103.

The bottom line, the only factor that ultimately mattered:
Gregg Jakobson interview.

the Mamas and the Papas husband-wife team:
Hoskyns,
Waiting for the Sun
, pp. 96–97.

the LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office announced joint plans:
Priore, pp. 25, 244–45, 248–54.

Frank Zappa, frustrated by how widely his fellow musicians:
Lorraine Chamberlain interview.

CBS aired a documentary:
Priore, p. 197.

Joan Didion, reflecting later:
Joan Didion,
The White Album: Essays
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979), pp. 41–42.

So, too, were the Santa Ana winds:
Ryan Kittell and David Sweet interviews;
Los Angeles Times
, February 20, 1988.

His followers had no idea:
Leslie Van Houten interview.

what Stromberg remembered most:
David Felton and David Dalton, “Year of the Fork, Night of the Hunter,”
Rolling Stone
, June 25, 1970. Stromberg is quoted at length about his experience with Charlie in this excellent, detailed article.

He and Stromberg and the four girls went out to lunch:
Patricia Krenwinkel remembers that they stayed around Universal “for quite a few days, we were there a lot.”

Charlie felt that he’d learned a valuable lesson:
Gregg Jakobson interview.

they stayed at a quirky house:
Marynick, p. 334; Emmons, pp. 122–28; Sanders, pp. 23–24.

Beausoleil was all about ego:
Leslie Van Houten interview.

Bobby Beausoleil’s most lasting favor to Charlie:
John Gilmore and Ron Kenner,
Manson: The Unholy Trail of Charlie and the Family
(Amok Books, 2000), p. 67; Udo, p. 98; Ann Bardich, “Jailhouse Interview: Bobby Beausoleil and the Manson Murders,”
Oui
, November 1981.

In Texas, Charlie’s teeth started hurting:
Atkins, p. 86.

he was intrigued by Dianne Lake:
Sanders, pp. 26–27; Perry,
The Haight-Ashbury
, p. 280.

He immediately began holding up Dianne:
Leslie Van Houten interview.

It was not unusual for Frank Zappa to get up in the morning:
Lorraine Chamberlain interview.

He tried to catch the attention:
Hoskyns,
Waiting for the Sun
, p. 80.

Producer David Briggs got so fed up with Charlie:
Jimmy McDonough,
Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography
(Random House, 2002), p. 260.

Sometimes Charlie administered full-scale beatings:
Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten interviews.

the Beach Boys left for Paris:
Brian Wilson,
Wouldn’t It Be Nice: My Own Story
(HarperCollins, 1991), pp. 174–76.

Early 1968 was savagely unsettling:
Patterson,
Grand Expectations
, p. 635; Richard Reeves,
President Nixon: Alone in the White House
(Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 115.

Charlie in full recruiting mode:
Patricia Krenwinkel interview.

Charlie simply enjoyed the company of men:
Gregg Jakobson and Phil Kaufman interviews.

The women were exhaustively quizzed:
Leslie Van Houten interview.

Then Charlie mastered the women sexually:
David E. Smith interview; Smith and Rose, “The Group Marriage Commune,”
The Journal of Psychedelic Drugs.

Ruth Ann cheerfully did what she was told:
Leslie Van Houten interview.

Women who didn’t make it through:
Ibid.

Charlie’s prime money catch:
Phil Kaufman interview.

Ruth Ann became Ouisch:
Gregg Jakobson interview.

Lynne compared it to diving inside a giant salad:
Bravin, p. 72.

Sometimes one or two of the women:
Leslie Van Houten interview.

In February, the Beatles embarked:
Bob Spitz,
The Beatles: The Biography
(Little, Brown, 2005), pp. 750–57.

Phil Kaufman was released from Terminal Island:
Phil Kaufman interview. I especially value Phil’s insights because he was a clear-eyed observer of Charlie rather than an awestruck follower.

It was as though Charlie considered the Beatles:
Leslie Van Houten interview.

Charlie did allow his followers to tune in:
Patricia Krenwinkel interview.

If Charlie discussed current events:
Ibid.

he found a young woman:
Livsey, pp. 197–200; Emmons, pp. 138–39; Bravin, p. 78; George Bishop,
Witness to Evil: The Uncensored Story of Charles Manson and His Murderous Family
(Dell, 1972), p. 334.

Charlie ordered Sandy to strip:
Leslie Van Houten interview. Leslie hadn’t yet joined Charlie during this time in Topanga, but Charlie continued having Sandy strip and show her scars after the group moved on to Spahn Ranch.

Mary Brunner gave birth to a son:
Patricia Krenwinkel interview.

the children always appeared clean:
Gregg Jakobson interview.

Within the group, there was some discrepancy:
Patricia Krenwinkel interview.

The Beach Boys embarked that spring:
Timothy White,
The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the Southern California Experience
(Henry Holt, 1994), pp. 281–82; Peter Ames Carlin,
Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson
(Rodale, 2006), p. 136; Wilson, p. 177.

Bobby Beausoleil . . . dropped by soon after:
Sanders, p. 33.

He used some of his girls as scouts:
Gregg Jakobson interview.

for some milk and cookies:
Patricia Krenwinkel interview.

Chapter Nine: Charlie and Dennis