Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson Hardcover (61 page)

In 2009, Squeaky Fromme was paroled from the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth. Upon her release she refused to give interviews and moved to New York state, where she was spotted in a car with a bumper sticker reading, “Born Again Pagan.”

Charles “Tex” Watson operates Abounding Love Ministries from Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California. In June 2012, a Texas judge granted the LAPD the right to review cassette tapes made in 1969–70 by Watson with his lawyer, Bill Boyd. The basis for the LAPD’s appeal was that Watson may have discussed additional Manson Family murders on the tapes.

Pat Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten remain at the California Institution for Women. They freely mingle with other inmates. Both have completed college degrees, and Leslie earned a master’s. She works in educational programs for inmates; Pat trains rescue dogs to serve the handicapped.

The house on Waverly Drive where Leno and Rosemary LaBianca died looks much the same, except for a changed street number. A pool has been added, and a carport. The Los Feliz neighborhood is quiet.

But the house on Cielo where Terry Melcher lived and Sharon Tate and four others died is gone, demolished in 1994 and replaced by an entirely new structure at the end of the narrow winding road up the high steep hill. The last resident of the original house was musician Trent Reznor, who in 1993 moved in and built studio facilities to record
The Downward Spiral
album with his band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor didn’t know that the infamous Tate murders had occurred there until after he moved in. He said that this news excited and disturbed him at the same time. Reznor named his recording studio “Le Pig” in honor of the word Susan Atkins scrawled in blood on a door twenty-four years earlier, but for some time every sound in the night made him jumpy. He decided to move out in part because he kept returning home to find bouquets of dead roses and lit candles placed reverently at the front gate.
He was never certain, Reznor said, whether they were left in tribute to Sharon Tate or Charlie Manson.

Since 1998, Charlie has been incarcerated at the California State Prison in Corcoran, about four hours’ drive north from Los Angeles. The forbidding-looking facility is ringed with guard towers and surrounded by pastures. Charlie lives in the Protective Housing Unit, reserved for those considered in danger from the general inmate population. He is far from a model prisoner, losing phone privileges for possession of unauthorized cell phones and spending time in solitary for carrying concealed weapons. Other prisoners help Charlie with his mail—Roger Dale Smith was his main assistant until Smith’s death from cancer in 2004. Charlie still receives dozens of letters a month and infrequently responds, usually to those who enclose money or endorse ATWA—Air Trees Water Animals, an organization founded by Charlie to pursue his objective of
protecting the environment. Some other letters are turned over to friends outside the prison to respond to as they see fit. His supporters maintain an ATWA website that offers Manson-related booklets, art, and music to raise money for the cause. Through friends outside Corcoran who create electronic versions of his scribbled notes, Charlie frequently posts messages on another website. Many of these criticize the legal system. They are reproduced verbatim, grammatical errors and all.

When he’s not deprived of privileges for various transgressions, Charlie’s days in prison are simple. He enjoys doing artwork—the resulting sketches and small sculptures are sometimes sent to supporters and ATWA contributors—and he plays guitar and reads the Bible. Charlie also enjoys reading
National Geographic.
At mealtimes he skips meat and subsists on cheese, crackers, salads, potato chips, and Ramen noodles. Charlie still likes to listen to music, mostly vintage rock ’n’ roll as well as Sinatra. His favorite actor is John Wayne, and he is also a fan of comedian George Lopez.

Sometimes his fellow inmates ask Charlie to tell them the truth about Tate-LaBianca: What really happened on the nights of August 9 and 10, 1969? Charlie’s response is always the same. He says, “I don’t know anything.”

And he winks.

•  •  •

Thanks to
Helter Skelter
, Squeaky’s failed attempt to assassinate Gerald Ford, and the “Crazy Charlie” act that he’s performed to perfection, Charlie Manson remains a household name more than forty years after the seven murders. Simply surviving has a great deal to do with it. Almost everyone has forgotten the names of the teen shooters who claimed thirteen victims at Columbine in 1999 and the man who shot and killed thirty-two people on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007. But Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Seung-Hui Cho died on the spot. (Charlie didn’t personally kill any of the Tate-LaBianca victims, but his is the name associated with the crimes.) Had the California Supreme Court not overturned the death penalty in 1972 and had Charlie been executed a few years later, he might be mostly forgotten, too. But instead, there have been bizarre, well-publicized parole hearings, rants on websites, and just enough interviews
to maintain the constant public awareness that he craves. After so many years, Charlie clearly doesn’t care what we think of him, only that we do. As has always been the case with Charlie, he represents different things to different people. To many, he’s evil personified. Some pity him for the terrible childhood he claimed to have endured—how could his life have turned out any way other than badly? A smaller but very vocal percentage thinks of Charlie as an anti-establishment hero who never did anything wrong besides stand up to oppression and speak the truth. Many modern-day teenagers imagine him as a cool outlaw; Manson T-shirts are common sights in high schools. But there is near-universal belief that Charlie is a product of the 1960s, that era in American history when the country, for better or worse, teetered on the brink of ruin. And that belief is wrong.

Charlie Manson
is
a product of the 1960s—and also of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The Tate-LaBianca murders (and Gary Hinman’s and Shorty Shea’s, though these have been largely forgotten) were the culmination of horrific coincidence. Invariably, Charlie found himself in the perfect locations and situations to exploit others to his own benefit. By the time the 1960s arrived, Charles Manson was already a lifelong social predator. Almost everyone who had anything to do with him was damaged in some way, and Charlie could not have cared less. Gregg Jakobson compares Charlie to a cancer cell because he thrived by eradicating everything around him that was healthy. There was nothing mystical or heroic about Charlie—he was an opportunistic sociopath. The unsettling 1960s didn’t create Charlie, but they made it possible for him to bloom in full, malignant flower. In every sense, one theme runs through and defines his life: Charlie Manson was always the wrong man in the right place at the right time.

My agent, Jim Donovan, remained encouraging during the two sometimes difficult years it took to research and write this book. I’m grateful to Andrea Ahles Koos, Anne E. Collier, and Sara Tirrito for their research assistance. After ten years and seven books, working with me is business as usual for Andrea; Anne and Sara waded in for the first time and acquitted themselves admirably.

I’m far from the best writer, but as I work on my books I have the best readers offering constructive criticism and, when I need it, a swift kick in the pants. Mike Blackman, James Ward Lee, and Carlton Stowers came through for me as they always do.

Bob Bender deserves his reputation as one of the best editors anywhere. Also at Simon & Schuster, I owe a great deal regarding this project to Jon Karp, Johanna Li, Kelly Welsh, Julia Prosser, and Maureen Cole. It is a pleasure to work with all of them.

This is Roger Labrie’s book as much as it is mine. It has been my good fortune to work with Roger, and I hope that many more writers get the same opportunity.

Dr. Daniel Greenspan was instrumental in helping me meet with Leslie Van Houten.

Special thanks to Cash, who kept me company as I worked.

Everything I write is always for Nora, Adam, and Grant.

Roman Polanski’s
career flourished in the wake of his wife’s death. In 1974 the Polanski-directed
Chinatown
was nominated for several Academy Awards, winning for Best Screenplay. But in 1977 Polanski was arrested for sexual assault on a thirteen-year-old girl. He fled to Europe and has fought extradition to America ever since. His films continue to earn critical praise, and he won the Academy Award for directing 2002’s
The Pianist.

The Beach Boys
gradually regained their popularity and thrived as a live act, culminating with a triumphant fiftieth-anniversary concert tour in 2012. But they did so without Dennis Wilson, who drowned while diving in Marina del Rey on December 28, 1983. In his last years, Dennis was plagued by alcohol and drug abuse. But before his death he released
Pacific Ocean Blue
, a magnificent album that confirmed his genius as a composer and performer. Several of the songs were written with Gregg Jakobson, who co-produced the album with him.

Terry Melcher
never believed that Charlie’s music was in any way special or deserving of recording. After the Tate-LaBianca trial, Melcher produced several more albums for the Byrds and also worked with the Beach Boys, producing some of their music and co-writing the band’s hit “Kokomo.” Melcher also helped resurrect his mother’s career, serving as executive producer of TV’s
The Doris Day Show.
He died of cancer in 2004.

Gregg Jakobson
, the other original member of the Golden Penetrators, worked in the music and restaurant business in and around L.A. before relocating to Oregon, where he and his wife, Kathy, operate a bed-and-breakfast in the Corvallis Valley. In 2008 Jakobson helped engineer a “legacy edition” of Dennis Wilson’s
Pacific Ocean Blue
, which included
additional unreleased studio tracks as well as the complete
Bambu
, which Dennis had intended to release as a follow-up album.

Phil Kaufman
now lives in Nashville and remains a vital part of the music business there, still working as a road manager for several performers.

After losing a second race for Los Angeles district attorney in 1976,
Vincent Bugliosi
entered private legal practice and continued to write books—seven were best-sellers, and two in addition to
Helter Skelter
topped the list.

Clem
, now reassuming his given name of Steve Grogan, underwent religious conversion and led authorities to the spot on the old Spahn Ranch property where Shorty Shea was buried. Despite near-universal belief to the contrary, Shea had not been dismembered. Grogan used his time in prison productively, studying mechanics and behaving as a model inmate. In 1985 he was paroled; two and a half years later he was discharged from parole, the first convicted Family killer to be completely freed.

Linda Kasabian
lives under a different name in the Northwest. She is still in contact with Vincent Bugliosi, who at her request does not share her contact information.

Bobby Beausoleil
is incarcerated in Oregon as part of a state prisoner sharing program with California. He continues to write and record music, most notably a soundtrack to
Lucifer Rising
, Kenneth Anger’s film that Beausoleil originally worked on back in the Haight.

In December 1985,
Sandy Good
was released on parole, which she successfully completed in 1989. She found a boyfriend who was equally devoted to Charlie. Together, they set up and for several years maintained Internet websites in his honor. Like
Ruth Ann Moorehouse
and
Mary Brunner
, Sandy eventually dropped out of sight.

In October 2012, a California state board recommended
Bruce Davis
for parole due to his “positive adjustment . . . and for successfully completing academica and vocational education and self-help programs.” A previous parole board had also recommended his prison release, but then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger overruled the recommendation. On March 1, 2013, California governor Jerry Brown followed suit, overruling the latest recommendation for a Davis parole.

Over a two-year period I sent more than forty letters requesting an interview to Charlie Manson at Corcoran State Prison. He replied directly once, in a letter mailed on May 17, 2012. In it he rambled about con men “talking on the come,” and concluded, “now you got a letter and I don’t have time to wast.” He added in a postscript, “They dont Just let me interview as I want.” He did not respond to my subsequent correspondence. Charlie, did, however, pass along some of my letters to a friend of his who corresponded with me for a time, usually by e-mail. The friend emphasized how Charlie is mistrustful of those claiming to write books about him. In recent years his ability to communicate with outsiders has also been limited by his loss of phone privileges—Charlie’s preferred means of communication is by telephone. Had he been willing to see me, I doubt the interview would have been useful in any sense other than allowing me to describe Charlie’s current physical appearance. In the few carefully selected interviews he has granted, he’s relied on the ongoing “Crazy Charlie” act, ranting nonsensically. The same is true in his official messages issued through ATWA. In a pamphlet offered on the ATWA website for $10, Charlie states, “We have two worlds that have been conquested by the military of the revolution. The revolution belongs to George Washington, the Russians, the Chinese. But before that, there is Manson. I have 17 years before China. I can’t explain that to where you can understand it.”

Several former Family members and others associated with the Manson story declined interviews after learning that I wouldn’t pay to talk to them. When I interviewed Gregg Jakobson, I paid to stay at his small bed-and-breakfast in Oregon for three nights after determining that staying there would cost less than staying in a hotel room in Portland or Eugene
and commuting to talk to Gregg. He and his wife, Kathy, threw in two home-cooked dinners, which were delicious.