From the Robert Hendrickson documentary film,
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One of Manson’s chief disciples, Bruce Davis, was very closely involved with Scientology for a time, working in its London headquarters from about November or December of 1968 to April of 1969. According to a Scientology spokesman, Davis was kicked out of the organization for his drug use. He returned to the Manson Family and Spahn Ranch in time to participate in the Hinman and Shea slayings.
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There is at least one precept Manson did not borrow from the group: unmarried adherents are expected to remain chaste.
89
LaVey, founder of the San Francisco–based First Church of Satan, is known, by those knowledgeable in such matters, more as a spectacular showman than as a demonic satanist. He has stated numerous times that he condemns violence and ritual sacrifice.
90
In June 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in a 5–4 decision, that the death penalty, if imposed in an arbitrary fashion with the jury being given absolute discretion and no guidelines, constituted “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Although a number of states, including California, have since passed laws restoring the death penalty and making it mandatory for certain crimes, including mass murders, at the time this is written the United States Supreme Court has yet to rule on their constitutionality.
Even if the California law is let stand, it would not affect the Manson Family killers, since the new statute is not retroactive.
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This year, the British Broadcasting Company and ARD, German National Television, are airing twenty-fifth anniversary specials on the case.
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In a March 4, 1994, letter to me, Murphy writes:
There are 32 British rock bands that I know about playing both Manson’s own songs and songs in support of him, and a further 40 or so in Europe, particularly Germany. Only last week, one of the worst I’ve heard, ‘Charlie’s 69 Was A Good Year’, came out, recorded by a band called Indigo Prime; I’m sorry to say that it appears to be selling well. For some reason, the neo-Manson cult seems to centre in Manchester, where there are five stores selling ‘Free Charles Manson’ T-shirts (which are fantastically popular on Rave dance floors) and bootlegged records of his music; however, it’s far from exclusive to Manchester—there was an all-Manson concert in London in January, attended by 2,000 people. There is a full-fledged Manson Appreciation Society, ‘Helter Skelter UK’, based in Warrington, Cheshire. Posters supporting Manson are a common sight in the major cities, especially in the run-up to concerts by the Mansonite bands. The majority of the supporters of these bands are under 25. The truly frightening part is the fact that many of them, when asked, turn out to be Manson ‘buffs’ who have read all they can find about Manson, and strongly approve of Helter Skelter. There are very strong links to ultra-far-right political parties, particularly the British National Party.
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Although I view Manson as an aberration who could have occurred at any time, the late ’60s obviously provided a much more fertile soil for someone like Manson to emerge. It was a period when the sex and drug revolution, campus unrest and civil rights demonstrations, race riots, and all the seething discontent over Vietnam seemed to collide with each other in a stormy turbulence. And Manson, in his rhetoric, borrowed heavily from these fermentations.
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However, the Manson T-shirts and Guns N’ Roses’ album show that the attempted apotheosis and romanticizing of Manson is under way. Two screen projects in the works (the British television documentary
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The cross symbol (+) indicates a pseudonym.
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Also, upon his arrival back at San Quentin from Vacaville in 1985, a four-inch piece of a hacksaw blade was found in his shoe.
