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Another Perspective
Weathermanson
The Manson Family was no less an outgrowth of 1960s leftism than the Weathermen — a fact conveniently forgotten.
Convicted killer Charles “Tex” Watson, the muscle behind the Tate-LaBianca murders, has filed a motion to stop the Los Angeles Police Department from obtaining tapes of him talking with his lawyer in the aftermath of the Manson Family arrests. The eight hours of tape, access to which Watson had once granted to an author, became available as a result of the deceased attorney’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The LAPD seeks to possess rather than merely listen to the recordings because of suspicions that they might shed light on Manson Family murders beyond those affirmed by the courts. Accounts of a supposed one-man-game of Russian-roulette-gone-wrong played by a cultist with a fully-loaded revolver (strangely witnessed only by other Family members), the mysterious disappearance of a defense attorney, and a follower’s throat-and-wrist-slashed suicide in London continue to raise suspicions. Of this last case a Family member cryptically wrote, “I would not want what happened to Joel to happen to me.”
Forty-three summers after the Helter Skelter murders, the Manson Family still provokes headlines and head-scratching. One needn’t six-degrees-of-separation to connect the villains and victims to as diverse a collection of characters as Doris Day, Steve McQueen, Neil Young, and Lou Costello, proving that the entertainment Mecca was still like a village where everyone’s connection extended to everybody. A friend of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson killed friends of the Mamas and the Papas’ John and Michele Phillips for reasons found on a Beatles album.
It didn’t make sense, but then again so little during the late 1960s did.
Most mysterious of all is why what we know, and not just what we don’t, remains so obscure. Specifically puzzling is why a group so mired in the leftist counterculture is so disassociated or at least considered anomalous from the sixties Left.
“His words and courage inspired us,” explained Yippe Jerry Rubin, who visited Manson in jail. “I fell in love with Charlie Manson the first time I saw his cherub face and sparkling eyes on TV.” Counterculture newspapers fell for a conman’s Christ complex by depicting the establishment crucifying Manson. Weatherman adopted a split-fingered greeting, and featured a cell named “The Fork,” in homage to the culinary implement stuck into the murdered Leno LaBianca’s stomach. A banner even spelled out victim Sharon Tate’s name in bullets at a 1969 “War Party” gathering in Flint, Michigan.
Like Weatherman, the Manson Family started on a college campus—Berkeley, to be precise, where the group’s messiah recruited his first follower, University of California librarian Mary Brunner. Both groups fetishized African Americans as the vanguard of a pending world revolution. Whereas the Weathermen appropriated Bob Dylan lyrics for their name and manifesto, Manson discovered cryptic messages embedded in The Beatles’ white album. Both cults used communal living, sex on demand, and narcotics as means of control.
Most importantly, Weathermen and Manson cultists set out to kill people they regarded as “pigs”—sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and murder.
But it’s somehow uncouth to draw parallels between, say, Bernardine Dohrn and Charles Manson. Was Manson’s “Helter Skelter” prophecy of race war really any more outlandish, or that different, than the Weatherman manifesto’s contention that “the real interests of masses of oppressed whites in this country lie with the Black Liberation Struggle,” its overthrow of the U.S. government, and the world communism that would supposedly ensue?
The Manson Family provokes endless curiosity. Desert excavations in search of bodies and periodic parole hearings stoke public interest. Suggest the reopening of a case connected to Weatherman, as Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid did several years ago regarding the 1970 murder of San Francisco police sergeant Brian McDonnell, and listen to the crickets.
The media frenzy that greets new information in a case in which the major figures remain incarcerated strangely becomes media indifference when the reinvestigation focuses on scot-free academics with powerful friends and enormous bank accounts. Never is the search for truth (and justice) so maligned as a campaign of harassment as when it involves the crimes of well-connected old lefties.
If Brian McDonnell had been a movie star rather than a cop his murderers would be behind bars instead of lecterns.
Weatherman cultists found sinecures in academia, won generous publishing contracts, and even cultivated friendships with a future president. Manson Family members, on the other hand, hide from society, change their names, and rot in jail.
This status discrepancy, like certain deaths surrounding both cults, remains an unsolved mystery.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn, the author of The War on Football: Saving America’s Game, blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (47) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 6.15.12 @ 6:41AM
I was overseas when the Manson Murders happened and it was not reported in any country I visited, as far as I am aware. Besides the whole "Paul McCartney is Dead" thing and the death of the Mormon Prophet, this is the only thing we missed. Hard to believe that was aleady 43 years ago.
Brooksifier | 6.15.12 @ 3:51PM
Manson himself was a Rightist, he hated blacks and the whole idea of his murders was to blame the Hinman murder on blacks, and also to start a race war which would have supposedly resulted in Manson's supremacy.
Whatever Jerry Rubin or Bernadette Dohrn used Manson's notoriety for, Manson was no leftist anymore than the Hells Angels or Satanists.
The author is doing something similar to what certain leftists did in 1995 when they tried to connect Tim McVeigh to Rush Limbaugh.
Brooksifier | 6.15.12 @ 4:25PM
...now (if you'll pardon a double-post) something to what Mr. Flynn writes: many serious Leftists such as Bernadette Dohrn said seriously violent things. Dohrn:
"dig how [the Mansonites] stuck the fork into [Leno La Bianca's] belly."
But Jerry Rubin was just flapping off; whether it was burning money or snorting coke, he was casting about for shock-value fads.
Daniel| 6.18.12 @ 1:38AM
Brooksifier, you could not be more wrong. When one looks closely at the life of Manson and his beliefs, it is clear that he is an inevitable product of the 60's counterculture (hardly a place where "rightists" were easily found). You are right that he hated blacks, but I submit that left-wing ideology is just as harmful to blacks as the KKK. Manson was, and still is, a radical environmentalist and his anti-establishment rants during his trial sound eerily familiar to the nonsense spouted by the Occupy Wall Street crowd last summer. In addition, he was misogynistic and hated Jews (another similarity between him and the left-wing) and his extreme narcissistic personality and focus solely on himself reminds me of a current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Otis, my man!| 6.15.12 @ 7:58AM
The Manson Family started as a benign hippie commune in San Francisco. It financed itself through petty larceny and drug dealing. When the Family moved South, it got involved with the Hells Angels and Satan worship, and various New Age occult practices fueled by massive amounts of LSD ingestion. The inevitable eventually happened.
TLP| 6.15.12 @ 5:40PM
How about The Muslim's best buddy - Bill Ayers - and his Weather Underground, pronouncing that they should go to the Hospitals, and KILL ALL THE WHITE BABIES?
And, why does this MFer in the White House, continue to GET A PASS?
"Men shall know you by the company you keep." JESUS Christ.
Indeed.
Cobalt| 6.15.12 @ 8:55AM
If Charles Manson hadn't become a evil monster who enjoyed killing people, he might have ended up in politics.
Manson knows how to control people, and like many politicians, he isn't burdened with guilt, shame or remorse.
http://images2.fanpop.com/imag.....19-400.jpg
Seek| 6.15.12 @ 7:32PM
Manson had extensive involvement with Scientology back in the mid-60s. This is a well-documented fact. Manson, who often proclaimed himself the new Christ, wasn't any sort of orthodox "Leftist." He was rather was a cult figure who knew instinctively how to connect with, and control, weak-willed, confused people around age 18-25 -- a cult leader, in other words.
Bill84728| 6.15.12 @ 9:04AM
It's "uncouth" to draw too close a parallel between Bernardind Dohrn and Charles Manson because most lefties were revolted by Charles Manson. It's true that for a short time there was some sort of perverse association of the Manson Family with questioning of authority, but the huge majority of lefties didn't buy it. They were wrong and fools, but not for that.
And yes, there is a significant distinction to be made between the Left saying that the "real interests' of "oppressed masses" lay with the black liberation struggle and Helter Skelter: one had some tenuous connection with a (phony) revolutionary perception, while the other was a psychotic delusion that only youthful people on the edge of sanity, who had found themselves in the bottom rung of society, connected with a false felon who posed as a savior, could possibly fall for.
Gr0w1er601| 6.15.12 @ 9:04AM
Did anything good come out of the Sixties? Maybe the music...
TLP| 6.15.12 @ 5:40PM
AIDS.
Truth to Power| 6.15.12 @ 9:07AM
He was a race obsessed nut job who hoped that racial friction would bring about a new world that he would control. Sounds like a Democrat to me.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.15.12 @ 10:31AM
Had the Manson Family been active in Massahusetts instead of California, Charlie would have been able to exercise his right to vote for Michael Dukakis, and could have qualified for a furlough, as well.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.15.12 @ 10:33AM
"Massahusetts"
I have not joined a Blood set, and did not leave out the "c" in Massachusetts as a sign of disrespect for the Crips. My keyboard is sticking again.
Cobalt| 6.15.12 @ 10:48AM
If that were the case, then on the day of his Massachusetts furlough, Manson should also be qualified for a double tap from a 45.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.15.12 @ 10:56AM
In a better world, Roman Polanski would have made these arrangements instead of drugging, seducing a raping girls in the 13-15 year age cohort.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.15.12 @ 10:58AM
"seducing a raping "
That would be "and" raping...
Seek| 6.15.12 @ 3:26PM
We're talking about one girl, singular. And the circumstances surrounding the 1977 event remain less than clear. Polanski should have taken his punishment -- 40 days in the cooler -- like a man. But the death penalty? I don't think so.
Truth to Power| 6.15.12 @ 7:24PM
"ABC News obtained transcripts of Geimer's 1977 grand jury testimony, which resulted in six charges against Polanski. They include shocking details of 13-year-old Geimer testifying that the 43-year-old Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude before performing oral, vaginal and anal intercourse on her, despite her demands to "keep away."
Death is what the bastard deserves. I am awarding Seek the Jerry Sandusky tickle monster award for trivializing brutally attacking a thirteen year old using drugs and Seek's favorite, anal sex. Seek's open racial bigotry has always been irritating. This shows another side of his/her/its disgusting character.
Seek| 6.15.12 @ 7:34PM
So I'm now into anal sex, huh? You must be from the planet of Uranus. Get a life, man.
Truth to Power| 6.16.12 @ 11:22AM
I guess if you thought it was a trivial matter for a thirteen year old who had plied with booze and drugs that you must like it yourself. You are a pig. You are not shallow but evil.
Bill84728| 6.15.12 @ 11:31AM
I have been wondering since his death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment how he has managed to avoid the screwdriver to the kidney in the yard. But I guess he's not all crazy all the time.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.17.12 @ 9:55AM
At one point another inmate set him on fire, and Joseph Wambaugh wrote that the prison was soon overwhelmed with police officers mailing that prisoner Bic lighters.
Citizen Jerry| 6.15.12 @ 10:26AM
No, not much good came out of the '60s. And in the final analysis which is coming soon, all the money and powerful friends in the world will not help them.
Bob From District 9| 6.15.12 @ 11:51AM
A drastic decline in the poverty rate is not good by your standards?
Believe it or not, the fall of the Soviet Union came out of the '60s. Of course, that's too subtle for a right winger to understand.
SFCMikeJ| 6.15.12 @ 1:24PM
Bob,
I am not sure I believe it. Please explain how the fall of the Soviet Union came out of the 60's. Thanks.
Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)
Skippy| 6.15.12 @ 2:50PM
He can't.
It didn't.
And the poverty rate for blacks is still 27%, just like it was the day before The Great Society began destroying the black family.
District 9 must be on Uranus.
Seek| 6.15.12 @ 3:31PM
"District 9" was a South African movie released in 2009 with an Orwellian anti-1984 theme. Maybe you should check your anus, Mr. Potatohead.
Truth to Power| 6.15.12 @ 7:27PM
Seek seems very irritable any time the work anus is used. Thanks for District 9 lesson.
Seek| 6.15.12 @ 7:36PM
You are a shallow little fellow who needs to wipe his brain as well as his ass a little more thoroughly.
Seek| 6.15.12 @ 3:29PM
For one thing, Czech dissidents, led by Vaclav Havel, organized the "Velvet Revolution," against the Soviets. The group's name was a conscious reference to the late-60-early-70s rock group, the Velvet Underground.
Truth to Power| 6.15.12 @ 7:35PM
The attempt to tie the leftist baby boomers with the fall of the Soviet Union is a joke. They were in lock step with the Soviet Union.
The Great Society took affect in the seventies and was an unmitigated disaster. You are a painfully stupid fellow, Bob.
Seek| 6.15.12 @ 7:38PM
Baloney. The hip Leftists at the time thought the Soviets as square and dumb. And a lot of the counterculture had a strong libertarian sensibility. Indeed, Reason magazine would never have become what is were it not for the counterculture. Yes, hippies made possible the growth of libertarianism.
Truth to Power| 6.15.12 @ 8:56PM
Name some names catcher boy. You are nothing more than a bigoted pervert.
Anthony| 6.15.12 @ 10:40AM
Now it's the Democrat Party, led by Obozo, that has morphed from the Manson Family and the Weathermen.
You want to talk about cultists? Say hello to the new and improved Democrat Party and its blind followers.
If Obozo told one of his devoted cultist to kill somebody, they'd do it. Hell, they've already drank gallons and gallons of the kool aid.
Bob From District 9| 6.15.12 @ 11:50AM
What absolute bull. Manson is more properly equated to the right wingers who sent anthrax to perceived liberals, shot Gabby Giffords, stalked Cody Shearer, and committed so many other blatantly political threats or acts of violence.
Cpm| 6.15.12 @ 1:51PM
You don't really know anything about Manson, do you?
Skippy| 6.15.12 @ 2:51PM
He don't really know anything about anything.
That qualifies him as a liberal.
Caroline| 6.18.12 @ 10:26PM
The right did not shoot Gabby Giffords. This was done by someone who was mentally ill. But since you bring it up, I've suspected that this was set up by Obama and his friends. The same state attorney was in AZ for both the shooting and Fast and Furious. He resigned after Fast and Furious. Sheriff Dupnik knew about the shooter's history before he shot the Conservative Judge and Gabby Giffords. This judge by the way was set to rule against Obama the next day, yet no one talks about him.
The response seemed so choreographed between Dupnik coming out and accusing Sarah Palin for inciting violence, along with the Tea Party. Why would a sheriff in AZ single out Sarah Palin and the Tea Party right away? The media, Obama flying in for his "civility," speech. The Democrats insisting the Republicans sit with them, to show unity against the Tea Party I guess, the wearing of the ribbons?
Considering Obama has had Ayers to the White House, although Obama said it's another Wm. Ayers, not the infamous one, LOL, and went to a barbecue at his house in 2005, them orchestrating a killing isn't out of the realm of possibilities. I don't think either of them have a problem murdering anyone. If the shooter implicated them, they would just say he was crazy, since they knew his mental health history, and with a friendly state attorney, you're off the hook.
RJ| 6.15.12 @ 12:04PM
Let's not forget Jim "Cool Aid" Jones, a prominent supporter and friend of San Francisco's liberal Democrat politicians. They spoke well of him until the Cool Aid was drunk.
Seek| 6.15.12 @ 3:32PM
Apparently, you're not too big on willful misspellings for commercial purposes. The drink is called "Kool-Aid."
RJ| 6.15.12 @ 4:54PM
Indeed it is.
rosey| 6.16.12 @ 10:52AM
I wrote an article about this very subject back in November 2009 here:
http://ussamericarosey.blogspo.....er+skelter
Ruckweiler| 6.17.12 @ 11:08AM
The '60s were a national epileptic fit. The country is still trying to recover from it. Manson, the Weathermen, and all the other crazies showed the way.
redwolf6911| 6.17.12 @ 10:53PM
I remember the horrible murders of Sharon Tate and the others with her. She was close to delivery of a baby. It was senseless. The 1960's saw the beginning of radicals, some of which currently serve in Congress and the White House.
Occam's Tool| 6.18.12 @ 1:25AM
I am very happy I left CA in the early 90s after finishing residency. Riese Vs. St Mary's made it very difficult to involuntarily medicate psychotic violent folks, and wasted millions of taxpayer's money---our view of this legislation is one of the things RCV and I agree on. A very sad state, for all its sun and surf.
anderson659| 6.18.12 @ 1:30AM
In addition to the Manson psychos, perhaps we should all remember Jim Jones and who he was, along with the 900 plus people who died with him. Jim Jones was a progressive leftist who attracted mainly blacks to his preaching of liberation and oppression by whites. Jones was the original occupy model.
Harvey Milk was a supporter of Jones, and even wrote Jimmy Carter on his behalf. Jones was a progressive leftist, and like Manson his vision of America had everything to do with him and his own reality.
San Francisco progressives supported Jim Jones and what he stood for, Jones like all progressive(s) simply used blacks as pawns and 900 died to appease Jones.
The progressive herd mentality of the Jim Jones days is here right now for Obama, if you don't believe me search youtube and the progressive sites for how dedicated to Obama progressives are.
Progressives are the Manson, and Jim Jones for Obama, 21st century lemmings.
Remember also what several black leaders said about economic conditions back in 20111, they said if that there was a white president, there would be riots in the streets.