Back to Part I

Contents

Lennon Home Page

Main Home Page

Part II - Dark Forces

Coincidence or Conspiracy(?)

In my research of John Lennon’s life, career and murder, I observed a disturbing entanglement in the following seemingly unrelated areas:

• John Lennon’s supporting role in the 1967 movie, How I Won the War, which could certainly be viewed as pro-Nazi by Zionist fanatics and the FBI;
• John Lennon’s and Roman Polanski’s interest in Timothy Leary and LSD;
• Roman Polanski’s 1968 movie, Rosemary’s Baby, which depicted Jews as satanic witches;
• John Lennon wrote a song, Dear Prudence, about the sister of Mia Farrow, the actress who played the lead role in Rosemary’s Baby;
• John Lennon eventually moved into the Dakota, an upscale condominium complex in Manhattan, also the location where Rosemary’s Baby was filmed;
• The murder of Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, and others on August 9-10, 1969. Charlie Manson and members of his hippie commune, also known as the "Manson Family," were convicted of committing the stated murders;
• The attempt by L.A. district attorney Vincent Bugliosi to portray the Beatles in a negative light by concocting a bizarre theory, known as Helter Skelter (the title of a Beatle song), as the motive for the Tate murders;
• John Lennon’s political activism in 1969, namely his two "bed-ins" which were designed largely to protest US involvement in the Vietnam War. The first bed-in was in the presidential suite at the Amsterdam Hilton in March 1969 during John and Yoko’s honeymoon. The second was in May-June 1969 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal;
• The Woodstock Rock Festival occurred August 15–17, 1969, a week after the Tate murders, two months after Lennon’s Montreal bed-in. Woodstock was essentially a huge anti-Vietnam war rally using rock music as the catalyst for political expression.

The information you are about to read is the only attempt by anyone to connect the dots between the stated events.

For a few years in the mid and late sixties, Timothy Leary inspired several leading artists and intellectuals of the day. Leary was an American psychologist, author, university professor, political activist and leading advocate for widespread LSD usage. John Lennon and film maker Roman Polanski were both interested in the middle-aged professor who coined the phrase, "turn on, tune in, and drop out," a popular counterculture slogan of the sixties. The controversy that surrounded Leary eventually made him an enemy of the FBI. Leary was regarded as an influential member of the New Left.¹ Consequently, anyone who dealt with him became tainted in the eyes of the Bureau.

From what I have read about Timothy Leary, I am satisfied that he was a genuine individual, although somewhat eccentric. By genuine, I mean he was not an FBI informant or something comparable. At least I have found no evidence indicating that he was. While I do not subscribe to his philosophy about LSD, I believe his opinions were sincere. I strongly suspect, however, that he became surrounded by backstabbers—like Ralph Metzer and Richard Alpert, for example—who pretended to be his friends and colleagues, but encouraged him to endorse extreme and absurd opinions.

Leary was drawn to young people. When Rosemary’s Baby was released in 1968, Lennon was 28, Polanski was 35, and Leary was 48. It is uncertain if Lennon and Polanski were personal friends or acquaintances, but Timothy Leary was certainly a central source of inspiration for the two young artists.

Lennon wrote at least two songs inspired by Leary: Tomorrow Never Knows and Come Together.² In the famous December 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon described the inspiration for Tomorrow Never Knows quite simply: "That’s me in my Tibetan Book of the Dead period."³ He was of course referring to the book, Tibetan Book of the Dead, co-authored by Leary, Metzer and Alpert. Leary participated—along with many other celebrities—singing the chorus of Give Peace a Chance which was recorded at John and Yoko’s bed-in around May-June 1969 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.⁴

In the same interview Lennon described how he originally wrote a different version of Come Together for Leary’s presidential campaign.

…Come Together was an expression that [Timothy] Leary had come up with when he was running for President.* They’d asked me to write them a campaign song. I tried and tried and tried and couldn’t come up with it. But I came up with this Come Together, which would have been no good for them. They couldn’t have had a campaign song like that, right? But Leary attacked me years later, saying I ripped him off. Well, I had written another little thing called [singing] "Come together and join the party…." It never got any further than that. And they never came back to ask for the song. I didn’t rip him off. I had the song there waiting for him…⁵

Prior to the skirmish over Come Together, Leary was quite impressed with the Beatles. In the sixties he reportedly described them with the following glowing words:

The Beatles are Divine Messiahs. The wisest, holiest, most effective avatars (Divine Incarnate, God Agents) that the human race has yet produced… I declare that John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr are mutants. Prototypes of a new race of laughing freemen. Evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species.⁶

Polanski’s kinship with Leary was widely known by the late sixties. Lyricist James Rado memorialized the two men in a song, Manchester England, from the Broadway Musical, Hair. (1968) Here are the lyrics:

Manchester England England
Across the Atlantic Sea
And I'm a genius genius
I believe in God
And I believe that God
Believes in Claude
That's me that's me

Claude Hooper Bukowski
Finds that it's groovy
To hide in a movie
Pretends he's Fellini
And Antonioni
And also his countryman Roman Polanski
All rolled into one
One Claud Hooper Bukowski

Now that I've dropped out
Why is life dreary dreary
Answer my weary query
Timothy Leary dearie

Oh Manchester England England
Across the Atlantic Sea
And I'm a genius genius
I believe in God
And I believe that God
Believes in Claude
That's me (that's he)
That's me (that's he)
That's me (that's he)
That's me

…I had many [bad LSD trips]. Jesus Christ. I stopped taking it cause of that. I mean I just…couldn’t stand it. I dropped it for I don’t know how long. Then I started taking it just before I met Yoko. I got a message that you should destroy your ego, and I did. I was reading that stupid book of Leary’s and all that stupid shit. (Note: John was referring to The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzer, and Richard Alpert.) We were going through the whole game that everybody went through. And I destroyed meself.⁸

Another colleague of Leary’s was writer Arthur Koestler. In the fifties, Leary had a distinguished reputation as a promising young scholar and became a lecturer at Harvard University in 1959. After taking psilocybin mushrooms in Mexico in 1960, Leary returned to Harvard and started the Harvard Psilocybin Project. As part of his research he gave mushrooms to Arthur Koestler and Allen Ginsberg, amongst others, and recorded their impressions. He concluded that psychedelic drugs could be effective in transforming personality and expanding human consciousness.⁹

Koestler’s association with Leary could explain Polanski’s irreverent depiction of Jews as witches in Rosemary’s Baby. Polanski and Koestler were both Jews who seemed interested in exposing the darker side of their heritage. In 1974 Koestler wrote a controversial book about the history of Judaism entitled, The Thirteenth Tribe.

Koestler’s book exposed the myth that Jews have a right to return to Israel. Koestler revealed that most Jews in the modern world are descendants of the lost nation of Khazaria, a country in eastern Europe that flourished as an independent state from about 650 to 1016. Around 740, the king of Khazaria issued a decree making Judaism the national religion and ordered citizens of Khazaria—Khazars—to convert. Prior to that, Khazaria’s predominant religion was Shamanism, a type of paganism from which Wicca later evolved. Wicca is a religion of sorts, but is really a euphemism for witchcraft. In fact, Wiccans openly refer to themselves as witches. In addition, Wiccans openly acknowledge Shamanism as a "mother religion."

Leary, Koestler, Lennon, and Polanski were apparently working together under Leary’s leadership; a force to be reckoned with. All four men were eventually destroyed or driven out of the country. After arrests in 1965 and 1968 for possession of marijuana and a prolonged legal battle, Leary was incarcerated in 1970. He soon escaped and became a fugitive, living outside the United States for more than two years until being recaptured in Afghanistan. He was freed in 1976 and settled in southern California.¹⁰ On March 3, 1983, Koestler and his wife Cynthia took their own lives. Koestler reportedly suffered from leukemia and Parkinson's disease;¹¹ at least that’s the official story. Lennon of course was assassinated at his home in Manhattan on December 8, 1980. In 1977 Polanski was arrested and eventually pled guilty to a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He subsequently jumped bail and fled to France, where he remained active in both the theater and motion pictures.¹²

In 1968 Roman Polanski released the renowned horror movie, Rosemary's Baby, based on the book, written by Ira Levin, about witchcraft and satanic cults. Mia Farrow played the lead character (Rosemary Woodhouse), supported by John Cassavetes (Guy Woodhouse), Ruth Gordon (Minnie Castavet), Sidney Blackmer (Roman Castavet), Maurice Evans (Hutch), Ralph Bellamy (Dr. Abraham Saperstein), Charles Grodin (Dr. Hill), and others. The movie was completed in late 1967 and premiered in June 1968.¹³

In the movie, an elderly couple—Minnie and Roman Castevet—befriends Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy, but the elderly couple are really witches. They lure Guy into their witch’s coven by helping him get ahead in show business. In return, Guy helps Minnie and Roman drug Rosemary and take her unconscious body to a secret witches’ coven in the apartment complex. The witches tie Rosemary’s legs down and smear animal blood on her nude body. Then they conjure up the living devil who rapes and impregnates Rosemary during a satanic ritual witnessed by the entire witches’ coven, all nude. Rosemary’s husband Guy is one of the nude witches and he observes his wife being raped by the devil.

Nine months later, Rosemary gives birth to the devil’s son who is promptly snatched by the satanic worshipers. By then Rosemary has caught on to their treachery and she fights them aggressively.

Many of the actors who played the witches were either Jewish or exhibited stereotypes commonly associated with the Jewish culture. For example, there’s an old stereotype that Jews have poor table manners. This stereotype is brought to life in a scene where Rosemary and Guy have dinner with Minnie and Roman Castevet at the latter couple’s apartment. Ruth Gordon—who plays Minnie—shamelessly exploits the poor table manners stereotype when she serves cake as dessert and eats hers like a pig. She stuffs huge chunks of cake in her mouth and contorts her face constantly, moving her entire mouth left to right as she chews aggressively, almost spitting chewed cake mush on her young guests. Then she shovels more cake in her mouth slanting her fork from an upward position.

Another example of a Jewish witch is Rosemary’s doctor, Abraham Saperstein—obviously a Jewish name. Rosemary’s original doctor was a Gentile named Dr. Hill, but Minnie insisted that Rosemary switch to Dr. Saperstein. Of course no one actually says Hill is Gentile and Saperstein is Jewish, but their respective ethnic backgrounds are quite obvious.

A third example of a Jewish witch is a doctor named Shan, who looks extremely Jewish. Minnie Castevet introduces Dr. Shan to Rosemary at a gathering at the Castevets’ apartment. "He used to be a famous dentist," Minnie says. "He made the chain for your charm." Earlier in the film, Minnie had given a charm bracelet to Rosemary.

Portraying Jews as witches is obviously a sensitive area, given the persecution Jews have suffered throughout history for allegedly practicing witchcraft. But Judaism overtly places Jews on equal status with God, struggling to overcome him. In fact, the word Israel literally means ‘he struggles with God.’¹⁴ Being equal to God, rather than worshipping Him, is the essence of sorcery or witchcraft. Within this religious context, it is easy to understand the ancient relationship between Judaism and witchcraft.

The practice of witchcraft, or sorcery, receives tacit endorsement in the Talmud. The following passage clearly states that some forms of sorcery are entirely permitted, while others are exempt from punishment, yet forbidden, and others are punished by death. The following text is from the Talmud book of Sanhedrin:

Abaye said: The laws of sorcerers are like those of the Sabbath: certain actions are punished by stoning, some are exempt from punishment, yet forbidden, whilst others are entirely permitted. Thus: if one actually performs magic, he is stoned; if he merely creates an illusion, he is exempt, yet it is forbidden; whilst what is entirely permitted? — Such as was performed by R. Hanina and R. Oshaia, who spent every Sabbath eve in studying the Laws of Creation, by means of which they created a third-grown calf and ate it.

(Talmud, Sanhedrin 67b)

Although certain forms of witchcraft are permissible under Jewish law, the Talmud reveals that extreme measures have been taken by Jewish leaders to keep unacceptable forms of witchcraft in check. The Talmud cites a specific instance where an ancient Rabbi—in around AD 200^* —tried and executed other Jews in Palestine for practicing witchcraft. Ironically, the Rabbi’s actions were similar—if not identical—to the actions taken against Jews by the Catholic Church centuries later in Europe during the Inquisition. The Rabbi’s name was "Simeon B. Shetah." He hanged 80 women in the city of Askelon, located on the Mediterranean Coast of Palestine, for practicing witchcraft at an "alarming rate." Rabbis later commented in the Talmud that the executions were illegal—not because they were inhumane or cruel, but because two defendants must not be tried on the same day. The following text is from the Talmud book of Sanhedrin:

(44) Hence this occurrence cannot be brought forward as a valid precedent, owing to its extraordinary nature. Witchcraft amongst Jewish women prevailed at that time to an alarming extent, and in order to prevent a combined effort on the part of their relations to rescue the culprits, he had to execute all of them at once. He hanged them, then, to prevent such practices and to avoid rescue, but his action is no precedent, and in itself was actually illegal, as the Sages pointed out.

(Talmud, Sanhedrin 45b)

Rosemary's Baby made overt references to blood libel, the sacrifice of Gentile babies by Jews. The term blood libel was not used in the movie per se, but the topic of killing babies by witches is a recurring theme. Here is the transcript from one of the early scenes where Rosemary’s father-figure friend, Edward "Hutch" Hutchins warns her and Guy not to move into the Bramford because of its history of witchcraft and killing babies.

Are you aware that the Bramford had rather an unpleasant reputation around the turn of the century? It’s where the Trench Sisters conducted their little dietary experiments. And Keith Kennedy held his parties. Adrian Marcato lived there too… The Trench Sisters were two proper Victorian sisters. They cooked and ate several young children including a niece… Adrian Marcato practiced witchcraft. He made quite a splash in the Nineties by announcing that he’d conjured up the living devil. Apparently people believed him so they attacked and nearly killed him in the lobby of the Bramford… Later the Keith Kennedy business began and by the Twenties the house was half empty… World War Two filled the house up again… They called it Black Bramford… This house has a high incidence of unpleasant happenings. In Fifty-Nine, a dead infant was found wrapped in newspaper in the basement.

[Roman’s] father was a martyr to it [witchcraft]. Do you know how he died?… This [book, All About Them Witches] was published in 1933. There were covens—that’s what they’re called, the congregation—covens in Europe, in America, in Australia, and they have one right here. That whole bunch. The parties with the singing and the flute and the chanting, those are Espas, or sabbaths, or whatever they’re called…READ WHAT THEY DO, GUY! THEY USE BLOOD IN THEIR RITUALS! AND THE BLOOD THAT HAS THE MOST POWER IS BABY’S BLOOD. And they don’t just use the blood they use the FLESH too…

For centuries the case was tainted because the five executed men had been tortured prior to confessing. But in 1931, historian William Thomas Walsh offered persuasive evidence in his book, Isabella of Spain, that the charge of blood libel was in fact true. Walsh found the testimony of a Jew who stated that he witnessed the crime, and had not been subjected to torture. Although the Spanish Inquisition was already underway, it was ritualistic murder of the young boy that resulted in expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. It was the last straw.

Before the executions, two independent judicial panels had reviewed and confirmed the Inquisition’s findings.¹⁵ On November 24, 1805, the murdered boy was canonized as St. Christopher on the authority of Pope Pius VII.

It’s interesting that Roman Polanski, the director of Rosemary’s Baby, is Jewish. Polanski was born on August 18, 1933 in Paris, France. When he was a boy his parents migrated from France to Kraków, Poland where his parents were placed in a Nazi prison/work camp, where his mother died.¹⁶

Powerful forces within the Jewish community likely did not think kindly of young Polanski’s movie about Jewish witches. The fact that Polanski himself was Jewish, and his mother was a victim of Hitler’s persecution of Jews, gave credibility to Polanski’s suggestion that many Jews practice satanic forms of witchcraft. No one could accuse Polanski, a Jew, of being anti-Semitic.

On August 9, 1969, a year after Rosemary’s Baby was released, Roman Polanski’s beautiful young bride, actress Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered along with four other people at a house, in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, where record producer Terry Melcher—Doris Day’s son—had lived until Polanski and Tate took over the lease in February 1969.¹⁷ Three other murders occurred around the same time. All eight murders were linked to the Beatles. The names of two Beatle songs—"Piggies" and "Helter Skelter"—were written in the victims’ blood at the crime scenes. Charles "Charlie" Manson and members of his hippie commune, known as the "Manson Family," were eventually arrested and convicted for the murders.

The following is an overview of the crimes that Manson et al were convicted of perpetrating:

July 31, 1969

The body of Gary Hinman, 32, was found at 946 Old Topanga Canyon Rd., Los Angeles, California. The body contained multiple stab wounds, victim had been dead several days. On the living room wall was scrawled, in the victim’s blood: "Political Piggy." Also on the wall were blood smudges as though a panther had left its paw print. Hinman attended UCLA in pursuit of a Ph.D. in sociology, supporting himself by teaching music. It was later learned that he manufactured a form of mescaline, a narcotic.¹⁸

August 9, 1969

The bodies of Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowki, Jay Sebring, and Steven Parent were found at 10050 Cielo Drive, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California. On the door of the home, the word "Pig" was written in Sharon Tate’s blood.¹⁹

August 10, 1969

The bodies of Leno LaBianca, 44, and his wife Rosemary, 38, were found at their residence on 3301 Waverly Drive, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California. Mr. LaBianca’s body had 26 stab wounds, some of which were caused by a carving fork. When he was found, the carving fork was protruding from his stomach and a knife was in his throat. Mrs. LaBianca had been stabbed 41 times. The words "Death to Pigs" and "Rise" were written in blood on a wall. Also written in blood on the refrigerator were the words "Healter Skelter." (misspelled)²⁰

Each time I returned, I would observe and listen to all of the practices and rituals of the different groups that visited the place. I’m not into sacrificing some animal or drinking its blood to get a better charge out of sex. Nor am I into chaining someone and whipping them to get my kicks like some of those people were. Still, through the drugs and listening to the ways a particular leader or guru maneuvered his people, some of their rap may have become embedded in my subconscious. Planting fear in their people is the way a lot of leaders keep control. At the time, love and doing our own thing was what held us together and that’s the way I wanted everything to be, but at a later date, the things I was exposed to at the Staircase may have come back to me.²¹

It is also important to note that Manson takes responsibility for the murders, but he objects to the motives used by the prosecution to convict him and his followers. Here is an excerpt from Manson: In His Own Words, as told to Nuel Emmons:

The resentments and denials I’ve expressed over the years stem, not from being convicted and sentenced, but from the manner in which I was convicted. I mean, the deaths happened, so someone has to pay. It’s obvious the right people are locked up, but the motives used to convict us, especially me, were absurd.²²

Manson gave a chilling description of the Spiral Staircase to Nuel Emmons. The following is an excerpt from Emmons’ book, Manson: In His Own Words:

…To those who live within society’s moral code, the house might have resembled a movie scene of a massive party at a dope fiend’s pad: music playing, often blaring, sometimes soft and sensual; strobe lights blinking, or hardly any light at all; guys and girls everywhere, seated on couches, chairs and pillows, on the floors and on the beds; marijuana joints passed around; tables showing long lines of coke; pills and capsules of all colors, each providing a different high; long-haired, bearded guys in weird clothes with exaggerated lengths of gold and beaded chains; scantily-clad girls, obviously drugged, willing to have sex…If the movie switches scenes at this point, it has only scratched the surface of the parties at the house in Topanga Canyon. Needless to say, when Charlie Manson arrived with a dozen young, pretty girls, all eager to experiment and play, I was an immediate favorite.²³

As previously stated, the infamous Manson Family was actually a hippie commune, something that was quite common in the late Sixties and mid-Seventies. The Manson Family had a carefree attitude about sexuality and hallucinatory drugs, as did many people of that era. By the autumn of 1969 the Manson Family consisted of twenty-two identifiable commune members, plus ten or twelve others whose names have escaped publicity. The following is a listing of the family members, sorted in alphabetical order of the last name.

Susan Atkins (Sadie)

Bobby Beausoleil

Mary Brunner

Bruce Davis

Juan Flynn

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme

Cathy Gillies

Sandy Good

Steven Grogan (Clem)

Linda Kasabian

Pat Krenwinkel

Dianne Lake

Kitty Lutesinger

Charlie Manson

Ruth Ann Moorehouse

Nancy Pitman (Brenda)

Brooks Poston

Stephanie Schram

Leslie Van Houten

T.J. Walleman

Paul Watkins

Tex Watson²⁴

The following is Manson’s perception of America in 1967—as told to Nuel Emmons— after being incarcerated for seven years.

Before getting locked up in ’60, I’d had a pretty good run on the streets, and though I knew I wasn’t a big success at the things I was trying to do, I thought I was a smoothing-talking mother who knew what the score was. Jail life has always kept up on what is happening in the fast lane, but hell, the things I was seeing there in Frisco, I felt I was in a horse-and-buggy trying to keep up with a jet-liner. In the 50s, to score a lid of grass you had to make a phone call or two and use a lot of discretion about who you dealt with. As for making it with a broad, a guy might wine and dine her several times before being able to kiss a girl goodnight. Now people were like the music, very fast. And all seemed willing. Pretty little girls were running around every place with no panties or bras and asking for love. Grass and hallucinatory drugs were being handed to you on the streets. It was a different world than I had ever been in and one that I believed was too good to be true. It was a convict’s dream and after being locked up for seven solid years, I didn’t run from it. I joined it and the generation that lived it.²⁷

The following are Manson’s comments about the love and respect he felt for Brunner, Fromme, and Krenwinkel; as told to Nuel Emmons:

I gave a lot to the girls in the way of attention and conversation. Just three or four months earlier the talk would have been bogus convict bullshit, but the more I got into laying it out and realizing all that I was saying, the more I saw it working. And the girls were giving me as much as I was giving them—not just passion trips, but new thoughts about life. The four of us had so much harmony and love, the words became honest and real to all of us. We shared more than simply doing things together. We looked at things through the same eyes, thought as one, lived as one. We were all one.²⁸

While living at the Spahn Ranch, a friend introduces Manson to Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson who is quite impressed with Manson’s talent and his carefree lifestyle.³² Charles "Tex" Watson joins the Family. Watkins is similar to Susan Atkins: a bad influence; trouble follows him everywhere. Surprisingly, Manson meets Watson through Dennis Wilson.³³

Act 4: Manson moves back to L.A.—at the suggestion of Gregg Jacobson (colleague of record producer Terry Melcher)—to be closer to people in the recording business. Manson rents an old house which his group names the Yellow Submarine. (after the Beatle song) Manson also moves part of his group farther into the desert at a place called the Barker Ranch. So he has people at three different locations: (a) the Yellow Submarine in LA, (b) the Spahn Ranch, and (c) the Barker Ranch, in the desert. Act 5: Manson’s musical career collapses temporarily. Shortly afterwards, the murders occur.

The following is a timeline of the different places where the Manson Family lived:

Several parallels exist between Rosemary's Baby, and the life and death of John Lennon, and the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders. Perhaps these parallels are merely coincidental, but a close analysis of the movie and of Lennon’s life reveals that dark forces—trusted people within Lennon’s inner circle—may have been at play, manipulating events in John and Yoko’s lives as part of a satanic ritual that ultimately ended with John’s slaying on December 8, 1980.

The most obvious parallel between Rosemary's Baby and Lennon is the location of the movie. Most of the filming was performed at Lennon’s future home, the Dakota, on West 72^nd Street, Manhattan, New York City. In the movie, the Dakota was renamed the Bramford.

Second, in Rosemary’s Baby, two people either died or suffered violent retribution at the entrance of the Dakota/Bramford, near the spot where Lennon was killed. A female character, Terry Ginoffrio, committed suicide by jumping to her death from a window above the entrance to the Dakota/Bramford. Terry was a former prostitute/drug addict taken in by an elderly couple, Minnie and Roman Castevet, (played by Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer) who turned out to be witches. Roman Castevet’s father, Adrian Marcato, was nearly beaten to death in the lobby of the Dakota/Bramford, by the residents, for conjuring up the living devil.

Third, Lennon knew Mia Farrow’s sister Prudence. In fact, he wrote a song about her, Dear Prudence. Here is Lennon’s description to Playboy (1980) about how the song was inspired:

Fourth, as previously stated, a year after Rosemary’s Baby was released, Sharon Tate—wife of the film’s director, Roman Polanski—was brutally murdered, along with seven others, in the infamous Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders. (aka, the Manson Murders)

Two Beatles songs, Helter Skelter and Piggies were linked to the murders. The words "Political Piggy" were scrawled on the living room wall of Hinman’s residence, written with Hinman’s blood.⁴⁵ The word "Pig" was written on the door of the residence where Sharon Tate was killed, written with Tate’s blood.⁴⁶ The words "Death to "Pigs" and "Rise" were written in blood on a wall in the LaBiancas’ home. On the LaBiancas’ refrigerator were the words "Healter Skelter" (misspelled), also written in blood.⁴⁷

Lennon commented about Helter Skelter and Piggies in the well-known 1980 Playboy interview:

…[Piggies is] George’s song about pigs. I gave him a line about forks and knives and eating bacon.⁴⁹

Fifth, one of the eight people killed in the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders was named Rosemary, the same name as Mia Farrow’s character, Rosemary Woodhouse, in Roman Polanski’s movie, Rosemary’s Baby. The real life victim’s name was Rosemary LaBianca.

Terry Melcher—the man who previously leased the house where Roman Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, and her four friends were murdered⁵²—had been a recording producer in the early days of Apple Publishing, a business created by the Beatles which later evolved into Apple Records. Terry Melcher is the son of actress Doris Day (real name, Doris Von Kappelhoff) and Cincinnati trombonist Al Jorden. In 1951, Terry was adopted by his mother’s third husband, Marty Melcher.⁵³

Terry Melcher became a successful producer for several Sixties rock bands. He produced the first two albums by the renowned Sixties rock group, the Byrds.⁵⁴ In 1997 Kristofer Engelhardt published a book, The Beatles Undercover, which revealed that Melcher had direct ties to the Beatles inner circle through Derek Taylor, publicist for the Beatles, the Byrds, and the Beach Boys. In 1968, Melcher produced a song for Grapefruit, a band backed by Lennon and McCartney and signed to Apple Publishing by Terry Doran, a friend of Brian Epstein (Beatles original manager).

The following is an excerpt from Engelhardt’s book:

…Terry Doran and Derek Taylor went on to become assistants for George Harrison for a time. Taylor returned to work for the revived Apple Records label in the 1990s but died of cancer in 1997. Doran, who has worked much of his life in auto sales, currently lives in London. Terry Melcher owns and operates a restaurant in California but is still involved in the music business and recently wrote a number of songs for The Beach Boys.⁵⁵

As long as I was still trying to get into a music career, Melcher and Dennis [Wilson, drummer for the Beach Boys] and Jacobson were people I liked being around. When things were really desperate out at the ranch and some money was needed, Melcher was a touch. For the prosecuting attorney to say I sent those kids after Melcher is total bullshit. Why would I? He gave me money, lent us his car and credit card. Melcher was all right and I had no bad feelings for him.⁵⁶

In the famous 1970 Rolling Stone interview, Lennon suggested that he, George Harrison and Ringo Starr took their second LSD trip at Doris Day’s house in California while touring with the Beatles. He may have been referring, unwittingly, to 10050 Cielo Drive, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, the house where Sharon Tate and four others were murdered. As previously stated, Doris Day’s son, Terry Melcher, had allowed Roman Polankski and his wife, Sharon Tate, to take over his unexpired lease about six months prior to the murders.⁵⁷ Here is what Lennon said about his first and second experiences with LSD:

Manson told writer Nuel Emmons that he and Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson were friends, and Wilson opened doors for him in the music business. The following is Manson’s description of how he first met the young rock star.

Dennis opened the doors of his house to us, and as much as his business agents would let him, he opened his pockets. Others have painted pictures of us moving in on Dennis like a bunch of vultures. We never did move in. Some of us stayed there for days at a time, but always with an invitation. He also spent some time out at the ranch with us. He like his booze, grass and cocaine. Acid was a sometime thing with him, but girls were a constant desire. As a celebrity in the music and movie industry, he could have girls of all ages, shapes and sizes just for the asking. But in the circles he traveled in, most wanted possession and marriage. The girls with me wanted neither from Dennis. So for all the good he gave and shared with us, we gave and shared with him. He was no fool and was his own person when accepting or giving. He gave what he wanted and he took what he wanted.⁵⁹

…The good times with Dennis [Wilson] lasted for well over a year. In that time he and I worked on several songs together, two of which made it onto an album the Beach Boys recorded. He even gave me some gold records that had been presented to him.⁶¹

Also note that Manson recorded at Brian Wilson’s home studio. Brian Wilson was the primary songwriter for the Beach Boys, an American rock group who rivaled the Beatles. Recording at Brian Wilson’s home studio was tantamount to recording at John Lennon’s home studio or Paul McCartney’s. Manson never made it to the big-time, but he was definitely playing in the big leagues.

On December 28, 1983, Dennis Wilson drowned while free-diving in the frigid waters of Marina Del Rey Harbor. According to the official story, he was legally intoxicated.⁶³

"But for the grace of God, there go I." That popular saying came to mind as I read about Charlie Manson and his ties to the Beatles. Although John Lennon was not a murderer, he could have easily quoted that phrase to describe Manson. I have observed that, in many ways, Manson is the inverse life force of Lennon. Had there been a few twists of fate, Manson might have been a rock legend and Lennon might have grown up in reform schools and prisons. If dark forces were truly at play as I suspect, manipulating events in John’s life as part of a grandiose satanic ritual, then the selection of Charlie Manson—using him essentially as a human voodoo doll of John Lennon—is conceivably the most sinister, the most satanic piece of the venomous puzzle. The similarities between the two men are striking.

First, Lennon and Manson were abandoned by their natural parents early in life. John was born to Alfred "Freddy" Lennon and Julia Stanley who were married on December 3, 1938, but Freddy—a sailor—abandoned Julia when John was born two years later on October 9, 1940.⁶⁴ During John’s early years, he went back and forth staying with his mother, who lived with her parents, and Julia’s sister, Mimi. At the age of five, his father asked him to choose between living with him and his mother. John chose his father but ran after his mother when he saw she was leaving. From that point on John lived with Aunt Mimi and her husband George Smith.⁶⁵ John and Uncle George became quite close.⁶⁶ When John was almost thirteen, George died of a brain hemorrhage.⁶⁷

Charlie’s mother, Kathleen Maddox, ran away from home at the age of fifteen to escape her mother’s stern interpretation of God’s Will. On November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, an unwed Kathleen gave birth to Charlie. His father called himself "Colonel Scott," but the name Manson came from one of Kathleen’s live-in boyfriends, William Manson. When Charlie was about six, his mother and her brother Luther were sentenced to five-years in the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville for trying to rob a service station in Charleston, West Virginia. Charlie lived with Kathleen’s sister Joanne and her husband Bill while his mom was in prison.⁶⁸

Second, Lennon and Manson had distant relationships with their fathers, but both loved their mothers despite obvious character flaws. Both women were free spirits and loved night life. Both mothers re-established relationships with their respective sons after abandoning them earlier. When John was about thirteen, around the time his Uncle George died, Julia re-entered his life. Pete Shotton and Ivan Vaughn, John’s two constant friends, thought Julia was great at first, but Vaughn eventually viewed her arrival was a bad influence on John; she encouraged him to be a rebel.⁶⁹

Charlie’s mother was released from prison when he was about eight. They were both overjoyed to see each other, but Charlie reflected philosophically on the reunion years later: "It’s a lifetime too late to think about it," he told writer Nuel Emmons, "but things might have been a lot different if Mom had gone her way and left me with the aunt and uncle. She didn’t—and I was glad."⁷⁰

The following is Charlie’s description of his mother’s character flaws, as told to Nuel Emmons:

With her gameness and prison education, she had all the answers and could hustle with the best of them. Trouble was, she was a fiery little broad who liked her booze and wouldn’t take any shit from anyone. Consequently, we might leave a place in a hurry. I remember one night Mom came running into our little old one-room apartment and jerked me out of bed, saying, "Come on, Charlie, get up! Help me get our things packed. We gotta get outta here." She had been working as a cocktail waitress at the Blue Moon Café in McMechen. One guy wouldn’t keep his hands off of her. Mom told him to cool it a couple of times. When he didn’t, she grabbed a fifth of booze and busted the bottle over his head. He was still on the floor when she left. "Hurry up, Charlie! I just flattened one of the Zambini brothers an’ I ain’t waiting around to see if he’s dead or alive. Either way, I’m in trouble." The Zambini brothers were two of the town hoods and everyone was afraid of them, including Mom. We’d moved around some, but that is about the fastest we ever left a place.⁷¹

"We got a taxi over to Sefton General where she was lying dead. I didn’t want to see her. I talked hysterically to the taxi driver all the way, just ranted on and on, the way you do, just babbled on. The taxi driver just grunted now and again. I refused to go in and see her. But Twitchy did. He broke down."⁷⁵

The court placed me in a religious-oriented school, the Gibault Home for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana. I felt all right while being registered in the school office, but when all the papers were completed things started going wacky in my head and stomach. By the time I was escorted to the dormitory I would live in for the next ten months, I felt sick. I couldn’t breathe. Tears ran down my cheeks, my legs were so rubbery I could hardly walk. Some invisible force was crushing my chest and stealing my life away from me. I loved my mother! I wanted her! "Why, Mom? Why is it this way? Come and get me, just let me live with you. I won’t be in your way!" I was lonely, lonelier than I had ever been in my life. I have never felt that lonely since. I wasn’t angry at her anymore. I just wanted to be with her, live with her, under any conditions. Not in some school locked away from everything.⁷⁶

Fifth, Lennon and Manson were both interested in rock music, but surprisingly, both had been influenced by Bing Crosby and similar non-rock singers. John claimed Please Please Me was inspired by the lyrics from a Crosby song. ("Please lend a little ear to my pleas…")⁷⁹ Contrary to popular belief, Manson claims he was influenced by people like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como more than the Beatles, Beach Boys or any of the prominent groups of the 60s.⁸⁰

Sixth, Manson and Lennon had a charisma that—in Lennon’s case—translated easily to show business and stardom. In the Sixties Lennon was the king of rock, and he looked and acted the part. Manson also looked and acted the part of a Sixties rock star, but the world will never know his potential as an artist.

The FBI likely directed two "mentally compromised" individuals into Manson’s family. By mentally compromised, I am referring to people who have already undergone extensive mind control processing. I have concluded that these individuals were Susan "Sadie" Atkins and Charles "Tex" Watson. I am not claiming that either Atkins or Watson consciously worked with the FBI; I am saying that the FBI essentially conducted extensive mind control processing on them, then pointed them in Manson’s direction and steered them into his group. This is important because Atkins and Watson were directly involved in the Tate-Labianca murders.

The following is Manson’s description of how the odd pair—Atkins and Watson—joined his group, as told to Nuel Emmons:

Considering Dennis Wilson had a mansion on Sunset Boulevard, owned a Rolls Royce and a Jaguar and was one of the better known celebrities in the area, it seems a little absurd that he would be hitchhiking. But, as I said earlier, Dennis was kind of a rebel. So, as it happened, both his cars were laid up, and instead of taking a cab or calling someone for a ride, he was thumbing it home from wherever he had been. Watson, driving an ancient 1935 Dodge pickup, stopped for the hitchhiker and got the reward of his life when he found out it was Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. When they got to the house, Wilson, always gracious, asked Watson to come in for a while. Several of us from the ranch were in the front room playing music….After that, we saw a lot of Watson. Before meeting us, his popularity among his old friends was on a downhill slide because of drug burns and a habit of never paying his bills. A few weeks later he couldn’t pay his rent and was facing eviction, and Dennis allowed him to move into the mansion. The guy was such a freeloader that pretty soon the big-hearted Dennis sent him packing. Not too long after Dennis cut him loose, he showed up at the ranch, broke and hungry, with nowhere else to turn.⁸⁶

I wasn’t in the kitchen, nor did I know what was going on. I had seen Tex come out of the building and waved goodbye to him as he left the ranch. He waved back saying, "See you later." I think it was the last time until the trials I saw Tex in what might be called his right mind.⁸⁷

Los Angeles district attorney Vincent Bugliosi prosecuted and convicted Charlie Manson and several members of his hippie commune—many of them young women—for murdering Sharon Tate and seven others. The following is a synopsis of the official version of events as presented by Bugliosi during the trials and later in his best seller book, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, co-written by Curt Gentry.

• Manson et al murdered Sharon Tate and the others in order to start a racial war, called Helter Skelter, between whites and blacks. The name Helter Skelter is the title of a Beatles song on their White Album, released near the end of 1968. Manson interpreted the lyrics of Helter Skelter to mean there would be a full-scale black uprising against whites. In order to prevent blacks from slaughtering whites, Manson ordered the murders of Sharon Tate and seven others; he hoped whites would think the murders were done by blacks. Consequently, whites would rise up and fight blacks. (Note: This is Bugliosi’s theory. Although it sounds completely bizarre, Bugliosi managed to get juries to believe Helter Skelter motivated Manson et al to commit mass murder.)
• Manson had enormous power over his followers. Using sexual manipulation, LSD, and his personal charisma, Manson was able to order his young followers—many of whom were young women without a propensity to engage in violent criminal behavior—to commit mass murder when he issued the command.
• Manson hated record producer Terry Melcher because Melcher refused to give him a recording contract.
• Manson was an average musician struggling to make it in the music business.
• Manson was obsessed with the Beatles, and spent a lot of time interpreting the lyrics of Beatle songs from the White Album.
• Manson lived at Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson’s house.
• Manson et al murdered Shorty Shea.
• Manson demonstrated he was a cold blooded murderer when he shot drug dealer Bermard Crowe.
• Manson was a racist who hated blacks.
• Manson hated Jews and admired Adolf Hitler. He demonstrated this hatred by carving a swastika on his forehead.
• Manson had complete authoritarian control over all members of his commune.
• The only reason Manson ordered the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders was to start a race war (aka, Helter Skelter) between whites and blacks.

In 1986 Charlie Manson gave a detailed account of his life and the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders to Nuel Emmons, an ex-con Manson knew years earlier in prison. Emmons was released in 1964 and turned his life around. He got into the auto repair and also became a free-lance writer. Years later Emmons wrote to Manson and requested an interview. Manson remembered him and agreed to see Emmons. The result was published by Emmons, in 1986, in a book entitled Manson: In his own Words.⁸⁸

Manson accepts blame for, at a minimum, allowing the murders to occur and doing nothing to stop them. He believes his people committed the crimes, but not for the reasons presented by Bugliosi. Nevertheless, he believes the right people were convicted and he feels particularly responsible for the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca because he selected their home at random.

After reading Manson’s account, I’m afraid I must disagree with him on one key point. I seriously doubt that he or anyone in his commune killed anyone or consciously directed anyone to commit murder. I believe a similar form of mind control was used on him and his followers that was used on Mark David Chapman. A hypnotic suggestion was planted in their minds to commit murder, but someone else actually committed the crimes. Using mind control, Manson et al were commanded to commit various incriminating acts which ultimately caused him and his friends to actually believe they had committed the murders; just like Chapman. "It’s obvious the right people are locked up," Manson lamented to Emmons, "but the motives used to convict us, especially me, were absurd."⁸⁹ My research indicates that the "right people" are NOT locked up because they were never caught.

In my opinion, Manson’s version is completely believable, whereas, Bugliosi’s is not. It is interesting how much Manson’s story differs from Bugliosi’s version, yet the in result is the same. Bugliosi and Manson both believe the right people were convicted. Manson does not claim he was framed; he just tells a different story. Having stated that, allow me to present Manson’s responses to Bugliosi’s theory, point by point, with my observations as well.

First point—Manson et al murdered Sharon Tate and the others in order to start a racial war, Helter Skelter, between whites and blacks..

Manson believes this is nonsense; he claims he made statements about racial problems that "got so twisted and exaggerated that none of it sounded like what actually came out of [his] mouth."⁹⁰ Manson claims he first mentioned racial problems when he was trying to convince members of his commune to move to a location further in the desert. Charlie had made arrangements to live on a piece of property in the desert called the "Barker ranch." He liked being away from the rat race and he particularly liked the desert, but others in his commune did not share his enthusiasm. Consequently, he made a sales pitch, explaining the benefits of living in the desert, and he used racial problems as an example of things they wouldn’t have to deal if they lived in the desert. He was not making a define prophesy of a racial war, not in a literal sense, he was simply trying to convince people that living in the desert was preferable to living closer to Los Angeles. The discussion about moving to the desert occurred in the early months of 1969, about a year after Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated. The previous summer blacks had rioted in several major cities throughout America. Within that context, it was not uncommon or unreasonable to believe there would be a race war. In fact, it would not be inaccurate to say that one had already started.

The following is the sales pitch Manson gave to other members of his commune—in the early months of 1969—about moving to the desert, a sales pitch that mentioned blacks, whites and Helter Skelter.

"Look around you, the worm’s turning on the white man. He and his pigs have put the dollar in front of everything. Even his own kids. Blackie’s tired of being the doormat for the rich man’s pad. So while the white man’s locked into his dollars, blackie’s balling the blond, blue-eyed daughters and making mixed babies. It’s all leading to bad shit. Real madness is going to explode soon—everything is going to be Helter Skelter. But that won’t affect us, ‘cause we’ll be in a beautiful land that only we know how to survive in. To be ready, we need equipment and supplies by the tons. If we have to do a little stealing and hustling to get what we need, let’s do it.⁹¹

In addition, Manson’s harsh comments about racial tensions were directed more at whites than blacks. Let’s analyze his words again. "Look around you," Manson said, "the worm’s turning on the white man." In that sentence I suspect he uses the word "worm" to mean "something, as a threaded screw, that is like a worm in appearance or movement." (reference American Heritage Dictionary: "worm") It’s another way of saying that whites have been turning the screws on others for quite some time, now the screws are being turned on whites; the chickens are coming home to roost. Then he adds, "He and his pigs have put the dollar in front of everything. Even his own kids." Manson is being quite critical of whites, claiming money is their primary interest. Then he shows a degree of empathy for blacks by saying, "Blackie’s tired of being the doormat for the rich man’s pad." Then he warns of trouble ahead between the races. "So while the white man’s locked into his dollars," he says, "blackie’s balling the blond, blue-eyed daughters and making mixed babies. It’s all leading to bad shit. Real madness is going to explode soon—everything is going to be Helter Skelter."

Manson laid on the bull pretty heavy, but his opinion was realistic. He was saying whites had been pushing blacks around for a long time, and blacks were getting tired of it. That was a completely accurate description racial tensions in America in 1969. He further stated that black men and white women were no longer worried about antiquated rules of society where racial mixing was forbidden. That also was a true statement, in 1969 and today. He warned that racial mixing would ultimately lead to a major confrontation between the races. That was his opinion, but it was not a call to arms. Lots of people felt the same way.

Second point—Manson had enormous power over his followers. Using sexual manipulation, LSD, and his personal charisma, Manson was able to order his young followers—many of whom were young women without a propensity to engage in violent criminal behavior—to commit mass murder when he issued the command.

This scenario is simply not credible, not of Manson or any other human being. Bugliosi was essentially claiming that Manson’s followers were a bunch of Manchurian Candidates—programmed assassins triggered by a mind control signal to commit mass-murder—and Manson was the person who issued the commands. Pardon me but this is hogwash. It has never been demonstrated scientifically that any human being has such power. The Manchurian Candidate scenario is only a theory, a topic of debate among people in the intelligence community, but still, it is only a theory. It has never been shown that anyone or any group has the power to turn normally non-violent people into murderers capable of committing the most heinous, brutal crimes imaginable. Yet Bugliosi presented the Manchurian Candidate theory as fact, although he avoided calling it by that name.

Having stated that, here is what Manson had to say about his infamous powers over others, as told to Nuel Emmons:

Manson denies this completely, claiming Melcher helped him out, gave him money. The following is Manson’s description of his feelings about Terry Melcher, as told to Nuel Emmons:

As long as I was still trying to get into a music career, Melcher and Dennis [Wilson, drummer for the Beach Boys] and Jacobson were people I liked being around. When things were really desperate out at the ranch and some money was needed, Melcher was a touch. For the prosecuting attorney to say I sent those kids after Melcher is total bullshit. Why would I? He gave me money, lent us his car and credit card. Melcher was all right and I had no bad feelings for him.⁹³

The term "average" is relative. Determining someone’s musical or creative ability is extremely subjective. Some might say Manson was average, but I often hear people say John Lennon was overrated; however, most Beatle fans think he was a genius. Consequently, trying to prove Manson was average or brilliant is a never-ending argument because we’re dealing with art, not a tangible skill like brick-laying, auto repair, or computer programming. But in purely business terms, Manson was not average at all. He associated with the biggest names in the music business at the time.

As previously stated, Manson recorded at Brian Wilson’s home studio,⁹⁴ which is tantamount to recording at John Lennon’s home studio or Paul McCartney’s. Manson was dealing with Terry Melcher, a guy who produced the Byrds’ first two albums,⁹⁵ and even produced a record for Grapefruit, a group backed by the Beatles. Melcher apparently made the Beatles connection through Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor, who had been a publicist for the Byrds and the Beach Boys.⁹⁶ In addition, Manson actually wrote a song that was recorded by the Beach Boys and appears on their 20/20 album. The song was originally named Cease to Exist, retitled Never Learn Not to Love on the 20/20 album.⁹⁷ To call Manson "average" is a deliberate misrepresentation of facts. Manson was dealing with professionals in the music business. He never became a star himself, (not for his musical abilities, anyway) but he dealt with the biggest names in the music business in the Sixties.

Fifth point—Manson was obsessed with the Beatles, and spent a lot of time interpreting lyrics of Beatle songs from the White Album.

Manson told Nuel Emmons he liked and admired the Beatles but was more interested in writing his own music than analyzing anyone else’s lyrics. The following is Manson’s explanation, as told to Nuel Emmons:

As previously stated, Manson claims he and Wilson were friends with a common interest in music. They helped each other out. Wilson even gave Manson money, but no one in Manson’s family actually lived at Wilson’s house on a permanent basis. "Others have painted pictures of us moving in on Dennis like a bunch of vultures," Manson told Nuel Emmons. "We never did move in. Some of us stayed there for days at a time, but always with an invitation. He also spent some time out at the ranch with us." Manson claimed Wilson liked the free love lifestyle with Manson’s girls; they didn’t expect marriage or commitment. "He was no fool," Manson added, "and was his own person when accepting or giving. He gave what he wanted and he took what he wanted."⁹⁹

Seventh point—Manson et al murdered Shorty Shea.

Donald "Shorty" Shea was an aspiring actor employed as a ranch hand by George Spahn at the Spahn ranch.¹⁰⁰ Manson thought Shea was a "snitch," a police informant. After being arrested twice—both times booked at the Malibu police station—and both times the charges were dropped, Manson was convinced that Shea was leaking information to the police.¹⁰¹ The arrests occurred around the end of August 1969.¹⁰² Even so, Manson denies killing Shea, but DA Bugliosi ignored crucial evidence that might have revealed the true killer(s) and exonerated him (Manson) and others convicted of Shea’s murder. The following is Manson’s version of events, as told to Nuel Emmons:

Much later, Bruce Davis, Steve Grogan [aka, Clem] and I were convicted for the slaying of Shea. [Note: Davis and Grogan were members of Manson’s commune/Family.] At the time of our conviction, no body had been discovered. Since that time Clem has confessed, and he directed the police to the spot where the body was supposedly buried. The report I got on the first effort to locate the body was that they didn’t find anything. A later report came to me that a second attempt did unearth Shea’s body. Not to deny that dead is dead any way you look at it, I have to say we were convicted on circumstantial evidence at the time of the trial. That evidence came from several people who said the body was totally dismembered. Head, arms, legs and body were said to have been chopped into bits and pieces. When Shea’s body was found, it was intact. Testimony also indicated that numerous members of our gang participated in the slaying, but somehow the prosecuting attorney saw fit to ignore that part of the evidence. Inasmuch as he ignored it, I can’t clear up anything on Shea without being a snitch. But I will say that the DA, caught up in his theory of "Helter Skelter" and obsessed with making the world believe I was a satanic pied piper, overlooked many participants, accessories, and conspirators. Someplace out there in that society he protects so well, he has left several killers to prowl the streets.¹⁰³

Eighth point—Manson demonstrated he was a cold blooded murderer when he shot drug dealer Bermard Crowe.

Manson shot a black drug dealer named Bernard Crowe around July 1969, just weeks before the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders occurred. Manson claims he shot Crowe in self defense, that Crowe had threatened him and several young female friends in his commune. The day after the shooting, Manson heard erroneous news reports suggesting Crowe was a Black Panther. Naturally Manson became worried and warned his group that blacks might seek revenge against them. Manson says LA district attorney Vincent Bugliosi distorted his warnings about blacks and Black Panthers retaliating against the commune. Bugliosi claimed Manson’s warnings about a black/Black Panther uprising were part of a grandiose race war scenario, Helter Skelter, inspired by lyrics from a Beatles song by the same name. A year after the shooting incident, Manson learned that Crowe was still alive.

Biker Danny DeCarlo told LAPD that Manson shot and killed Crowe; however, DeCarlo referred to Crowe as a Black Panther/drug dealer. DeCarlo was a member of a biker gang, the Straight Satans, and reportedly lived with Manson’s commune at the Spahn ranch for several months.¹⁰⁴ Here is DeCarlo’s version of the Crowe shooting, as described by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry in their book, Helter Skelter:

Danny had seen the $2,500 and had been present the next morning when Manson criticized T.J. [Walleman] for backing down. DeCarlo described T.J. [Walleman] as "a real nice guy; his front was trying to be one of Charlie’s boys, but he didn’t have it inside." T.J. [Walleman] had gone along with Manson on everything up to this, but he told him, "I don’t want to have nothing to do with snuffing people." A day or two later he "fled in the wind."¹⁰⁵

Crowe declined the operation. He was sort of proud of the bullet, he said. It made quite a conversation piece.¹⁰⁶

Severe changes had to be made. On my instructions, we started setting up look-outs and became more of a military encampment than a bunch of kids playing at fun and games. Life was no longer sex, drugs and doing whatever each of us had a desire to do. Our joys were already on the decline, and now there was a need for constant vigilance and deep concern.¹⁰⁷

Ninth point—Manson was a racist who hated blacks.

Other than occasionally using the word "nigger" in a street-wise, non-hateful context, I found no evidence of racial prejudice in Manson’s interview with Nuel Emmons. (Reference Manson: In His Own Words) As previously stated, his harshest words regarding race were directed mostly against whites, not blacks. "Look around you," he said, "the worm’s turning on the white man. He and his pigs have put the dollar in front of everything. Even his own kids."¹⁰⁸ Not exactly a glowing endorsement of the white race.

During one part of Manson’s interview with Nuel Emmons, he exhibited quite a bit of tolerance for several beliefs and races. Surprisingly, he admired the Black Muslims. The following are Manson’s comments—as told to Nuel Emmons—about religion, race, and various belief systems he observed while in prison, from 1960 through 1967:

During the interviews with Nuel Emmons, Manson did not discuss Hitler, Jews or the swastika he carved on his forehead years earlier during the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman trials. At least, if he mentioned anything on those topics, Emmons did not include such remarks in the final publication. For the record, I believe Manson does admire Hitler and he did in fact carve a swastika on his forehead; it was not trick photography. Admittedly the swastika gimmick was not a wise move from a public relations perspective. But a lot of respectable people admire Adolf Hitler. The first names that come to mind are the late President John F. Kennedy and his father Joe. Unlike Manson, however, the Kennedys were fully aware that the American public was not ready to hear any pro-Hitler rhetoric. Nevertheless, in 1945 a young Jack Kennedy wrote the following words in his diary in praise of Adolf Hitler:

After visiting these two places (Berchtesgaden and the Eagle’s lair on Obersalzberg), you can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived. He had boundless ambitions for his country which rendered him a menace to the peace of the world, but he had a mystery about him in the way that he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him. He had in him the stuff of which legends are made.¹¹⁰

Black Muslim cooperation with Rockwell and the Ku Klux Klan went beyond ideology and rhetoric. There were practical implications. Like his white racist counterparts, Elijah Muhammad believed that interracial sexual relations were morally depraved and genetically destructive, for interracial sex "ruins and destroys a people." Rhetoric aside, he wanted to establish a truce between racists and his Southern mosques. To this end he sent Malcolm X to Atlanta to accompany Jeremiah X, the Muslim minister in Atlanta, to a secret meeting with members of the Klan. Both sides discussed race relations. Malcolm described the integration movement as a Jewish conspiracy carried out by black stooges. The parties eventually hammered out the main issue: a nonaggression pact. If the Muslims did not aid the civil rights movement in the South, the mosques would be undisturbed.¹¹¹

I think what’s happening is Malcolm X is going to split off with the nationalistic right-wing nigger movement and I will back him 100 percent, I admire him. I tell you, I admire him more than I admire most Americans, white Americans. He’s a great man, I think he’s better than most white men….¹¹²

Eleventh point—Manson had complete authoritarian control over all members of his commune.

Manson denies this charge. The following is Manson’s rather articulate explanation of his leadership role in the commune, as told to Nuel Emmons:

Manson denies all allegations about Helter Skelter and wanting to start a race war, but as previously stated, he apparently believes the convicted members of his commune are actually guilty of committing the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders, and he was an accomplice, although not a direct participant. In a nutshell, Manson claims his people lost control and killed Gary Hinman because of a drug-deal gone bad which had nothing whatsoever to do with race wars. Afterwards, everyone panicked and killed the others to throw the police off their trail for killing Hinman.

Manson panicked somewhat after the Crowe shooting. He decided to collect as much cash as he had in order to move his commune farther in the desert, away from possible Black Panther attacks in retaliation for shooting Crowe. Manson decided to collect money from the Beach Boys’ for lyrics he had helped them with. When he was given evasive answers by the Beach Boys’ business people, he lost his temper and threatened one of them. The guy responded by threatening to have a hit-man kill Manson. "You know what, Manson, you’re a flaky little nothing. You haven’t a contract or any kind of an agreement, we owe you nothing. And because of your attitude, nothing is what you get. Now get out of my office, and if you want to keep playing tough guy, I’m going to make a phone call, and it’s adios Manson. Get my message?"¹¹⁴

Next, Charlie approach Terry Melcher who was polite, but told Charlie he’d heard about the Crowe shooting and tried to distance himself. "Charlie, there’s mixed emotions about promoting you," Melcher explained. "You’re unpredictable. You amaze me at times, and at other times, disappoint the hell out of me. Jacobson told me just this morning, you were involved with shooting some Negro, so frankly, for the time being, we are skeptical about investing any time and money in you."¹¹⁵

How did Melcher know about the shooting of Bernard Crowe? As previously stated, the LAPD and Vincent Bugliosi reportedly had trouble getting that information. Yet Melcher and Jacobson knew about it right away. It’s becoming more evident Terry Melcher was interested in Charlie Manson for reasons other than music.

The following is Manson’s version of the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders, as told to Nuel Emmons:

For several weeks, Bobby was moving Gary’s stuff off on a group of bikers, without any problems. But one morning three of the bikers came riding into the ranch and wanted to see Bobby. The bikers said the latest batch of stuff he had sold them was bad, laced with poison. Some of their own group had gotten deathly ill and some of the people they sold to were also sick. They wanted their money back. Bobby told them to give him the unused mescaline and he would return it to his connection and then give their money back. "It was bad shit and we dumped it. Just give us $2,000 back," said the leader. "Man, I can’t buy that, my connection won’t go for it," replied Bobby. The leader said, "Tell us where your connection is, we’ll get our bread." I spoke up, "You guys know better than that. We’ll see our man, if he thinks the shit could have been bad, he’ll make it good for you. Give us time to talk to him." The three guys fired up their bikes and pulled out of the yard, saying they wanted to hear from us the next day. Bobby and I discussed the validity of their complaint. None of our group had gotten sick, but we weren’t sure if we had used the same batch. The only thing to do was to go talk to Gary about it.¹¹⁶

Here’s more of Manson’s version of events, as told to Nuel Emmons:

Under the circumstances, Gary seemed relieved to see me, but the relief turned to despair when he saw I was there in support of Bobby. "Come on, Gary," I said, "money ain’t worth all this hassle. Tell us where your stash is and we’ll get out and leave you alone." Gary was livid. He wasn’t showing any fear, only contempt, which at the moment was entirely directed at me. "It’s all your doing, you phony little bastard. Get out of my house and take these maniacs with you." He took a step toward me, quivering with rage, and shouted, "Get out!" I jumped back and made a sweep with my sword, cutting his jaw and ear. His hands automatically went up to cover the wound and blood dripped through his fingers. "Oh my God," he whispered, "please get out, can’t you understand, I don’t have any money. Just go, leave me alone." I turned to Bobby and said, "Talk to him, maybe he’ll remember where his money is. Then bring him out to the ranch until he gets well." Then, to Susan and Mary, "Take care of his face. See you back at the ranch," I said, and I went out the door.¹¹⁸

…[Bobby said to Charlie] "Gary’s dead." According to [Bobby’s] account, Gary had started to scream to attract some help, and to quiet the screams, Bobby stabbed him. Bobby handed me the titles to Gary’s vehicles, saying, "This is the only thing of value we could come up with." I wasn’t shocked at Gary’s death, but I sensed a slight increase in my heartbeat as my mind flashed on, "That’s two now." [Hinman and Crowe] I’m sure people would expect me to affected differently, but emotions aren’t controlled by what other people think. My only words to Bobby were, "Where’s the other car?" He replied, "It’s still at the house." So we went to Gary’s house and brought the other car to the ranch.¹²⁰

"All right," I said, "I’ll stay, but what you do is on your heads, not mine—understand?" Together they said, "We understand, Charlie." There were smiles and hugs and kisses.¹²⁴

Approaching a house where you know there are dead bodies has a spine-chilling effect, and I think if I had been alone, I might have forgotten about continuing any farther. My partner probably felt the same way, but neither of us spoke and we did go on to see the whole gory mess. Tex and Sadie’s description had been accurate. What I was seeing was not a scene from a movie or some horrible acid fantasy, but real people who would never see the morning’s sun. I’d had thoughts of creating a scene more in keeping with a black-against-white retaliation, but in looking around, I lost the heart to carry out my plans. The two of us took towels and wiped every place a fingerprint could have been left. I then placed the towel I was using over the head of the man inside the room. My partner had an old pair of eyeglasses which we often used as a magnifying glass or as a device to start a fire when matches weren’t available. We carefully wiped the glasses free of prints and dropped them on the floor, so that, when discovered, they would be a misleading clue for the police. Within an hour and twenty minutes after leaving Spahn, [the Spahn ranch, where Charlie and the others were staying] we were back. The sun was already bringing the light of day as I crawled in bed with Stephanie [Schram].¹²⁶

As previously stated, Manson takes full responsibility for the deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca by leading the "kids" to their residence at 3301 Waverly Drive, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California. Manson claims the house was picked at random. The following is Manson’s description of how he selected the LaBiancas’ house, as told to Nuel Emmons:

…After over two hours of driving with nothing coming down, I thought of an area out near Griffith Park. In the past we had partied at a guy’s pad in that neighborhood. It was a pretty ritzy area with some pretty big homes. A couple of the kids recognized the house, and said, "We aren’t, are we?" "No," I said, "I’m thinking about the house across the street. Wait here, I’ll be right back." [The house across the street was the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at 3301 Waverly Drive. —Nuel Emmons]¹²⁸

…When we got to Venice and the apartment house Linda directed us to, I had come off the acid and wasn’t feeling all that confident we were invincible.¹²⁹

During Manson’s trial there was quite a bit of banter about his interest in Dianetics and Scientology. During his years in prison from 1960 until 1967, Manson suffered from mild depression. He claims he cured himself by studying Dianetics and Scientology. The following is Manson’s description of his interesting in that topic, as told to Nuel Emmons:

Although Manson remained interested in Scientology much longer than he did in any other subject except music, it appears that, like the Dale Carnegie course, he stuck with it only as long as his enthusiasm lasted, then dropped it, extracting and retaining a number of terms and phrases ("auditing," "cease to exist," "coming to Now") and concepts (karma, reincarnation, etc.) which, perhaps fittingly, Scientology had borrowed in the first place.¹³²

An interesting footnote: Bugliosi used the term "cease to exist" as an example of Scientology phrases which Manson extracted and retained apparently without fully grasping the full concept of Scientology. Kristofer Engelhardt, author of The Beatles Undercover, pointed out that Cease to Exist was the original title of a song written by Manson for the Beach Boys, but was retitled Never Learn Not to Love, and included on the Beach Boys’ 20/20 album.¹³³ I wonder why the Beach Boys changed the title? Cease to Exist seems harmless enough. Personally I think it has a better ring to it than Never Learn Not to Love. Do you suppose Vincent Bugliosi phoned Brian Wilson and asked him to drop the Scientology-related title?

In 1968 J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI developed a masterplan to discredit one of the leading forces opposing the Vietnam War: rock musicians in general and John Lennon and the Beatles in particular. The plan was to groom a human voodoo doll of Lennon—Charlie Manson was the perfect choice—and manipulate the voodoo doll and several hippies into committing mass murder; at least make them the patsies. The primary murder victim would be the Gentile wife of a famous Jew who aired his people’s dirty laundry. The Jew in question was Roman Polanski. His crime was making Rosemary’s Baby, a movie that depicted Jews as witches who practiced blood libel, the sacrifice of Christian children in black magic rituals.

Several orthodox rabbis were apparently involved in developing the masterplan because it contains numerous ritualistic, albeit sadistic, symbols. An example is having Sharon Tate murdered at a house where the Beatles stayed several times while touring California. Another example is leaving a carving fork protruding from Leno LaBianca’s stomach and a knife in his throat to match the lyrics of the Beatles’ song, Piggies. Aside from being a gruesome display, it is particularly satanic because the symbol was directed at John Lennon. The song, Piggies, was written by George Harrison, but Lennon helped write the following lines about forks and knives: "Everywhere there's lots of piggies living piggy lives. You can see them out for dinner with their piggy wives, clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon."

The following is a summary of the ten-step masterplan:

Step One: Alert informants in the recording industry—with connections to the Beatles—to find a patsy, a mirror image of John Lennon. Terry Melcher is given a detailed psychological profile and bio of John Lennon and is advised to find someone with genuine talent and charisma who matches Lennon’s profile. Melcher selects Dennis Wilson’s friend, Charlie Manson. Melcher is friends with Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor, who provides inside information about the Beatles which is passed on to the planners.

Step Two: Begin subjecting Manson Family members to subliminal forms of mind control using sexual manipulation while under the control of LSD and other mind-altering drugs. An unnamed forty-five year-old woman befriends Manson and gives him a standing invitation to the Spiral Staircase, a party house in L.A. where the most devious forms of satanic practices and mind control are performed on unsuspecting victims.

Step Three: Flood the commune with informants. Manson’s small commune rapidly grows. Many are young kids (18 to 25) sewing their wild oats, looking for a good time, and generally trying to find themselves. Many others are FBI informants pretending to be hippies. Suspected FBI informants are T.J. Walleman, Nancy Pitman (Brenda), and biker Danny DeCarlo. Walleman supplied Manson with the gun used to shoot Bernard Crowe, then started the rumor that Crowe was a Black Panther.¹³⁴ Pitman allowed Tex Watson to eat poisonous telatche/belladonna plants which caused him to loose control of his mental faculties. DeCarlo gave the LAPD and Vincent Bugliosi incriminating testimony about Manson shooting Crowe.¹³⁵ Record producer Terry Melcher was apparently an FBI informant as well. The reason he gave for backing away from Manson’s record deal was because Manson was "involved in shooting some Negro." (Bernard Crowe)¹³⁶ How did he know that? No one else seemed to know anything about it, not even the police. As it turned out, Crowe was not dead.

Step Four: Send in two mentally compromised mind control subjects. The FBI sends Susan Atkins (aka, Sadie) and Charles "Tex" Watson to join Manson’s Family. Neither Atkins or Watkins realize they are being manipulated by the FBI, but both have undergone extensive mind-control processing through sexual manipulation, LSD and other mind-altering drugs, hypnosis, and a battery of mind-control programs. The reason for sending in Atkins and Watson is because they can receive and execute detailed mind-control messages much easier than the other less processed commune members.

Step Five: Sheepdip Manson. Sheepdipping is an intelligence process in which a person’s image is changed for a desired effect. If someone is going to become the fall guy for a murder, he or she must be tricked into doing incriminating things that can later be used against him or her. Four stages of sheepdipping are used on Manson. First, send subliminal messages to Manson telling him to move deeper into the desert. This is used against him later as part of the bogus Helter Skelter scenario. (Start a race war then hide in the desert.) Second, send subliminal messages to Manson repeating the words "Helter Skelter" and some iteration of the words "race mixing" in a manner associated with moving to the desert. The message is something like this: "Go to the desert; get away from race riots and racial mixing; avoid chaos and helter skelter." Later when Manson explains to his friends why they should move to the desert, he mentions racial issues and uses the words "helter skelter." Third, stage the bogus shooting of Bernard Crowe, then spread the word that he was a Black Panther. The objective is to cause Manson to panic and publicly tell the commune to beware of sniper attacks from Black Panthers and other hostile blacks. Fourth, stage a drug-deal gone bad which results in the murder of drug manufacturer Gary Hinman.

Step Six: Prepare for the hit. Hire real assassins, then use mind control and the power of suggestion to convince the subjects they are guilty of committing mass-murder. This requires a few things happening simultaneously. First, send detailed kill messages to mentally compromised "robots" Susan Atkins and Charles "Tex" Watson. The messages must contain details that match the actual crime scenes. Second, send general kill messages to the others. They don’t need details because they will follow the leads of Atkins and Watson. Third, send in the real assassins to kill the victims. The true assassins must not kill anyone until the patsies are at the crime scene. Fourth, send extremely intense kill messages to the patsies at the same time the murders are occurring. The patsies must see the dead bodies in order to believe they committed mass murder.

Step Seven: Make reality match the cover story. This is done by getting Atkins and Watson—the mentally compromised robots—to repeat the cover story over and over. Since the cover story matches the crime scene it further convinces the patsies that they committed the murders. Of course reality is really an illusion.

Step Eight: Get a couple of the informants to testify against the others. Linda Kasabian and Paul Watkins (Little Paul) were the DA’s primary witnesses. Together they repeated the cover story and linked Family members to the crime scene.

Step Nine: Find an extremely dishonest district attorney to prosecute the Manson Family. Vincent Bugliosi is the perfect choice.

Step Ten: Instruct the media to demonize Manson and his followers before the trial begins.. In addition, the media constantly pushes the cover story. This makes Bugliosi’s job much easier.

The overriding objective of Hoover’s FBI in 1968 and 1969 was to thwart opposition to the Vietnam War where ever it arose. Previously I presented a likely scenario which described how, in 1968, Hoover’s FBI—and Jewish political forces—developed a masterplan to discredit John Lennon in particular because he led opposition to the Vietnam War amongst rock stars. But Lennon and rock music was only one piece of the puzzle. The FBI devised a full-scale plan to thwart ALL opponents of the Vietnam War. Rock musicians were only one area of concern. Planning the Manson murders was likely done in concert with the plots to kill Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy.

J. Edgar Hoover was most likely the individual who ordered Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, and it was immediately carried out by his underlings at the FBI after he gave the green light. This is more than mere speculation, it was revealed by one of Hoover’s top assistants, William Sullivan, in his 1979 book, The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover’s FBI. (published posthumously) Here are some excerpts from Sullivan’s book that reveal how Hoover used his companion, Clyde Tolson, to order Bobby Kennedy’s murder:

(Note: Clyde Tolson and J. Edgar Hoover were constant companions, homosexual lovers, and the highest officials at the FBI. Many other officials at the Bureau said the two men had a "unipersonality,"¹³⁷ meaning each thought and spoke for the other.)

…Hoover’s dislike of Robert Kennedy continued even after Kennedy’s death. We had a positive identification on James Earl Ray, the [accused] killer of Martin Luther King, Jr, a full day before Hoover released the news to the world that he had been caught in London. He purposely held up the report of Ray’s capture so that he could interrupt TV coverage of Bobby’s burial, on June 8.¹³⁹

As previously stated, the FBI and radical Jewish forces felt threatened by rock music of the Sixties as a means of expressing political opposition to US involvement in Vietnam. Lennon was viewed as a leader, not only of the Beatles, but of other rock artists who were planning a mammoth peace rally/rock concert, Woodstock. John and Yoko had staged two "bed-ins" designed largely to protest US involvement in the Vietnam War. The first was a week-long press conference in the presidential suite at the Amsterdam Hilton in March 1969 during John and Yoko’s honeymoon. The second bed-in—also a week—occurred in May-June 1969 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, an event that took place just two months before the renowned Woodstock rock festival.

To thwart growing opposition, the FBI and radical Jewish forces devised a plan that would accomplish the following objectives:

• Silence the most influential opposition voices to US involvement in Vietnam. This required the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy.
• Destroy or tarnish the reputations of John Lennon, the Beatles, and the rock music scene at large.
• Teach Roman Polanksi a lesson he would never forget, and use him as a shining example of what will happen to any Jew who dares criticize his or her heritage.
• Make Timothy Leary an enemy of the state and drive him underground.

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr was killed by a sniper's bullet while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee where he and his associates were staying.

By June 4, 1968 Robert Kennedy had won five out of six presidential primaries, including one that day in California. Shortly after midnight on June 5 he spoke to his followers in the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel. As he left through a kitchen hallway he was fatally wounded by a Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan; at least that’s the official story. Robert Kennedy died the next day on June 6, 1968.¹⁴⁰

The same month, June 1968, Rosemary’s Baby premiered.

August 26, 1968, the Beatles released Lennon’s most aggressive protest song to date, Revolution, less than three months after Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, nearly five months after King’s murder. It was on the B-side of the hit McCartney single, Hey Jude. Here are the lyrics to Revolution:

On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy’s political career was nearly destroyed when he "accidentally" drove his car off an unmarked bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and his companion in the car, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, was drowned.

On July 31, 1969, the body of Gary Hinman was found. On August 9, 1969, the mutilated bodies of Sharon Tate and four others were found. On August 10, 1969, the mutilated bodies of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were found. Charlie Manson and members of his hippie commune were eventually convicted of the murders.

On August 15, 1969—just five days after the LaBianca murders—the Woodstock rock festival began and continued until August 17^th. 400,000 fans gathered to listen to rock music and show solidarity in opposition to US involvement in the Vietnam War at a time when American forces were at an all-time high: 540,000 soldiers. Jimi Hendrix played a dramatic virtuoso rendition of The Star Spangled Banner on a screeching electric guitar that simulated the sounds of bombs dropping, explosions blasting, and machine guns firing, combined with the melody line of America’s national anthem presented as an avante-garde work of musical art before the huge gathering of spellbound American youths.

On December 6, 1969, just four months after Woodstock, the Rolling Stones gave a nightmarish concert at the Altamont Motor Speedway outside of San Francisco. The Stones were the headliners and someone convinced them that using Hell's Angels as security would be useful. While performing Sympathy for the Devil several of the Angels murdered a concert-goer—all in view of the performers. Three other people were murdered by the Angels. Other bands at the concert included the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and Ike and Tina Turner. In 1970, Albert and David Maysles released a film documentary of the tragic event entitled Gimme Shelter.

On September 3, 1970, Al Wilson, guitarist for Canned Heat, was the first to meet his premature demise. He died at the age of 27. A shroud of mystery surrounds his death. Some suggest it was a heroin overdose, others say suicide. His band, Canned Heat, was reportedly the third highest paid act at Woodstock. In addition, they were one of the few bands at the concert who could draw huge crowds in their own right.¹⁴²

Jimi Hendrix was the second casualty. On September 18, 1970, just two weeks after Wilson’s death, Hendrix was found dead in London, England from a drug overdose. He was also 27.

Janis Joplin was next. On October 4, 1970, two weeks after Hendrix’s death, Joplin was also found dead from a drug overdose in Los Angeles, California. She too was 27. Like Hendrix, she was an incredibly charismatic, high-energy performer.

On April 10, 1970, Paul McCartney announced his resignation from the Beatles. On December 31, 1970, McCartney committed the ultimate act of betrayal to Lennon, Harrison, and Starr; he began legal proceedings in the London High Court to end the Beatles’ partnership. Lennon’s musical/political vehicle was dead.

On July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison died mysteriously in Paris from a heart attack at the young age of 27. He was a founding member of the American rock group, the Doors.

On October 29, 1971, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident; he was 24. Allman was an accomplished guitarist and founder and leader of the American southern rock band, The Allman Brothers.

Some claim the stated deaths were coincidental, and they might be right. But the momentum of rock music had been stopped, especially as a protest vehicle against American foreign policy. John Lennon’s band, the Beatles, had disbanded. The next few years of Lennon’s life would become a living hell, likely because of the FBI’s harassment and because of backstabbers within his inner circle.

Elliot Mintz was John Lennon’s publicist for several years; he is still the publicist for Yoko Ono, David Crosby, Bob Dylan, and others. Mintz was born February 16, 1945.¹⁴³ (He is 58 as of this writing, nearly five years younger than Lennon.)

Mintz was probably a colleague of Terry Melcher’s. Both Mintz and Melcher had direct connections with the Beatles. They also had direct connections with the Byrds. Both Mintz and Melcher lived in Los Angeles.¹⁴⁴ As previously stated, Melcher produced the Byrds’ first two albums.¹⁴⁵ Mintz is the publicist for David Crosby, a founding member of the Byrds.¹⁴⁶

I have never read that Mintz and Melcher were close associates, or even friends, but given that they both worked directly with members of two of the biggest rock bands in the Sixties, the Beatles and the Byrds, and given they both lived in LA, it is plausible that they may have known each other quite well. I don’t know this absolutely, but the likelihood is quite strong.

Ironically, Lennon’s career began to fade as soon as Mintz came became his publicist in 1972. Although John and Yoko apparently trusted Mintz completely, others hold a different opinion. In 2000, Michael Gray published a biography of Bob Dylan, Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan, which was extremely critical of Mintz. Gray quoted Paul Zollo who interviewed Dylan in 1991 for Songtalk magazine. Zollo said Mintz not only sat in on the entire interview, but tried to control the questions asked beforehand and censor Dylan’s answers afterwards. This is what Zollo said about Dylan and Mintz:

Another time, the part where [Dylan] said he didn’t write lies, he mentioned the songs ‘Feelings’ and ‘People’ as the type of song that he wouldn’t write. He actually started singing them for a few seconds and when he sang the line ‘People who need people are the luckiest people in the world’ he turned and said that that was bullshit… He thought for a few seconds and said that maybe people who needed people were the luckiest people, and laughed. Elliot had that taken out because he thought it would offend the people who wrote the songs… I asked him about ‘Idiot Wind’ and he made the comment that not even Neil Young had written a song like that, not yet anyway. Elliot thought that too would be offensive, to Neil Young…he was in control of the whole scene.¹⁴⁷

Why does he tolerate such people? As well as Elliot Mintz, the 1980s saw him acquire a ‘dresser’, one Suzie Pullen, to swell his entourage and, for the 1986 tour for instance, to put on his fingerless gloves for him and strap up his over-elaborate boots. Why can’t he put on his own?¹⁴⁸

Mintz maneuvered his way into Lennon’s inner circle by flattering and befriending Yoko Ono. The following is an excerpt from Lennon, by Ray Coleman, which describes how this was accomplished:

John said: ‘Oh well, now you don’t have a job, you might as well come with us. We’re going up to San Francisco.’ Mintz did just that, spending a month with them at the Miyako Hotel in San Francisco, and from that first meeting he became John Lennon’s close friend and confidant. Lennon trusted him completely.¹⁵⁰

Ray Coleman portrays Elliot Mintz in a positive light. But if we are to believe Paul Zollo and Michael Gray, who painted a darker picture of Mintz, then it is quite possible that Mintz was never fired at all. It is plausible that he made up the entire story about being fired in order to win Lennon’s confidence and ultimately become part of his inner circle, which is precisely what happened.

About a year after befriending Mintz, John and Yoko separated; Mintz was right in the middle of the entire separation although he didn’t appear to have a romantic interest in Yoko. In the autumn of 1973, John and Yoko began a separation that continued for fifteen months.¹⁵¹ Amazingly, Mintz talked to the John and Yoko nearly every day, more than they spoke to each other during their renowned separation. Here is an excerpt from Ray Coleman’s book, Lennon, describing Mintz’s odd relationship with the famous couple during their period of estrangement:

Secondly, Mintz’s description of John as a "totally helpless" babe in the woods does not ring true. I’ve read transcripts of various John Lennon interviews and listened to him interviewed. He never came across as being "totally helpless" as Mintz described. His celebrity status made it difficult to do a lot of mundane things that most of us take for granted, but it wasn’t because he was helpless.

According to Paul Zollo and Michael Gray, Elliot Mintz is extremely manipulative and controlling. Yoko may have sent John away, but I suspect John’s living arrangements were set up completely by Mintz. He probably said things to Yoko like, "Johns’s a great man, a musical genius, but I have to tell you as a friend, his stardom and his personality are suffocating you. It would be good for both of you to separate. Don’t worry, just send him to LA. He’s still a little boy. He needs to grow up. He’s be fine. I’ll keep an eye on him. I love the guy like a brother. But he’s a handsome man, and an ex-Beatle. Women will be throwing themselves at him, and he’s only human. To keep him from straying too far, you should send that cute little secretary, May Pang, to keep him company and handle his business affairs. That way, he’ll be sexually satisfied but he won’t run around. I know it’s a tough thing for a woman to do, but it will be better for both of you. John really loves you."

I don’t know for certain that such a conversation took place, but I know that it is unnatural for a 41 year-old woman to turn her 33 year-old husband loose with a 22 year-old woman. Many people say Yoko did it because she’s sophisticated, because she’s Japanese, and so on. Sorry, but it doesn’t seem believable.

The night John was killed, Mintz moved in with Yoko and stayed for two months, although there is no evidence that they were romantically involved.¹⁵⁴ This always struck me as odd, very pushy behavior. Some might call his conduct chivalrous; others would call it taking advantage of a grief-stricken woman. I include myself with the latter point of view.

I suspect contingency plans for Lennon’s demise in 1980 began in 1968 or 1969 with the Tate-LaBianca-Hinman murders and the subsequent conviction of Charlie Manson and members of his hippie commune. Los Angeles district attorney Vincent Bugliosi concocted a bogus theory of Helter Skelter as Manson’s motive for committing the crimes. The Helter Skelter scenario not only convicted Manson, but it was an attempt to discredit rock music in general and John Lennon in particular.

John Lennon’s decision to move to the Dakota was quite odd, given that Roman Polanski’s movie, Rosemary’s Baby, was filmed there. It’s as though Lennon was a sacrificial pawn in a sick game played by a satanic cult group. There were three suspicious characters in John’s life who might have manipulated him into moving into the Dakota as a contingency for assassination. They were Yoko’s second husband, Anthony Cox; primal screaming therapist, Arthur Janov; and Lennon’s publicist Elliot Mintz.

Anthony Cox reportedly belonged to The Walk, a religious cult allegedly involved in psychic and borderline occult practices.¹⁵⁵ Arthur Janov conducted primal screaming sessions for John and Yoko in 1970-71. John carried a lot of emotional baggage from his traumatic childhood—early separation from his father Freddy, the losses of his mother Julia, his Uncle George, his best friend Stu Sutcliffe, followed by sudden fame as a young adult. Janov conducted the first few sessions John and Yoko’s home in England in Tittenhurst Park. Later John and Yoko continued the sessions for four months at Janov’s Primal Institute in California. John and Yoko rented a house in Bel Air—the area where Sharon Tate was murdered—so they could easily attend the Primal Institute.¹⁵⁶ As previously stated, Elliot Mintz became Lennon’s publicist mainly by flattering Yoko.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that all three individuals—Anthony Cox, Arthur Janov, and Elliot Mintz—were affiliated with the satanic cult at Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles which Charlie Manson and his friends nicknamed the "Spiral Staircase." Manson described the diverse types people who attended parties at the Spiral Staircase as people "who lived in the mountain communes, practicing things that would not be tolerated in the cities…nationally respected celebrities…some of the influential and wealthy, and on occasion, some who wore the cloth and preached the word of God."¹⁵⁷ Based on Manson’s description of the Spiral Staircase, Cox, Janov, and Mintz certainly fit the profiles of people who attended parties there. With Cox, Janov, and Mintz manipulating Lennon’s life, it’s easy to understand how he might have been maneuvered into moving into the Dakota.

John and Yoko’s move to New York City, in 1971, was solely because of Anthony Cox. He and Yoko had a daughter together, Kyoko Cox, and Anthony Cox was preventing John and Yoko from seeing young Kyoko. Sadly, Yoko missed Kyoko’s entire childhood and the two were never reunited until January 2001, twenty-one years after John’s death, thirty years since Yoko last saw her estranged daughter.¹⁵⁸ The following is an excerpt from Ray Coleman’s biography, Lennon, which describes John and Yoko’s search for Kyoko and ultimately led them to New York:

The issue of custody of Kyoko was never properly resolved when Yoko and Tony Cox were divorced, and Yoko expected free access to her daughter. But after an ugly experience in Majorca [Spanish island in W. Mediterranean] in 1971, when John and Yoko were detained by police for a day on suspicion of kidnapping her, Anthony Cox vanished with Kyoko. The search in Marjorca had appalled John and Yoko. ‘How can you kidnap your own daughter?’ said Yoko. Anthony Cox’s evasiveness with the eight-year-old girl was what decided John and Yoko to move to New York. They first visited there in June 1971, believing that Cox had taken the girl into the city. Courtroom appearances and visits to the Virgin Islands, plus private detectives and international publicity, never properly resolved Yoko’s and John’s desire for a peaceful relationship with Kyoko and Anthony Cox. But in September 1971, while they were living temporarily in Manhattan’s St. Regis Hotel in the hope of finding Kyoko, they decided to live permanently in America. Yoko, who knew every corner of the city in which she had grown up in the 1950s, took John walking round it, and he needed little urging to convince him that it was the right environment for an artist….’Yoko and I seemed to be forever coming to New York,’ he explained later. ‘It seemed more functional to come and live here.'¹⁵⁹

Before moving to the Dakota, John was feeling the wrath of America’s Big Brother and was quite aware that the FBI was keeping tabs on him and tapping his phones. The following is Fenton Bresler’s state of mind when he and Yoko moved in the Dakota in June 1973:

Lennon, dispirited and at the lowest of his powers, moved in to what was to prove to be his last and happiest permanent home.¹⁶¹

John and Yoko’s lives at the Dakota were apparently closely monitored. As previously stated, a contingency plan for Lennon’s assassination was likely established in 1968 or 1969, possibly as early as 1967 when How I Won the War was released. But he lived abroad at that time under close security, a superstar unable to walk the streets without being mauled by adoring fans. The Beatles stopped touring in 1967 so access became even more difficult. Once Lennon came to New York City in 1971, his fame had subsided somewhat and he was out of the cocoon. A tighter contingency plan assassination was apparently activated. The plan was further intensified in June 1973 when the couple moved to the Dakota. The satanic symbols were all in place. Lennon was living in the place where Roman Polanski filmed Rosemary’s Baby.

The orthodox rabbis must have had a field day helping with the assassination plans, making sure Lennon was gunned down at the entrance of the Dakota where Adrian Marcato—the fictitious martyred witch in Rosemary’s Baby—was killed by an angry mob for conjuring up the living devil. Apparently the more fanatic Jews had placed a curse on Lennon. They seemed to take great pleasure in making him the object of their sadistic, satanic games: first by making a human voodoo doll of him (Charlie Manson), then by matching his death with a scene from a movie they disliked. How dare he achieve such fame without their permission. Who was this man—a rock star, nonetheless—from the dirty port city of Liverpool to voice opposition to America’s foreign policy, to mock the Holocaust as he did in How I Won the War? He was safe as long as he remained a recluse, but when he decided to be a celebrity again, his days were numbered.

Back to Part I

Contents

Lennon Home Page

Main Home Page

ORDER BOOK

http://www.jfkmontreal.com/order_hardcopy.htm

END NOTES: