Friday, November 18, 2011

Book Club Discussion #5
Ed Sanders, "The Family", Pages 84-97.
In the fall of 1968, Charlie decided to go to “Grandma’s Place” in Death Valley. He learned of the ranch from Cathy Myers, a/k/a Cathy Gillies, a/k/a Patty Sue Jardin. They drove to Trona, then drove north 20 miles on Highway 28 to Ballarat, home of Lynyrd’s General store. HA HA.
 
Barker ranch is made up of 2 small cabins, and a large main ranch building. Further east, is the Myers Ranch, which is a well-kept series of buildings, including the ranch house, a trailer and several outbuildings. There was a well-watered garden with fruits & vegetables, watered by a spring shafted into the hillside. They stayed a couple of days at Myers Ranch, but were unable to get permission to stay longer, so they had to retreat to Barker’s Ranch.
 
A man named Ballarat Bob was the generally caretaker of Barker’s, and he discovered the nude hippies crashing at his pad, but evidently could do nothing about it.  The main Barker Ranch is an L-shaped building with a kitchen, which included a stove and refrigerator. There was no electricity, so they had to use a generator for power. In Bob’s bedroom was a pile of mattresses, which accommodated all the bodies.
 
Manson became friends with the miners in the area with his constant stash of drugs. He learned of the Hopi Indian legend of the underground hole. Manson decided that the hole was an underground city where he and his family could go to escape the upcoming Armageddon he was now preaching. The family regularly went on missions to find the hole. Manson was convinced that one entrance to the hole was thru the Devil’s Hole. Manson convinced himself, that if the water was pumped out of the hole, he could gain access to it. According to Sanders, he consulted a pumping company who quoted him $33,000 to pump it out.
 
Around this time, Manson had his famous “death valley death scene”. He said he was walking in the desert and had a revelation. He had walked so far his tongue was swollen and he knew he was going to die. Then he decided that it was all really funny, laughed insanely, felt better and walked 10 miles to safety.  Manson developed a great fondness for the coyote, and developed a state of mind “coyotenoia”.
 
On December 8, 1968, Capitol Records released the Beach Boys’ single, “Bluebirds over the Mountain” and on the flip side was “Never Learn Not to Love (Cease to Exist)”. On December 7, 1968, Capitol Records released the “White Album” by the Beatles. Manson started listening to the White Album and was convinced that The Beatles were speaking to him through their music.
 
In early December 1968, Charlie sent Bruce Davis to England, to live with the Scientologists and study. He also gained employment with them.
 
Sanders says that Manson’s son, Mark, was killed by a shotgun blast during a knife fight, which occurred right before Manson was sentenced to death row.
 
[There are several paragraphs regarding devil worship and cults, which I won’t go into in this narrative, since we’ve discussed it before at great length. Anyone of you is welcome to read up on it and discuss it if you choose.]
 
Now we’re being introduced to Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski. Roman & Voytek met while Roman was attending the film school in Lodz, Poland. Frykowski had a degree in chemistry. I believe that Voytek’s father had helped Roman out financially, on some of his early projects, and, as such, he felt “obligated” toward Voytek.
 
Voytek was married twice, and had a son named Bartek. In the latter part of 1967, Frykowski moved to Paris. In early 1968, he then moved to New York City. In January of 1968, he met Abigail Folger, a San Francisco heiress/socialite who was a Radcliffe graduate and an accomplished pianist. She also had interests in art and painting. Her personal annual income was around $130,000/year, which was a WHOLE lot of money in 1968.
 
Folger met Frykowski thru her friend Jerzy Kosinski. Folger & Frykowski were both fluent in French, and she undertook the daunting task of helping him learn English. In the fall of 1968, Folger & Frykowski drove a “Drive-A-Car” to the West Coast, settling at 2447 Woodstock in Los Angeles, located off Mulholland in the Hollywood Hills. Across the street on Mulholland was Cass Elliot.
 
Miss Folger was very involved in social issues. Even though she was wealthy enough to not even have to work, she volunteered her time with the LA County Welfare Department from the fall of 1968 until March 31, 1969.
 
According to Sanders, Folger and Frykowski not only mingled with Hollywood types through Roman and Sharon, they also acquired friends of their own, including acquaintances of Charles Manson and family. I’m assuming he’s talking about the drug party connection. He doesn’t mention specifically that they hung out at Cass’s pad.
 
Folger met Jay Sebring through Sharon, and invested in his hair empire. She agreed to purchase around $3,500 worth of stock in Sebring International.
 
Back to Charlie: In December of 1968, Charlie and 3 girls drove to an exclusive dude ranch near Reno, NV where they spent 2 weeks as guests of Charlene Cafritz, whom Manson had met at Wilson’s pad. Mrs. Cafritz was getting a divorce in Reno. Charlene evidently got lots of money from her divorce, and being enamored by Charlie, spent most of it on him, buying him certain items that he gave away.
 
According to Sanders, Mrs. Cafritz took several motion pictures of Charles & his family, which no one wants to discuss. She was also friends with Sharon Tate and Terry Melcher.
 
It seems that there is confusion as to where the family was living in late 1968 and early 1969. Some were in Death Valley, some in Topanga Canyon, some in Laurel Canyon in a log cabin house once owned by Tom Mix.
 
Manson reportedly attended a New Year’s Eve party at the home of John & Michelle Phillips, which I’m assuming took place December 31, 1968.
 
On January 1, 1969, the body of Marina Elizabeth Habe was found in thick underbrush off Mulholland Drive. She had contusions in the eyes, slashes in the throat and heart, burns inflicted, raped, nude except for one shoe. According to one former family associate, Marina Habe was known by the members of the Manson Family.
Thanks Katie!!!  Great Job!

31 comments:

LynyrdSkynyrdBand said...

"In December of 1968, Charlie and 3 girls drove to an exclusive dude ranch near Reno, NV where they spent 2 weeks as guests of Charlene Cafritz, whom Manson had met at Wilson’s pad. Mrs. Cafritz was getting a divorce in Reno. Charlene evidently got lots of money from her divorce, and being enamored by Charlie, spent most of it on him, buying him certain items that he gave away.

According to Sanders, Mrs. Cafritz took several motion pictures of Charles & his family, which no one wants to discuss. She was also friends with Sharon Tate and Terry Melcher".

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"Manson reportedly attended a New Year’s Eve party at the home of John & Michelle Phillips, which I’m assuming took place December 31, 1968".
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Two of the more interesting excerpts from Katie's summary.

starship said...

Yeah, but it's just Sanders, that Fug, writing authoritatively on things that are just rumours.

lurch said...

Notice that the Family moved to DV right around the time of the Karl Stubbs murder?

I'd bet money that if the Family didn't kill Stubbs they sure as Hell know who did! Not too many hippies hangin out in Olancha back then.......especially homicidal maniacal hippies.

katie8753 said...

Hi Starship.

I agree with you somewhat that not everything that Sanders says can be proven, but by-in-large I think he does report the family's activities with some accuracy. I think he likes to embellish.

When I'm reading Sanders' book, I try to stay focused on the basic facts and not depend too much on the side roads he takes. LOL.

katie8753 said...

Hi Lurch.

I know there is a lot of debate on the Karl Stubbs murder. I personally don't think it was Tex & Katie.

I don't think the family started killing until 1969, when Charlie first started feeling rejected. It wasn't until the Beatles White Album came out that Charlie started talking about how the lyrics were talking to him personally and revealing certain things to him. Stubbs was killed in November.

You can read several different versions of Karl Stubbs' murder in several different places. The fact that it's so exaggerated lends me to wonder if hippies killed him at all. Could have just been some ex-cons or transients for all we know.

katie8753 said...

I do wonder about the Marina Habe murder. But again...there's no proof that anyone in Manson's family did it. It could have been anyone.

katie8753 said...

I don't know if all this stuff about Charlene Cafritz is true and accurate. I do know that Charlene existed, she married into a wealthy Washington DC family, she was in Reno in 1968 getting a divorce, and she seems to have disappeared or died.

I do think she knew Dennis Wilson. I don't know for a fact that she knew Charles Manson, Sharon Tate or Terry Melcher.

She could very well have met Manson or Melcher during her association with Wilson.

MrPoirot said...

As far as the Devils Hole goes it seems that these odd places are commonly dreamed up by madmen. Heavens Gate committed mass suicide in order to go to a comet together. Farrakhan tells his followers he will take them all to a giant spaceship. I wonder about the psychological significance of these "places".

katie8753 said...

Hi Mr. P.

The Devil's Hole is just another of many fantasies promulgated by cult leaders to entice their flock to follow. Like a proverbial carrot. Without some kind of "never never land", the followers might get restless. I guess for most, just bossing them around isn't enough.

People are still doing the craziest things because someone told them to. James Ray, yet another self-help hippy guru, has been found guilty and sentenced to two years. A slap on the wrist.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/18/justice/arizona-sweat-lodge-sentencing/index.html

Anonymous said...

it beats predicting doomsday,that has'nt worked out for any of them yet.

MrPoirot said...

These types seem to be trying not only to create their own church but going a few steps further and creating their own private religion. Notice how Charlie told folks he was both the devil and Jesus.

katie8753 said...

Hi Matt!

>>>Matt said: it beats predicting doomsday,that has'nt worked out for any of them yet.>>>

I'm assuming you're referring to James Ray.

Yes it does beat predicting doomsday, but if you entice wealthy people with no brains into a "sweatshop" in 110 degree heat and promise to "rid them of poison" you probably need to keep an eye on them to see if they're having heat strokes. HA HA.

katie8753 said...

>>Mr. P. said: These types seem to be trying not only to create their own church but going a few steps further and creating their own private religion. Notice how Charlie told folks he was both the devil and Jesus.>>>

I agree. That's what cult leaders do. They create their own religion. Look at the Mormons, the JW's...completely re-write the Bible because some new prophet said.

It's sad that people are so gullible that they will reach out to anyone who has "the answers".

katie8753 said...

Charles Manson's cult wasn't that unusual. His tactics were basic cult tactics. Separate people from society, give them new identities, remove watches and calendars, re-program their brains to his thinking.

But Charlie took it a step further. Kill people I don't like.

Why do you think he went to the desert? To further extricate his "family" from the world. What better place to have gullible kids that might hear something you don't want them to hear than in the middle of nowhere.

Jim Jones went to the jungle.

As long as the "sheep" don't mingle with the world, you can keep your hold on them.

katie8753 said...

I will say that I don't think the family killed Karl Stubbs or Marina Habe.

It's too easy to blame any murder during that time period on the Manson Family.

No more paperwork...case solved.

I did hear that they were going to re-open the case on Karl Stubbs because Manson's new attorney wanted to prove that Tex acted on his own.

Haven't heard anything else.

What can you solve on a case that's 43 years old? Everybody that was there is dead now.

Another waste of time.

katie8753 said...

This is off subject but they've reopened the Natalie Woods death case.

I've always thought she was murdered, but Robert Wagner got away with it.

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood, his wife, invited Christopher Walken to accompany them on their Yacht, "Splendour" to Catalina Island back in 1981.

This is while Natalie and Christopher were filming "Brainstorm".

Wagner got it into his brain that Natalie was having an affair with Walken.

Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (as her real name is revealed) and Wagner were married first in 1957 and divorced in 1962.

He wasn't mature enough for her.

They were later remarried in July, 1972 and remained married until November 1981, when she died.

That night in November, 1981, Wagner invited Walken to their yacht Splendour, to Catalina Island.

After dinner and drinks, Wagner got violent. He insisted that Wagner and Wood were having an affair.

Walken went to his cabin, and supposedly so did Wood.

But the real truth is that Wood and Wagner fought violently. Wagner broke a wine bottle on the glass table, shattering the table, in the dining area, and Wood left to go to her room.

That's the last anyone saw of her.

The next day, the dinghy attached to the yacht was gone, and so was Natalie.

She was found dead, ashore near Catalina Island.

Natalie was scared to death of the water. She would never have gotten into the dinghy to go ashore, as Wagner suggests.

katie8753 said...

I remember that Jill St. John was all over Robert Wagner after Natalie died.

She pursued him until he finally married her in 1990 or 1991.

She was on him like stink on shit.

She was there for him at the funeral, at the inquests, holding his hand.

I always wondered about that.

My question is this: When did Robert Wagner and Jill St. John hook up?

That has always been suspect in my mind.

MrPoirot said...

Charlie went to the desert w/the Family in both 68 and 69 in the Fall. Paul Watkins said in his book that the cold Winter of 69 was when Charlie started to change. By March Paul had split.

MrPoirot said...

I'm vurious if any evidence can convict anyone of murder. I have no doubt they had a huge fight. Glass was broken. Tempers flared so Natali split. Unfortunantly she drowned. She probably started the whole thing.

katie8753 said...

>>>Mr. P said: Charlie went to the desert w/the Family in both 68 and 69 in the Fall. Paul Watkins said in his book that the cold Winter of 69 was when Charlie started to change. By March Paul had split.>>>

Okay....so what are you trying to say? Not sure how this equates to the summer of 1969.

katie8753 said...

>>>Tempers flared so Natali split. Unfortunantly she drowned. She probably started the whole thing.>>>

HA HA HA. So Natalie started the whole thing?

A man's version. LOL.

Mr. P., I really don't think Natalie killed herself. I really think that someone was really mad at her.

Maybe things just got out of control, I don't know, but I know the captain of the ship is saying that RJ made him wait 2 hours to contact the Coast Guard.

Like I said, it's funny how this captain didn't reveal things 30 years ago.

Very suspect indeed.

Just like when Thomas Ince died aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht.
Think about it, won't you?

MrPoirot said...

Yea Natali started it. I'll tell you how I now. I have it straight from a very reliable(but very secret) source that RJ got Natali from one of those Ruskie mailorder bride newspapers. Yea Natali was a mail order bride! You know how those Ruskie babes are always causing trouble. Natali could cause more trouble than a tea partier at a OWS rally. Well anyhow, Natali got RJ and CW fighting and the whole time she's nipping at RJ's heels like a chiguahua. Wine bottles were flying. There stoof Natali laughing so hard she fell backwards overboard

katie8753 said...

>>>Mr. P. said: I have it straight from a very reliable(but very secret) source that RJ got Natali from one of those Ruskie mailorder bride newspapers.>>>

HA HA HA.

Mr. P. you have a delicious sense of humor. You need to activate it more often. LOL.

katie8753 said...

I always wondered why Wagner would invite Walken on their yacht for a vacation trip if he thought his wife was having an affair with him. That doesn't make any sense.

If you think your wife is having an affair and you want to confront the guy, why not do it in public? That way there are plenty of witnesses.

Natalie died while filming "Brainstorm" with Walken. They completed the movie after her death, re-writing the ending since she was gone.

I saw that movie. It was a weird sci-fi kinda film about recording what happens in someone's brain, ultimately when they die.

Kind of ironic.

katie8753 said...

Okay....back to the Manson family. HA HA.

I don't know where Sanders is getting his info that Manson attended a New Year's Eve party at John & Michelle Phillips' house. I can't imagine that he was on the guest list.

Maybe he crashed it???

katie8753 said...

Okay, off subject again, but this is really interesting.

Leary, as a Texan and a person suspicious of quasi-Mormon activity, you will love this one.

I read in the paper this morning that Warren Jeffs, former polygamous cult leader and convicted child molester, has sent a paperback book and hand written pages to several judges in Texas, basically threatening them with apocalyptic events if they don't let him go, and if they keep prosecuting "his people".

The handwritten pages were written at different prison locations that Jeffs has been in Texas since he was convicted of child molestation.

Does this guy think he's Moses? Well he can't turn the rivers into blood because they're all dried up. He's gonna have to make it rain first!

HA HA.

katie8753 said...

I've likened Warren Jeffs to Charles Manson many times in the past.

Like Manson....Jeffs was a cult leader. Jeffs wanted to represent himself at his trial. Jeffs ending up making threats and mumbling a bunch of crap that made no sense in his defense. Jeffs was convicted.

And like Manson...Jeffs still has "followers" who will help him continue the threats, hoping that he'll get out.

But also like Manson...he won't.

MrPoirot said...

The Family was a "group marriage" commune type.
The Mormon guy was a polygamist.

There's a commonality of multiple spouses in these cults.

CarolMR said...

katie, I agree about Wagner inviting Walken to the boat if he thought Walken was having an affair with Natalie. It doesn't make any sense. And if Wagner was responsible in any way for Natalie's death, why would Walken cover for him all these years?
As far as Manson attending a New Year's Eve party at John and Michelle's - I can believe it. I don't think that group of people during that time in the 60s had much regard for guest lists and invitations. Didn't Sharon and Roman have a party where some guys they didn't even know caused some trouble and Roman had to evict them?

katie8753 said...

Hi Carol!

If Wagner was involved in Natalie's death, I don't think that Walken would have any knowledge of it. From what I've read, Walken had gone to his room for the night when the bru-ha-ha started between Natalie & RJ.

I'm really not sure why they reopened this case unless they want to change it to murder. And there are only so many suspects aboard that boat that night. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I agree about the New Year's party. There could have been 100's of people there, probably 50% that the Phillips didn't even know.

disillusioned said...

I had to do 3 months in jail last summer and had my mom send me "The Family" as you have to get them directly through the publisher..Any how it was like flies on shit when I got it.. I was the shit btw..

Sure beat the garbage they gave us to read..I donated it to the library when I left..Happy reading fuckers... ;)