Leslie Meets Bobby | 1968, August
Leslie aced secretary school. She registered at an employment agency. But the SRF thing had been a fantasy she had with Bobby (and maybe her father), and she and Bobby didn’t last.
Leslie: “When you’re young and very in love the breakup can be very difficult—so I was trying to make it on my own.”
She moved in with friends in Victorville, California, a nowhere-to-be desert town, where she met Bobby Beausoleil, musician, artist, and knife-thrower. He had a small group of women already in train, but Leslie was into him, so the two of them stole her friend’s car and drove off.
Leslie: “He was an angel, and I told him I would love him forever.” Leslie called her mother to say she wouldn’t be in touch for a while—she was going to do what she wanted when she wanted where she wanted. She was “dropping out.” Bobby had a house tent on the bus, an old munitions truck. He called himself “Sir Hokus,” (aka “Cupid,” aka “the Frenchman”) and described himself as a minstrel; he wore a confederate war costume, and carried a cane and a top hat. They drifted north, stealing food on the way.
The Haight was getting seedy, but San Francisco was Bobby’s scene. He’d been in a few bands—one of them, Love, was a big deal. Bobby said he’d been too young, seventeen, to sign the record contract.
Bobby was also an actor. He’d starred in a Kenneth Anger film as Satan, but he and Anger had a blowout (they may have been lovers), and Anger had placed a curse on him. Bobby had been in L.A. to shoot a soft-core porn film, Ramrodder, at an old western set—the Spahn Ranch. That’s where Bobby had met one of his women, Catharine “Gypsy” Share, who’d also had a part in the film. She was a little older, wiser and more radical than the average hippy. Gypsy wanted a messiah, and there was one man she kept talking about, “The Wizard,” who had his own bevy of women. In late August, Leslie got to meet him.
Leslie: “He just walked up and smiled real nice, you know, and I just smiled back. And he wasn’t any different than all the others. But I could feel much strength in meeting him.”
08.01 LP release of Wheels of Fire, by Cream. 02 In The Berkeley Barb, Ed Sanders publishes his satirical essay “Predictions for Yippie Activities.” Highlights: ass-washing, worship of filth, protestors armed with fish eyes. 03 In Washington, Abbie Hoffman attempts to enter a building where a subcommittee of the House Un-American Activities Committee has convened. He’s arrested for wearing a shirt that resembles an American flag. His book, Revolution for the Hell of It, has just been released by the Dial Press. In his musings on The Beatles, he echoes a popular assessment of the day, “The Beatles are a new family group. They are organized around the way they create. They are communal art. They … form a family unit that is horizontal rather than vertical.” 04 At the Newport Folk Festival, Steppenwolf performs “Born to be Wild.” It’s the dawn of Heavy Metal. 05 In Los Angeles, Black Panthers Tommy Lewis, Steve Bartholomew and Arthur Morris are shot dead by police. 07 James Brown records “Say it Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud,” which will become the anthem of Black Power. 08 At the Republican Convention in Florida, Richard Millhouse Nixon wins the presidential primary. 08 Race riots in Miami, ten miles from the Republican Convention. Three die by police bullets. 09 In Van Nuys, California, Beach Boys associate Gregg Jakobson records several songs with musical prospect Charles Manson. 09 End of a 267-day strike by Detroit newspapers. 12 In New York, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company band record the studio/live album, Cheap Thrills. 12 The Beach Boys perform live in London. 13 Alekandrow Panagoulis, Greek politician and poet, mounts an attempted assassination of right wing military leader Col. George Papadopoulos. 15 Radio Free London commences transmission of pirate FM radio. 18 The Peace and Freedom party selects Eldridge Cleaver as its presidential candidate. 19 Publication of Tom Wolf’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which chronicles the adventures of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. 19 LP release of Best of The Beach Boys Vol. 3, and The Beach Boys compilation, Stack-O-Tracks. 20 Soviet tanks, backed by 200,000 Soviet troops, invade Prague. 23 In Chicago, the yippies nominate Pigasus the pig for President. The pig and six others are arrested. 24 With the detonation of a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific, France becomes the fifth thermonuclear power. 25 Five days of demonstrations and riots at the Democratic Convention: 10,000 demonstrators vs. 11,000 Chicago Police, 6000 National Guardsmen, 7500 army troops, and 1000 FBI and military intelligence agents. Two hundred students are arrested and dozens are injured; the clash is dubbed “Czechago,” alluding to Russia’s lockdown of Prague. 26 The single “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” is the first release of Apple Records, founded by the Beatles. 27 Tom Haden, arrested during demonstrations at the Democratic Convention, is beaten and held in the Cook County Jail.