“Tex” and Armageddon | 1969, January
By November, Charlie had lost momentum on his album deal, and there were 550,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam. Racial tensions were high—there were protests and violent clashes every day. Charlie drew on what he knew from prison to divine the future; “the Black Man,” in the form of Islam, would wipe out “the White Man,” who was superior but had it in his karma to be decimated.
Charlie relocated his people—took them to a ranch in Death Valley, which he secured in trade for a Beach Boys Gold Record that he’d swiped or taken as a gift (or something in between). He told Ma Barker, the owner of the ranch, that he and his group were musicians.
There was belladonna growing in the dessert, and the Family cooked it up. Tex took a massive dose and got arrested and beaten up in jail; he was never quite the same. He tried to go back to L.A. and his old girlfriend and life in the wig biz.
Leslie took on more responsibilities—managing the ranch, and sitting with Charlie to read him the bible. Charlie had a mystical relationship with nature—he walked through a den of snakes, and had a pet crow named “Devil.” To Leslie, the desert was “complete peace. The only thing you could hear would be the hum of the air.”
Sadie: “There was Leslie. At eighteen or nineteen, she had considerable mental and emotional strength. She was smart, more than able at that early stage to hold her own with anyone, except perhaps Charlie.”
The day’s work: killing the ego by walking around saying, for ex., “die, Leslie, die”; hiding gas and food for the coming Armageddon; making roads in the desert (Charlie had totaled the bus and would need an armada of dune buggies); knife training (how to kill); playing music and harmonizing; becoming Charlie (standing in front of him while mirroring his expressions and gestures).
Manson’s people went down to L.A. once in a while, and when the Yellow Submarine came out, mid-December, a few of them saw it. Charlie was already listening to the Beatles’ White Album, which he believed was directed at him and the Family. The Beatles were singing about “Sexy Sadie,” and the coming race war, which they called “Helter Skelter,” after a U.K. carnival slide. In a hidden message, the Beatles said, “Charlie, send us a telegram.” In January, to help everyone attain a “submerged consciousness,” Charlie moved the Family to its own “Yellow Submarine,” a house in Canoga Park, about half an hour from downtown L.A., and not nearly as cold as Death Valley in winter.
01.01.69 Just north of Berkeley, Odds ‘n Ends, the first waterbed store, opens for business. Charles Hall introduced the invention, dubbed “The Pleasure Pit,” at “Happy Happenings,” a 1968 summer art exhibition at the San Francisco Cannery gallery. 02 The Beatles, breaking up, record Abbey Road. 02 Newark police confiscate 29,850 album covers. The portrait gracing “Two Virgins” features the full frontal nudity of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. 02 People’s Democracy, an organization founded three months before in support of civil rights for Northern Ireland’s Catholic minority, begins a four-day march from Belfast to Derry. 06 At San Francisco State, 350 teachers go on strike; they want education reform and an end to police occupation of the campus. 07 Governor Ronald Reagan demands the California legislature “drive criminal anarchists and latter-day fascists off the campuses.” 10 Charles Manson, in L.A., sends for the Family. He’s found a house in Canoga Park. 12 LP release of Led Zeppelin, the first Led Zeppelin album. 12 In Madrid, 300 students are arrested, the University is closed, and martial law is declared. 16 In protest to the soviet invasion, Jan Palach, a 21-year-old university student, sets himself on fire in Prague. He dies five days later. 17 Black Panther leaders John Huggins and Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter are shot to death in a UCLA lunchroom. The shooters are members of a rival Black Nationalist group. 18 The Yippies hold a Counter Inauguration. They swear in Pigasus the pig, then assassinate him. Poetry and music follows. 18 As part of the counter-inaugural protest activities in Washington, Shulamith Firestone (editor of 1968’s Notes From the First Year, a theory and practice journal of the Women’s Liberation Movement) and others distribute flyers that declare, “The women’s revolution will be the ultimate revolution. And we have sounded the opening gun.” 20 Richard M. Nixon is sworn in as the 37th U.S. president. 20 The salary of the U.S. president doubles to $100,000. 22 Minority students at the University of California at Berkeley form the Third World Liberation Front, and initiate a three-month strike. Governor Reagan sends police. Concurrently, students at San Francisco State University are striking. That strike lasts five months. 23 Theatrical release of Ramrodder, featuring Bobby “Cupid” Beausoleil and Catherine “Gypsy” Share. 23 Gregorio Ordonez, deputy mayor of San Sebastian, Spain, is assassinated by a member of the E.T.A., a Basque separatist organization that will murder over 800 people, and kidnap dozens, in coming years. 26 After two days of floods and mud slides, FEMA declares southern California federal disaster area. Ninety-one die. 26 Elvis Presley returns to the studio, recording Long Black Limousine, which includes “Suspicious Minds” and “In the Ghetto.” 27 In Baghdad, fourteen men, nine of them Jewish, are executed as Israeli spies; 500,000 citizens celebrate under the hanging bodies. 27 Convicts Byron Vaughn Booth and Clinton Robert Smith escape from the California Institution for Men at Chino. The next day they hijack a DC-8 to Cuba. 28 Blowout on the Union Oil platform off Santa Barbara, California; 2,000,000 gallons of crude oil contaminate 35 miles of coastland and 800 square miles of ocean. 30 On the roof of Apple Records, London, the Beatles give their final performance. 30 At Howard University, medical students boycott classes, demanding the ouster of the department chair. 30 LP release of The Holy Land by Johnny Cash.
02.01 No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation publishes “An Argument For Black Women’s Liberation As a Revolutionary Force,” an essay by Mary Ann Weathers, who writes, “Women’s Liberation should be considered as a strategy for an eventual tie-up with the entire revolutionary movement consisting of women, men, and children. We are now speaking of real revolution (armed). If you can not accept this fact purely and without problems examine your reactions closely. We are playing to win and so are they.” 02 In Marin County, California, a predawn fire destroys a 24-room mansion occupied by members of “the Chosen Family” commune. 02 At New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, ten paintings, including a Rembrandt, are vandalized. The act is in protest of the museum’s “Harlem on My Mind” exhibit. 04 In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). 05 On the U.C. Berkley Campus, a war has broken out between police and students. 08 The last issue of The Saturday Evening Post hits newsstands. 08 In Mexico, a meteor shower brings day to the night sky; one meteor weighs over a ton. 10 LP release of 20/20 by The Beach Boys. 11 During a protest at St. George Williams College, Montreal, 200 students axe and burn the computer center. 12 Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski sign the lease for 10050 Cielo Drive. They move in three days later. 12 Students at the Howard University School of Law boycott classes and occupy buildings. 13 In Montreal, the Fronde Liberation du Quebec bomb the Stock Exchange. 13 At Duke University, black students take over buildings and demand an African American Studies program. 13 At the University of Massachusetts, 33 protestors are arrested during the occupation of an administrative building. 14 Pope Paul VI deletes St. Valentine and many other names from the Roman calendar of saints. 14 Release of the portable (plastic) Olivetti typewriter. 15 LP release of Instant Replay by the Monkees. 17 Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash record songs in Nashville. 18 The PLO attacks an Israeli El-Al plane in Zurich, Switzerland. 22 At Rice University, 1,000 students and 200 faculty members protest the appointment of the new university president. Unrest persists for five days. 24 Students occupy the administration building at Pennsylvania State University. 25 In Vietnam, Navy Lt. Bob Kerrey takes part in a SEAL action that takes the lives of twenty women, children and old men. Kerry will receive a Bronze star for his actions. 27 At U.C. Berkeley, police club and arrest Latino protestors and protest leaders. Governor Reagan sends the National Guard. 27 President Nixon is greeted in Rome by thousands of protestors. Kommune I members, Dieter Kunzelmann and Rainer Langhans, attempt to bomb Nixon’s motorcade. 28 The presiding judge denies Sirhan Sirhan’s request to be executed.
03.01 Three days after performing at the Diner Key Auditorium in Miami, Jim Morrison is arrested for felony lewd and lascivious behavior, and misdemeanor public profanity, exposure, and drunkenness. 02 Soviet and Chinese forces clash at the border of Ussuri River. 10 In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He will recant. 10 Publication of the novel, The Godfather, by Mario Puzo. 10 Theatrical release of Oh! What a Lovely War, directed by Richard Attenborough, starring Laurence Olivier. 10 Theatrical release of The Assassination Bureau, starring Oliver Reed and Telly Savalas. 12 Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman. 13 Police raid the home of George Harrison, who is arrested with his wife for possession of 120 joints. 15 The skirmish at the Ussuri River Border escalates. Moscow dubs China a world threat; war-fever grips both nations. 18 Commencement of Operation Breakfast, the secret, illegal, bombing of Cambodia; 3,650 B-52s quadruple the tonnage dropped on Japan during World War II. 20 The Chicago Eight are indicted for rioting and bomb making. Black Panther, Bobby Seale, calls the judge a fascist dog, a honky, a pig and a racist. He’s tried separately and sentenced to four years for contempt of court. The remaining defendants, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Lee Weiner, mock the court, wearing judicial robes (over police uniforms), blowing kisses and cracking jokes. 21 In El Monte, California, a .22 caliber Longhorn revolver, serial number 1902708, is stolen from the Archery Headquarters. The gun, a former movie prop from Ronald Reagan westerns, will change hands several times, and eventually end up with the Family. It’s the gun used to shoot Lotsa Poppa Crow, and in the murders at Cielo Drive. 21 Alex Rackley, suspected as an FBI informant, is taken to Black Panther headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut, where he’s tortured, and shot. 23 On his rounds in Los Angeles, Charles Manson stops in at 10050 Cielo Drive. He may be looking for Terry Melcher, who’s been traveling, or he may be looking for someone else, or seeing who’s there, or casing the house. Manson spots Sharon in the yard—he’s halted by Sharon’s photographer. Manson is directed to the guesthouse to look for / wait for his party. There, Manson meets Rudi Altobelli, the owner of the home, and an entertainment professional Manson knows through Dennis Wilson. Manson attempts to talk up Altobelli, who tells Manson to leave through the back alley, so as not to disturb the residents. 24 In Manhattan, Lennox Raphael’s play, Che!, which depicts Che Gueverra as a victim of sexual envy, is shut down for obscenity. 26 John Lennon and Yoko Ono are married and proceed to Amsterdam for a honeymoon “Bed-In” for peace.