Following the death of Charles Manson, I have re-purposed an
old post that I feel may feature a few ideas that might not appear in the
undoubtedly huge amount of material that will probably surface on the internet
in the next week or so.
I originally wrote this in 2009 when the release of the
Johnny Depp vehicle Public Enemy coincided with the general period of the
fortieth anniversary of the Manson murders. I found it interesting to note a point
of connection that came through one of the true-life characters featured in the
movie, Alvin “Creepy” Karpis. In later years he tutored the young Charlie on
the guitar and much else besides. This serves as an interesting doorway into an
expanded psycho-historical context in which to place the Family enigma. I offer
up these fragments in the spirit of Marshall McLuhan’s Probes in the hope they
may inspire others to expand them further.
Charles Manson is certainly a unique character and a lot of
his story carries the tone of the time. It’s fascinating to investigate the
occult beliefs circulating in sixties California
that may have influenced him. Ed Sanders in The
Family and Adam Gorightly in The
Shadow Over Santa Susana have pointed towards the Solar Lodge of the OTO,
the Process Church of the Final Judgement and a wider climate inspired by the
Church of Satan as important factors in the genesis of Helter Skelter. I deal
with these topics in my Aleister Crowley
and the Aeon of Horus.
I think there is also a larger American pyschogeographical
context that Charlie and the Family can be fruitfully placed in. Firstly, the Karpis connection helps fit Manson
into a lineage that stretches back
through the gangster era to the Wild West. Charlie’s gangster mentor was a
former designated Public Enemy from the Dillinger/Bonnie and Clyde
era. A thief and murderer in his own right he joined up with the Ma Barker gang,
a group of psycho-killer brothers immortalised by seventies Euro-disco-kitsch
champions Boney M under their variant spelling as Ma Baker.
Go on. You know you want to watch it.
As a young girl Ma Barker had seen Jesse James ride by on a
horse and was upset to hear of his death. Contrary to the legend she didn’t
slaughter for fun and may not have been actively involved in the carnage but
here was a family that slayed together. FBI
chief J Edgar Hoover wrote in a book called The FBI in Action that “Ma
Barker and her sons, and Alvin Karpis and his cronies, constituted the toughest
gang of hoodlums the FBI ever has been called upon to eliminate…Looking over
the record of these criminals, I was repeatedly impressed by the cruelty of
their depredations…murder of a policeman …murder of two policemen ….machine gun
murder of an innocent citizen who got in the way during a bank robbery
…kidnapping and extortion…train robbery…mail robbery ...the protection of
high police officials bought with tainted money…paroles bought.” As well as guitar tutorials, Karpis
probably regaled his student with romanticised outlaw-chic stories of
on-the-road pillage and slaughter.
During Manson’s apparent hippy phase he remained in contact
with all kinds of figures in the general criminal underworld, engaging in a
wide range of what could be called conventional criminal activity: car theft,
burglary, credit card rackets, as well as drug-dealing. Somewhere in the
background lurk Mafia types and the possibility that there may be a
contract-killing aspect to the Tate-LaBianca murders. In this sense, Manson was
a gangster.
Once the Family moved out from the cities into the
wilderness they took on the established outlaw ambiance. They spent significant
time on a ranch that had featured in a numerous western B movies. Scenes from
the legendary sixties TV series Bonanza and The Lone Ranger had been shot
there. A whole Wild West street
film set was in place that included a saloon. In this environment the Family
lived their drug-filled orgiastic lifestyle. There were real cowboys still
working on the ranch and a number of the Family also helped with the horses and
general chores. Biker gangs were increasingly in evidence, along with the build
up of an arsenal of weapons. In their later wanderings mining cabins and
shacks, abandoned ghost villages, and isolated wilderness settlements are
everywhere in the Family landscape. There can be little doubt that what could
be called the Wild West Factor would have been part of the potent influences
that shaped the group mindset.
Taking a look at Death Valley, scene of the final hoedown
before Manson’s arrest, it’s redolent of Palestine.
It’s a place where it would be easy to become a Bible nut. From the nineteenth
century onwards large numbers of weird religious cults with their own take on
Revelations went west. Madness, violence and sexuality were often present in
varying blends around charismatic leader figures. The End Times were usually
near. Charlie and the Family are part of this heritage as well. He fits the
warped-out preacher archetype rather well. My personal favourite modern
representation of this is Henry Kane in Poltergeist II.
Manson is already a mythic figure. In another fifty years
who knows how Hollywood
might portray him or characters clearly derived from him? Look at the enormous
number of westerns romanticising the lives of dirtbag murderers and the hideous
environments they lived out their wretched lives in. These movies were created
decades after the events they portrayed. With the gangster era there was no
time-lag with the glamorising movies depicting it. Hippy outlaws and love-guru
preachers may eventually become even more lionised noir figures than they
already are. The psychogeography is well established. They are recognisable
figures in archetypal tales set in a dreamtime landscape.
Steve Railsback as Manson in the seventies TV mini-series Helter
Skelter.
In my opinion the only actor who has ever managed a convincing
portrayal. The words are accurately reported and the tale assuredly portrays
Manson as a monster but Charlie himself skillfully milked the archetypal outlaw
role and generates some power with it. What might a 2070 version of Helter
Skelter be like?
