New Salvo in Bid for Interview Tapes of Manson Acolyte Watson

Stepped in to help

The Los Angeles Police Department has violated the California Public Records Act in turning back a bid to obtain the tapes of Manson henchman Tex Watson.  The remedy is a letter from esteemed lawyer Dean Wallraff of the California Public Records Access Project. Read it here. 

From the letter: You have violated the Public Records Act by failing to respond in writing with the determination required by Pub. Res. Code § 6253(c). You continue to violate it by failing to provide the documents Mr. Miller requested. There is no reason it should take over four months for you to provide what can’t amount to more than a handful of responsive documents.

Dean stepped in to help someone from out of state, and he has little to gain from this. This should be an example to all of the other so-called First Amendment groups out there who do very very little for the public. Dean is the fourth stop for me as I searched for some help on this. 

The tapes have a tale of their own. They were partly used for Watson’s little-read book, Will You Die for Me?, published on a small press in 1978.  The tapes were recorded in 1969 after Watson was arrested in Texas in connection with the Sharon Tate-LaBianca murders in LA.

The LAPD obtained the tapes a couple of years ago and contends they are being used to investigate some unsolved crimes.

The LAPD refused a request for the tapes themselves last year.  The department then disregarded an appeal letter.

It takes a lot of work to fight operations like the LAPD who profess to care about the public but also care about protecting their pensions and maintaining a team of bureaucrats to keep the public at bay.

It’s a worthwhile battle. I hope it doesn’t end up in court, as it’s the public’s money the department would spend to wage a defense.

The Pursuit of the Tex Watson Tapes. Charles Manson Still on the Hook.

I covet the Tex Watson tapes that the Los Angeles Police Department obtained.  Yes, I’ve read the Watson prison book, Will You Die For Me? and his numerous mea cuplas. I’m sure he has a nice room in Hell waiting for him when he’s done with this life but maybe that’s just a view jaundiced by viewing the murder scene photos at Cielo Drive. 

Watson was a knife-wielding maniac that night in August 1969, and the carnage was mostly of his making. He was also the first of those charged to declare his conversion to religion.

A couple years ago, it was revealed that there are about eight hours of audio tapes from 1969 of Watson talking with Bill Boyd, a defense attorney in McKinney, Texas, about 40 miles north of Dallas. The tapes were made shortly after Watson was arrested in connection with the murders at Cielo and in Los Feliz of Rosemary and Leno La Bianca.  Here’s a good story laying it all out.

I knew Bill Boyd when I was a reporter at the McKinney Courier-Gazette in the early 90s. He was a tough guy who was still cruising on that legend of Watson, but he was also a great criminal defense guy who pissed off endless assistant prosecutors.

In September, I filed an open records request with the department for the Watson tapes.  The LAPD, taking its time, denied my request, which I could see coming.  Watson has asserted that “there are no unsolved murder committed by the Manson family,” but the LAPD appears to be looking into something related to the tapes. Or at least that’s what it is asserting in its denial. 

Last year,  LAPD Commander Andrew Smith said the tapes could hold the key to a dozen unsolved murders. It would seem that in a year, there would be some progress, which the LAPD would be happy to share. 

But t

hese tapes need to be public if there is no imminent investigation. Below is the email I sent this week in a mild appeal. This is the first salvo. It's never good to quit in these efforts and hopefully it will lead to something in the end.

If anyone is interested in seeing this through, legal eagles in particular, let me know. Maybe we can keep the LAPD honest.

November 6, 2013

Caydene Monk

Los Angeles Police Department

Discovery Section

 201 N. Los Angeles St., Space 301,

Los Angeles, Calif.  90012

RE: Public Records Act Request, Tex Watson tapes

Ms Monk

I am in receipt of your letter dated October 29, 2013 (attached) regarding my open records request of September 20, 2013 (attached).

In your response, you cite Government Code Section 6254 (f), which contends that the material I seek is exempt under the provision of investigation.

Media reports, which have not been corrected by the LAPD, have said these tapes were obtained “because authorities believe the tapes might provide new clues about unsolved killings involving followers of Manson.” (CNN 6/13/12) This source sites court documents.

However, the exemption for law enforcement investigatory files arises “only when the prospect of enforcement proceedings becomes concrete and definite… Under section 6254, subdivision (f), the police agency is directed to make public certain categories of specified information unless disclosure of a particular item of information would endanger the integrity of an investigation, or the safety of a person involved in the investigation or of a related investigation,   (Williams v. Superior Court, 5 Cal. 4th 337, 356 (1993)

I would add that this same decision notes that “the labels of…"internal investigation" are captivatingly expansive, and present an elasticity menacing to the principle of public scrutiny of government."

I ask that you please reconsider your decision. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions as to what I am seeking or the information I am trying to extract.

Thanks

Steve Miller

Beyond the Obvious: Five Solid Charles Manson Books

The new book on Charles Manson, Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, is getting good reviews and strong word-of-mouth. It indicates there is still a lot of interest in the Manson case and crimes, perhaps more than had been considered before. The books are countless, some bad, some decent. The most well-known,  Helter Skelter, was a touristy, breathless exercise by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. But The Family by Ed Sanders is the test by which all Manson books should be judged.  I still check in with it a couple times a year. For completist readers of the Manson legend, though, here are five lesser-known books that will give your reading on the man a bit more depth.

Desert Shadows: A True Story of the Charles Manson Family in Death Valley by Bob Murphy (Sagebrush Press, 1993) Murphy is a former superintendant of Death Valley National Park and delivers a well-told book on the Family’s move to Death Valley after the murders, including the best account yet the arrest of several members, including Manson, at Barker Ranch in a remote part of the park.

Charles Manson: Music Mayhem Murder by Tommy Udo (Sanctuary, 2002) The factual errors are minor irritants when you look to this as the best tome yet on Manson’s connection to the Topanga Canyon music world in the late 60s. It’s also a solid primer on the relationship between Manson and Bobby Beausoleil, a skilled musician who did the soundtrack for Kenneth Anger’s movie, Lucifer Rising, after Jimmy Page flaked.  Includes both a discography and some lyrics.

The Garbage People: The Trip to Helter-Skelter and Beyond With Charlie Manson and the Family by John Gilmore and Ron Kenner (Omega Press, 1971) Re-released in 2000 as Manson: The Unholy Trail of Charlie and the Family, Gilmore interviewed Manson and other family members a number of times in 1969 and it shows in this thorough account. It’s an abbreviated walk through Family land, with details that most authors have missed. Photo section includes morgue shots that you’ve likely seen before but remain a little unsettling.

The Shadow over Santa Susana: Black Magic, Mind Control and the Manson Family Mythos by Adam Gorightly (Creation, 2009) Takes on the religious and, well, spiritual side of the Family, including explorations of connection to the Process Church of the Final Judgment and Scientology.  Shadow is the best exploration of mind control and conspiracies around the murderous ways of Manson.

Will You Die For Me? The Man Who Killed For Charles Manson Tells His Own Story, Tex Watson as told to Chaplain Ray (Fleming H. Revell Company, 1978) Watson was the hatchet man on the Big Night at Cielo Drive. He got religion pretty quick after being sentenced to death in late 1971, and while this book reflects Watson’s conversion, it’s also a brutal account of life in the Family, including a first person step-by-step of the murder at the Cielo house.  

Chasing Linkletter Ghost, Salvation and Manson Victim Eatery

Salvation Mountain

There’s some average Joe gag from decades ago about people being subjected to the movie reels or slide show from someone’s latest vacation. I always thought it was pretty cool, actually. Any time people go places is a good time, be they tourists or travelers.

I came back a few days ago from a trip that took me from Imperial Valley up to Death Valley. Naw, I won’t burden anyone with details of how great 117 degrees feels or how standing on a rock in the middle of Titus Canyon with no one within 25 miles feels incredibly liberating and alone.

I hit Salvation Mountain, a couple miles east of Niland, Calif., which is a hillside covered in a painted tribute to the faith of Leonard Knight. I visited the place in 1998 and talked with Knight for some time. I was just traveling then as now, no story or anything. Just wanted to get his deal. We talked about some hassles he was getting from some of the locals at Slab City, which begins about 100 yards south of Knight’s little compound, which is composed of a couple trailers and a lot of paint cans, along with the beaming hill.

Knight is now in a nursing home and he has a friend looking after the place. It’s still popular – the day I was there, at least a half dozen folks were poking around, climbing up the sides of the hill, checking out the art.

Slab City is just as compelling as Salvation Mountain. It’s a village of folks living off the grid in the middle of the desert. Some of them have solar panels now, which is a change from the last time I was there. There’s also a place for bands to play called the Range. It’s a stage with a little bar, and I’d say that any band wanting to shoot a cool-ass video and play for a crowd they would never encounter elsewhere, this would be the way to go. Haul the gear out there, bring some folks, stock the bar with $1 cans of beer, and have at it under the desert sky.

I spent the last couple days of my trip in LA, which is always fine and never long enough.  Had much tequila and beer at El Coyote, where Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Foster and Wojciech Frykowski dined before the Manson clan visited their place up the hill.

Where Diane Linkletter took a dive

One thing I also had to do in LA is check out the building that Diane Linkletter was supposed to have taken a dive from under the influence of LSD in 1969. Imagine my disappointment when I found out the cause of death was a ruse by her dad, talk show/wholesome entertainment icon Art Linkletter, to push an anti-drug agenda. The guy had a few burdens and I dug him when I was little, at a time that some entertainment figures were still pretty pure.  I’d say he was one of the good guys. And his daughter’s death came a couple months after the Manson slayings went down, so he was probably thinking he was doing some good by talking about acid being the cause and all. Still…I walked over to her apartments, Shoreham Towers, and grabbed a shot of the nameplate. For some reason, reading that she took a jump because she was depressed made me feel much worse than if it was just a lofty notion of flying on acid.  

The Manson Family Story Via Tex Watson Exists - I Need a Copy of These Tapes

Tex Watson, 1970 Mug

I’d love to get my hands on these tapes.

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that tapes of conversations between a lawyer and Tex Watson, one of the key members of the Manson Family, will be released to the Los Angeles Police Department.  See original letter from LAPD seeking the tapes here. The LAPD hopes that some of the info in those tapes would help solve some cold cases. 

Watson, now 65, was arrested November 1969 in Collin County, Texas, a then-rural area 30 miles north of Dallas. Watson fled LA after the Manson Family murdered a batch of partiers at the mansion owned by filmmaker Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate, then killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at their home the next night.

After his arrest and before extradition, Watson’s family hired Bill Boyd, a defense attorney from McKinney.  Watson fought extradition, with the help of Boyd, but lost that battle and was returned to California in September 1970. During his time at the Collin County jail, some of the talks between Boyd and Watson were taped. Watson’s current lawyer, Kendrick Jan, claims that Watson never waived his right to attorney-client privilege, while the Boyd camp contends he did.  I have no idea why Watson would do that and I’m inclined to believe his current lawyer.

Boyd sold the tapes for $49,000 at some point. Sure would like to find out who paid that dough. What happened to the tapes in that original sale?

Watson was convicted of first-degree murder in 1971. He wrote a book, Will You Die For Me?, which was published in 1978. I call it suggested reading. 

I met Boyd on several occasions when I worked my first job as a reporter at the McKinney Courier-Gazette, which was then a pretty aggressive newspaper. He was well known in McKinney, which was at the time a farm town of 30,000. It’s now a traffic-clogged exhurb of over 130,000. Boyd died in 2009.

Of course I couldn’t stop when I found out that the decision to give the tapes to LAPD was made by a bankruptcy judge as part of a filing by Boyd’s firm, Boyd-Veigel. I looked up the filing to see if anyone connected to the Manson case was a creditor. No dice – the firm had racked up over $8 million in debt, but no Manson connection.