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‘roving minstrel’ from reform school had never gone farther than the seventh grade; now he read the Bible and tracts on the quasi- religion Scientology, decided that the Book of Revelation had predicted the Beatles, learned to play the guitar and assumed he could com- pose music. One of his lyrics consisted solely of the words, “You know, you know, you know...” He left prison in March 1967, ready to give new meaning to the old saw: a littl learning ts a dangerous thing Criminals and ex-cons have discovered a new sort of refuge in the last couple of years: they grow hair, assume beads and sandals, and sink—curniveres moving in with the vegetar- ians into the life of hippie colonies from the bast Village to Big Sur. Charlie Manson went to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury and, with an eaxquisite sort of diplomatic skill, adopted the local coloration as a means of controlling, utilizing and dominating the impulse-ridden, alienated, drug-directed **kids” he discovered there. Most of the kids were female — who had come to escape a cynical society or to seek “re- ality and freedom.” Charlie billed himself as a “roving minstrel” come to fulfill their dreams with magic, strike off the chains of male chau- vinism and lead them to the promised land although in fact he regarded them as squaws, treated them like cattle and excommunicated those who complained. **l was hitchhiking to San Frincisco once with Charlie,” says a girl who used to know him. “‘attd we had these two big packs. He wanted me to carry both of them. | refused. I said I'd share, but | wouldn't carry both. He got more and more angry and finally said | had to carry both bags and walk 1 steps behind him, When | wouldn't do that, he took my guitar from me and smashed it into little pieves against a post.” Most of Charlie's girls, in the opinion of a San Francisco psychiatrist who encountered them, were “hysterics, wishful thinkers, seek- ers after some absolute” who came to regard Charlie as a high priest, “all-powerful, all- knowing” Charhe was a fast talker with a glittering eye. He initiated new girls by taking them to rathons. He broke down their “inhibitions” by directing them in bed for day-long sexual mg crotie group carnivals or ordering them to car- nal activity with other men—and commanding them to do so in the same tones in which he sent them into the streets to panhandle, Char- lie Was no hippie: the very name made him angry, He was an entrepreneur. He gave p2o- ple things —drugs. his own shirt back. He gave girls to get things often a naked, g ing, curessing gaggle of four or five of them --to men from the “straight” world, He shaved and cut his huir—even, at times, after retreating to the desert. -to facilitate dealing with “the Es- tablishment.” He boasted of 3,000 friends. One gave him @ grand piano which he traded for a camper truck which he then traded for a bus with which he transported his harem to south- 24 In 1949 an Indianapolis newspaper ran this picture of Manson as a bright this time from drugs ern California and their eventual rendezvous with the fruits and fallcies of his delusions The delusions do net seem to have blos- somed in his mind before the trip in the spring of 1968 —a leisurely trek during which he met, sponged on and grew to resent Los Angeles Gary Hinman, and was rejected, in Musici a plea for help with his own musical aspira- tion, by Doris Day's son Terry Melcher, then the occupant of the big house in which Shar- on Tate and her friends were to die. Charlie preached a confused but vehement philosophy Everything in the world belonged to all its peo- ple—thus there could be redivision of valu- ables, but no theft; all humans were part of some homogencous and mystic whole—thus there could be no real death, The varying mob of long-haired girls and ragged young studs yed 14- lined “Boy | Stayed there t 1r-old along with a sto optimistically head- ‘sinful home” for new life in Boys Town.” He days. At right Manson, his eyes still bright is led to court im Independence, Calif who clung around him in southern California were indoctrinated with Charlie's views after they settled at the first of their two outposts, a Western movie location once owned by silent star Bill Hart but now operated as a riding sta- ble called the Spahn Movie Ranch But one can wonder how those who were to be indicted for murder get there in the first place > Phot Watson at high school in Farmersville (pop, 2,021), Texas reflect an all-American boy: a big, good-looking kid who starred in football, basketball and track, got anly A’s and B's and went to the Methodist church near his father’s Charles Denton ("Tex”) aphs ¢ little groe to North Texas State University, 55 miles from ery and gas station, Watson went on home, turned away trom sports, sank scho- CONTINUED