Thanks, Manson Family for killing the '60s [Dirty Hippies]
As aging Boomers attempt to remember Woodstock (Aug 18, 1969) this coming weekend through hundreds of anniversary articles, perhaps they should recall the week before the event. The social movement built on free love, great drugs and the best rock music also gave us the Manson “family” who brutally slaughtered seven people on two consecutive evenings August 9 and 10, 1969.
The murders had all the elements inherent in the ‘60s counterculture:
Mysticism: Charlie said that he was Jesus Christ and the Devil in one.
Sex and Drugs – Manson fed his followers (mainly pretty girls,) fantastic cocktails of LSD and mescaline.
Rock’n’Roll – The Beatles’ “White Album” spoke directly to Charlie Manson and he inspired his followers to write “Healter Skelter” in blood on the wall of the home they invaded – obviously so high, they misspelled it.
Manson wanted a race war that would make him a king. So five died the first night. Two the next.
For every Woodstock, let us remember there is a Manson. Contained within the very tools of peace and love, there also rests hate and madness. And the full tally of casualties from the psychedelic revolution remains uncounted.
Among them is perhaps Leslie Van Houten, convicted of murder in one of the Manson killings. Filmmaker John Walters is petitioning for her to be freed from prison on the grounds of a complete moral and psychological recovery from the greatest horror story of the ‘60s. [Baltimore Sun]
