Manson murderer Bobby Beausoleil, it’s probably fair to say, is an entirely star-crossed asshole.

Take, for example, the anecdote Kenneth Anger has been wheeling around town for a good few decades regarding how the two of them came to part company, in which a nineteen-year-old Beausoleil, who was Anger’s intended protagonist in Lucifer Rising and also living rent free in the filmmaker’s Haight-Ashbury home, purportedly spent money given him for film equipment on dope, leading Anger to send him packing.

In revenge, Beausoleil supposedly stole Anger’s van, as well as the footage for the unfinished film. As followers of his biography will know, Anger habitually relays, usually with a certain laconic relish, how the van, which Beausoleil piloted from San Francisco to LA, broke down right outside Spahn Ranch, resulting in Beausoleil’s fateful encounter with Charles Manson.

Anger’s conspicuous delight at this turn of events could be explained by the infamous locket he reportedly kept dangling from his neck for many years: Beausoleil’s image on the one side, a frog’s on the other, and the self-explanatory inscription—“Bobby Beausoleil turned into a frog by Kenneth Anger.”

This frequently recounted anecdote, however, is perhaps starting to wear thin—so thin it’s beginning to fray. It just doesn’t quite ring true, and not exactly due to the large circumstantial infernal/coincidental overlap element, either, but rather because the real connections of all the main players in this mythology almost always appear (upon closer inspection) much less happenstance than they would have us believe.

So, Beausoleil’s van probably didn’t just break down as recounted (Beausoleil tells a different story himself, anyway). Similarly, Dennis Wilson probably didn’t meet Manson due to his picking up those Family hitchhikers (an equally questionable tale of motorway madness).

Which is not to say that, when you peel off the top layer of seeming psychedelic randomness, the whole scene still doesn’t bristle with synchronicities. Au contraire….

Take, for example, Beausoleil’s role as rhythm guitarist in an early incarnation of Arthur Lee’s Love, The Grass Roots. Eventually replaced by Bryan MacLean, Beausoleil would go on to claim that his nickname at that time, “Cupid,” in part by inspired the band’s ultimate change of name.
 

 
Arguably, the hot-headed Beausoleil was probably not the kind of guy it was wise to usurp, and MaClean certainly experienced a very narrow escape.

According to Manson murderer Susan Atkins, it was actually Beausoleil’s arrest for the torture-murder of Gary Hinman that instigated the Manson Family’s ensuing murder spree—enacted, she would claim, in order to convince police that the killer(s) of Gary Hinman were in fact still at large.

Whether or not this was true motivation for the Tate/LaBianca killings, Beausoleil’s connection to them—as progenitor, inspiration, or both—is indisputable, which is why it’s really just super strange that (and feel free to here start whistling “The Red Telephone”) Beausoleil’s replacement in Love, Bryan MaClean, a close friend of Sharon Tate’s, was invited over to Cieolo Drive on the night of the killings, having a change of heart at the last minute.

Below, rarely heard recordings of Beausoleil’s San Francisco group, The Orkustra. Another player in the group was David LaFlamme, who later founded It’s a Beautiful Day who had the eternal FM radio hit, “White Bird.”
 

 
On May 17th and 18th, Cinefamily in Los Angeles will be presenting a 35mm screening of the rarely seen Oscar-nominated 1973 documentary Manson. DirectorRobert Hendrickson—who shot some disturbing footage of Family members at the Spahn Ranch—will be there in-person for a Q&A after the May 17th and 18th screenings.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Rosemary’s Baby, the White Album and the Manson Murders (Conspiracy Coincidence Syndrome Overload)

 
Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin has been in Guatemala reporting from the trial of General José Efraín Ríos Montt, the former military strongman ruler accused of perpetrating genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1980s.

During his trial, more than 90 Ixil Maya victims have come forward and told the court accounts of sexual violence, assassination, torture and even acts of infanticide committed by the Guatemalan army. There were too many horrific stories to tell them all in court. Ronald Reagan once said that Rios Montt had gotten a “bum rap”!

Xeni writes:

In Guatemala, we also interviewed people from organizations that produced criminal evidence for the trial, including AHPN and FAFG, and Patrick Ball from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group. Our interviews took place in an increasingly polarized climate in Guatemala; rumors were spreading that some trial witnesses and people involved in the prosecution were receiving threats. Some, we were told, were forced to leave the country out of concerns for safety. Paid 20-page inserts by a pro-Ríos Montt, anti-genocide-tribunal group appeared in each week’s Sunday paper: “The so-called ‘genocide’ trial is a lie perpetrated by neo-Marxist guerrillas enabled by the Catholic Church,” the headlines read.

But the most challenging part of our reporting trip came when we traveled to the Ixil area, to interview Mayan survivors, including a woman who appeared in the tribunal as one of the approximately 100 “querellantes,” or criminal witnesses for the prosecution. We spoke with José Ceto Cabo, an Ixil civil war survivor who runs a small NGO that works to aid fellow Ixil survivors, and we listened as seven Ixil men and women from Chajul, Cotzal, Nebaj, and other communities at the center of the genocide trial told us the stories of the atrocities they survived. In the courtroom back in Guatemala City, women covered their faces with traditional woven shawls as a gesture of grief and to hide the overwhelming pain and fear they felt as they re-lived their trauma. In the room in Nebaj where our cameras and lights were set up, this group of men and women chose to show their faces, even as some of them wept and trembled, retelling horrors.

Today, the trial entered its final phase, with the prosecutors seeking 75 years for acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Below, “From Guatemalan Soil, Unearthing Evidence of Genocide,” a report from last night’s PBS NewsHour on the forensic science used in the trial. Produced by Xeni Jardin and Miles O’Brien.
 

Watch From Guatemala, Scientists Unearth Signs of Genocide on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

 
Village Voice columnist Michael Musto went to see a preview of Christina Crawford’s off-Broadway show, Surviving Mommie Dearest, a documentary screening followed by a Q&A with audience members. In the past, Crawford has hinted that her mother killed her last husband, Pepsi-Cola CEO Alfred Steele, but now she’s pretty much coming right out and alleging it rather bluntly.

Musto writes:

And what she said effectively wiped away what all the apologists have conjectured for years—that mommie merely drove Steele to a heart attack by making him batty and anxious. Oh, no, kids. It’s way worse than that.

In the doc, Tina describes how Steele was found dead at the bottom of the grand stairway in the house.

“I didn’t believe it was an accident,” she asserts, knowingly. “I know what Mommie was capable of in a state of rage.”

Eek. She was implying Joan was a real-life villainess fresh out of the type of film noir Joan often played the heroine of. Mommie did like to push, after all.

“There was no autopsy,” added Christina, austerely. “He was cremated.”

Yikes! In 1959, Joan Crawford was elected to fill Alfred Steele’s vacancy on the Pepsi-Co board of directors, a spot she held until she was forced out in 1973. Crawford and Steele’s ashes are interred together at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Thanks Niall!

 
Police in St. Cloud, Minnesota are investigating Phillip Michael Schaeffer, 53, an uninsured man who claimed to be Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour as he was running up medical bills in the low six figures at a local hospital. Schaeffer was booked on April 24 at the Stearns County Jail for investigation of felony theft by swindle.

Arbroath has the details:

Schaeffer went to St. Cloud Hospital on April 20 for treatment and gave the name David Gilmour when he checked in. He claimed to not have any health insurance and was treated and released. After he left, hospital employees had suspicions that he wasn’t really the Pink Floyd singer-guitarist. That suspicion led to the hospital flagging his patient chart in case he returned, hospital spokeswoman Jeanine Nistler said. The next day, “there was some discussion among security staff leading people to believe that he really wasn’t David Gilmour,” Nistler said.

“So our security supervisor pulled up the security camera shots of when this man entered the hospital and compared them to pictures on the Internet of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and determined he was not David Gilmour.”

Schaeffer came back to the hospital on April 24, told hospital staff he was David Gilmour and presented information that showed he had health insurance from Lloyd’s of London. He told hospital staff that Pink Floyd was on tour in Canada and that he stopped in St. Cloud during a break to get medical treatment.

He was seen by Dr. David Covington, an emergency room physician who works for Central Minnesota Emergency Physicians. Covington doubted that Schaeffer’s accent was one that he would expect from Gilmour. A security supervisor then went to the emergency room and saw a police officer who was there on an unrelated manner. The security supervisor told the officer about the Gilmour impersonator and the officer confronted Schaeffer. He then admitted he wasn’t Gilmour and was taken to jail. Schaeffer was later released from jail while police gather evidence to present to the county attorney’s office for possible charges.

I have a great deal of sympathy for anyone who doesn’t have health insurance, and who needs medical treatment, but this is ridiculous on the face of it. Why pick DAVID GILMOUR?

Couldn’t Schaeffer have claimed to be another member of the rock pantheon who he’d be less likely to be caught impersonating? Ringo Starr? Neil Young, maybe? The lead singer from Canned Heat? Billy Joel? Billy Idol??? Or AT LEAST he could have tried a freakin’ British accent?

Shine on you batshit diamond!

 
One of the most somber scenes you’ll ever see, the raw film footage from the NBC News archives of Sharon Tate’s funeral. John and Michelle Phillips, Warren Beatty, Yul Brynner, Doris Tate and a visibly distraught Roman Polanski—he looks like he can barely stand and who could blame him—are seen.

Sharon Tate was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, with her unborn son, Paul Richard Polanski, cradled in her arms, on Wednesday, August 13, 1969. I can hardly imagine anything sadder than such an occasion.

The news report as it ran on NBC News can be seen here.
 

 
Thank you, Chris Campion

 
‘Bearded Woman Attacked At Crucifixion’ may sound like a bogus, but this incredible headline comes from a rather bizarre story in the Brighton Argus:

A beard-wearing woman was attacked as she crucified Jesus.

The crime of Passion took place as the woman played a priest during the open air retelling of the Easter story.

Jeanie Civil’s attacker ripped her beard from her face and punched her during a performance of The Passion of Christ in Brighton on Easter Sunday

He yelled “Shame on you!” before Mrs Civil’s fellow cast members, dressed as soldiers, held him back.

He was bundled into a police car.

About 1,000 people were watching Mrs Civil playing Joseph Caiaphas in the grounds of St Peter’s Church when the man jumped up and attacked.

Yesterday Mrs Civil said: “He was hooded. He leapt up and punched me.

“He then pulled my beard from my face. It really hurt and it was very shocking.”

Mrs Civil – a psychologist, psychotherapist and author – said she wondered if the man was an ardent Christian who disliked her character’s actions towards the saviour.

We hope Mrs. Civil has recovered from the assault.

Full story here. Photograph Damian Barr.
 
With thanks to Ben Marlowe
 .

 
Last night on The Late Show with David Letterman, actor James Franco was promoting the new Spring Breakers film directed by Harmony Korine and he mentioned that the controversial director was banned from the show, prompting Letterman to bluntly explain why:

“I went upstairs [to the green room] to greet Meryl Streep,” recounted Letterman. “I looked around and found your friend, Harmony, going through her purse.”

Well then! Franco insists that Korine is “a very sane guy now” and on his say-so, Letterman has rescinded the ban.
 

 
Via Vulture

 
Crimestoppers, an organization that encourages busy-bodies [surely ‘do-gooders’? - ed.] to anonymously grass-up suspected crims (or possibly neighbors they don’t like?), has launched a Scratch ‘n’ Sniff card to help would-be drug enforcers recognize the tell-tale smell of a cannabis farm.

The card is being distributed across England and comes with a helpful check-list of ‘signs to look out for’:

1. Strong and sickly sweet smell
2. Cannabis growing equipment
3. Constantly covered or blocked-off windows
4. Visitors at unsociable hours
5. Strong and constant lighting day and night
6. High levels of heat and condensation
7. Constant buzz of ventilation
8. Lots of cables

On their website, Crimestoppers also helpfully tells users…er…informers which areas produce the most weed:

Hotspot areas targeted in this campaign include West and South Yorkshire, London, Greater Manchester and Avon & Somerset, which have all been identified in an ACPO report as areas with the highest number of cannabis farms in the UK. With nearly 1,800 cannabis farms found, West Yorkshire ranked the highest of all areas where cannabis farms were identified by ACPO across 2010/2012. South Yorkshire ranked second across the UK with over 1,600 found, London was the fourth highest with over 1,200 cannabis cultivation properties located in the same period.

Crimestoppers is “an independent charity which helps the police to solve crimes, making communities safer”, and is encouraging Scratch ‘n’ Sniffers to “spread the word on social media by using #weedthesigns.”

I think I’ll wait for the Scratch ‘n’ Sniff cocaine cards…
 

 

“Bela Lugosi’s tweaked…”

Peter Murphy, the former lead singer of Bauhaus, was arrested in Los Angeles on Saturday night after an apparent hit and run that injured the other driver.

Veronica Rocha, reporting for the Glendale Times Community News, writes:

The eyewitness followed Murphy, 55, from the crash at Central and Goode avenues in Glendale to the 3400 block of Barham Boulevard in Los Angeles because “he was afraid [Murphy] would kill someone with his driving,” according to Glendale police.

Murphy, who was in a Subaru Forester, reportedly struck a Mercedes about 11:48 a.m. at the intersection, then drove around it and got on the Ventura (134) Freeway, police said. As he fled the scene, a witness who was washing windows, snapped a photograph of Murphy’s Subaru, which sustained moderate front-end damage.

The driver of the Mercedes was also able to write down Murphy’s license plate number before Glendale fire personnel hauled her away on a gurney, police said.

Meanwhile, the driver of a pickup truck reportedly followed Murphy to Los Angeles, where he pulled in front of him, blocked his Subaru and called Glendale police to tell them he was detaining Murphy.

Good for this guy. That’s a seriously impressive act of citizenship.

According to the report, Murphy copped to the traffic collision, telling police that he was jet-lagged.

Then there’s this:

Inside the Los Angeles police patrol car where Murphy had been detained, officers reported finding a small plastic bag, possibly of methamphetamine, police said. Murphy denied the bag belonged to him, but officers said they believed he was trying to discard it in the patrol car.

Murphy was arrested on suspicion of causing injuries while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, felony hit-and-run and possessing methamphetamine, police said.

As on Monday, Peter Murphy was still being held in police custody, remanded in lieu of a half million dollar bail. Police officers expressed concern that Murphy could be a flight risk, and they’re probably right.

What I want to know is this: What was the bloody King of Goth doing in fucking Glendale, anyway?

 
This week, Brooklyn has seen a community come together for vigils and demonstrations in protest over the shooting of Kimani Gray by the NYPD.

16-year-old Gray was shot by 2 officers patrolling East Flatbush in an unmarked car around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night.

The autopsy report, released Wednesday, said 7 bullets were removed from Gray’s body, 3 of these had entered his body form the rear. Police claim they shot Gray after he had allegedly pointed a .38-caliber Rohm revolver in their direction.

The police allegations have been contradicted by the only civilian eye-witness account that claims Gray was “unarmed.”

From this it is apparent that the NYPD have the power to kill who they want, when they want, without interference or sanction.

This can not and should not be tolerated.

The shooting deepened tensions between the Community and the NYPD, with the police response to the local vigils and marches criticized as being insensitive, over-the-top and brutal.

While a Brooklyn community comes to terms with the unfettered violence of the NYPD, one mother still waits for her teenage son to come home.

We send sincere condolences to Kimani’s mother, Carol Gray and her family.

Kimani Gray R.I.P.

The activist and freelance photographer Jenna Pope attended a vigil for Kimani on Wednesday night.

Jenna was there to show respect for Kimani, support the community, and to photograph the vigil.

The night ended in a police riot, with Jenna badly injured and in need of hospital treatment.

This is part of her account and some of her photographs from that night, and I ask you check out Jenna’s photographic report over at her blog site.

This week, there have been vigils and marches in response to the NYPD shooting and killing Kimani Gray in Brooklyn. I was there on Wednesday, and although the vigil and march started out peacefully, the cops decided to block us from using a crosswalk while we were on the sidewalk, and continued agitating the whole night. I believe that’s what we call a “police riot.”

I was only able to photograph the beginning of the march since there was a quick end to my night when I was hit by a thrown object. An arrest was happening to my left, and I was hit on the right side. I received a concussion and was driven to the hospital in an ambulance where a doc put 5 stitches in my head. I have no idea what it was, or who threw it. If it was one of the many young, rightfully angry friends of Kimani Gray, then I honestly can say I would not be angry with them. Instead, I am angry that the NYPD shot 11 rounds at 16 year old boy, hitting him the back and killing him – which is what cause this outrage in Brooklyn.

If we want to seriously change the world, then we need more activists and photographers like Jenna Pope to bear witness to the truth, to give a damn and make a difference.

If you want, you can support Jenna Pope fight for justice, one photo at a time, by donating here. Thanks.
 

 
More of Jenna Pope’s photographs, after the jump…