The Process Church Ring
The Mansion Family Web
Charles Milles Manson’s mother was an alcoholic teenage prostitute; she was imprisoned for armed robbery when he was a toddler so he lived with his grandparents before living with his aunt and uncle. They sent him off to school on his first day dressed as a girl. By the time he was eight, he was back living with his mother and sometimes with his moonshiner uncle. When he was 9, Manson was sent to a reform school called the Gibault Home for Boys. At age 12 he then somehow lived alone at a boarding house until he was discovered by authorities. He then found himself at Boy’s Town, an intuition which the Franklin Committee found to be a large part of the pedo ring. At 15, he was arrested, and whilst he was in prison he was beaten and raped by both prisoners and guards. At 16 he escaped and went to California; however he was arrested again and sent to the National Training School for Boys in Washington. He was freed a few years later; he then married and fathered a child. He worked as a pimp for an interstate ring, causing him to be imprisoned for about 7 years.
In 1967, Manson was released after begging authorities at Terminal Island Prison to not release him. In the 1960s, the Haight-Asbury Free Clinic did government-sponsored human behaviour research. The programme was run by Dr. Roger Smith, a Criminologist looking at drug treatment who later claimed there were lots of Mansons running around in 1969, and the Clinic’s founder Dr. David Smith. Roger was Charlie’s Parole officer, so it’s possible that he learnt mind control techniques from them. Manson was transported to San Francisco where he played in bars in the Tenderloin District, he gathered many followers (many coming from various satanic sects). In 1968, he and his followers settled into Los Angeles. He made connections with famous figures in the entertainment and music industry. Singer Neil Young tried to get the head of Warner Bros to sign Manson on; he claimed that lots of well known musicians knew Manson. Dennis Wilson, the Beach Boy co-founder, and record producer Terry Melcher (whose mother was actor Doris Day) created LA’s ‘Hell Fire Club’ called the ‘Golden Penetrators’ together, they both befriended Manson and he was likely a member of their club. Manson was reportedly the religious consultant for Universal Studios on a movie about Christ. He also auditioned to be one of ‘The Monkey’s’.
The Manson family evolved in the late sixties, the Manson family trafficked LSD, hashish, marijuana, and cocaine. Manson himself was a known drug-dealer, contract killer, and had been involved in CP. In 1967, Manson was arrested by a narcotics team led by the LAPD’s Frank Salerno. Most of Manson’s philosophy came from the Process Church who he was closely connected to according to Bugliosi, Ed Sanders, and Maury Terry. There is plentiful evidence for this, for instance Manson literally admitted that he sent people over to London to interact with the Process Church during a filmed interview. Manson was exposed to the Process Church in at least 1967 at LaVey’s San Francisco Devil House / Black House and he claims to have met the Process Chuch’s leaders at the Tate home. Manson had visited the Tate home whilst it was owned by his associate by Rudy Altobelli and occupied by Melcher and actress Candace Bergen. In fact, Manson, Melcher and Manson associate John Phillips were all involved with the Process Church.
Manson had allied himself with Satanic groups based around murder, ritualistic bondage and sacrifice. Ed Sanders claims that Manson was into the production and distribution of snuff as well. Manson had links to the Church of Satan; the Solar Lodge of the OTO which operated off a ranch near Blythe and a home near the University of Southern California; the Kirke Order of the Dog Blood; a biker gang called the Straight Satans who attended KKK rally in San Fernado Valley; as well as the biker gangs the Satan Slaves, the Gypsy Jokers, the Coffin Makers, and Jokers out of Hell. Manson was also a member of the Church of Scientology and declared himself to be a ‘Theta Clear’ after going through 150 hours of ‘auditing’ in prison. It is fair to say that the Manson family itself was a Satanic cult.
Manson Family member Susan Atkins was one of LaVey’s dancers in his stable known as the “Topless Witches Review”, before leaving the Church of Satan to become one of Charlie’s girls or one of the “Witches of Mendocino”. She claimed that LaVey started her down the road to murder. Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil was recruited from the Church of Satan as well; he was the room mate of Kenneth Anger. LaVey had consulted with film director Roman Polanski on his film ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and starred in it as Satan. Some newspaper reports claimed that the Polanski’s hosted sex and drug orgies and were Satanists, reportedly a drug dealer was filmed being whipped at the Tate house in a SandM ritual with several celebrities in attendance. Actor Denis Hopper separately spoke of SandM movies being filmed in the Tate house which involved Hollywood stars. Her band mate Phillips, Voytek Frykowski and Jay Sebring, a known sadist, and potentially Abigail Folger were in singer Cass Elliot’s clique; as was Manson and some of his followers. Pic Dawson was also in the clique; he was the son of a US State Department official and was an on-off boyfriend of Cass. Dawson had lived in home of Frykowski and Folger, at the time they house-sat the Tate house. Folger had been friends with Manson. Interestingly, Sebring appeared in underground film with Beausoleil.
The Process Church founder Robert DeGrimston lectured at the Esalen Institute, a ‘new age’ retreat with ties to Crowley-enthusiast Timothy Leary through his Himalayan Academy. Manson had ties to both, he had recently visited Esalen and Folger had retreated there a few days before that. Robert Heinlein, the Author of Stranger in a Strange Land who was promoted by Astounding Science Fiction like Hubbard, was invited to lecture there. Manson used this book as a script and let his followers read it despite him generally preventing them from reading books. Dave claims that Heinlein was an authoritarian right-winger and puzzles over why progressives promote him even in modern day times; personally I’d suggest this is to do with a faulty take on the classification of left and right.
The musician Gary Hinman was murdered, the LA Sheriff’s Department obtained the testimony of Biker gang members Al Springer and Danny DeCarlo who was a member of the Straight Satans, the Process Church, and part of Manson’s security; he kept a large arsenal of weapons at the family compound which was more akin to a paramilitary compound than a hippie commune. Their testimony revealed that the case linked to two other high-profile murders, Beausoleil was sentenced and put to death for Hinman’s murder. The LAPD did nothing upon receiving the information the Sheriffs had uncovered. Manson lived in an auto-shop which was co-owned by an LAPD officer at the time. In 1969, two Scientologists were murdered on the Los Angeles streets. They had each stabbed over 50 times. One had dated Manson disciple Bruce Davis the previous year before Manson sent him to London to visit the Process Church headquarters and work at the local Scientology school / headquarters. Davis was later convicted of unrelated murder charges; he is also a Zodiac killer suspect.
Manson had his followers commit two mass killings in 1969. The first crime scene was the Tate murders which occurred in 10050 Cielo drive (the aforementioned Tate house), the victims included: Sharon Tate, Sebring, Folger, Frykowski, and Steven Parent. The other crime scene was the LaBianca killings at 3301 Waverly Drive, the victims were the home owners Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. According to the official narrative, Manson may not have even been present when this occurred as he didn’t actually partake in the killings himself. Singer Sammy Davis Jr., a member of the Church of Satan who was introduced to it by Sebring, claimed that all of the victims at Cielo drive had been in Satanism at some point. Interestingly, on the day of the murders, a phone call was placed to Esalen from the Polanski home for unknown reasons. Manson claimed that victims were involved in CP.
Tate’s father was Colonel Paul Tate, he was a US army intelligence asset and Vietnam veteran; he got involved in the investigation. Roman Polanski co-shared the home with his wife Tate so he also privately investigated. He brought in psychic Peter Hurkos who was involved in organizing a cancelled Black Arts festival for Halloween day 1969 with Leary and LaVey. Four of LAPD’s top initial suspects in Tate murders were in Cass Elliot’s inner circle; they remained prime suspects for many months. The investigation grew to also involve the FBI, the Mossad, the California Beverage Control Board, the US treasury Department, the LA County District Attorney’s Office. The LAPD ignored connections between the two murder scenes and refused to look at wealth of evidence implicating the Manson family, this significantly held back the investigation.
A few weeks after the Tate murders, a unique .22 calibre revolver was found and given to LAPD; it matched the description of suspected murder weapon. Furthermore, it had a broken handle which fit the handle pieces recovered from the crime scene. They filed the weapon and ignored its existence for months, the department even sent out a flyer for the weapon until the father of the son who had found the gun phoned in; they admitted it existed after initially telling the man that it had been destroyed. Susan Atkins was arrested on unrelated charges and put in the Sybil Brand Institute for Women. Whilst there she gave detailed confessions to at least two inmates about 11 murders the family had already committed. When they tried to pass on the information to the LAPD they were blocked by the female jailers, one of who was dating a homicide detective who was investigating the Tate case. Despite all this evidence, no action was taken for months. The Tate crime scene rearranged after family left, the bodies were moved from the porch where they were posed to inside the house. Unidentified bloody boot heel prints were found on the porch and there were numerous unidentified fingerprints on the premises.
Manson was arrested on charges unrelated to the killings; he had previously been arrested on over 40 occasions. Eventually he was charged for the killings. At trial, the lead defence attorney was Ronald Hughes. Hughes had just passed the bar and had never tried a case before. He soon disappeared. The prosecutor was Vicent Bugliosi who co-authored a book on the case with Curt Gentry titled ‘Helter Skelter’. President Nixon declared Manson guilty on TV, almost causing mistrial. The defence rested its case without giving one; they literally didn’t call a single witness. Hughes turned up dead on the day Judge Oder gave death sentences to Manson Family members Manson, Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle, and Leslie VanHouten. Phillip wasn’t prosecuted but turned up dead after allegedly playing ‘Russian Roulette’. Another Manson Family member was sent to Patton State hospital, the institution was overtly involved in behaviour modification experiments in the 1970s.
At the time of writing Manson still exercised control over his followers from the inside of a prison cell, it had been thirsty years. It’s debatable that his operations continued. Interestingly he was analysed by Psychiatrist and CIA doctor Louis Jolyon West. In 1974, Arliss Perry was murdered and left on display at the Stanford Memorial Church. Her body was positioned as a Masonic compass and square, this effect was created by folding her jeans in an inverted V across her splayed legs; Leno LaBianca had the same symbol carved into her body as a substitute W in the word ‘War’. An alter candle protruded from her vagina. The prime suspect was Bill Mentzer, Mentzer knew Manson and had lunch with Folger shortly before her death. Mentzer was later convicted of the ‘Cotton Club’ murder of aspiring film producer Roy Radin. Mentzer was one of Larry Flynt’s, a magazine publisher, three body guards who were ordered to carry out the execution. Mentzer was potentially linked to David Berkowitz. In 1975, his disciple Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme attempted to assassinate President Ford.
Police originally thought the mass killings were drug, occult, or fame-porn motivated. Films and video were found at the Tate home which provided evidence of an Elite wife-swapping operation; the Folger and Frykowski home also had erotic photos of Hollywood’s Elite. There were also potential organised crime links. Leno LaBianca owned his underworld connection nearly 250,000$ in gambling debt, the phonelines of his house were tapped. His house used to be owned by Walt Disney. In the end the official narrative is that Manson was just crazy so it was senseless murder, or alternatively that the murders were part of a plan to incite a race war. Yet it’s possible that Manson partook in ‘The Great Acid Coup of 1969’, and that the killings were an attack on the competition. Frykowski, Folger, and Tate were linked to the trafficking of hallucinogens. Frykowski had reportedly secured a deal making him the exclusive MDA distributor in L. A. area with Folger’s funding (she was a coffee heiress). Rosemary LaBianca trafficked methamphetamine and likely other drugs to.
Joel Rostau delivered drugs to Sebring at the Tate house just hours before the murder. Rostau was murdered in NYC a year later and then another one of Sebring’s associated ended up dead a month later in Florida; Sebring’s friends thoroughly cleaned his house straight after the Tate murder’s before police could conduct a search. A few days after the killings a witness saw Manson driving a Mercedes owned by underling of a man called Ronald Stark. Around that time, Stark had assumed the role of the sole banker for the ‘Brotherhood of Eternal Love’, a church formed by motorcycle gang with close ties to Leary. He got the position after its leader John Griggs ‘overdosed on PCP’ at the group’s ranch, a month earlier a friend of Leary’s daughter had drowned there. Stark guided the Brotherhood to be the largest producer and distributor of LSD in the world (50 million doses). Stark had contacts with American embassy personnel and was visited by American and British consulates. He was linked to the UK equivalent acid-producing operation dubbed ‘the Microdot Gang’. The LaBianca house was next to the home Harold True home, he hosted LSD parties which were attended by the Manson family.
The Manson case is significant as it set the precedent that people can be compelled to act against their will under the law. In a Danish Court, a hypnotist called Nielson had induced his subject Hardrup to commit murder. Nielson received a life sentence, whilst Hardrup received only two years on basis of temporary insanity. Yet in the Manson case, everyone was given death penalty; which is of course completely illogical as it means Manson both did and didn’t vitiate the control of his followers over their own actions. Manson claimed that he simply used fear to control his followers, as espoused by the Process Church. In an interview given by Dennis Wilson of the ‘beach boys’, he called Charlie ‘the Wizard’ and spoke of ‘getting the fear’. Isn’t it curious how we are supposed to think mind control exists and is used by people like Manson, yet someone we are supposed to also believe that it doesn’t because US intelligent agencies investing millions into researching it claim it’s a nutty conspiracy theory?
The Satanic Night Stalker
Richard Ramirez was born to Julian and Mercedes Ramirez in 1960, Julian was beaten by his father and grandfather and grew up to become a policeman in Juarez. Eventually, he relocated his family to El Paso in Texas but he often visited his police friends in Juarez. Julian had an explosive temper which sometimes resulted in self-mutilation, which the children had to witness including acts like banging his head against a wall and taking a hammer to his own head. He was potentially sexually abusive towards his wife and children. Julian’s two older sons went to a special class in El Paso junior high school for slow learners; its teacher Frank McMan had molested dozens of children. McMan had visited the Ramirez home and had taken the boys to visit his own home with their parents’ knowledge. Another pedophile lived just a block away from the Ramirez family, Richard occasionally contacted him. The family was very secluded and Richard spent a lot of time alone in a fantasy world, he tended to dissociate as an adult too.
Richard’s older cousin Mike acted as his mentor, in 1965 Mike went to Vietnam; potentially as a Phoenix assassin as he had 29 confirmed kills. He took home eight self-made shrunken heads and Polaroid photos showing rape, torture, and murder; he showed Richard all of these and told him about how they treated the Vietnamese people. Mike also taught him jungle warfare and survival techniques. In 1973, Mike killed his wife with a point-blank shot to the face in front of Richard; the mother of this wife was a skilled black magic practitioner. Richard and his father returned to the already-secured crime scene to find the bullet slug, gathering it as a keepsake along with other things at Mike’s request. Mike was judged NGRI and sent to a State hospital. Richard went to LA where his older brother Ruben taught him burglary. At age 15, Richard returned to El Paso to work at a Holiday Inn, he bound and attempted to rape a woman in her room but the husband returned and beat him up. All charges against him were dropped. In 1977, Mike was released after serving four and a half years and mentored Richard again.
In 1978, Richard went to LA again via San Francisco to attend a Church of Satan ritual and have a one-on-one meeting with LaVey. The media played off Richard’s Satanism by claiming he was completely self-styled as if he made his philosophy up. Richard was a fan of LaVey’s book ‘The Satanic Bible’ and he enjoyed the writings of Marquis deSade. In LA, Richard lived in seedy neighbourhoods and used lots of prostitutes; he also supposedly slept in a local cemetery. Richard was arrested for stealing a car and leading five LAPD officers on a high-speed chase; there’s no indication that charges were filed against him. Richard had plans to buy a house with basement to set up a torture room, he told people that he knew that there was a market for filming smut and that he wanted sex slaves. Richard was tall (at least 6”) and Latino, and he claimed to always wear black whilst killing.
In 1984, Jennie Vincow was stabbed to death in Glassel Park; there is no indication Richard did it and it took place a year before all the other killings which happened in rapid succession. Richard’s defence team implied that her son had killed her for money; one of her sons was an unemployed pharmacist who was physically abusive towards her, he was evasive when questioned and refused to take a polygraph exam. At the trial for this murder, Judge Michael Tynan refused to allow questions about Vincow’s financial affairs. In 1985, Maria Hernandez and Dayle Okazaki were shot in their home with a .22 calibre weapon. Hernandez survived the attack; she claimed that the killer was 5’10”, thin, with black hair and dark eyes. He had approached them before taking a military shooting stance and firing a single shot at her. Her head wasn’t aimed for strangely enough, despite him sounding like a professional hit man; the head was shot in almost all the other attacks. She first identified Paul Samuels, a military veteran who often wore black and followed around underage girls. He matched the description so police watched him and observed him following and trying to coax two young women into his car. He was arrested, he had gun but the calibre didn’t match that used at the scene. Maria couldn’t identify Richard in court but his conviction let Samuels of; however the composite sketch produced from her account did kind of look like Richard. Maria’s godmother was the mother of Gil Carrillo, the lead detective in the Night Stalker task force alongside Frank Salerno; also Maria’s actual mother was a good friend of Carrillo’s sister.
On the same night, Veronica Yu was shot twice with a .22 calibre in Monterey Park; two witnesses gave similar descriptions which did not match Richard. The assailant was 5’6” / 5’8” tall, possibly Asian as he had slanted eyes, and had shaggy hair. Both witnesses however claimed that they couldn’t see well enough to identify the assailant, one of their testimonies in court where they claimed to have heard shouting contradicted their earlier statements and forensic evidence about how the shooting occurred. 10 days later, Vincent and Maxine Zazzara were shot in the head by .22 calibre whilst sleeping in their house, the slugs were too deformed to match those found at previous crime scenes. The house was then ransacked and Maxine’s body was mutilated; her eyes were gouged out and an inverted cross was carved into her left breast. A fingerprint not belonging to the victims or Richard was found at the point of entry, an Avia shoeprint was found outside. Their son Peter told at least two officers that the killer was a drug-related mob hit. Yet all drug-trafficking and organized crime related evidence was stricken from the pre-trail record and no questions were allowed about the family’s connection to organized crime, the guns found there, or Vincent’s prison time. The first department was the first to respond to the scene.
Next, Bill Doi was killed with a .22 calibre shot to the head whilst he slept in his home, his wife Lillian was raped and left alive in thumbcuffs. The house was ransacked; Bill’s Masonic ring was taken. A 9 mm handgun was found on the nightstand and guns were strategically placed around house suggesting that Bill had taken precautions. An Avia shoeprint was found outside as was a combat boot print which was supposedly left by an officer at scene. Once again, the fire department was the first to respond. Lillian’s crime scene report described a man other than Richard. Two weeks later, Mabel Bell and Nettie Long, who were both in their 80s, were tortured with an electric cord and then bludgeoned with hammer. Pentagrams were drawn on a wall and on one of the victims. Their house was out of the way and only accessible by a long single road; thus it wasn’t a random attack. An Avia shoeprint was left on a clock, a human hair found at scene wasn’t left by the victims or Richard.
Next, Carol Kyle was attacked in her home, she was raped and sodomized; yet she wasn’t killed. The house was ransacked. Again, the fire department was the first to respond. The composition sketch created with Kyle’s testimony, depicting a light-skinned good-looking Mexican, looked nothing like Ramirez or Maria’s earlier composite sketch. Kyle later helped to produce a second sketch which looked more like Richard. She claimed that her assailant spoke to her for 20 minutes in an unknown accent. The Night Stalker next supposedly tried to break into the home of a LA County Sheriff’s deputy which was located a few blocks away from Carrillo family and a half-mile from the Zazzara home; this failed but he left behind a Avia shoeprint below a window. He then failed to kidnap a girl from Eagle Rock, immediately after this he was stopped by LAPD officer John Stavros for running a red light. At time, a description of the kidnapper and his car was broadcasted over Stavros’s radio, yet he supposedly failed to make connection to the man and car right in front of him. The suspect then drew a pentagram on the car before fleeing on foot; car was impounded and forgotten with no attempt to obtain evidence from it being made. Next Patty Elaine Higgins was brutally beaten and near-beheaded in her home, this attack was originally credited to Richard but serological tests proved that the assailant couldn’t be him. A Pathologist from the Medical Examiner’s office had used an ATM across the street from crime scene directly before or after the murder occurred. Judge Tynan stopped the defence introducing this case through making the prosecution object on his behalf.
Next, Mary Louise Cannon was beaten with vase whilst sleeping at her home before it was ransacked; blood was found on the vase which didn’t come from Richard or the victim. Light-brown hair on the bed and a fingerprint were recovered from the scene, these weren’t left by Ramirez. Two Avia shoeprints were found on the carpet apparently, but jurors couldn’t see said prints in photos or the carpet swatches presented; subsequently the prosecutors presented a tissue with a shoeprint on it which they asserted was found at the house. In 1985, Whitney Bennett was beaten about the head with a tire iron whilst sleeping in her family’s home; 478 stitches were required to close her wounds. The house wasn’t ransacked and the rest of the family were untouched, an Avia shoeprint was supposedly left in blood under the bed’s covers yet police initially missed this. Fingerprints were found at the point of entry and on a mysterious beer bottle in the house, these didn’t belong to Richard; nor did the bloodstains on the bed sash which didn’t match the victim.
After this, Joyce Lucille Nelson was beaten to death in her house which was ransacked, Avia footprints were everywhere including on her face. Brown hair and fingerprints at scene weren’t left by Richard. That same day, Sophie Dickman was left handcuffed to her bed after a failed rape as her assailant couldn’t get an erection, however semen and tearing was found on her body. Her house was searched. She described her assailant as 5’8” tall, dressed like a hiker, and he definitely wasn’t Latino or Oriental or Black. She also said he wore dark canvas shoes; not Avias. She lived across the street from a female Sheriff deputy who had worked on the Doi crime scene, her deputy husband was a good friend of Carrillo and had been recently been murdered. Next Max and Leila Kneiding were killed in their home; they were shot multiple times with .22 and hacked with a machete. Blood was spattered everywhere suggesting there were multiple assailants. The autopsies were done by Dr. Irwin Golden who was discredited during the OJ Simpson case. Hairs found on the nightstand and pillows didn’t come from Richard. On the same night, Chainarong Khovananth was killed instantly with a .25 calibre shot to the head and his wife Somkid was raped, sodomized and tied up whilst the house was ransacked. She told her sister in law that the attacker was black with curly black hair, Avia shoeprint were found in the hallway and patio.
Two weeks later, Virginia and Chris Petersen were shot in the head with a .25 calibre automatic gun, both survived. The house wasn’t ransacked and no Avia footprints were found. Days later, Elyas Abowath was killed with a .25 round shot to the head. His wife Sakina was raped and sodomized, also their house and car were ransacked. The description of the attacker given by Sakina didn’t fit Richard; the attacker had dirty blond hair, a lack of an accent, and he wore boots. Unidentified brown hair and fingerprints were found; African-american pubic hair was also found at the scene. It was claimed that the killer also had .38 calibre handgun and Uzi, ballistics test show that at least four guns were used across the killings, one of the handguns disappeared from the LAPD evidence inventory. The house was in a difficult to navigate neighbourhood and thus the attack likely wasn’t random. On the day of the killing, Salerno called in the FBIs Behavioural Science Unit. Next, Peter and Barbara Pan were shot in the head in their San Francisco home, the house was ransacked and a pentagram was drawn on the wall. Finally, Bill Carns was shot in the head three times at home, the house was ransacked and Carole Smith was left alive as a witness. It was claimed that the Night Stalker visited San Francisco’s Bay area on several occasions; some investigators claim Ramirez is responsible for another four unsolved murders, rape, and 10 burglaries in that area.
Within a month of the Behavioural Science Unit’s involvement, Richard’s face was plastered on TV screens and newspapers. He was captured by a group of citizens; they beat him severely before turning him over to the police. An ‘LA Times’ reporter working case claimed that an explicit order was given to police that they don’t want a trial for Richard; they wanted him dead. He was taken to the LAPD’s Hollenbeck station despite the arrest being made in LA Sherriff’s jurisdiction by a Sheriff’s deputy. Richard was then put into a line-up which was obviously biased due to the widespread airing of his face by the media; furthermore he still had visible wound and bandages on back of his head from the beating which had also been publicized news. Witnesses were allowed to converse and compare notes. Richard was in position two of the line up, at least two officers held up two fingers to the witnesses; this was denied in court but they can literally be seen doing it on a video tape and photos which the jurors never got to see. He was then taken to a County jail and put in solitary confinement in a hospital ward. Richard complained about headaches and claimed that he was being poisoned.
Whilst in jail he was visited by Zeena LaVey and Nikolas Schreck. Zeena said that her father and the Church of Satan sent him their blessings, and that he was being made an honorary member of the Church. Sean Penn, an actor, occupied a cell next to him for reckless driving and punching someone. Penn claims that Richard contacted him through a note and he had sent a spiteful note back to him, yet Penn’s wife Madonna had tried to meet with Ramirez. Richard choose Daniel and Arturo Hernandez as his defence, they only had 5 years experience practicing law between them and had no homicide case experience. The judge assigned public defender Ray Clark to help. The prosecutor was Phil Halpin, Halpin was the co-counsel on the Manson prosecution. Richard’s early request for a change of venue was denied. His family was banned from the Courtroom as they could be potential witnesses, but of course the detectives were regularly allowed to attend. The trial was stacked against the defence. The prosecution was allowed to stall on handing over evidence to the defence, the prosecution regularly objected and almost all of these were sustained. On one occasion, Richard was even dragged from the Courtroom and beaten by a bailiff.
The jury wasn’t sequestered despite the media’s vilification of him; Ramirez was also kept shackled throughout the trial. The LA Times reported that jailers had overhead a plan by Richard to shoot the prosecutor, despite him having no access to a gun, thus metal detectors were put on full display outside of the Courtroom. On the trial’s first day, the Times ran a story claiming that Richard bragged in jail about being a super criminal responsible for over 20 murders. The main evidence the prosecution had was latex glove prints and Avia shoeprints, but this only proves what the criminal was wearing. But there was one bit of evidence obtained from the scene of a crime he wasn’t being charged for; the judge allowed this despite disallowing evidence from the Higgins case. In 1985, Richard burglarized Clara Hadsall’s home, the responding officer Tom Wright claimed to have discovered an Avia shoeprint in sink below the window of entry alongside a palm print and fingerprints. Without calling in the evidence technicians, he somehow single-handedly lifted various prints with a fingerprint kit and he happened to have the extra-long lifting tape needed to preserve the shoeprint. He also made plaster casts of footprints outside of window and that he photographed it all. The elderly owner of the house had recently died, so his account couldn’t be disputed. Why would Richard leave prints when he didn’t at a single other scene, and happened to do it at the only one where no witnesses or evidence proving a crime even occurred could be produced?
The Avia shoes were never found, nor was any receipt for them, nor was there even a single witness who saw Ramirez wearing them. The state claimed that Richard wore latex gloves during the crimes, yet he randomly didn’t wear them at the Hadsall scene. The defence used some testimony to defend him. Richard’s father claimed that Richard was in El Paso at the time that two of the murders occurred; two witnesses confirmed this account, one even offered show photographic proof but the judge refused to allow it into evidence. Richard’s girlfriend Doreen babysat victim Somkid’s five year old daughter during the time Somkid gave testimony against Richard. Within a week of the jury deliberations, one juror had to be replaced and then later another juror did. One of these jurors named Phyllis Singletary was killed, in a crime similar to that of the Night Stalker’s, by her boyfriend for supposedly unrelated reasons; the boyfriend supposedly killed himself before the police could question him. One of the replacement juror’s two brothers had been murdered, she didn’t protest to being sat on the jury. Richard was found guilty on forty counts, during the sentencing phase the defence didn’t call a single witness. He received nineteen death sentences, despite a few of the jurors later claiming that they thought the defendant had been railroaded.
The Elusive Zodiac
In 1966, a potential zodiac murder occurred in Los Angeles. Cheri Jo Bates had been stabbed in the chest and nearly had her head decapitated by a knife, a wristwatch belonging to the military and a military-styled heel prints were found at the scene. Circumstances suggested that she had spent a portion of the evening with the killer before the murder. In 1967, a confession to Bates murder was received in the mail along with taunting letters which were sent to local newspapers and the victim’s father. However, the FBI later admitted that they published a remake rather than the original version of the confession, but asserted that the wording was identical. In 1968, another suspected zodiac murder occurred in the San Francisco area. The man was shot in the head at point blank range with a .22 and his female companion was shot multiple times. A detective on the case claimed that the male victim had openly talked about the details of a major drug deal which was about to occur.
In 1969, a 9mm semi-automatic pistol was used to gun down a couple in their case. Darlene Ferrin was likely the primary target as Michael Mageau survived his lesser wounds, Ferrin may have known the previous zodiac victims and claimed to have witnessed a murder which resulting in a man following her. Weeks before her death, she had received packages from a man living in Mexico that she had married in 1966 under an assumed name before later divorcing. Mageau hung out with Ferrin for the night, he had left his home in a hurry so the door was open and the lights as well as TV were on. Mageau initially claimed that upon leaving Ferrin’s house they were followed immediately, but he subsequently changed his story multiple times and went into hiding. Shortly after the murder, a payphone outside the Sheriff’s station was used by a man to take credit for the killing.
A long series of letters began arriving at local newspaper offices; the first one was requested to be released on August 1st (the occult holiday Lammas). The letters included code suggesting that the writer had a naval intelligence background. Thus, the Office of Naval Intelligence was brought in alongside the FBI, the U. S. Postal Service, the California Department of Justice, and four local police agencies. A letter received on the 4th August 1969 referred to its writer as the ‘Zodiac’. A month later, a man and women were stabbed in a San Francisco park. The ambulance took an hour to arrive yet the man survived; he described his assailant as wearing a strange hood with an attached apron which displayed the zodiac symbol. He had a gun yet he instead chose to use a knife, which increased the chance of his victim surviving. Prints of a military boot which were primarily given to US naval bases on west coast were found. The killer used a payphone to call local police again yet a ‘nervous technician’ reportedly destroyed the palm print. In October of that year, a taxi driver was shot in the head by a 9mm handgun, he had picked up his customer from Mason street and dropped them off at Presidio Heights were the murder occurred. Local kids witnessed the murder and called the police, they gave a description of the killer but the police dispatcher broadcasted a description of the killer being ‘black’ allowing for him to easily evade the large police response. A different gun had been used to the previous one, thus a different weapon had been used at each crime scene.
A letter arrived two days later claiming credit for the killing and threatened to commit a school bus attack. Roughly a week later, a man claiming to be the Zodiac called authorities and requested to speak to F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli; a San Francisco CIA-linked Attorney who helped covered up the McMartin case and nearly represented Richard Ramirez. Following this, the man, now calling himself ‘Sam’ potentially linking him to David Berkowitzs whose crimes were extremely similar, had a live chat on air with Belli. In November, another letter arrived containing a bomb threat. More letters were sent, one addressed to Belli, as was a ‘dragon card’. One letter contained a coded reference to the locations of the killings; interestingly these crime scenes formed a pattern that centred around Mt. Diablo, also known as the Devil’s Mountain. The decoding process required the use of unit of measurement called a radian, it’s a mathematical unit based on number ‘Pi’; potentially linking the letter to the four Pi movement. Frank Fowles, the Inyo County District Attorney, claimed that the zodiac killings were connected to Manson. Since the time of writing many of the letters have potentially been deciphered, they seem to incriminate Lawrence Kane Kaye who supposedly killed people as they would become his ‘slaves in paradise’.
Bailey's Patsies
Charles “The Pied Piper of Tucson” Schmid was convicted for killing three teenage girls. The first killings occurred 5 months after the last Boston strangler victim was killed. Schmid was very charismatic and attracted many followers. He had a passion for singing and playing the guitar, he also claimed to have psychic powers. Schmid had a Mexican wedding with a 15 year old admirer of his a couple of weeks before his arrest. Many of his followers partook in or helped cover up the three murders. Two of his followers pled guility to such charges and were given prison time. There were claims of a teenage drug and prostitution ring being involved, ‘this had been dubbed the ‘Tucson Mafia’. He was arrested for impersonating an FBI agent after questioning people in San Diego, he claimed to be working on behalf of Tucson Mafia; strangely he had contacted the FBI not long before heading to California. He was arrested in 1965 and had his trial in 1966. He was convicted for two murders, yet testimony about a third murder he wasn’t being prosecuted for was allowed. The State claimed that two of the murders were done to cover up the first one and thus their occurrence was evidence of his link to the first. Schmid received the death sentence within two hours.
In 1966, F. Lee Bailey became Schmid’s defence attorney for second trial. He was brought onto the case by writer John Gilmore who was a friend of Schmid’s wife, the son of LAPD officer, and a former child actor. Gilmore was working on book about Schmid, he later wrote a book about Charles Manson. He would also mirror Bailey’s role in the Boston Strangler case. Gilmore wrote a book on Elizabeth Shorts, the victim in the 1947 Black Dahlia case, in it he pins the crime on an unlikely patsy using a purported confessions tape (which had ever been produced) he and LAPD homicide Detective John St. John obtained from the suspect; the subject burned to death in an LA hotel before he could be questioned. Bailey and his co-counsel convinced Schmid to plead guilty to second degree murder; he received a 50 year to life sentence. After Bailey left to return to Boston, Schmid wrote a letter to the judge asking for a retrial as his attorneys ‘coerced’ him into the plea. The judge agreed, but Schmid then suddenly withdrew his request. His death sentence was set aside in 1971 as the death sentence was temporarily abolished in Arizona. Schmid then escaped but was recaptured. In 1975, Schmid was stabbed twenty times in prison resulting in his death. His case mirrors that of Albert DeSalvo so much, one can’t help but wonder if Bailey may be conspiring with some network to cover up crimes using these patsies.
The Kansas City Conspirator
Robert Berdella’s father was a WWII veteran and part of the Knights of Columbus (a catholic charity), he was physically abusive towards his son using items like a leather strap. He died at the age of 39 due to a heart attack; Berdella’s mom remarried shortly after. Berdella lived an isolated life at home and at the age of 16 was raped by a restaurant co-worker. In 1968, he was arrested for selling drugs to an undercover federal agent whilst at college. He received a five year suspended sentence. He was arrested a month after the incidence on drug charges, but these were dropped. Whilst at college he purchased a house, he also performed a ritual on the campus involving decapitating a duck. He then worked as a chef for renowned restaurants and country clubs in Kansas city, which is somewhat alarming as he was likely into cannibalism. He began to collect artefacts fashioned from human body parts. In 1981, he opened a flea market stand called ‘Bob’s Bizarre Bazaar’ using these and this became his main job.
Berdella set up a Neighbourhood Watch programme; he also served as the liaison to the police and nearby youth homes. Throughout the 1980s, he had a constant flow of young men going to and from his house, some even temporarily lived there. One of these young men claimed that 4 boarders were living there at a time, and that large groups of young men attended parties there regularly. One boarder was Freddie Kellogg. Kellogg had been picked up by unidentified man; the man then handcuffed and assaulted him. A second unidentified man stopped the assault, he then introduced Kellogg to Berdella, this resulted in Kellogg becoming Berdella’s liaison to the streets. Lots of the boarders were volunteers for ‘medical experiments’ at the Quincy Research Center, one group even had a party at Berdella’s house after completing a 30 day programme at the center. Many boarders said that Berdella claimed to know powerful people. He reportedly had connections in Africa, Asia, South America, and along the Pacific Rim. Police claim that no boarders were involved in the crimes despite the murders occurring at the time.
Jerry Howell disappeared in 1984, two witnesses thought Berdella gave him a ‘hot shot’ (injecting someone to give them an overdose); another witness claimed that there were rumours that Berdella did bad things to kids. The Police’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit (FPU) supposedly inquired about Berdella, but very little was done to actually properly investigate him. Two more victims disappeared in 1985, and then Walter James Farris disappeared after he was last heading for Berdella’s house. The FPU still did little, despite this being the first time in their history that a suspect had been positively linked to two missing persons cases. In 1986, Todd Stoops and Larry Pearson disappeared. Pearson was captive in Berdella’s house for 6 weeks before being killed and his severed head being put in the freezer for a week; Berdella had only just returned home from an Ohio trip and regularly had guests and boarders at the house during this time. In 1978, Chris Bryson abducted and imprisoned in house, he escaped and exposed Berdella’s operation. Evidence suggests that many more boys were killed than the official number, but authorities ignored this and even actively tried to cover this fact up.
Chris Bryson was abducted and held in Berdella’s house. He was found naked, dazed, and wounded from a combination of torture and jumping out of a window to escape. He had been heavily drugged and tortured in ways that affected his senses. Fingers and chemical swabs had been jabbed into his eyes; his hands were tied with piano wire and beaten with a tire iron; electric shocks were sent to his eyes, ears, and genitals; his ears were filled with caulking compound; he had been branded and stabbed with pins; and he had been beaten on head with a rubber mallet. He was photographed throughout the torture. Lloyd Harvey and Larry Lewis were the responding officers, they were joined by officers John Metzger and Cynthia Cherry who took charge; Metzger volunteered to take the report. Officers were sceptical of Bryson’s claims despite his physical injuries and evident bondage markings. Bryson claimed that a blond woman had helped Berdella with his abduction and that he was told he would be shared with others; he was even told that he might be sent off to location in Wyoming to be abused indefinitely, but police ignored this information. Chris was taken to the Research Psychiatric Centre to recover from his injuries.
A 12 man task force was assembled; it was led by Troy Cole. Cole was a former employee of the CIA whose career had begun in the CIA headquarters at Langley in 1968 where he was assigned to the White House. He ‘officially’ left in 1970 to work for the District of Columbia police force and in 1972 worked for Kansas City Police to work in the homicide department and its intelligence unit. Officer Tom Eikel obtained the search warrant; he had been to the house previously undercover with 2 hustlers acting as informants to make a drug purchase which resulted in zero legal action. The investigation of the Bizarre was led by officer Lee Floyd, not only was he a past customer, he was acquainted with both Bob and his flea-market landlord who was himself a former Kansas City Police officer.
Searches of the putrid-smelling house resulted in police finding notes by Berdella as well as meticulously detailed torture logs. One torture log didn’t line up with any of the injuries inflicted on the 6 official victims; Berdella claimed that it referred to experiments he had performed on a stray dog. Another torture log had a specific reference to Col. Oliver North which he explained away as ‘North just appeared on the TV’ despite the fact that nowhere else in the logs he wrote about what was transpiring on the TV. He made such claims in private during controlled confessions. Police also found hundreds of photos of 20 different men being tortured, numerous film and audio tapes were also seized but their contents were kept secret. Human skulls were found; also tests showed that two large plastic trash barrels and bucket had been filled with blood. A stockpile of pharmaceuticals was found including Acepromazine, Chlorpromazine, and Ketamine. Human vertebrae had been cut up into small pieces and spread about the yard. Clippings of serial killer stories were scattered about too. In the face of all this evidence, Cole announced that it was not to be treated as a homicide case. But when a chainsaw in house was found to be packed with human flesh, blood, and hair, the FBI was brought in to assist with the case. Witnesses claimed Berdella killed victims in satanic rituals, others said that he made regular trips to a farm south of the city with heavy trash bags; three farms were identified in the supposed area but they weren’t searched as it was deemed ‘impractical’
Berdella was arrested and placed in a medical unit in a cell with no windows or bars; he was kept isolated and heavily drugged with sleeping pills. His dogs were taken to the pound but refused to eat dog food; they had ‘mystery meat’ at home which boarders had also eaten on occasion. Berdella had often prepared casseroles for potluck dinners at the flea market and neighbourhood functions. Berdella was allowed visits from his old friend clergyman Reverend Roger Coleman. Coleman had attended the opening of Bob’s Bizarre; he offered to keep Bob at his house if the State released him on bond. Coleman held a press conference and arranged a public TV interview on Berdella’s behalf. The evidence was taken to a grand jury in closed proceedings; Berdella received an indictment for Pearson’s murder. A public defender appeared to represent Bob but was dismissed and the Judge assigned private counsel to Bob instead. Berdella entered a guilty plea in flat emotionless voice; he received a life sentence with no possibility of parole. In 1988, additional murder counts were added, he entered not guilty pleas. ‘Confessions’ were obtained secretly in a private room in county jail by Cole’s team, they used a private stenographer rather than a court reporter; it was completely tailored to suit State’s narrative. Bob confessed to six murders and claimed he disposed of the bodies in the trash rather than a farm; he denied being linked to any Satanic groups and police involvement and so took sole responsibility for the crimes.
A month after the addition charges, journalist Geraldo Rivera did a Halloween special on Satanism. He found numerous witnesses who claimed that Bob was part of satanic cult including detective Lee Orr of the Kansas City Police force, one witness claimed that she saw Berdella perform a ritual murder. Aquino appeared on the special to deny the link between Berdella and Satanism as well as essentially calling all prosecution of satanic crimes ‘witch hunts’. Interestingly, reports linked Berdella to two missing paper-boys in Des Moines whom have also been linked to Larry King and Michael Aquino.Cole also denied all claims that Berdella was connected to Satanism. Yet at Berdella’s house there was Satanic and Occult artefacts scattered throughout, and at least twenty books on Satanism and Witchcraft were found as well as books on sadism and poison. The record ‘Black mass for Lucifer’ was found on Bob’s turntable. In the yard a jar full of bird feathers was buried which may have potentially been a ‘witch bottle’
The morning after the special aired, the wife of one of Berdella’s victims called the police claiming to have information that she couldn’t talk about at the time; despite her promising she never called back. An auction was held to dispose of Berdella’s property, a local millionaire and bank robber called Delbert Dunmire outbid everyone for a custom torture bed and ceremonial robes. The auction was even discontinued when he offered to buy all the remaining items at one point. A month later, Dunmire brought Bob’s house and destroyed it before selling the vacant lot. His actions were clearly done to hide the involvement of other individuals, likely including himself. In the end Bob received two life sentences and two conditional ones, he died of a heart attack at age forty three after serving a few years, however it’s suspected that he was poisoned.