If the counterculture didn’t play a significant role in shaping Manson and his followers, we have to look at what did. In Helter Skelter, Bugliosi refers to a semi-private conversation between Manson and himself, supervised by a bailiff. He suspected that Manson had developed the Helter Skelter motive as an informal acolyte of the Process Church of the Final Judgment. To test this theory, he asked Manson if he had ever heard the name Robert Moore. Manson smiled and told Bugliosi that he and Moore were one and the same.

Granted, Moore and Manson look somewhat alike. Yet both deliberately donned the stereotypical appearance of Jesus. Moore claimed to be Christ. Manson allowed his followers to infer that he was Christ (Man’s son). So that they share a physical resemblance isn’t that remarkable. At the same time, they could not have been one and the same. There’s copious evidence to prove that Moore’s movements back and forth between London, Los Angeles and Xtul occurred independently of Manson, who was incarcerated for part of that time.

Bugliosi knew that Manson and Moore were two different people, and understood Manson’s statement as an affirmation of the guru’s teachings, not an alternate identity or alias. Manson simply meant that he and Moore were on the same page. Nevertheless, the connection between the Process and Manson still intrigued the prosecutor, even though he did not present this information in trial. He noted, for example, that Manson and the Process shared a number of key ideas. First, was the fundamental belief in fear. Fear, according to both, made one hyperaware of the truly important, instead of the superficially profound. Manson’s preaching stressed the importance of maintaining a constant state of anxiety. As quoted by the aforementioned Rolling Stone article, he said:

Have you ever seen the coyote in the desert? Watching, tuned in, completely aware. Christ on the cross, the coyote in the desert -- it’s the same thing, man. The coyote is beautiful. He moves through the desert delicately, aware of everything, looking around. He hears every sound, smells every smell, sees everything that moves. He’s in a state of total paranoia, and total paranoia is total awareness.

Bugliosi noticed other similarities, some large, some small. For starters, the Process referred to themselves as “The Family,” a name the slippies would come to be known as soon as their notoriety hit the front page. The fascistic bent of the Process that forced Marianne Faithful to leave the group was reflected in their symbol (left) a stylized swastika-like logo consisting of four overlapping ‘P’s.’ Manson and his followers, who explained their reverence to Adolf Hitler by declaring that he “leveled the karma of the Jews, carved swastikas onto their foreheads during the trial.

There’s evidence Manson had some contact with all of these groups, or their teachings. In San Francisco, for example, they lived two blocks away from a prominent Process member, Victor Wild (aka Brother Ely). Many sources place Manson, ever curious about his surroundings, at Wild’s residence during this time. Also, Bruce Davis worked at the Scientology office in London before his days with Manson, and had contacts with the Process.

Sanders cited a person identified only as Blaine, who wrote an article for an unnamed Berkeley newspaper. Blaine reported that he personally knew Manson in San Francisco, and that they had met by chance, despite having a mutual friend.

According to Blaine, Manson participated in a death cult, which he called the Final Church of Judgment (perhaps he meant Process Church of the Final Judgment?). One faction of this cult met at a place called the Devil House, located on Waller Street. This was a particularly chauvinistic bunch, for women were not allowed into the inner sanctum, where the group performed their rituals. Instead, the Waller Devil House had a special room for women to stay while their men did their thing. They even forbade anything but male-on-male sex while in the house.

In December of 1968, according to Blaine, The leader of Devil House, Father P., summoned a meeting. Manson arrived from Spahn Ranch with a woman in tow (judging from the description, most likely Atkins). Once assembled, they conducted a “trial” to determine the guilt or innocence of a member nicknamed Sadyi on the charge of “committing crimes against Haight-Ashbury, against nature and for crimes against Pussycat [a twenty-year-old male, presumably Sadyi’s sex partner].” They charged Sadyi of causing the demon possession of Pussycat, so part of the trial consisted of a torturous exorcism ritual. In the middle of the proceedings, Father P. ordered Manson to steal holy water from a nearby church so that they could carry on.

Despite Pussycat’s victim status, Father P. threatened to kill him. But those in attendance voted to spare his life that night, whereupon Atkins and Manson returned to Spahn Ranch.

Blaine also wrote that Father P. went to Los Angeles to meet with Manson on occasion.

Most interestingly, Bugliosi quoted a contemporary police interrogation of a former Process member in an unrelated case. This unnamed informant related something quite familiar.

A: They [the Process Church] don’t like anybody that they can’t indoctrinate or anybody that is not with them. They are just totally against what they cal the ‘gray forces,’ the rich establishment or the Negroes—“

Q: Why don’t they like Negroes?

A: I don’t know. They just don’t.”

Q: “They have a natural hate for the Negro?”

A: They have a natural hate but they would also like to use the Negro as a tool to begin some kind of militant thing. They are really good at picking out angry people.

The use of black militancy to promote anti-black hysteria seems quite like Helter Skelter. And if you recall, Georgina Brayton’s Solar Lodge had a similar plan to excite black violence as a rationale for policies that would encourage (white) public support for extermination. Also, as did the Solar Lodge, Manson curried favor with such biker groups as the Straight Satans in an effort to develop them as shock troops for full-scale combat and protection, when and if necessary.

During its days in Los Angeles, the Solar Lodge ran a house (they actually owned a number of properties, including a gas station) located at 1251 W. 13th Street, where Manson hung out frequently. According to Atkins, she and other slippies participated in animal sacrifice and blood drinking rituals at some of these properties. They also had mutual interests in the Straight Satans.

By the way, you’ll note that I said “During its days in Los Angeles.” Believing that the predicted cataclysmic race war would ignite soon, Brayton moved her flock out to Riverside County in May of 1969. If the Solar Lodge had planned on taking an active part in starting this conflict, however, their arrest for the torture of six-year-old Anthony Gibbons would have put an end to that.

Manson studied Scientology in prison under the tutelage of a fellow prisoner, and claimed to reach the highest state of achievement, “theta clear.” Some of Manson’s frequent maxims—e.g., “Coming to now,” Cease to exist,” etc.—came from Scientology. Throw in half a cup of apocalyptic Christianity, garden-variety Satanism and a reverence for Nazism, and you’ll have a substantial recipe for what Manson preached to his followers.

In short, Manson wasn’t a thisist, or a thatist. He was eclectic, borrowing from any and all philosophies, traditions and garbage that he happened to come across. Ed Sanders referred to these as “sleazo inputs,” the reckless admixture of outrageous ideas, far-fetched beliefs and hokum that alienated the Mansonites from both mainstream thought and the counterculture.

Of course, there were other sleazo inputs that seem quite fascinating and lurid, when you get down to it, totally on the level of The National Enquirer or The New York Post.