Mae Brussell took an active interest in the Helter Skelter murders almost from the beginning. The similarity of this case to events going on around the world, most notably in Greece, struck her as fundamentally important.

In 1967, Greece underwent a major military coup d’ètat that was two years in the making. Two years earlier, King Constantine II declared martial law under pressure from military brass, who were appalled at the progressive liberalism then sweeping the country. The declaration effectively nullified the government of centrist Prime Minister George Papandreou and his Center Union party. But when reopening the elections in 1967, Papandreou surged way ahead in the polls, thus prompting Brig. General Stylianos Pattakos, Col. George Papadopooulous and other military officers to seize control of Greece, cancel the elections, and place Papandreou under house arrest, where he died the following year.

Pattakos and Papadopoulous set out quickly to reform the liberal influence of the Papandreou years through a series of edicts. These edicts prohibited Greek citizens from (1) gathering in groups of six or more in open spaces, or at all in closed spaces; (2) criticizing government in a public forum; (3) growing beards, and if male from having long hair; and (4) wearing mini-skirts (both sexes). Also, everyone had to attend a Sunday worship service--Jews and others who didn’t normally worship on that day were permitted to observe an additional day of devotion, but still had to attend a service on Sunday. Students had to turn in old history books, and replace them with government approved ones. In science courses, evolutionary theory was discarded in deference to theories of racial superiority and purity. Playwrights and screenwriters had to submit their scripts before censor boards, even if they were translations of such well-known playwrights as Shakespeare, or the original texts of such venerable national scribes as Aristophanes. Rock and roll (and a lot of classical—especially if the composer lived in land now part of the Eastern Bloc) was banned in favor of military music.

These edicts proved unenforceable rather quickly, and many of them were either lifted or modified before 1969. But the thought that someone would think to start a coup to implement such measures might have seemed a little outlandish at the time. Mae never used the phrase, for it is one of our time, not hers. But nowadays we would understand this in terms of ‘cultural warfare.’ The military represented the far-right of Greek society, and they saw liberalism, both political or cultural, as undermining their authority. They reckoned that in order to garner support for their regime, they had to get a nationful of people to see things their way, and not consider any alternative ways that might seem more attractive (or practical, or ethical, or so-on). Thus, prohibiting vestiges of leftist culture would prohibit leftist thought as well.

Or so they thought. Actually, the edicts resulted in a nationful of pissed-off Greeks, thus compelling now-Prime Minister Papadopoulos to make numerous attempts at instituting liberal reform over the following five years.

Mae likened the Greek coup d’ètat to the JFK assassination, itself a de facto coup d’ètat. The liberalization that threw the military junta in such a tizzy she likened to the counterculture movement then going on in the United States. At length, she (and many others) enumerated the ways in which the counterculture undermined the hegemony of privileged classes. For one thing, the hippies were anti-materialistic and non-conformist, which kinda throws a wrench into a capitalistic system of mass production. If people don’t buy, and then don’t accept the goods offered in the numbers that industry requires, then industry’s a bit lighter in the pocketbook, and therefore can’t wield the authority it used to. Moreover, their anti-war stance threatened one of the most lucrative businesses at the time, the defense industry (or as President Eisenhower called it, the “military industrial complex”). For such titans, peace directly leads to a dramatic drop in revenues.

The rumors afloat (some confirmed years later by Constantine II) that the Greek coup sought US backing and advice from such military men as Gen. Lauris Norstad (USAF), led Brussell to speculate that the US military/intelligence establishment might have monitored the progress of the Greek coup in order to assess the viability of possible culture war tactics back home. In this case, the enemy was the counterculture.

And that’s where Manson fits in, according to Mae. In order to combat liberal elements of American society, the far right had to attack the most prominent form of it first.

Of course, there were attempts to literally attack the counterculture, as the events of the 1968 Democratic National Convention illustrate. But these only led the public to become more distrustful of government agencies, because it appeared to many that (paraphrasing Mayor Daley) the policemen on the scene were preserving disorder, not preventing it. In fact, many saw the authorities as the primary cause of the disorder.

It would be more beneficial to get the left to shoot itself in the foot, or in other words, make a fool of itself. Lord knows, COINTELPRO tried its best to do that by infiltrating student and leftist organizations, supporting their most violent elements, and trying to stoke animosity among allies. By and large, however, these organizations refused to swallow the bait.

So, for Mae, it seemed much more practical for the Intel/military elite to create and/or maintain a pseudo-hippie representative, which on cue would discredit itself, and take down the whole counterculture with it. With the general press confusing slippiedom with hippiedom, Manson and his group would serve as a lightening rod for contempt and suspicion against all of those involved with youth culture—from the biggest names in its rock and roll soundtrack, to the friendly flower child selling lemonade in the park. After Manson, none would be beyond suspicion.

Mae supplies some interesting pieces of information that support her hypothesis, and some of these are corroborated by official sources. But to speak the plain truth, I find this one of her weaker speculations in terms of evidence. On the other hand, we’re talking about someone whose predictions were often proven true in the long run. And Mae’s predictions about the effect that the Manson trial would have on the counterculture would pan out in spades.

You don’t have to believe me on that one. Just listen to someone who was there.