Bacchanalian: Analysis of Chapter Two of Tom O'Neill's CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

Bacchanalian (adjective)
: of, relating to or suggesting the ancient religious rites marked by orgiastic revelry amd drunkenness that were held in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine. (Merriam-Webster)
: implying that of an out of control hedonism fueled by substance, an alcohol soaked frenzy (my own   accumulated definition)

"Everyone, over time, assigned the blame for the crimes a little differently. I was dealing in memories that had survived decades of erosion. Even my most reliable sources were shaky on the details," wrote Tom O'Neill in the beginning of the second chapter of his book CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties. With that it would seem to heighten my initial and main query on the first chapter of the book, which retold the broad stroke of the Helter Skelter narrative and subsequent trial which came shortly thereafter; asking how truly reliable even firsthand testimony can be due to all these accumulating factors. Disassociation, supposed hypnosis with hypothetical LSD-induced mind control, coercion, and orgasm-inducing slaughter. Altogether I'm thusfar reminded of one of the first podcast/web radio series on the internet, Three Ring Radio, wherein on its 60th episode titled Process Church Facts & Fiction host Shane Bugbee and the one eyed bastard cohost Doug Mesner (pka "Lucien Greaves," real name: Douglas Alexander Misicko) investigate the convoluted history regarding The Process Church of the Final Judgement and within that their alleged and known ties to Charles Manson. From their visit to him in prison for an interview and subsequent article on Death by Manson in their official magazine's On Death issue. The woman on the phone with the two, prior to interviewing founding member Timothy Wyllie, questioned their own inquiring into the topic; remarking that it's all tantamount to 'ancient history' and that there will never be a complete story on any of the matters; echoing similar sentiment to Nikolas Schreck, another highly knowledgable researcher into the Manson Files. 

There is much which can be inferred and of mysterious note about the Process Church, both on its own and with possible deep ties to Charles Manson and Tate-LaBianca murders— usually with some sort of a link stemming from Charlie's brief delve into Scientology in association with the Process coming out of Scientology as its own splitoff, originally called Compulsions Analysis. Much of this mainly comes from the counterculture author and researcher Ed Sanders work titled The Family, as well as other eloquently presented evidence from fellow skeptics of both matters delving into the inconsistencies of both official narratives in Helter Skelter as well as propelled by the self-proclaimed "deviant psychotherapy cult."

"Their memories had warped to accommodate their bruised egos, their ulterior motives, and, above all, their sense that they were at the center of any story worth telling," O'Neill continued. If such is/was the case for these, "washed-up Hollywood personalities," as he calls them, who were in their dotage by the time he got around to speaking with them on the matter of the Tate-LaBianca slayings, then can the same then as well be said of the perpetrators both for their time in court and in the hindsight of later years to now? Based on the whole live freaky, die freaky fugue of it all around at the time, fueled by drugs of various kinds and degrees how much does anyone have a wholly accurate portrayal of events? 

"So many of the people I spoke to had strong ideas about why these murders had happened— and yet none of them had spoken to the police, and many remained unwilling to go on the record with me."

This can very much be called in to question as they spoke to Tom trying to uncover all this decades later, but not to any sort of law enforcement? While on one hand many were highly involved in narcotics, usage and distribution, these were as much the days where even though the mantra of Pigs being attributed to cops was at its height, it was widely thought then more than now that, 'the police are your friends' as well as being the LA upper echelon and almost untouchable in that regard as was then and even now. O'Neil mentions prior to this a, "conspiracy of silence in Hollywood," and to that end, much of the time he was writing this both Manson and Vincent Bugliosi had still been alive: so why speak to what would be an agent of the press at all?

Nikolas Schreck characterises similar, though with seemingly more detailed reasoning: be it, as he posits, and O'Neill lightly mentions the possibility of through one of these sources in the chapter, a drug deal gone wrong (which also was not uncommon then, or now) over the then new MDA; and going into the fact that Charles Manson was not an unknown face in these circles— including to those later murdered by the Family members on Cielo Drive— and being so embedded, as Schreck claims, he even starred in homemade pornographic films made by and for these members of 'elite' American entertainment. So, would much of this be saving face as well as bruised egos?

Chapter two of Tom O'Neill's book delves into the surrounding crowd of those murdered in Hollywood on August 8, 1969. Touching quickly upon the constrained and in its own right convoluted marriage between Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski, via the reports of her friends who detailed what would seem to be a tumultuous affair at the very least— and if one is to go off that with association to his own admitted infidelity in the relationship, paired with decades of public scandal afterwards stemming to even today in the form of allegations ranging in admitted action and credibility, could be seen as a set of rather plausible statements. Specifically noted in their marriage however and to go back to the last paragraph here, claims of filmed intimacy with the spouses as well as alleged coerced threesomes recorded by Polanski. Those however are very much something that has never been proven and up to speculation with none of these filmed sexual scenarios mentioned prior or in this paragraph having ever seen the light of day; though O'Neill says of this that is a result of Bugliosi after the murders and during the initial sweeps (as DA, even though at the time, he wasn't in that position yet, raising more and other questions) ordering them returned to where they had been taken from their respective shelves in the 10080 Cielo Drive residence.

Jumping into this web of names presented, the chapter explores mainly just how engrained 'living freaky,' or, Bacchanalian the entire echelon was. From widespread drug dealings and usage as mentioned here before, to hushed crimes around said substances— primarily cocaine and the then new MDA— and reporting on orgiastic affairs at and with the Cielo Drive party later killed along with overlapping criminal underworld associations. Credible rapes and bisexual debauchery, namely centering around one Billy Doyle who was drugged at one of these affairs, flogged and assaulted by Voyteck Frykowski. Digging in from there more on the connections between these high status individuals, such as Doyle and Charlie Tacot, to intelligence apparatus'— the latter of whom was in fact involved with the MIS, or Military Intelligence Service (which wasn't even revealed as real until 1972) during the second World War; apparently feeding information to one Hank Fine who had worked with the original OSS that evolved into the CIA until his own death. Only in passing does this chapter actually draw anything to the subject of Charles Manson beyond some overlap; much of it being tantamount to 'a friend of a friend of a friend' in most of these connections rather than solid lines, with here and there allusion to his own interactions at these orgiastic events beyond what is already well known to be factual in the form of Beach Boys producer and former Cielo Drive occupant, Terry Melcher.