Free Charles Manson Now by Marlin Marynick

days earlier than expected.
    Since I had some extra time in my itinerary, I tried to get in touch with Szandora and Stanton LaVey. My band had approached Szandora about doing an album cover and had been completely thrilled when she accepted. At the time, she was one of the top fetish models in the world. Certain people have an energy that runs a lot deeper than beauty and Szandora is one of those people. Stanton LaVey, then her husband, is the grandson ofAnton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan and author of the Satanic Bible.
    I was able to get in touch with Stanton first, and he told me that everything was messed up, that he and Szandora were going through a divorce. We met for drinks at El Coyote in Los Angeles, a landmark Mexican restaurant that’s been around since the ‘30s. As we sat down, Stanton told me this was the restaurant where Sharon Tate ate her last meal. He explained that, every year on the evening of “the murders,” he and his friends gathered there. The tradition had become a holiday of sorts.
    I couldn’t get past how much Stanton looked like his grandfather. Like most kids who were into heavy metal, I was introduced to Anton’s philosophy and the Satanic Bible in high school. Stanton told me he was “born into evil.” I got the impression that he was a complex character, very intense. I could philosophize with the guy for hours on end about pop culture,music, and art. We hit it off. He had very strong opinions and he was passionate about his beliefs. I liked that. Stanton had a confidence about him, his own unique brand of charisma. He told me that the three most influential people in pop culture were Anton LaVey, William Burroughs, and Charles Manson. Anton LaVey and Charles Manson had been friends. Stanton told me that one day he would share their secrets with me.

    Death Row
    When you’re on death row, there’s a bell in the chapel that rings every day, and after you’re there for a couple of years, you begin to realize the bell you hear every day never ends. Nothing begins and nothing ends, it goes on forever. It’s like a big sound wave going out into the universe. It’s really weird, everybody wanted me dead, isn’t that far out? They were lined up spitting on me, going through all my things. I went to death row. Do you know what they told me? “We don’t want you out here, don’t come out here, don’t come on the row.” I said, “What do you mean we, are you pregnant? I only see one of you. Are you telling me you don’t want me on the tier, I’ll deal with you.” See, when he said “we” that puts me one down right, so I come out on the tier and there’s three of them, and they are moving on me. This is serious business, and they’ve got their reasons for what they are doing, that I don’t see.
    Then, somebody stands up with me and says, “I can’t let this happen on my tier.” And the three said, “What do you mean?” He said, “If I let you gang up on this guy, then you’re going to be ganging up on me,” and he said, “I’m not going to let you gang up on anyone around me.” Then another guy on the other side of the tier stood up and said, “I’m standing with that too, I don’t want you ganging up on nobody on my tier. If you got one thing you want to say to this man stand forward, other than that we’re not going to let you gang up on him.” So, that’s what saved me right there, man.
    One guy stepped forward and I said, “What’s your problem, man?” He said, “We don’t allow snitches on this tier,” and I said, “Man, snitching ain’t never been on the front page of the paper, my whole life has been right there, if I would’ve ever snitched on anybody, it would have been right there in the open. My word is my bond, my life. I don’t snitch on nobody, dig?” He said, “Well, we were told.” I said, “You take it back to wherever you got it, ‘cause whoever is giving you that garbage is trying to front your life off.”
    So, we