-Caveat Lector- http://members.aol.com/Labyrinth13/Main/PROCESS.htm Charles Manson, Son of Sam and the Process Church of the Final Judgement: Exploring the Alleged Connections By Curt Rowlett (All Rights Reserved; this article may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the author). Preface: A Pandora's Box If you listened to some people, you would have to believe that America and the rest of the world is in the grip of a Satanic plague of Biblical proportions. Some see Satanists lurking behind every tree and behind this alleged menace, a nefarious cabal of devil-worshiping murder junkies, bent on world destruction and either led or inspired by the shadowy, sinister, Satanist Process Church. And incredibly, this idea has been given credence by the very people whom many of us have been taught to trust all of our lives, including law enforcement officials, politicians and religious leaders, some who have become self-styled "experts" on Satanism and alleged "Occult" crimes. (fn1) So just where did it all begin? Flashback to 1980 when a Canadian psychiatrist named Lawrence Pazder published a book entitled Michelle Remembers. This book created the first tale of a "repressed memory" of Satanic ritual abuse that centered around his client/wife Michelle Smith. In this book, Pazder alleged that as a child, Michelle had been sexually abused by Satanists and because the experience had been so traumatic, she had repressed all memory of it until Pazder's "therapy" revived it. In September of 1990, a London newspaper's investigation into Smith's background exposed the book as a fraud. However, during the next ten years, Michelle Remembers was the catalyst that inspired a flurry of copycat accusations aimed at legitimate Satanists, non-Satanic occultists, and many other people who had nothing at all to do with the occult. (In this book, Michelle actually claimed to have a scar on her body that was caused by Satan wrapping his barbed tail around her neck). The next accusation to come along was one that was guaranteed to strike fear in the heart of any healthy human being: that Satanists were preying upon our children in day-care facilities. This tale was first concocted by a woman named Judy Johnson who was later diagnosed as an acute paranoid schizophrenic. Johnson alleged that "Satanic sex rituals" had been practiced on her child at the McMartin Preschool in Los Angeles, California. A modern-day witch-hunt soon got underway, led by over-zealous prosecutors and self-styled "ritual abuse therapists" and provided the inspiration for a flood of similar accusations across the United States and abroad. Judy Johnson, all but forgotten in the ensuing frenzy that followed, was discovered by police four months before the McMartin trial started in 1987, lying face-down and naked in her son's bedroom, dead of liver disease that was the result of chronic alcoholism. The cost to taxpayers for the resulting trial ran into the millions of dollars, ruined the reputations and lives of innocent people and needlessly traumatized children at the hands of quack therapists, all because of the accusations of a drunken, delusional person. Finally, there came the accounts of women being used as "breeders" of children that were supposedly murdered for sacrifices to Satan. This sordid narrative was popularized by Lauren Stratford in her 1988 book Satan's Underground. (fn2) Stratford's book was exposed as fabrication by the non-fundamentalist Christian magazine Cornerstone, but by then the talk shows and other forms of the tabloid press were awash with the stories of other self-proclaimed "breeders." (fn3) And the Manson case has always been fertile ground for theories of a Satanic nature to grow in. Manson and his followers were convicted for the 1969 Tate-LaBianca slayings and were suspected (by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi) of possibly having committed up to 35 murderers. There have been a number of books and articles written since the 1969 Manson murders occurred that have attempted to create overly sinister, Satanic connections between Charles Manson and the Process Church of the Final Judgement and more recently, the "Son of Sam," David Berkowitz. With very few exceptions, the majority of this material is based on highly questionable speculation or biased information sources. There are some individuals for whom the Process Church/Manson/Son of Sam "connection" is the smoking gun that serves as the foundation for their evidence of a Global Satanic Cult Conspiracy. For a few of these people, the old adage, "Where there's smoke, there's fire", serves them well enough to include the most tenuous links in order to add punch to a theory. Perhaps these individuals would be better advised to remember the wise words of author/researcher John Keel, who once wrote: "Where there's smoke, there may be a smudge pot". This article will try to set some of the record straight. It will also show that the Process Church was not truly a Satanic religion, but rather a group of well-meaning, but perhaps misguided, New Age Christians who made use of Satanic trappings and imagery that were sprinkled liberally into their philosophy. Ditto for Charles Manson and David Berkowitz. I come qualified to make that statement and to write an article that discusses Satanism and other alleged occult connections within conspiracy theories: I was an upper-level member of a certain high-profile occult religion established here in America and abroad for close to a decade and have been a serious occult scholar for over twenty five years. As such, I have not only researched topics such as this along with other interested and prominent occultists, but have had access to almost every source that relates to the Occult via an extensive and privately maintained data base. I will not try to suggest that my opinions expressed here are the final words on this subject; indeed, I hope this article will generate responses from other interested researchers who have additional information that I may not be aware of. In The Beginning, There Was Haight The decade of the 1960's marked one of the most influential periods in the history of America. It became an era for the "waking up" of humanity in the form of new social consciousness, human and civil rights, and the exploration of altered states of reality and new lifestyles. And it was in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California that this awareness was exemplified in a most vivid manner. The Haight-Ashbury in the 60's was a mecca for the nation's disenchanted young people and they came by the thousands to participate in a great social experiment: a mass exercise in free will. Radical politics, free love, new spiritual values, and an "anything goes" mentality were the standards of the day and all seemed to be linked by a common thread: the desire to break away from the mental programming of commonly accepted belief systems of the preceding generations which seemed to be useless and untrue. There appeared to be no middle ground regarding the hippie movement and the Haight itself; it was either frightening, amusing, or insane. Attitudes of Americans regarding the "hippies" ranged from joyful support to intense hatred. Indeed, the Haight was fertile ground for any new or slightly unusual religion to take root in and it was in 1967, during the so-called "Summer of Love", that the Process Church of the Final Judgement and Charles Manson showed up on the scene. In March of 1967, Manson had just been released from a long stretch in prison and quickly immersed himself in the hippie scene of the Haight. It was during this time period and later that Manson crossed paths with a large variety of people; political types, movie stars, freaks, bikers, occultists, and members of many "alternative" religions. People who lived in Haight-Ashbury during this time period and who later wrote about the experience, remember that The Process Church was only one of many "beyond the norm" groups that had taken up residence there. That the two (Manson and The Process) crossed paths seems almost inevitable. Manson's history during this period is well documented in a number of other books and a full account is not necessary here. The evolution of The Process Church of the Final Judgement requires some background. As It Was: A History of the Process Church The Process Church was formed in 1962 in the Mayfair district of London, England. Robert DeGrimston Moore and Mary Anne MacLean, the leaders of the Process, were at that time mid-level members in the London Scientology movement, founded by science-fiction writer and occultist L. Ron Hubbard. (Hubbard, a former disciple of Aleister Crowley, and who also had ties to the American chapter of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Crowley's famous Occult order, and to the O.T.O's American head, the enigmatic Jack Parsons, is worthy of a whole book). Scientology in 1963 was little more than a pseudo-psychoanalysis technique and it was during one of the so-called "E-Meter" sessions that Robert de Grimston and Mary Anne MacLean first met. (MacLean was allegedly embroiled in the infamous Christine Keeler-Profumo affair that rocked the English Parliament in the 1960's). A relationship between the couple soon led to marriage and the two left Scientology to form their own group, calling it "Compulsions Analysis". Their technique, or "process," differed little from that of Scientology but for one admirable exception: The Moores had left Hubbard's group because they felt that he (Hubbard) was basing much of his philosophy on wild speculation that had no basis in fact. The Moores desired a more objective approach in their techniques and the ability to really achieve something with the system they were exploring. They soon attracted close to thirty adherents and the name "Compulsions Analysis" was changed to what they had been calling their technique all along: The Process. It was early 1966 that DeGrimston (he had dropped the last name Moore) began composing a semi-religious scripture called The Logics, which dealt mostly with aspects of the human personality and provided theoretical background for the process sessions. Also, the concept of gods and a higher power began to emerge into their philosophy and were blended into the growing analysis techniques. The Process, which started out as a therapy group, was now evolving into a religion and would later become legally incorporated as a church, both in England and in America. They later identified four gods of the universe, Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan, and Christ, each representing different elements and capabilities and as symbols of human archetypes. Each of these gods was thought to contain a necessary part of the process in and of themselves. They believed an individual should try to identify that aspect of each god in his/herself and attempt to unify the opposing forces into one composite power, thereby creating a unified self who was at peace with his/her inner being, in harmony with the Universe and ready for the coming "Day of Judgement". This idea was reflected in many of the Process symbols, one of which shows four P's coming together to form an iron cross/swastika-like image. (Former members of the Process who had left the group, later formed the "Four P Movement," a Process splinter group that itself later became subjected to much unfounded speculation by Ed Sanders and Maury Terry, who offered absolutely no proof that this group ever committed any crimes). The Process, led by DeGrimston and Mary Anne, pooled their funds and moved en masse to Nassau, Bahamas, and then, to an abandoned coconut plantation, located on a remote stretch of beach on the Yucatan peninsula in Xtul, Mexico. It was during the Xtul period that DeGrimston began to further formulate his philosophy in a series of "channeled" writings which later became known as The Xtul Dialogues, essays that only top-ranking members would be allowed to read in later years. The Xtul Dialogues were composed in the form of eight lectures between a student and a teacher. By "channeling", I refer to the technique where one acts as a medium through which a higher power expresses itself. The only god specifically identified by name in The Xtul Dialogues is Jehovah, "god of strength, wrath, and nature". The complete pantheon of Process gods were not specified until a full year later, disputing a later claim by author Ed Sanders (who wrote The Family), that the process began to worship Satan while at Xtul and to practice human sacrifices. (1) The Process lived at Xtul for close to a year and it became equivalent in meaning to them as did Christ's forty days in the desert. It was at Xtul that DeGrimston came to believe that he was the reincarnation of Christ. At this time they were involved in intensive studies of group telepathy and also delved heavily into the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, a book that was to influence the Process greatly in later years, such as the renaming of members with titles like Father Moses and Brother Abraham. The communal living at Xtul was soon brought to an end by the destructive power of Hurricane Inez in 1966. 200 mile per hour winds battered the Mexican coast, destroying the plantation but sparing the Processians. The majority of the group, including the DeGrimstons, moved back to London. They had come to Xtul as members of a psychotherapy sect and left as members of a cohesive community and founders of the newly religious Process Church of the Final Judgement. After the return to England, they began publishing a Process magazine and developing rituals to add to the therapy sessions. Robert DeGrimston wrote another book called The Tide of the End which is described as being "emotional and poetic", "an apocalyptic condemnation of the world", and "a prophecy of the coming millennium". (2) The book is actually a collection of thirteen short books delivered in seven "phases". One of the books, titled As It Is, was considered by the Process to be the most meaningful of the series and at the core of Process philosophy. The book is essentially a warning to the reader to avoid "living a lie" and to "abandon ignorance and suppression and embrace true reality-As It Is". This led to the use of the Crowley-like motto of "As it is-so be it" as a greeting or farewell among Process members. Soon after the book was written, the DeGrimstons embarked on a tour of Europe and Canada, eventually arriving in America at New Orleans, Louisiana, where the first American chapter of the Process Church was established. It was also in New Orleans that they formally adopted the name Process Church of the Final Judgement, becoming a legally recognized religion. Upon the return to England from Xtul, the Process had also identified other gods beside Jehovah and were now including Satan, Lucifer, and Christ in their rituals and publications. They must have been quite a startling sight in 1967 New Orleans as they paraded about with long hair and beards (a practice that had been adopted at Xtul and having Old Testament significance to them) wearing their black shirts and slacks, purple capes with a red Mendes Goat emblazoned on the back and a silver crucifix worn around the neck, handing out literature proclaiming that the end of the world was near. They had also begun to lead German Shepard attack dogs around on chains, perhaps in emulation of the DeGrimstons, who owned several of the animals themselves. Maury Terry, author of The Ultimate Evil, would later try to make much of the fact that the Process owned German Shepards and that the group used these dogs for ritual sacrifice and blood-drinking rites. (3) William Bainbridge, who wrote one of the more objective and rational histories of the Process in a book called Satan's Power, tells a different story: that the Process considered animals to be perfect life forms to be held in the highest regard. In fact, Robert DeGrimston once wrote a searing anti-vivisection pamphlet, ironically entitled, The Ultimate Sin. (4) The New Orleans Process chapter attracted about a dozen new members. Interestingly enough, the Process claimed that they were not seeking to convert the masses, but were interested in locating only those people whom they considered to be "natural" Processians. Robert DeGrimston had refined his theories about the end of the world and found much to base his philosophy on in the Book of Revelations of the Christian Bible, including the number of the chosen people that would escape the coming holocaust: 144,000. He believed that this was the number of Processians who would live through Armageddon, "The Final Judgement". To the extent that the group felt they had a mission to the world, they believed that it was to present themselves publicly so that those people who were already Processians without realizing it, could come forward and join. It was in New Orleans that the group developed their initiatory grade system. New members were called Messengers. They were also described as "Outside Processians", or "O.P.'s" because it was assumed at first that they would never be able to join the inner core of the group because they had not shared in the Xtul experience. However, several of the new Messengers rose to positions of higher rank and later the term O.P. was used to refer to members not yet admitted to the heart of Process society. Members who had been to Xtul and others later admitted to the inner circle were called "Inner Processians" or "I.P.'s". The Initiatory grades consisted of the Omega, the highest title within the Process, and at the time, held only by Robert and Mary Anne DeGrimston. The Omega's lieutenants were called Masters and were in charge of day to day decision making. Next came the Priests, below them the Prophets, and finally the Messengers. The Process also began the practice of taking sacred names. As mentioned earlier, they adopted the practice of taking Biblical names while at Xtul and this became the standard practice and policy for all new members. Masters and Priests had names such as "Father Cain" or "Mother Isis", while Prophets and Messengers used the title "Brother" or "Sister". This new custom was much in tune with the collective family-like relations within the Process; in fact, "The Family" was one of their affectionate names used to describe the entire congregation. The 144,000 Processians were supposed to be marked with the "Seal of God" on their foreheads and as such, were thought to be instantly recognizable to the Mothers and Fathers. Another bit of evidence that suggests that the Process was not the bloodthirsty devil worshiping cult of Ed Sanders' and Maury Terry's imaginations is the fact that many potential members were turned away in New Orleans and elsewhere because the Process officers considered them to be merely "thrill seekers" and "dead beats". (It must be remembered that the original core membership of the Process came from London's upper class of society and the group continued throughout it's existence to cull members of "high quality"). In December of 1967, one Father Cain and Father Moses journeyed to San Francisco because of a vision that was experienced by the group during a ritual in New Orleans. They began setting up a Process chapter house in the Haight that was in the form of a coffee house with "Sabbath Assemblies" gathered in an "alpha ritual room" and "telepathy developing circles" as they had developed in Xtul. They unsuccessfully tried to form a union with Anton LaVey's Church of Satan, who dismissed them as "kooks". Another effort was made to recruit members of California biker gangs, (as Charles Manson would later attempt to do) perhaps for the security that these groups could provide. The New Orleans chapter closed in February of 1968 and moved to San Francisco for about three months, later headed to Los Angeles, and then to Greenwich Village in New York City. (This move was prompted in part due to a rivalry between the Process and a Scientology group that was threatening to report the Process to local authorities for having expired visas). The Process eventually moved back to Europe with the original core membership plus several American converts, leaving behind some 200 new Process members in the United States. This core group roamed about Europe for a while, even attempting to set up a world headquarters in Aleister Crowley's old Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, Sicily. The American chapters in New York and Massachusetts remained active as late as 1976 before the Process splintered and eventually faded away. Exploring the Manson/Process/Son of Sam "Connection" My background of the Process stops here, now let's take a closer look at the alleged ties between the Process, Manson, Son of Sam and the mythical Global Satanic Cult Conspiracy. Basically, the core philosophy of the Process involved the unification of opposites. One of the key doctrines of the Process Church was a reconciliation between Christ and Satan. The logic was simple and took Christ's teachings one step beyond good and evil. The following is reprinted from a Process publication: "Christ said, 'Love thine enemies'. Christ's enemy was Satan and Satan's enemy was Christ. Through love enmity is destroyed. Through love Saint and Sinner destroy the enmity between them. Through love, Christ and Satan have destroyed their enmity and come together for the End. Christ to Judge, Satan to execute Judgement." Manson's rap to his followers was virtually the same in that he believed that the act of killing someone was an act of love. According to Manson, each person judges himself and then takes that judgement out on the rest of the world. Manson saw love as understanding, so in his logic, a decision to kill was an acting out of that judgement or understanding/love. The Process Church wrote a lot of elegant, cryptic, and sometimes frightening essays to explain their philosophies, but any references to killing or death were actually meant only in symbolic or spiritual terms, such as the "killing" of a negative aspect of one's personality through Process therapy. For example, Robert DeGrimston wrote a series of statements from Jehovah, Lucifer, and Satan in the 1968 "War" issue of the Process magazine, entitled, The Gods on War. In these essays, each god gives a statement independently of the others, but it is obvious that the reader is expected to follow the Process technique of merging all three statements together in order to get the intended message. Manson, on the other hand, apparently took many of the Process writings and scriptures literally and it is quite possible that the Tate-LaBianca and other murders are a result of his sociopathic interpretation of them. In fact, Father Adam, head of the Boston, Massachusetts chapter of the Process told a reporter that, "Manson has obviously got hold of some of our ideas from somewhere and distorted them in a particular way. It is unfortunate. If we had had the opportunity to speak with him, we could have avoided that series of very brutal killings." (5) There is a body of strong circumstantial evidence that Manson was heavily influenced by the Process, but to blame the Process Church for the behavior of a person like Charles Manson would be like blaming the Pope for the People's Temple massacre in Jonestown. William Bainbridge says, "No real (Processians) that I knew ever made the mistake of thinking these words (the Process scriptures) were commandments that required physical action". (6) Father Ely told a reporter, "Very Satanic members find it difficult to fit into the Church. They cannot function as Inside Processians". (7) In August of 1969, Manson and his followers committed the Tate-LaBianca murders. Soon after their capture and arrest, rumors began to spread that the Manson Family was a Process splinter group. The DeGrimstons originally feared that Manson may have been a renegade former member, but after seeing Manson's picture, neither they or anyone else in their group could recall ever having seen or met him. Just to be sure, they finally sent two leading members, Father John and Brother Matthew to interview Manson and to be interviewed by Vincent Bugliosi, the chief prosecutor in Manson's trial. Bugliosi, by virtue of a good prosecutor's nature, was not entirely convinced by their claim of innocence of any involvement with the Tate-LaBianca case, and lacking any evidence, never brought any Process members into court during Manson's trial. Bugliosi, while interviewing Manson, asked him if he knew Robert Moore or Robert DeGrimston. Manson denied knowing anyone named DeGrimston, but said that he knew Robert Moore. According to Bugliosi, Manson said, "You're looking at him, Moore and I are one in the same". Bugliosi later wrote that he took Manson's statement to mean that Manson felt that he and Moore thought alike. It's possible that Manson had indeed met Moore during a brief visit that Moore/DeGrimston made to a house that was a sometime Manson Family hangout, known as the "Spiral Staircase" in Topanga Canyon in 1967. It's more likely that Manson knew of Moore, as Manson at one time lived only two blocks away from Process member Brother Ely on Cole Street in Haight-Ashbury. (8) The Death issue of the Process magazine in 1971 did contain a brief article written by Manson, entitled "Pseudo-profundity in Death," in which he describes death as "total awareness...Coming to Now...and Peace from this world's madness and paradise in my own self". (It's important to note that the writings of such "underground" notables as Marianne Faithful and Salvador Dali appeared there, too). But to feature a story by Manson after having tried to publically disavow him earlier at least makes the Process guilty of a bad public relations move. And by this time, public relations for the Process were extremely low. Many other rumors were circulating that linked the Process to nefarious and baffling phenomenon appearing in other parts of the country. During the mid-1970's, weird animal mutilations began to occur in parts of the Midwest and rumors started to spread that a sinister Satanic cult called the "Xtul Group" was responsible. This rumor of course, had no real basis in fact, and was even challenged by animal pathologists who determined that most of the animals died of natural causes. (The myth of the Satanists-as-animal-mutilators persists to this day). This charge against the Process was particularly absurd in light of the known anti-vivisectionist stance that they held. Enter the Smoke Pumpers: Ed Sanders But perhaps the most fearsome assault on the Process was delivered by Ed Sanders, a poet and musician with the former rock group The Fugs and author of The Family, one of the first books to emerge about the Manson murders. Sanders was the first member of the "underground press" to investigate the Manson case and his book is written in a hipster prose that is more common of today's authors. In this book's first edition, Sanders devoted an entire chapter to the Process and the alleged Manson connections, calling the Process "hooded snuffoids" and the "black-caped, black- garbed, death-worshiping Process Church". (9) Sanders didn't mince words and claimed outright that the Process was involved in human sacrifice, blood drinking, sex orgies and drugs. As a result, The Process filed a $1.5 million dollar libel suit against Sanders, and won, with the publishers settling with the Process out of court. Accordingly, there was a temporary hold on the publishing of the book, but it is back on the market now, minus the chapter on the Process. Most recently, a third edition has been released, but any references to the Process are made as "an English Satanic Society in the 1960's". (The First Edition of Sanders' book is a rare find these days). It has been noted in subsequent investigations that during his research and investigation into the Manson murders, Sanders was apparently willing to listen to anyone who had a horror story to tell and reported everything as solid fact with virtually no attention paid to verifying details. Enter the Smoke Pumpers II: Maury Terry But the Process myth is one that refuses to die quietly. The next attack on the group came from Maury Terry in his 1987 book The Ultimate Evil. Terry listened to unsubstantiated hearsay, invented some stuff of his own, interviewed Ed Sanders and decided that not only were the Process and Manson linked, but so was the Son of Sam and the benign Ordo Templi Orientis! In this sensationalistic tome, Terry shows his complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the occult. (One huge indicator of Terry's lack of credibility and objectivity: he later supplied an introduction for a book by Pat Pulling, the founder of Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD). Pulling founded BADD after her son committed suicide, blaming his death on the role- playing game "Dungeons and Dragons." Pulling has appeared on talk shows (where she can't seem to keep her story straight) and has "advised" police departments on the satanic dangers for teenagers who play fantasy role-playing games, claiming that these teens are "headed for an involvement with Satanism"). In The Ultimate Evil, Terry attempts to paint a picture (with a very, very broad brush) of a super-secret, underground Satanic network of serial killers, rapists, drug dealers and child pornographers running amok on the American landscape, including an "Occult Superstar" he calls Manson II. Most of Terry's claims that the Process splintered and went underground to form a bloodthirsty group of gore gangsters, are simply too absurd to be believable and he offers almost no credible substantiation for his claims. His "evidence" was seemingly interpreted, molded and influenced by his desire to make a case at any cost in order to sell his book. For example, he unearths the old animal mutilation rumor again simply because some dead German Shepards were found in Untermyer Park in Yonkers where Heavy Metal-stoner-type graffiti (such as pentagrams and inverted crosses) had been spray-painted on walls. (This type of vandalism was common during the late 1980's and early 1990's during the heyday of the Heavy Metal music scene and spray-painted "satanic" graffiti was a common sight in many towns all across America). For Terry, as in the preceding example, the most mundane things became overtly Satanic, such as people wearing black leather bondage gear, the fact that in one of the Son of Sam letters sent to the police, the word "honor" was spelled "honour", the way the British spell it. (Get it? British spelling, English Satanic Society, Bingo!). Such unprofessional and conspiratorial leaps in logic by Terry are numerous and almost the standard throughout his book. Regarding Terry's claims linking the O.T.O. to the Manson/Sam/Process "conspiracy", he apparently derived that theory from rather flimsy evidence that Manson was at one time involved with the Solar Lodge of the O.T.O., which during the 1960's was headed by a woman named Jean Brayton of California and her husband. Terry either didn't know, or didn't care that this particular lodge was considered to be a renegade group and not officially sanctioned by any legitimate branch of the real Ordo Templi Orientis. Like the Process and Ed Sanders, a California branch of the O.T.O. filed a legal suit against Terry for defamation, which Terry lost. Appealing all the way to the Supreme Court, the case was subsequently settled out of court in the O.T.O's favor with a cash settlement for an undisclosed amount and an agreement to strike all references of the O.T.O. from future editions of The Ultimate Evil. The New York Law Journal for June 24, 1988, reports: "Defendants, publisher and author of a book expounding the theory that a nationwide Satanic "cult" is responsible for numerous notorious murders in recent times, were sued for defamation by an organization the author alleged was part of the Satanic network. The court refused to dismiss the action, finding that the allegations in the book, reiterated by the author in two television interviews, gave rise to a cause of action if plaintiff could substantiate the facts averred in its complaint. The case was settled out of court with an undisclosed sum of money paid to the O.T.O., as well as an agreement to strike all references to the O.T.O. in future editions of the work." But perhaps most laughable of all is Terry's portrayal of Robert DeGrimston as some sort of shadowy, occult thug who all but unleashed a Satanic poison upon the earth. In an essay called The Process: A Personal Reminiscence by R.N. Taylor, the editor notes that Robert DeGrimston now lives near a large American city and can be located in the white pages of the telephone book and was easily reached for an interview by simply picking up the telephone and calling him. (In this interview, DeGrimston denounced the sensationalism that has grown up around the Process and characterized the portrayals of the Process as "unbearable" and "a pack of lies"). (10) One has to wonder how any conscientious investigator seeking the truth (as Terry leads us to believe he is) could have dropped the ball so badly on this one. Another persistent rumor that Terry has helped along it's way and/or may have created from whole cloth is that some of the Son of Sam murders may have been filmed, in particular, the murder of Son of Sam's last known victim, Stacy Moskowitz. It is Terry's contention that the alleged snuff film was shot by drug dealer/pornographer/photographer Ronald Sisman, who supposedly filmed the murder from a VW van parked near the victims, allegedly for movie financier and porn collector Roy Radin. However, there has never been any evidence presented to back up this claim beyond Maury Terry's own assertions that this is so. (A "snuff film" is, of course, a choreographed movie in which someone is intentionally murdered for the benefit of the camera). In an article entitled "Classic Snuff Films," author Rider McDowell writes: According to LAPD Vice Squad Sergeant Don Smith, snuff films got their name during the 1969 investigation of the Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles. "The media was mistakenly informed that the Manson people had taken home movies of the murders,' says Smith. "The press coined the term ‘snuff films,' and it stuck." Smith notes that the definition has evolved and that initially ‘snuff'‘ meant simply the murder of a human being on film. "The present- day connotation, the idea of filming an unsuspecting actress's murder with the intent to distribute the film commercially, that was added later." Also known as "white heat" films and "the real thing," the snuff film myth lives on like Bigfoot, despite the fact that no law enforcement agency in America has publicly admitted to ever locating one. Alan Sears, former executive director of the Attorney General's commission on pornography during 1985-86, agrees with the more than two dozen law enforcement agencies I interviewed. "Our experience was that we could not find any such thing as a commercially produced snuff film," says Sears. "Our commission was all-inclusive and exhaustive. If snuff films were available, we'd have found them." This sentiment is echoed by Ken Lanning, a cult expert at the FBI training academy at Quantico, Virginia. "I've not found one single documented case of a snuff film anywhere in the world. I've been searching for 20 years, talked to hundreds of people. There's plenty of once-removed sightings, but I've never found a credible personality who personally saw one." Yet the rumor of snuff persists. The scenarios are invariably the same - a remote jungle village in South America, a deserted beach in Thailand, the landscaped garden of a German industrialist, a lonely Everglades swamp. The victims are usually women, often performing a sexual act, their deaths sensational and unexpected. One of the most resilient snuff rumors concerns convicted "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz, who allegedly filmed the murders of some of his victims. Maury Terry, author of "The Ultimate Evil," a book about Berkowitz and cult killings across America, tells me, "Its believed Berkowitz filmed his murders to circulate within the Church of Satan. On the night of the Stacy Moskowitz killing, there was a VW van parked across the street from the murder site under a bright sodium street lamp. "Witnesses have confirmed this, although the van never appeared in the police report. Berkowitz or an accomplice filmed Moskowitz's murder, using the street lamp to light the subject as she sat in her car across the street. Terry says the film was apparently made for Roy Radin, the Long Island impresario and "wannabe Cotton Club financier." "Radin was known for his huge porno collection and wanted to add a snuff film to it. I've heard there are ten copies of this film floating around, although I've never seen it." (11) But to give Maury Terry a break, he does offer some rather compelling evidence in his book that Berkowitz may have had accomplices during that particular New York murder spree, believable enough for authorities to reopen the case in 1996. (The murder of Stacy Moskowitz, a twenty year old Son of Sam victim who was shot and killed in 1977 and in which the shooter also partially blinded her date, Robert Violante, has provided many excellent witnesses and some of the most convincing evidence for multiple perpetrators in the Son of Sam case. One of the best and most thorough investigations into this claim was an Unsolved Mysteries segment about Son of Sam that closely examines the Moskowitz shooting with detailed maps and a time line provided by witnesses). Specifically, Terry offers up interesting evidence that the Carr brothers, Michael and John, may have also been Son of Sam shooters along with Berkowitz. Anyone who has studied the numerous police composite drawings of the Son of Sam suspects will agree that both John and Michael Carr do resemble many of the Son of Sam shooters as described by witnesses (in fact, the Carr brothers resemble most of the composites, while Berkowitz only resembles two of them; witness descriptions of the shooters varied widely, as did descriptions of the vehicles used by the gunmen). And there is also a possibility that John Carr may have written several of the Son of Sam letters, in particular, the infamous "Borrelli" and "Breslin" letters, which allegedly matches the known writing style and penmanship abilities of John Carr. The Breslin letter (May 30,1977 Son of Sam letter sent to New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin) made reference to a known John Carr nickname, "Wheaties," with the inclusion of the line "John 'Wheaties," Rapist and Suffocater of Young Girls." Within the Borrelli letter (April 17,1977 Son of Sam letter to Queens Detective Captain Joseph Borrelli) there are intimate details about Sam Carr (the Carr brothers' father), his health, and habits and it appears that whoever wrote it knew Sam Carr very well. And Sam Carr (who was the same Berkowitz neighbor that owned the infamous barking dog) was the most logical inspiration for the name "Son of Sam," if we accept the Carr brothers- as-shooters hypothesis, who were quite literally, the "Sons of Sam." (The Unsolved Mysteries investigation cited above and other evidence suggests that the shooter in the Moskowitz murder may have been John Carr). Former Queens district attorney John Santucci was quoted two years ago, saying, "I believe David Berkowitz did not act alone, that in fact others did cooperate, aid and abet him in the commission of these crimes." (Carr had allegedly been in Houston, Texas, on June 12, 1976, the day Berkowitz is known to have purchased his .44 revolver there. Six months after Berkowitz was captured, Carr committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a rifle in Minot, North Dakota under such mysterious circumstances that police have looked into his death as a possible murder. Michael Carr died in New York City on October 4, 1979, after crashing his car into a street lamp at 75 miles per hour. An autopsy found that Carr had a high blood-alcohol level, in spite of an alleged religious aversion to alcohol. Following his death, the Son of Sam case was officially reopened). However, notwithstanding the preceding concessions, three shooters does not a Global Conspiracy make and Terry's attempts at showing that these crimes were part of a large criminal network of Satanic Terrorists is not backed up by one shred of credible evidence beyond personal beliefs, rumors and hearsay. But wait! Maury Terry is back again with the same old song and dance, claiming in his recent Gear Magazine article that there were three factors that influenced a rush to judgement to convict Berkowitz as the sole killer: a) political pressure from mayor Ed Beame who was trailing in the polls and who badly wanted reelection; b) an "abominable cult that controlled Berkowitz and maintained connections in high places"; and c) a police force so bent on protecting the city's image that they ignored evidence that pointed to the involvement of others via a cover-up. Terry has maintained contact with Berkowitz and it is quite apparent that he is still convinced that the Global Satanic Cult Conspiracy exists. He writes: "His claims (Berkowitz's) are backed by a considerable volume of evidence and a new analysis by the Special Investigations Division of the Yonkers Police Department, which quietly opened an inquiry of the case two years ago. It's aims: to determine if Berkowitz was immersed in a plot hatched in that city's jurisdiction, to learn if any other related killings occurred, and to discover if the alleged group was still active locally." But once again, we are not given one shred of real evidence beyond Terry's and Berkowitz's own assertions that such evidence exists, either because it is supposedly being withheld from the public by police investigators and/or coming from the mouths of prison convicts, including Berkowitz, a most biased and dubious source at best. According to Terry, he has learned from "official sources" (unnamed) that "the inquiry identified members of a ‘British- originated satanic cult,' the Process Church of the Final Judgement " (here we go again) as top suspects in the Son of Sam cult conspiracy and that the Yonkers Police have recommended that the Westchester County DA's office investigate with an eye towards convening a grand jury. Terry also states that at least five individuals "realizing that the net is closing in," have retained lawyers and begun seeking immunity and that a wealthy business man named "Moloch," now deceased, was the leader of the group responsible for the Son of Sam killings. He goes on further to tell how The Process moved from it's New York headquarters at the end of the Son of Sam murders and relocated to Atlanta, suggesting a link to the Atlanta child murders! (12) (I feel compelled here to ask the obvious: how, in an age where we are beset by a media that can uncover even the smallest details of the private lives of our most prominent citizens and publish this information on an almost daily basis, could a vast conspiracy to commit murder as alleged by Terry, last for so long without more of the alleged "cult members" being caught, identified and sent to prison?). Unfortunately, and perhaps not so surprisingly, David Berkowitz has now adopted Maury Terry's Global Satanic Cult Theory as his own and now claims that he didn't take part in most of the shootings attributed to him, which as I noted above, may in fact be true, but only on a somewhat limited basis. A recent A&E program, Investigative Reports: Son of Sam Speaks: The Untold Story features Berkowitz speaking about his crimes and in which he (and the show's producers) gives an almost verbatim rehash of Terry's Global Satanic Cult story. Berkowitz, while being interviewed on camera, speaks of the activities of a cult, and how it is "focused on the upcoming millennium, when they believe violence and chaos will trigger the end of the world." Berkowitz also talks about how two gunmen were brought to New York specifically for the Son of Sam rampage, but never reveals specific details of their activities and/or tangible evidence to back up his story, most likely because close scrutiny of these facts by law enforcement would certainly dispel the Satanic Cult Theory which Berkowitz is so desperately clinging to in hopes of perhaps bettering any future chances with a parole board. Again, as noted above, I personally believe that this may be a possibility that deserves to be investigated further, but I also tend to believe that the two additional gunmen, who may have been John and Michael Carr were already in New York. It becomes obvious to the objective viewer that Berkowitz is being evasive regarding specific questions put to him and is basically winging it through some of the tougher parts of the A&E interview. He never names any names when he has the chance to and after twenty years behind bars, his religious conversion and the real possibility that he will never again be a free man, why should he have any qualms about doing so? In this author's letter correspondence with Berkowitz, I have found that it is now almost impossible to get anything even remotely close to the truth about his possible accomplices that does not include the Satanic Cult angle. (Berkowitz was/is extremely hard to work with as he insisted on discussing things with me only through a nearly impenetrable and exasperating veneer that includes the Terry angle, his ultra-fundamentalist Christian beliefs, his new persona as "The Son of Hope" and seemingly as if I and everyone else is a potential member of his future parole board). Conclusions Anyone? By far, the most rational and objective study of the Process is Satan's Power by William Sims Bainbridge. Dr. Bainbridge was an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Washington who studied and lived with the Process for three years before, during and after the Manson murders. He admits that the Process enjoyed projecting a wild and even sinister image, but denies that the group was ever involved in any organized violence or excessive anti-social behavior. Critics of Dr. Bainbridge have argued that he purposely whitewashed the groups image in his book because he was one of them! Paranoia indeed strikes deep. So what are my conclusions at this point? I personally believe that Charles Manson did borrow heavily from the Process in forming his own philosophy. His residence in Haight-Ashbury during the Process's stay there was in very close proximity to the group. In my opinion, Manson's curiosity could have drawn him to some of their meetings, which were always open to the public and at the very least, he would have had ample access to Process literature. And as Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has noted, there are a number of interesting parallels between Manson's and the Process Church's philosophy. Here is his list, with a few additions of my own: 1. Both believed that a violent Armageddon was imminent and that it would destroy all but 144,000 of the "chosen people", The Process called it "The Final Judgement"; Manson called it "Judgement Day" or "Helter Skelter". 2. Both found their basis for this belief in the Christian Bible's Book of Revelations. 3. Both envisioned that motorcycle gangs would be the shock troops in the world's last days and both sought to recruit them into their folds. 4. Both Manson and the Process referred to their groups as "The Family". 5. Both acquired the roots of their philosophies from Scientology; The Process, as discussed earlier, was basically a splinter group from the Scientology movemen in London; Manson studied Scientology and other occult systems extensively while in prison. Much of the jargon and catch phrases used by both groups came from Scientology. 6. Both Manson and DeGrimston believed themselves to be reincarnations of Jesus Christ. Both Manson and DeGrimston's followers believed this, as well. 7. Both held animals in high, almost worshipful, regard. 8. Both believed that they could recognize the "Seal of God" in the foreheads of their followers; in Manson's case, he and his followers carved X's into their foreheads, which were later altered into swastikas. 9. Both sought communal living in isolated parts of the world; The Process at Xtul, the Manson Family in Death Valley, California. 10. Both preached of the unity of Christ and Satan. 11. Both used a swastika-like symbol. 12. Both changed the names of their followers. 13. Manson often ended many of his lectures, both written and verbal, with "As It Is", a Process term. What all of this shows is that there is good circumstantial evidence in part to back up claims of a Manson/Process connection, but that this connection exists primarily in the philosophies of the two, and does not prove a world-wide Satanic Conspiracy that includes the Son of Sam and bent on murder and every kind of horror imaginable. My reason for wanting to debunk many of these claims does not come from any great admiration on my part for the Process Church; I personally found their philosophies to be lacking in sophistication, sometimes ridiculous, and at best, oddly curious. Rather I wanted to take away part of the ammunition and one major propaganda tool from some of the self-styled "occult experts" and conspiracy researchers who drag out the Process in support of their Global Satanic Cult Conspiracy theories. There is a tendency among people who have virtually no training or expertise in the occult sciences to lump all slightly unusual religions and practices together from a liberal use of the term "Satanism." In a 1989 report he prepared for the F.B.I., Special Agent Kenneth Lanning writes: "The words satanic, occult, and ritualistic are often used interchangeably. It is difficult to precisely define Satanism (with a capital S) and no attempt will be made to do so here. How ever, it is important to realize how the word satanism (with a small s) is used by many people. Simply put, for some people, satanism is any religious belief system other than their own, The Ayatollah Khomeini referred to the United States as the "Great Satan." In the British Parliament, a Protestant leader called the Pope the anti-Christ. In a book titled "Prepare For War", the author Rebecca Brown, M.D., has a chapter entitled "Is Roman Catholicism Witchcraft?" Dr. Brown also lists among the "doorways" to satanic power and/or demon infestation the following: fortune tellers, horoscopes, fraternity oaths, vegetarianism, yoga, self-hypnosis, relaxation tapes, acupuncture, biofeedback, fantasy role-playing games, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, judo, karate, and rock music. Dr. Brown states that rock music "was a carefully masterminded plan by none other than Satan himself." The ideas expressed in this book may seem extreme and even humorous. This book, however, has been recommended as a serious reference in law enforcement training material on this topic." (13) I welcome any new information regarding the Manson/Sam/Process saga, and/or opposing points of view. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- (All Rights Reserved; this article may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the author). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Links to the "Son of Sam" Letters: Letter 1 Letter 2 Letter 3 Letter 4 Letter 5 REFERENCES (Cited in Main Article) (1) The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion by Ed Sanders, First edition, 1971, E.P. Dutton and Co. (2) Satans Power by William Sims Bainbridge, 1978, by University of California Press, Chapters 1-4. (See also The Process by Stephen Sennitt (1989). NOX Press, 15 Oxford Street, Mexborough, S. Yorkshire S64 9RL, England). (3) The Ultimate Evil: An Investigation of America's Most Dangerous Satanic Cult, With New Evidence Linking Charles Manson and Son of Sam, Doubleday Books, 1987, Chapter Nine, "The Process" (4) Satan's Power, pages 119-124. (5) Satan's Power, pages 119-124. (6) Satan's Power, pages 119-124. (7) Satan's Power, pages 119-124. (8) Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, Bantam Books, First edition, 1974, pages 635-639. (9) The Family by Ed Sanders, First edition, 1971, E.P. Dutton and Co. (10) Apocalypse Culture by Adam Parfrey, The Process: A Personal Reminiscence by R.N. Taylor, pages 159-171. (11) Classic Snuff Films, 1994, by Rider McDowell (reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle) (12) Gear Magazine (Nov/Dec Issue, Volume I, Issue II); The Ghost of 77, by Maury Terry. (13) Satanic, Occult, Ritualistic Crime: a Law Enforcement Perspective by Kenneth V. Lanning M.S., Supervisory Special Agent, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia, October 1989. Footnotes (fn1) See "Giving the Devil More than His Due," by David Alexander from The Humanist, magazine, March/April 1990. Mr. Alexander shows how many of the self-styled "occult experts" have "created a lucrative information industry" selling what they claim are documented facts through books, seminars, lectures, and tapes. In reality, what they offer is little more than fundamentalist Christian dogma, the aberrations of mentally ill individuals, the misdirected grief of bereaved parents, and the fantasies of self-seeking opportunists disguised and promoted as scholarship and criminology. "Satan-mongering" is a growth industry promoting "information" on what is, by every independent investigation, a nonexistent problem." "These are some of the conclusions that were reached after an extensive investigation into satanism and those who profit from it. Entitled "Satanism in America," the two-hundred-plus-page report is the result of a three-year study by its principle author and investigator, Berkeley physicist Shawn Carlson, who led a team of researchers under the auspices of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER), chaired by Dr. Gerald Larue, emeritus professor of biblical history and archaeology at the University of Southern California and the American Humanist Association's 1989 Humanist of the Year. It is the most exhaustive study of its kind ever undertaken." (fn2) Satan's Underground: The Extraordinary Story of One Woman's Escape by Lauren Stratford (1988) was eventually withdrawn by the publisher after serious doubts surfaced about the author's truthfulness and credibility. (fn3) Geraldo Rivera, was formally one of the most visible and vocal spokespersons for the Global Satanic Cult Conspiracy theory, but recanted and apologized on a December 12, 1995 edition of his show, saying, "I want to announce publicly that as a firm believer of the ‘Believe The Children' movement of the 1980's, that started with the McMartin trials in California, but now I am convinced that I was terribly wrong... and many innocent people were convicted and went to prison as a result....and I am equally positive (that the) ‘Repressed Memory Therapy Movement' is also a bunch of crap..." ADDITIONAL REFERENCES (Footnote Sources and Recommended Reading) 1. "America's Magic Cult of Ignorance", David O'Reilly, San Jose Mercury News, 1993-AUG-8, Page 1L. 2. "Satanic Panic", Jeffrey Victor, Open Court, Chicago, 1993. 3. "Rivera's 'Devil Worship' was TV at its Worst", Tom Shales, San Jose Mercury News, 1988-OCT-31, Page 11B. 4. "Inside The 'Satan Scare' Industry: The Devil Makes Them Do it", by: Debbie Nathan, from "In These Times," a weekly newspaper based in Chicago, at 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647. 5. "The Satanism Scare", University of Pennsylvania, by Gerry O'Sullivan, Postmodern Culture, v.1 n.2 (January, 1991). 6. "Satanism: Skeptics Abound," by John Johnson and Steve Padilla "Los Angeles Times" April 23, 1991, Page A-1. 7. "Giving the Devil More than His Due," by David Alexander from The Humanist, magazine, March/April 1990. 8. "The Seduction of the Gullible" by John Martin, Procrustes Press, Box 134 West PDO, Nottingham, NG7 7BW, England (ISBN 0 9522 510 1 9) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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