LUCIFER RISING

Part 7

Beausoliel began moonlighting as a dealer for Manson. He soon sold a bad batch of mescaline to The Straight Satans, an L.A. motorcyle gang. When the Satans demanded a refund, Beausoliel personally transferred the request to his own supplier, Gary Hinman. A PhD in Music, Hinman ran a psychedelic concession out of his Topanga bungalow. Rumor also had it that he’d just run into a family inheritance. But Hinman insisted he was broke even after Cupid tied him up and Manson sliced off his ear with a bayonet. His body was found days later.

Cupid was arrested in Hinman’s car, still wearing bloody clothing. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death (later commuted to Life). While serving his time, he composed the soundtrack for Anger’s revived Lucifer Rising. (Jimmy Page had been hired for the job originally. But rather than composing, the Zeppelin guitarist allegedly spent all his time at home – Satanist Alistair Crowley’s castle near Loch Ness, Scotland – shooting smack. )

Three days after Beausoliel was captured, Manson gave acid and belladonna (Devil’s Weed) to the Family and sent them out to rock producer, Terry Melcher’s house, to do something “gruesome” and  “witchy.” The team included three women and Charlie’s Man Friday, Tex Watson (who now leads his own Christian ministry from prison). After the hallucinating Tex got Sharon Tate and the others (high on coke and MDA) on the floor, he told them: “I am the devil. And I am here to do the devil’s business.” 

The straight-A student and football star from Texas hadn’t always been in this line of business. When arriving in Hollywood a few years before, he had been a doorman at the Whisky, the premiere rock club on Sunset. Morrison likely met him there. The Doors became an overnight sensation at Tex’s place of employment after Morrison performed The End, about offing his family. 

Tex butchered five people that night, including Sharon Tate’s former fiancée, Jay Sebring. Sebring was Morrison’s coke and MDA connection. He was better known as the Lizard King’s hairdresser. He did all the famous heads in town. Warren Beatty’s Shampoo was based on him. His famous long-locked Alexander the Great coif for Morrison had helped put him on the glitterati speed-dial.

On the day after his 26^th birthday, Jim read the LA Times front page story about the indictment of Charles Manson and the Family for the murder of his barber/dealer, Jay Sebring, and the others. Laying down the paper, closing his eyes, he told the Doors and the others in their office, “I think I’m having a nervous breakdown.” 

Before this, the star had always been affectionately philosophical about death. Referring to his song The End, he had told an interviewer: “Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah, I guess it is a friend.” 

Manson agreed. “Living is what scares me,” the cult leader and rejected singer said. “Dying is easy.” Then, when asked about the possibility of being executed, he shrugged, “Death is permanent solitary confinement, and there is nothing I would like more than that."