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Jan. 20, 2007 About 5 or 6 years ago I attended a meeting whose speaker, whom I'll just call Jerry becuase I don't remember his name, was a born-again Christian setting forth his justifications for returning to the fold after years of atheism or sinfulness. The story he told was completely credible to me, because of the vehemence and impudence with which he told it, but I have not been able to verify it online. As I recall, his tale went something like this: Right after Charles Manson was arrested and was still awaiting trial in Los Angeles County Jail, Jerry became interested in his case. He paid visits to Manson's followers, who apparently maintained some sort of house or commune. I guess these were the remnants of Manson's famous "family". Talking to these people over a period of several months, Jerry finally conceived the notion that Manson was innocent of the Tate murder that he had been indicted for. And that is what Manson also maintains to this day. Jerry said he even visited Manson in jail repeatedly, and became more convinced of his innocence. So he solicited Manson's followers to organize an armed assault on Los Angeles County Jail. Jerry claimed that their party numbered about 300 criminals and would-be criminals that they rounded up in the environs. Collecting contributions, they amassed a regular arsenal of pistols, rifles and other weapons, along with ammunition and dynamite. When they had armed themselves to their own satisfaction, they piled into vans, station wagons, trucks and cars, surrounding the central facility of Los Angeles County Jail, right in downtown Los Angeles. They got out of their vehicles and rushed all the entrances of the jailhouse, shooting and threatening, but despite all their foolhardy derring-do, they were no match for the Los Angeles Police Department, who disarmed the wild mob in about 20 minutes, according to Jerry. I don't know whether any or how many were killed or wounded in the action, but Jerry came out unscathed bodily. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, of which he did about 8 years of actual prison time, before he was released on parole. Jerry said that all along he had been entirely cynical and skeptical about religion, but when he had been in prison 5 or 6 years, he said, he started reading the Bible. That may be all he had to read. He claimed that suddenly all those dead words came to life and veritably sprang off the pages into his eyes. And suddenly he was saved. This would not have been a pretense contrived with a view to persuading the parole board that he had turned a new leaf. You'd have to be awfully naive to think that saying you're a Christian is going to impress a parole board. The only explanation is that Jerry believed what he was saying. Jerry was the epitome of stupidity, arrogance and sullen defiance. You could see in a minute that you couldn't disagree with him in anything, or he snap your head off saying, "Don't tell there ain't no Jesus. I've been there and done that already." Of course, he had probably said the same thing about Manson 30 years earlier. His Manson caper must have taken place around 1970, so I presume that by 2002, he had completed his parole. A real crackpot! ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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