Review of Dianne Lake’s book: Member of The Family

UNEDITED

[spoilers]

I took my time in reading this one, trying to go slow and remember just about everything I could. Overall, I would say that this is a good book, but out of 5 stars, I’d rate this a 3.5. It’s good at times, and it drags on at times. I felt like the book started out interesting and I couldn’t put it down. I was shocked in a way that her parents were the ones that essentially started her on the path to ending up with the Manson family. I was shocked for sure when I read that her grandfather molested her. I was disgusted that someone would do that.

When reading about how her father had an itch to express his creative self and get away from the ‘nuclear family’ life, I could understand in a way. I know what’s it’s like growing up in the Midwest, and there’s not to do, let alone feel like you can thrive creatively. What I don’t understand is why was her father such a complete…air head? He was a misogynistic, self centered, cheating, lying asshole that put himself instead of his family first. The fact that he really thought that there wasn’t something fishy with exchanging their house for a trailer to travel to California to just shows how gullible both parents were. I feel like Dianne’s mother essentially went along for the ride with Clarence/Chance, since back in the 50’s it was still taboo to be a single mother.

When Clarence eventually left Dianne’s mother for another woman and bailed to California, I felt that was a sign, a gift even, for her mother to have the freedom from the loser that Clarence was. It is unfortunate that he essentially came wallowing back, and I wonder if he only wanted his wife and kids back because the other woman was tired of him. Later on when they lived in Santa Monica and their dad started doing all the pseudo-intelligent hippie things (like chopping down the table’s height) I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. What bothered me the most was that the dad would have ‘intelligent discussions’ while high with the other hippies, and yet didn’t seem to think anything significant with the idea of feminism? I’m surprised for someone that ran all the way to California to leave the Midwest life didn’t open himself up to other open minded concepts of the time.

I won’t lie and say that the majority of the blame doesn’t lie with Dianne’s dad. If he was a stable partner, and didn’t encourage Dianne’s mother to be so submissive, then none of the family members wouldn’t have turned out the way they did. I can’t say that Dianne’s mother isn’t at fault though, since she was part of the problem too. If her mother never went back to her dad, Dianne wouldn’t have turned into a mess.

What I, and other people, find disturbing with the book is how much Dianne talks about sex. It’s one thing to bring it up when it’s part of the story, but once she brought up how she lost her virginity, it was like the floodgates were down and there were anecdotes about sex everywhere. Underage stuff. Dianne was about 15 for majority of the stuff in her story, give or take. The fact that she went from essentially a shy young teen to describing how she’d “seduce” men to appease charlie or something was just so...bleh. I’m sorry, I just don’t want to read that stuff.

There were interesting bits in the story that I hadn’t learned anywhere else. With Dianne’s book I learned who apparently was Susan Atkins’ baby daddy ( a guy named old bruce), of which was a totally different person that what other people have said. For example, Jeff Guinn wrote that apparently Susan thought that the father was “probably some guy that she met in Arizona” while the family were first traveling around in the black bus. Also, apparently Dianne bit the umbilical cord for Susan’s baby? That’s something that I had never known before. Which honestly, is interesting, because there was always the rumor that Charlie had bit the umbilical cord for when his baby Michael was born (but according to Dianne’s book, Charlie used a scalpel).

There were things that I wish she would have brought up, that didn’t seem to appear at all. For example, she didn’t bring up how did Susan find out she was pregnant, and what did the other family members do? What was Charlie’s reaction? Also, she briefly mentions that Sandy Good had her baby...and that the women nursed on Sandy’s breasts so that she’d still make milk while they were locked up in Inyo. Disturbing. But Dianne never brought up that Sandy was even pregnant until after she had had the baby. I wish that perhaps moments like these would have been talked about, because one of the points of the Manson family was for them to apparently make as many babies as they could. Ironically, only a few of the members seemed to have had any. I’ve read that Sandy’s baby was actually Bobby’s, and I hoped that perhaps Dianne could have confirmed that.

When the book got to the point of Dennis Wilson’s appearance, it started to drag. It was like that part of the book was in a super slow mode, and there’s details there too that were also not gone over. For example, it’s Manson lore that the family used up so much money from Dennis while they overstayed their welcome. And yet, Dianne really only mentioned one hospital visit because Sadie gave them all gonorrhea.

It is apparent that Dianne is a woman of faith, and near the end of the book, it kind of just starts ramping up. I wasn’t disgusted, but it seemed kind of too much. Surprisingly, her book ends at her having testified in court, and not talking about much after. I feel like her book suffered the same pitfall that Jeff Guinn’s did, where both books seemed to have sort of rushed near the end to just be done with it. For example, Guinn’s book didn’t go over the trial as much as I would have expected, and Dianne’s is the same way. There’s also so much more to the book that I would have liked to know about past her Manson experience, that she didn’t talk about at all.

The epilogue talks a little bit about how she traveled Europe with a guy named Jim and that relationship sort of faded away. She eventually met her husband and had her kids, and that fateful night that she told her kids that she used to be a Manson girl was one of the biggest parts of the after part. Unfortunately her husband passed away from cancer about five years ago now. She’s found love again. I’m unsure what she’s up to now, and if she’d ever write another book again.

Considering how much focus there was on her childhood and the wrongs that her father did in the first half of the story, I was expecting to see some sort of follow up on that. Unfortunately we never hear about her father again after the one visit her parents were allowed when Dianne was in the mental hospital. All I know about her mother is that she moved to Oregon and had another baby. I’m really curious what happened to her father, what did he ever end up doing in his life, and what ever became of Dianne’s siblings? Did they harbor any resentment to their parents?

What I think that this book is good for, is understanding how the dynamic of the family worked, to some extent. I feel the same way about Guinn’s book too. Whereas Helter Skelter was much more about the legal proceedings, the two former books gave a pretty good insight as to how the family worked, and why some people felt too hypnotized to get away.

My only two gripes are that, the “descent into madness” that Charlie started to exhibit kind of just came out of nowhere, and the writing seemed to depreciate near the end of the book. There was just a lot of weird ways that things were worded, like as if no one bothered to re-read it to ensure that it made sense. Would I recommend this to someone that has never read anything about Manson before? No. I think that this is one of those books that you read if you are deep into the rabbit hole, know who everyone is, how most of the dynamics already were. Otherwise, I feel like reading the things that Dianne wrote, especially in the first half of the book, may be lost on you.

[SCORE: 3.5/5]

The Death of Randy Howard

 

Randy Howard was born on May 9^th, 1950 in Macon, Georgia. He was a semi-famous country singer known by some for singing ‘Outlaw Country’. Randy’s most famous songs were “I Don’t Know” and “All American Redneck”. Howard lived in Lynchburg, TN for the last 25 years of his life in a cabin, out in the country. In 2015, he was facing charges on his fourth DUI, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a gun while intoxicated, and driving with a revoked license. He had failed to appear at a recent court hearing, which resulted in a bench warrant. A producer that worked closely with Randy said that Howard “was the epitome of outlaw country. He only not sang that life, but he lived that life. “ A friend of Randy’s, Terry Dotson (or Dodson according to different sources), stated that Howard told him that he, “Wasn’t going back to jail”. Apparently, Randy Howard had been in jail for “a pretty good while” before.

It should be noted that Randy was not in the best health during this period of his life either, having also broken his leg in jail in the past.

On June 9^th of 2015, with Howard’s warrant set in place, Jackie Shell, a Bail Bondsman Bounty Hunter, went to Randy Howard’s home to serve him a warrant for his arrest. When Shell entered in Howard’s home he came through the back door, and Randy shot at Shell, injuring him. Shell shot back six times at Howard, hitting him in the chest. Randy allegedly died of his injuries in his house, though one source states that not only did Randy shoot first because he thought that there were intruders in his home; he was taken to Vanderbilt hospital and died from his injuries five hours later. Randy’s autopsy showed that he was also shot in the liver, his blood alcohol was below the limit, and his death was concluded as a homicide.

Jackie Shell, who got surgery for his injuries

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation went on to look at the case, later on giving it over to the District Attorney General’s office. In the state of Tennessee, a bondsman can arrest a person at their home, and even enter the domicile if the person refuses to open the door. Bondsmen don’t need to be licensed, though they need to take an 8 hour class every year, which can vary drastically depending on the teacher. County sheriffs are also supposed to do criminal backgrounds on bounty hunters to make sure that they aren’t felons.

Terry Dotson had offered to take Howard since his leg was broken, to the court date, though he refused. Terry felt like going to that court date would have saved Randy’s life. Another one of Randy’s neighbors, Clayton Walker, felt like Jackie Shell should have handled the situation better, and hunted Howard down like an animal.

Randy’s neighbors left flowers near his door and a sign that read, “Gone but not forgotten”.

[SOURCES]

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/jun/10/bounty-hunter-wounded-fugitive-killed-shootout/308933/

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/randy-howards-death-at-hands-of-bounty-hunter-ruled-a-homicide/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/12/randy-howard-rambunctious-singer-dies-in-the-most-country-music-way-possible/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/16/randy-howard-country-singer-death-bounty-hunter-laws

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147731795/randy-howard

Jimmy Page's Underage Girlfriend

 

Jimmy Page, born on January 9^th, 1944, is undeniably one of the most famous guitarists of all time, from the household name band, Led Zeppelin. In 1972, when Zeppelin was really gaining traction, Page entered into a relationship with “baby” groupie Lori Mattix (or sometimes known as Maddox), who was 13 at the time. There does not seem to be any information from any of the band members on what went down, how it went down, or even how they felt about the situation, but it seems that at least the manager of the band knew that what Jimmy was doing was wrong.

The only information we can really go with is from what Lori herself has said over the years, of which the story changes nearly every time, to whatever version that she feels alright with telling. Not to be harsh, but it is hard trying to find the truth when the only person willing to talk tends to change the situation.

I want to start with the facts and some background first, that are for the most part (unless proven otherwise) are undeniable. Lori Mattix was born in November of 1958, and one of an unknown amount of children, but interviews have implied that she had a sister. In one interview, Lori stated that her father was dead (while other articles simply put that her father was not in the picture), at least by the time she was 13. In a video interview, Mattix states that she started out as a model in ‘Star Magazine’ which was an early 70’s pre-groupie publication. She stated that the magazine highlighted the young girls as being groupies, when in reality they were just models.

Lori states that the first person she had ever had sex with, and lost her virginity to, was David Bowie. To save pages of story from different times that she’s said different things, I will condense it to: there is no proof that Lori had ever even met David Bowie. There are pictures of her with Jimmy Page for sure, and pictures of her with Iggy Pop, but this instance with Bowie is essentially all text. Further, before delving too deep, many people have pointed out continuity errors of her having been ‘deflowered’ (her words) by Bowie before having met Page, yet stories that she’s told of how and when she met Jimmy do not add up to what would have been after the Bowie incident.

Even more confusing, despite there being proof of the relationship between her and Jimmy Page, the story differs between on how they met. On one account, Lori states that he essentially kidnapped her, another, she is alluded to having been at the Whiskey-a-go-go from another groupie, to having met him at his place in the hyatt with another groupie, and even further, that Jimmy contacted Lee Childers to set up a date for him to meet her.

Most sources seem to agree that Lori and Jimmy were together from the time she was either 13 or 14 up until she was 16.

Whenever she talks about the situation, Lori looks back on her time with Jimmy (if it even ever happened at all) fondly. Never having felt like the relationship was unusual, she believes that he was in love with her. According to Lori, Jimmy asked her mother for permission to date her, to which she agreed. Allegedly, Lori’s mother used to be an agent, and stated that her daughter was like Priscilla Presley.

Somehow, Mattix was able to insert herself into the situation of the Drake Incident, when Zeppelin were robbed of 200,000 dollars. She stated that the FBI were “all over them” and Peter Grant told her to get out of the hotel or else Jimmy would get in trouble.

When asked if she felt like Page exploited her, she stated that she “felt blessed”. Mattix would receive letters telling her that he was a pedophile, but she stated that she never thought of him like that.

Eventually the relationship ended when Jimmy was found in bed with another groupie, Bebe Buell.

Allegedly, the last time Mattix saw Jimmy in person, as adults, he said to her, “Lori, we were both children back then.” Lori stated that she thought to herself, “At least one of us were.”.

[SOURCES]

https://lorimaddoxdebunked.tumblr.com/manystoriesoflorimaddox

https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/i-lost-my-virginity-to-david-bowie

https://www.rocksoffmag.com/lori-maddox-the-complete-story-of-the-baby-groupie/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70w27wlYPFU&feature=youtu.be

Who was Filippo Tenerelli?

 

Filippo Tenerelli was born on November 4^th, 1945 in Italy. I have been unable to find the name of his father, but his mother’s name was Caterina. Filippo lived with his parents in Italy until moving to the United States in 1959. He did not have any history or mental illness or arrests. There is not much known about Filippo in general, though significant points of interest are that he spoke with an Italian accent, and seemed to have an interest in motorcycles, having driven one at some point.

The Tenerelli’s settled in the Los Angeles area, with documentation showing that Filippo at least lived in Culver City in 1969.

In 1964, Filippo got into a motorcycle accident. He was sent to the Washington Hospital in Culver City and was operated on and had X-Rays. I am assuming that he was for the most part okay after this incident.

On September 29^th, 1969, Filippo left his parents’ house from Culver City, all the way to Father Crowley Point in Death Valley, which is in Inyo county. According to google maps, this would be about a 4 hour drive. 

Now as the story goes, Filippo was going to allegedly drive of the cliff and kill himself, though when this was supposed to have happened, the car got stuck. For some reason, Filippo had a pickax and shovel in his car, took them out, and used them to move the car. Infuriated, he pushed the car over the edge. Apparently, the car fell 400 feet and Filippo went down to the bottom of the canyon to retrieve some of his belongings, while doing so, he cut his hand and blood splattered on the ceiling.

Afterwards, it is unknown where he spent his time next, but apparently on the night of September 30^th, Filippo ended up in Bishop, which is 100 miles away, and an hour and a half drive. I am quite suspicious how he ended up there, unless he miraculously got picked up hitch hiking. Once Filippo got to Bishop, he checked into the Sportsman Lodge motel, paying 156 dollars in advance to stay until November 3^rd. Interestingly, that would be long enough to be before his birthday. 

 

On October 1^st, Filippo went to the sporting goods store and bought a 20 gauge shotgun, ammo, and cleaning kit. He also went to another store and bought two fifths of whiskey, 2 pairs of underwear, a safety razor, and an issue of Playboy. I am unsure what size the underwear was, and if it would have been the right size to fit him.

 

An old picture from the motel

The last person to have seen Filippo alive was the motel owner, Bee Greer. He had come out of his room because he had heard the sirens of fire engines. Bee told Filippo that the fire department were doing a controlled demolition of a building that was across from them to which he watched awhile then went back to his room.

The next morning, a maid tried to get into his room but was unable to. They found that it had been barricaded, and later on in the day, Bee Greer’s husband and son had to push it in. When they did, they found Filippo on the floor dead, a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

 

Apparently Filippo had blocked the door with a chair, and put the shotgun to his mouth, pulling the trigger with his toe. His head lay on two Turkish bath towels, which the police report postulated may have been to soak up the blood. A bed pillow was over his head to muffle the sound of the gunshot. Filippo’s body was found with his pubic hair shaved, and some of it between the pages of the Playboy magazine that he had bought. The two bottles of whiskey that he had bought were still in the room, one empty and the other only a third full. There was a slash on his wrist from an attempt at committing suicide that way.

In the end, his death was considered a suicide. 

 

A scan of the picture that the coroner drew

In the 51 years since, many people who have heard of this case do not consider it to be a suicide. The details of the case do not add up, and many believe it to be murder. I didn’t come across this case until I started reading Tom O’Neill’s book, ‘Chaos’ which delves more into Manson type things. O’Neill believes that Tenerelli was murdered by the Manson family. Admittedly, there are many things that are unexplained and off about Tenerelli’s case.

First is his blood alcohol level. At the time of death, Filippo’s BAC was only 0.03%. Barely even intoxicated. And yet, one of the bottles of alcohol was completely empty, and the other almost there. This definitely implies that someone had to have been there at some point visiting him, drinking together.

In O’Neill’s book, he stated that he had asked about the windows, and the mayor of the town stated that the motel’s windows were too small to fit anyone in or out of. The mayor also wrongly stated that the motel had been torn down years ago. In reality, a ranch bought the building, O’Neill saw it in person, and the windows were indeed big enough for someone to crawl in and out of, even two people. 

 

Now, when Tenerelli died, he was listed as a John Doe, despite having signed in at the front desk. The owner of the motel, Bee Greer, stated that should never have signed in anyone to stay if they didnt have either a drivers license or an ID, and she stated that Tenerelli had an ID. Interestingly, the person that signed in at the front desk looked just enough like Tenerelli to have apparently passed for him on the ID, though there has never been any confirmation of what Tenerelli looked like at the time, and what his ID looked like. Bee Greer stated that the person she signed in did not have an accent. The real Tenerelli had a distinct Italian accent. Either Bee’s story is incorrect, or someone signed in for Filippo.

Filippo’s family filed him as missing on October 3^rd of that year. On the 4^th, two hunters saw the Beetle that Filippo had pushed over the cliff, and notified police. When an officer came around, he saw the blood on the ceiling and suspected foul play. Filippo’s family learned of the car being in Death Valley at that time. It wasn’t until three weeks later that the police in Bishop identified Filippo as their John Doe. On October 30^th, 1969, the Inyo Register reported that the Doe was Tenerelli. Filippo had been identified by the x-rays from his 1964 hospital stay. Interestingly though, the Inyo county coroner had been notified of this within 24 hours, yet the chief of police did not tell the news until October 28^th. The Inyo County sheriff’s office, the ones that found Fillipo’s car, wanted to know who the person was that dumped it. Coroner Brune told them that they had identified the body two weeks earlier.

Apparently, the Manson Family was briefly considered as having been responsible for Filippo’s death. There was little information to the public that showed any links, but six months later Aaron Stovitz, who had worked with Bugliosi on the Tate case, suggested that the Tenerelli case may have been one of the unknown Mansion deaths.

In O’Neill’s book, once he started snooping around the town asking law enforcement about the Tenerelli case, people gave little, wrong, or no information at all. The Lieutenant Chris Carter stated that the records had been purged, with unsolved homicide cases being held indefinitely. Meanwhile, a cop told O’Neill that they had seen the records back in 1993. Interestingly, Debra Tate had pleaded for Tenerelli’s case to be reopened back in 2007. In 2019, an article on Fox News stated that the case had been re-opened more than 11 years ago (which would have been at least as far back as 2008), and was once again closed. If what Carter said was true, of holding onto unsolved homicide records...doesn’t that mean they consider his case an unsolved homicide?

As Tom O’Neill wrote about his experience, the reader is supposed to understand that the police in this situation are very corrupt. For some reason, newer police end up being curious about it, as Tom about what happened, and then they clam up about talking about it ever again. It conveys that there is information in there that we are not allowed to know, and in the book shows that the case is extremely suspicious. I can only take this at face value since these are Tom’s experiences. Among these is the narrative that the police are seemingly trying to cover something up, especially in the fight that Bee Greer had with the police in stating whether Tenerelli had an ID or not. Bee stated that police kept trying to talk her out of saying that he had an ID. Later on, O’Neill found a registration form that had Tenerelli’s name on it, but misspelled. Later on, Filippo’s sister saw the paper and confirmed that it wasn’t his handwriting.

The scene of Tenerelli’s death contained no forensic photographs, and had no evidence of forensic tests used, such as finger prints or ballistics. The surgeon that performed Filippo’s autopsy, Robert Denton, stated that he never believed that it was suicide. The only reason he did, was because of pressure from the coroner’s office. Denton noted that Tenerelli’s body had looked to have been in a fight or dragged before being shot.

When Filippo’s car had been found, the police report stated that it couldn’t have been there for than 2 days. The car was found on October 5^th, which if the two day note is true, then it couldn’t have been Filippo that dumped the car. Filippo passed away on October 1^st, and found on October 2^nd. In the car, they found items that implied there could have been another person, such as a Santa Monica bus schedule, and a meal and laundry sheet from Brentwood Hospital, where didn’t work or stay. Back when the two hunters first saw the car, they stated that they had seen someone come out of it, and blood all over the car. Apparently around the 1^st of October, a highway patrolman had stopped a beatle with hippie types, that were later identified with Danny DeCarlo as the driver of the car. At the time, DeCarlo was in the Death Valley area. Neither cop that investigated the abandoned car believed that Tenerelli committed suicide.

When the Manson Family had been arrested for their auto-theft ring, allegedly one of the girls told an officer that she’d been involved with Tenerelli, and he’d been with the Family in Death Valley before his death. It is unknown who said that.

The final important bit that O’Neill brings up about the case is shaven pubic hair found off Tenerelli’s corpse. O’Neill makes the claim that the pubic hair could have been used in a ‘Magic Vest’ that a rather not so well known member of the family, Bill Vance, had. In “Chaos”, there were just a few strand of the hair betwixt the magazine, with it being unknown what happened to the rest. Supposedly Vance’s vest was made of pubic hair, and one that he liked to wear. Interestingly, though, Vance was arrested for stealing a gun out of a car in Death Valley on October 5^th, 1969, The day the car was pulled from the ravine.

Unfortunately, despite Filippo’s mother Caterina living to be 99 years old (and believing that she lived that long to find out the truth about her son), she never got to know what happened to Filippo that fateful night.

Personally, I have a lot of questions about this situation, and it is of course very suspicious what happened to him. I personally do not believe that Filippo committed suicide, since the gunshot wound was to the back of the head, and not the front. Now if the exit wound was coming out the back, then that would be a different story. I have a list of questions so I guess I’ll just jot them out below.

1. What is the real proof that this is a suicide? What was the reason for a suicide? Did he not leave a note?

Now I know that not every person leaves a note behind when they committ suicide, but it is interesting, that if this is really what that was, he did not do so. I mean, if there was a note of some kind, it could have made this a whole lot easier, unless the person that was there decided to plant one.

2. Did any of his family members experience him acting different within the months prior to his alleged suicide?

Interstingly, Filippo had just received his naturalization papers in July of that same year (1969). If Filippo had a mental illness it could help explain feeling suicidal, but I’d imagine that someone gaining that milestone would be ecstatic. Was he not happy about becoming a naturalized citizen? Considering it had been done in July of that year, and just a few months later in september he disappeared and went missing, did he perhaps have some sort of mental illness we did not know about?

 

3. Not that this is any of my business, but where is he buried? There is no findagrave page, so I wonder if he had a catholic burial since suicide is a sin in that religion.

4. What were the type of people that he worked with? Where did he work at to begin with, if he worked at all? How much money did he make in order to buy a new Bug at the age of 23? What did his father do for work? Did filippo or his father buy the car that he drove at his death? Assuming that filippo lived with his parents as stated above that is.

5. Is it possible that he was running from someone? Or was he meeting someone there?

6. Is it possible that the first part of the story is true, where he pushed the car over, but then something changed? Perhaps he was picked up hitch hiking and the person acted like they were his friend, killing him at the end of the night or something? If so, who could this person have been, and if the person reportedly didn't seem to be tenerelli when signing into the motel, how didn't bee greer notice? On top of that, did Bee see Filippo's dead body? Could she determine that it was the same person that signed into the front desk?

7. Is it really possible that filippo was so considerate to have placed towels and shot himself in the head yet would barricade the door to essentially rot for a month?

8. what was the point of buying a gun cleaning kit if he was just going to shoot himself? Was it a formality at the store maybe? Maybe he had to buy it with the gun?

9. What happened to the rest of the alcohol if Filippo’s blood alcohol proved that he didn’t drink it?

10. Why isn’t there any report of any of the other tenants or employees hearing a gunshot? If Filippo supposedly committed suicide in his room, couldn’t there have been some sort of noise heard from the shotgun?

11. If the car was found AFTER Filippo’s death, where was it before the mysterious person pushed it off of the cliff?

My overall thoughts:

Personally, I do not think that the Manson family had anything to do with Filippo’s death. That may sound crazy, but the evidence that Tom O’Neill presented in his book is quite weak, and even wrong at times. For example, he stated that Bill Vance had a ‘magic vest’ with pubes from various people on it. That’s not true. It was actually a vest that Charlie had, which no-one else was supposed to wear (though you can see Sandra Good wearing it in the Manson 70’s documentary), comprised of the hair from various members of the Manson family. Besides, Death Valley is a big place, and the areas that Filippo were supposedly at during his last days are very far away from where the Manson gang were. 

 

What do I really think happened? Well, I do think that in some way Filippo was murdered. In two ways. The first being that once he died, his death was essentially covered up, and the second being that someone really had it against him. Honestly, O’Neill wrote all these things in his book about how it seems to add up that the Manson family had something to do with it, when in reality the picture couldn’t be any more obvious to me. He wrote about how the police would clam up about talking about anything new, about knowing the truth, and giving out any information. It seems to me that Filippo was probably killed by the police themselves.

Halfway through reading about him, I had the thought that perhaps Filippo was a victim of racism. Keep in mind, this was back in 1969. People were not as tolerant of others with different backgrounds like today. It’s possible that someone hated him because he was Italian. . Because he spoke with an accent. I do not know where he worked, but if he had any sun exposure, it’s possible he could have been quite tan even and mistaken for a darker race. Either way, the situation screams of racism and a police cover up to me.

The biggest indicator for me is that his gunshot wound is in the back of the head. Whoever didn’t like him shot him, took his body, and planted it there in the hotel room, coming in and out of the window. The method of murder is not even consistent with the Manson killings either. Everyone in the Tate-LaBianca murders were stabbed in some way. Even Gary Hinman. Even Shorty Shea.

[SOURCES]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/another-manson-murder-debra-tate-victims-family-advocate-for-a-re-investigation-of-the-1969-suicide-of-young-man-in-california

‘Chaos’ by Tom O’Neill, and the subsequent facebook page for it.