The Manson Family Connection
You may have heard this story before, but you probably haven't encountered this variant of it. As many already know, Charles Manson and several of his followers were arrested at Barker Ranch after trying to go off-grid after the infamous Tate-Labianca murders. Naturally, they would hide out after committing such a felonious act. But why were they at this specific site?
The Family first relocated to an isolated ranch property in 1968, The Myers Ranch, but then moved to Barker Ranch. Catherine Gillies, one of the Manson "girls" and the granddaughter of the Myers family, recommended the location as a secluded and difficult-to-access hideout for the group. Several authors have suggested that Arlene Barker allowed them to stay at Barker Ranch after Manson gave her a Beach Boys gold record, allegedly stolen from Dennis Wilson's home.
However, there's another layer to this story.
Charlie and his sect believed a total world war was imminent, and Charles Manson would lead them to survive by hiding in the desert. The desert was thought to contain a "bottomless pit," as the Book of Revelations alluded to. One Family member recounted their escape plan to another inmate:
Charlie was going to lead them to the desert, Susan said. There was a hole in Death Valley that only Charlie knew about. Deep inside, at the center of the Earth, there was an entire civilization. Charlie would take the Family, the chosen few, to live in this bottomless pit.
Other sources have filled in this lean framework of ideas.
Charlie had inside information from a sect of "old witches" as he cryptically referred to his sources. He said "Marge" had hidden a "golden child" to give him the necessary information to survive the coming Apocalypse. This child supposedly lived underground and could lead the "family" to the safety of an underground civilization.
Next, we have Vincent Bugliosi, the Manson prosecutor and author, attempting to synthesize Manson's ideas about the bottomless pit.
Manson envisioned it as a sort of human seed bank, where each dying civilization sent representatives of their last generation to feast on the tree of twelve fruits "or something like that."
Poston explained that the bottomless pit was mentioned in Revelation and Hopi Indian legends. According to Manson, the entrance to this pit was a cave beneath Death Valley, leading to a sea of gold known to the Indians. Manson claimed that "every tuned-in tribe of people that's ever lived has escaped the destruction of their race by going underground. They're all living in a golden city with a river of milk and honey and a tree that bears twelve kinds of fruit, a different fruit each month, or something like that. You don't need candles or flashlights down there. It will be lit up because the walls will glow. It won't be cold or too hot. There will be warm springs and fresh water, and people are already down there waiting for him."
Both Atkins and Jakobson had mentioned Charlie's "bottomless pit" to me before. The Family loved hearing Charlie sermonize about this hidden "land of milk and honey." They were so convinced of its existence that they spent days searching for the entrance to this underground paradise.
Not much more is said about this, and we are left to ponder the incredible "coincidence" of the Family searching for an entrance to an underground civilization at the very same Ranch where Marjorie supposedly handed off a Magickal Childe for tutelage by a subterranean race of crypto-terrestrials.