Helter Skelter
"It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, that you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in the cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon." So goes the first line of the 1974 book by Manson Family prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi (and Curt Gentry), Helter Skelter: The True Story of The Manson Murders.
It's a haunting notion-as haunting as the crimes themselves proved to be on the American psyche for decades after those nights in 1969. Documented not only in the book quoted above but in the movies on television and film they inspire and inform to this day, those crimes are a part of our lexicon, a shorthand for the broken extremities of our society, a real part, like or not, of the American experience, of American history itself. The 10 lots featured in this auction are from later in that history, from when the perpetrators were still incarcerated or had been for decades to pay for their crimes.
Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (Manson Family) Signed Photo Encapsulated Authentic by PSA/DNA
Offered is a 4 x 6 inch photo signed and inscribed by Manson Family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme. Fromme has inscribed the photo "Air Trees Water Animals - Lynette Fromme." Though a "founding" member of the Manson Family, she is best known for a later crime: the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford. On the morning of September 5, 1975, Fromme went to Sacramento's Capitol Park, ostensibly to plead with President Ford about the plight of the California redwoods. When Fromme pointed her Colt M1911 .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol at Ford, she was immediately restrained by Secret Service. She spent 34 years in prison, and was parolled in 2009. The newspaper photo is mounted to a 4 x 6 inch index card. Encapsulated as Authentic by PSA/DNA. Excellent condition.