Dennis Wilson was killed by my shadow... [fact.428] (Page 1 of 2)

Dennis was the pretty one. He loved life, and loved booze and drugs a lot too. He knew Charlie Manson.

NEW DECEMBER 13, 2001! Findadeath.com friend Karen Valentine sent this picture of the house Dennis lived in, when he partied with the Manson Family.  Thanks Karen!

Big snaps to Jon Stebbins and his bio called The Real Beach Boy. I hope he won’t mind, but I borrowed a couple of quotes from his fantastic book on the man.

Dennis’ life with the Beach Boys was certainly peppered with ups and downs. Their psycho father Murray managed them from the beginning, and pushed them psychologically. If you’ve ever heard that infamous recording session when Murray really lit in to the guys – you know it got to extremes, and Dennis couldn’t cope. Brother Brian didn't do any better, and if anyone has seen Brian in recent years, well, you’ve seen the toll that all those years of struggle had taken.

Unfortunately, because of Dennis, The Beach Boys would always be associated with Manson and the Helter Skelter murders. That connection IS Los Angeles to me. In 1968, Dennis picked up a couple of female hitchhikers, and took them back to his place on Sunset, near the Will Rogers State Park. That was opening the door. By the next night, the place was crawling - to borrow a joke from my pal Ally "like cockroaches in a bad restaurant" - with Family members, including Charlie himself. Through the connection with Manson – the Beach Boys actually recorded one of Charlie’s songs, on the 20/20 album. Charlie’s version was called Cease To Exist – and the group changed around the lyrics and renamed it Never Learn Not To Love. Dennis was once questioned about the integrity of recording that song, and he responded by saying that Charlie didn’t want writing credit – he wanted cash. He’d stolen enough from Dennis that he felt just in recording the song, and not giving Manson any residuals.

Hear Manson’s version                            Hear The Beach Boys version

Dennis owned a 62-foot Yacht, called Harmony. He bought it when the Beach Boy money was big, and it was his pride and joy. Once he stood on the ship and looked out into the water and said that the ocean is where he belonged, and that’s where he wanted to be buried.

His passion for alcohol and coke led to a very tortured relationship with the rest of the group. He would be invited back to perform with them, eventually screw up, and get the sack. He’d go in to rehab and rejoin the group, relapse and leave again. The money became less frequent, and he fell behind in his payments on the yacht. The bank repossessed it, and Dennis hit the skids. His fellow group members cut him off financially, in hopes that he would complete a rehab program, but Dennis would consistently relapse. He was a generous man who knew how to help everyone except himself.

For some reason, his address at the time of his death is listed as 9744 Wilshire Boulevard. I am sure this was just his office. Here is the front door, and inside the building are these elevators. Can anyone clarify?

At the end of December 1983, Dennis was once again out of rehab, unsuccessfully. He took to hanging out at the docks where his old Yacht used to be berthed. He met up with old pal Bill Oster, who had a yacht called Emerald, near where Dennis kept his before. Emerald was docked in this Basin, number C-1100. Dennis and his current girlfriend Crystal McGovern spent the night of the Tuesday the 27th on the vessel. Dennis drank.

When he woke Wednesday morning, he began with screwdrivers at 9. Atta boy. He and Bill cruised around the marina in a rowboat to visit old friends, and returned to The Emerald. After lunch (turkey sandwiches) around 3 o’clock, Dennis announced he was going for a swim. Everyone thought he was nuts, because the water was so cold, but everyone also knew that he was unpredictable, and there was no stopping him. He dove in, and decided to swim underneath the spot where Harmony was docked before. He’d combed the ocean floor, and emerged from the water holding a picture of an ex wife, that he threw from Harmony years before, in a fit of anger. Dennis dove again for more treasures. He didn’t resurface.

Dennis was known for practical jokes, and people didn’t worry too much. Yet. They even checked the local bars to see if Dennis was hiding out there – to no avail.

Dennis drowned. At 4:40pm, Oster flagged down a passing Harbor patrol boat. After they arrived, it took four divers working in the dark with a pole, probing the ocean floor, 45 minutes to find Wilson’s body in 13 feet of water. He was only wearing cut-offs.

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Because of the hassle a couple of years earlier, with James Watts and his criticism of The Beach Boys music, the Reagan administration decided to make an exception and allow Dennis to be buried at sea. Not cremated. On the 4th of January, Dennis’ family was part of a three-boat procession, where Dennis was finally put to rest at sea. God, he was only 39 years old.

When Charles Manson learned of his death, he commented, "Dennis Wilson was killed by my shadow because he took my music and changed the words from my soul." Loser.

Trivia: Dennis once owned a red Ferrari that belonged to singer Sam Cooke. Dennis loved Sam, and would often play his music in the car.

More: Ever hear the song Monkey’s Uncle? The Beach Boys recorded the song with the wonderful performer Annette Funicello – who I’m so sorry to say will probably end up here soon enough. The film was classic, and one of the rare film appearances for the group.

Sent in by Findadeath friend Kevin Hassell:  He was the only member of the Beach Boys that could actually surf.  I forgot about that Kevin, thanks!

My buddy Steve Smith sends in:  Don't forget that he was very much involved with Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac fame. Included on the Fleetwood Mac 1982 "Mirage" album is the song: "Only Over You" which she wrote specifically for him.  Thanks, Steve!

Findadeath.com friend Tanese sends this in:  Shawn Love Wilson listed on the death certificate was Dennis' wife that he had a son with. This is where the story gets kinky. Apparently, Shawn was the daughter of fellow Beach Boy Mike Love - Dennis' cousin, also making Shawn his cousin! Mike denied her because she was conceived from an affair he had while married to his first wife. Mike and Dennis had a rocky relationship, and apparently Dennis married Shawn to spite Mike. I've heard of kissing cousins, but that was ridiculous.  Thanks, Tanese!

This has nothing to do with his death, (then again, I guess it does!) I'll never forget seeing the Beach Boys on "Good Morning America" sometime in the late 70s/early 80s. Dennis was absolutely WASTED!  he could barely hold his head up, and when he did, it would fall back down again. he tried to speak once or twice, to no avail. the other members seemed to ignore him thru the (thankfully) short interview.
Wanna see something really sad?  check out the footage of Dennis "singing" Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" during one of his last appearances with the group!
(on one of those BB documentary videos).
Joe Brya. Peekskill, NY.  Thanks, Joe.

UPDATE January 2003, from Findadeath friend Captain America:

Just surfed and enjoyed "fact finding" on your page....You should note that it was Dennis Wilson who wrote the words for "You are so Beautiful", according to Jon Stebbins book "D.W. - the real Beach Boy", Dennis also wrote with Daryl Dragon, before Dragon married Toni Tennille (Some of the songs on the Captain and Tennille's first LP were Wilson and/or Beach Boy songs). Also, you don't mention that late Beach Boy brother Carl was the son-in-law to Dean Martin (Carl's wife when he passed was Gina Martin Wilson). The Beach Boy/Dean Martin connection doesn't stop there...Carl's first wife was Annie Hinsche,
sister of Billy Hinsche, member of the Sixties trio...Dino, Desi and Billy!!! Billy later joined the Beach Boys touring band and still supports the Carl Wilson walks against cancer.

Carl's son "Justyn Wilson" (by Annie) and Dennis' son "Carl B.Wilson" (by Barbara) are members of the L.A. power trio "In Bloom".

Thanks again, Cap!

Findadeath friend Wendy sends us this website dedicated to making the Beach Boys home a historical landmark: www.beachboyslandmark.org

www.findadeath.com

Last edited by Markus (2006-05-03 09:11:28)

Ye true!..Awesome...

Dennis Yacht...do you remember?

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(Robert and Richard Sherman)

[From Walt Disney Picture "The Monkey's Uncle"]

[BB:] Uh, huh, She loves the monkey's uncle,
Yeah, yeah, She loves the monkey's uncle,
Whoa, whoa, She loves the monkey's uncle,
[Annette:] And the monkey's uncle's ape for me!

[Annette:] I don't care what the whole world thinks!
[BB:] She loves the monkey's uncle!
[Annette:] Call us a couple of "missing links",
[BB:] She loves the monkey's uncle!
[Annette:] Love all these monkeyshines,
Every day is Valentine's,
I love the monkey's uncle,
And the monkey's uncle's ape for me!
[BB:] Ape for me!

[BB:] Uh, huh, She loves the monkey's uncle,
Yeah, yeah, She loves the monkey's uncle,
Whoa, whoa, She loves the monkey's uncle,
[Annette:] And the monkey's uncle's ape for me!

[Annette:] This in my heart jumps like a clown
[BB:] She loves the monkey's uncle!
[Annette:] Feels like the circus just came to town!
[BB:] She loves the monkey's uncle!
[Annette:] I live in a "jungle gym",
In order to be with him
I love the monkey's uncle,
And I wish I were the monkey's aunt!
[BB:] Monkey's aunt!

[Guitar Solo]

[BB:] Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
[Annette:] On the day he marries me
[All:] What a nutty family tree!
[Mike:] A bride!
[Brian:] A groom!
[BB:] A chimpanzee!

[Annette:] Let them say he's the booby prize!
[BB:] She loves the monkey's uncle!
[Annette:] He is the guy I idolize!
[BB:] She loves the monkey's uncle!
[Annette:] Love all those monkeyshines,
Every day is Valentine's,
I love the monkey's uncle,
And the monkey's uncle's ape for me!
[BB:] Ape for me!

[All:] Uh, huh, She (I) loves (love) the monkey's uncle,
Yeah, yeah, She (I) loves (love) the monkey's uncle,
Whoa, whoa, She (I) loves (love) the monkey's uncle,
And I'm MAD about his chimpanzee!!!

On December 11, 1964, Sam Cooke was shot to death in a cheap Los Angeles motel, by the manager. Earlier, he'd been dining in Hollywood with some friends, and was reportedly on his way to meet with the musical director of his upcoming Florida concert. The exact circumstances of the shooting remain mysterious and with rather sinister implications, though the manager reported having thought of Cooke -- who supposedly kicked in the door to her office -- as an intruder. Cooke's Ferrari was parked outside the motel; the girl with whom he had been conversing at the restaurant was nowhere to be found.

X

"I was in Los Angeles with Sam Cooke the night he was shot. We were out at that club together ... Later that night at my hotel, my friend calls and tells me Sam's been shot. I thought he was joking. 'Sam wasn't shot, man. I just left him.' It was no joke. Sam's death was devastating. He meant so much to me. He meant a lot to all of us. He represented the next level for us. He opened doors that haven't been stepped through since. He was gonna be the next Nat Cole. He was a dear friend, and now he was gone. I had to get on the train to get on a plane to get back to Sam's funeral in Chicago. I had no sleep, and I couldn't get Sam off my mind. There's the song. I wrote 'Got To Get You Off My Mind' to get Sam Cooke off my mind."

-- Solomon Burke

He was also the only child (and later agent) of Doris Day, for whom he co-wrote the ballad Move Over Darling, and was briefly convinced that he had been Charles Manson's intended murder victim at 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, in 1969.

Terrence P Melcher was born in New York City on February 8 1942, when Doris Day was 18 and married to her first husband Al Jorden, a trombone player who became a jealous wife-beater. Terry's parents soon separated, whereupon Doris Day resumed her singing career and jumped into a second marriage to George Weidler, one of the Blue Devils with whom she had toured North America aged 16 (they were known as The Milkshake Band on account of their "no booze or dope" policy).

The couple moved with young Terry to a trailer in California, until they too came unstuck. Doris Day was by then under contract to Warner Bros, for whom she made 17 films between 1948 and 1955. In 1951 she married her agent and producer, Marty Melcher, who adopted Terry.

The boy grew up hanging around film sets and recording studios with his mother and stepfather, and his first ambition was to become a singer. In the early 1960s he recorded a few singles, billed as "Terry Day – carrying on in a great tradition". But sensing that he might be happier behind the scenes, he became a trainee record producer at Columbia in 1962.

The next year he composed Move Over Darling, the title song for the film remake of My Favorite Wife, in which Doris Day starred with James Garner and Polly Bergen. He also formed Bruce and Terry with Bruce Johnston, later of the Beach Boys, and had hits with Custom Machine and Summer Means Fun. They later performed together as the Rip Chords, and had success with the surf singles Hey, Little Cobra and Here I Stand, and with the album Other Hot Rod Hits. But after appearing in concert with the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean in Honolulu in 1964, Melcher realised how uncomfortable he felt on stage; and although he continued to perform as backup on their albums, including Pet Sounds (1966), he decided to focus on his work as a producer at Columbia.

In this capacity, Melcher worked with Wayne Newton, Pat Boone and Frankie Laine, as well as with Paul Revere and the Raiders and The Rising Sons, a group combining the talents of the then session guitarist Ry Cooder and the blues singer Taj Mahal.

Most successfully he was assigned to work with a new band, the Byrds, whose jingle-jangle fusion of rock and folk he helped craft into a new and immensely popular sound; he produced all of their early recordings, including the Bob Dylan cover Mr Tambourine Man (1965), which went to No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, All I Really Want to Do, The Bells of Rhymney and Turn, Turn, Turn.

From 1968 to 1972, Melcher produced The Doris Day Show on television, and he was involved in a number of other enterprises, including the Monterey Pop Festival, which he helped organise in 1967. By then he was living with his girlfriend, the actress Candice Bergen, in a mock chateau at 10050 Cielo Drive.

Through Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, Melcher was introduced in 1968 to the cult leader Charles Manson, who wanted a recording contract. After attempting to record some of Manson's half-formed songs, Melcher said no. They also discussed making a documentary highlighting Manson's music. Melcher abandoned the project after witnessing his subject becoming embroiled in a terrifying fight with a drunken stuntman at the ranch to which Manson and his "Family" had repaired after being turfed out of Wilson's house.

Shortly after this episode Melcher sublet 10050 Cielo Drive to the film director Roman Polanski and his pregnant wife Sharon Tate. The next year, on August 9, while Polanski was abroad filming, members of the Manson Family, high on LSD and fired by their leader's vengeful rehetoric, broke into the house and murdered Sharon Tate and four friends, scrawling "Pigs" on the wall in blood. One of the murderers, Susan Atkins, later claimed that "Charlie [Manson] picked that house to instil fear into Terry Melcher, because Terry had given us his word on a few things and never came through with them".

Prior to the killings Manson had turned up at the house on several occasions and let it be known that he was "looking for Melcher", although he was told on at least one occasion that Melcher had moved.

After Manson was arrested, Melcher took to employing a bodyguard and he told Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor who chronicled the investigation and trial in the bestselling book Helter Skelter, that his fear was so great that he had been undergoing psychiatric treatment. Melcher was the most frightened of the witnesses at the trial, even though Bugliosi assured him that " Manson knew you were no longer living there".

In the early 1970s, Melcher was again hired by the Byrds to produce their albums The Ballad of the Easy Rider, the live studio double Untitled and the less successful Byrdmaniax.

He also worked with Gram Parsons, the Mamas and Papas, Bobby Darin and Glen Campbell, although as the mellow country sound of the mid 1970s became more influential he faded from the spotlight. His two solo albums, Terry Melcher (1974) and Royal Flush (1976) - described by one critic as "Beverly Hills Country" - were forgettable, even though the credits included Ry Cooder, some of the Byrds and Doris Day, who performed as a backing singer. By the end of the 1970s Melcher was dabbling in real estate, although he later worked with the Beach Boys again, co-writing and producing Kokomo, which went to No 1 in America in 1987.

His stepfather Marty Melcher had died in 1968, when it was discovered that he had mismanaged or embezzled $20 million of Doris Day's money; Terry Melcher also revealed that he had mistreated him when he was a boy. He remained extremely close to his mother throughout his life, and in recent years had devoted himself to managing her various projects.

Doris Day survives him, as does his wife Terese and a son by a previous marriage.

[url=http://www.werkleitz.de/~pape/d/04projects/1997popo1/popo11.htmlPOP ODYSSEE - DIE BEACH BOYS UND DER SATAN[/url]

Kim Fowley, Szenebegründer aus Los Angeles, der psychedelische Musiker Chris Darrow, der Rockhistoriker Greg Shaw und Don Was, der spätere Produzent von Brian Wilson, steuern persönliche Eindrücke bei, eingebettet in dokumentarisches Material von Arbeit und Leben der Beach Boys.

[img]
http://www.werkleitz.de/~pape/d/04projects/1997popo1/media/i_cops1.jpg[/img]

"It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon."

H&S

Source

The story goes that in 1968 Dennis Wilson was driving along through Malibu when he noticed two hitchhikers. He picked them up and dropped them off at their destination. Later on, Dennis noticed the same two girls hitchhiking. This time he pulled over and took them to his home. Dennis then went away to a recording session and when he returned at three o'clock in the morning he was met by a stranger, Charles Manson. When he walked into his home, there was around a dozen people occupying his home, most of which were female.

VDP

In an interview given in 2000, Van Dyke Parks explained: “One day, Charles Manson brought a bullet out and showed it to Dennis, who asked, ‘What’s this?’ And Manson replied, ‘It’s a bullet. Every time you look at it, I want you to think how nice it is your kids are still safe.’ Well, Dennis grabbed Manson by the head and threw him to the ground and began pummelling him until Charlie said, ‘Ouch!’ He beat the living shit out of him. ‘How dare you!’ was Dennis’ reaction. Charlie Manson was weeping openly in front of a lot of hip people. I heard about it, but I wasn’t there. The point is, though, Dennis Wilson wasn’t afraid of anybody! Dennis was a total alpha male – something Mike Love wants to be but isn’t.”

In an 1969 magazine interview with Keith Altham, Dennis stated that “Sometimes the Wizard frightens me – Charlie Manson who is another friend of mine who says he is God and the devil!”

The Beach Boys and Satanism

In 1966, the Beach Boys came out with their album, Pet Sounds (album cover pictured to the right).  Please notice the goats which they are feeding.  This is no coincidence, the goat represents Satan...

"The horned and hoofed Greek goat-god, Pan, is one of the most important entities of Witchcraft.  Thor, the Norse god, was worshiped before the other gods of Valhalla. Some say he existed as early as the stone-age. Thor drove a great chariot, pulled by two giant, powerful goats. They symbolized thunder and lightning.
Medieval legends say that the Devil created the goat. Satan himself often appeared with goat's horns, and sometimes changed his shape completely into a goat."

Cr.

Backtalk with Brian Wilson

Spahn's Movie Ranch

1200 Santa Susana Pass Road
If you watched westerns in the 1950's, you've probably seen Spahn's Movie Ranch. The 500-acre ranch, located in the Santa Susana Mountains, was used in a number of motion picture and television westerns, and was once owned by silent film star William S. Hart, best known for his part in the 1925 western, Tumbleweeds. The ranch had been used to film David O. Selnick's 1943 classic, Duel in the Sun, which starred Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, and Joseph Cotten. It was also used to shoot episodes of Bonanza and The Lone Ranger, at one time actors like Roy Rogers, Tom Mix and Wallace Berry all played cowboys there. In 1948, a dairyman from Pennsylvania named George Spahn bought the land, at that time, westerns were still in demand, so Spahn enjoyed a steady flow of business from Hollywood. But as the popularity of westerns died down, Spahn's Movie Ranch began to resemble a ghost town. In the spring of 1968, Charlie and the family took residence there, living at the ranch on-and-off in exchange for labor. The family did daily chores and helped run the horse rental business, which had become Spahn's main source of income.     

During the Tate-Labianca murder trial, wildfires burnt Spahn's Movie Ranch to the ground. Since George didn't have the money to rebuild it, he sold the land, the property was divided-up three ways. Today, a local church owns a portion of the land, while other sections make up part of California's Santa Susana State Park.

August 16, 1969. In custody from right to left, ranch hand Juan Flynn, Straight Satan member Robert Reinhard, and Charles Manson.

Spahn