Author Archives: Garry Rodgers

About Garry Rodgers

After three decades as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police homicide detective and British Columbia coroner, International Best Selling author and blogger Garry Rodgers has an expertise in death and the craft of writing on it. Now retired, he wants to provoke your thoughts about death and help authors give life to their words.

TURKEY TAIL—NATURE’S MIRACLE HEALTH SUPPLEMENT

Nature provides us with life and the means to support our lives. From water to air to food, all comes from nature including a miracle health supplement—Tramete Versicolore. Most call this fantastic fungi “Turkey Tail” because the topside of this magic mushroom looks like the tail feather patterns on a wild turkey.

I started taking turkey tail supplements eight weeks ago. Like a miracle, this over-the-counter product cured the gut-wrenching indigestion of my life-long upper GI ulcer and the stabbing inflammation in my neck and shoulder sternocleidomastoid muscles caused by accidental cervical vertebrae fractures. In this short time, less than two months, I now eat normally and have full motion range of my upper body. I am discomfort free, and I swear it’s because of turkey tail.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask Rita (my wife) who started on the turkey tail trail the same day as me. Her chronically stiff and sore shoulders, caused by work-induced / job-related MSI injuries, are almost stress-free. And listen to the millions and millions of people from around the world who, for at least 5,000 years, have taken daily doses of this widely available polypore.

We’ll get into what this edible potion is and what it does in a bit. First, let me tell you the story about how we were introduced to turkey tail.

Rita and I are avid hikers. On June 1st, 2024, we did 8,700 rucking steps. That’s hiker-speak for up-and-down, step-over-rocks-and-roots, strolling with packs and poles. Then we swung by for a late lunch at the Shady Rest at Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island which is our favorite on the VI pub crawl.

Our server, Alize, greeted us with, “What have you guys been up to today?”

Rita replied, “We just came from a hike at Little Qualicum Falls.”

“Oh,” said Alize. “I love that place. That’s where I get my turkey tail.”

“Your what?” I asked.

“My turkey tail. It’s nature’s miracle health supplement.”

Now me being curious and not knowing of this stuff, I asked Alize to explain. She did, and she went on for at least ten minutes expounding the virtues of turkey tail supplements. I admit I was suspicious when she claimed turkey tail managed, cured, and prevented all sorts of aches and pains and creaks and groans and hurts all the way up to strangle-holding cancer. But Alize was so enthusiastically sincere that I had to take her seriously, and I sensed she was not some new-age woo-woo nut-bar selling some sort of steroidized snake semen.

We learned that Alize has a side business where she harvests wild turkey tail fungi mushrooms, dries and crushes them, encapsulates the powder, and commercially sells them at a very reasonable cost. “I don’t make much money from this,” Alize told us. “I do this because I know turkey tail works like a miracle, and I want to help other people feel well.” She went on to give many examples.

Once home, I Googled “Turkey Tail” and found gobbles and gobbles of positive information like this article from the highly credible health authority The National Cancer Institute: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/mushrooms-pdq  I found other turkey tail endorsements at WebMD, National Institute of Health, Drugs.com, Bastyr University, PharmEasy, Science Direct, Healthline, National Geographic, AlzheimersDiscovery, US Veterans Affairs, UCLA Health, Dr. Axe, and yes Wikipedia. I also spent time on ChatGPT4 learning that which I did not know about Tramete Versicolore.

Meanwhile, Rita went out to her Thrifty Foods store and into the Vitamins and More aisle. *Waves to our V&M department manager friend, Amy* Rita returned with a vial of Harmonic Arts Tramete Versicolore turkey tail tincture. We took some the next morning, and it’s become magic.

Seriously. Turkey tail works, and this is why.

What’s Turkey Tail Mushroom?

Tramete Versicolore is a living fungus belonging to the Coriodaveae family. It’s a shelf or bracket mushroom as it bonds to elevated decaying wood surfaces both vertically and horizontally and does not grow from the ground with stems like saprotoph mushrooms. And unlike saprotophs that reproduce through gills in the underside of their head, turkey tail spawns from pores in its belly.

Turkey tail is found worldwide except for Antarctica. It’s the most common forest mushroom and works as nature’s decomposer of dead wood. Mostly, turkey tail grows on upright or fallen hardwood (deciduous) trees but is sometimes found on softwood (conifers). Rarely does turkey tail form on living trees unless they’re sick and in the last stage of life.

You’ll often hear turkey tail called “Hikers Mushroom” as it’s readily visible from hiking trails, generally in shaded and humid areas. It’s not particularly sun tolerant and in North America turkey tail blossoms in the fall and on the north side of its host. You’ll find turkey tail growing anywhere from one guy alone to large colonies of rosettes.

Although turkey tail tops have similar wavy patterns like their namesake, they come in a huge variety of colors—browns, grays, tangerine oranges, blue-silver, greens, cinnamons, off-reds, purples, and across the rainbow spectrum. There isn’t a consistency to turkey tail appearances, and color variations occur in the same colonies.

What is color consistent is the underside where the pores emit spores. These surfaces are white or a creamy off-white with a soft spongy texture unlike the top which is leathery with tiny hairs and feels velvety. By the way, the body of a turkey tail mushroom colony is called the cronk or bract, and its root system that binds the rosette to its host is called the mycelium.

What’s in Turkey Tail?

Turkey tail is part of the functional fungi group, meaning that it works with medicinal properties rather than being an edible delicacy. Certainly, turkey tail is suitable to eat unlike a death cap or a dead dapperling, but it has little flavor and limited nutritional value. It’s in its preventive and healing capabilities that makes turkey tail a mushroom powerhouse.

A key component in turkey tail is beta-glucan. That’s a water-soluble fiber composing the mushroom’s structure that’s loaded with bioactive compounds. Here’s a slide explaining how beta-glucan operates.

Beta-glucans are protein-bound polysaccharides and are responsible for turkey tail’s immune-modulating effects and anti-inflammatory control. There are two types of polysaccharides:

  1. Polysaccharopeptides (PSPs)
  2. Polysaccharide-K (PSK or Krestin)

Here’s another slide explaining them.

I found a quote during my turkey tail research. “Both PSP and PSK belong to a group of substances called biological response modifiers (BRMs). As non-specific immunosupportive agents, they work to restore balance to the immune system without a specific target. Given that over 120 strains of turkey tail mushrooms are known to exist around the world, not all PSPs and PSKs are the same but they all act as protein-based polysaccharides which are fundamental to supporting the body’s immune system.”

What Can Turkey Tail Treat?

Turkey tail addresses and treats four main areas. It acts as an immune support. It works as an antioxidant. It works as an anti-inflammatory. And it works to promote gut health.

There are several more sub areas where turkey tail helps. It’s an antiseptic, an antiparasitic, an antiviral, an antibacterial, and some say it’s an athletic performance enhancer not to mention a de-stressor.

And there is considerable, credible, and convincing evidence that turkey tail is effective in preventing, controlling, and curing various cancer forms. Currently, Japan has certified turkey tail extracts for use in cancer treatment. These are not clinical trials. That’s passed. The Japanese national health care system officially approves and funds Tramete Versicolore for cancer treatment.

Here’s a slide show on turkey tail, courtesy of the great website FreshCap.com.

And here’s a super-informative Youtube video on what turkey tail is and what turkey tail can do for your overall health.

How Long Have Humans Known About Turkey Tail Mushrooms?

At least 5,000 years, and I base that on a blog post I wrote for Dyingwords.net about the archaeological case of Otzi the Iceman. In 1991, hikers found the intact and mummified body of a 5,000-year-old man in an Alps glacier. He was perfectly preserved as were his effects—clothing, a bronze ax, a bow and arrow, and a medicine bag. Inside the bag, also perfectly preserved, was a fungus. You guessed it—turkey tail.

Asian medical practitioners have also been using turkey tail treatments for thousands of years. In China, it’s called yun zhi or “cloud mushroom”. In Japan, it’s kawaratake or “mushroom by the riverbank”.

How Safe is Turkey Tail?

Perfectly safe, I’d say. And that’s speaking from eight weeks of daily ingestion. I’ve had zero side effects. No nausea, no cramps, no drowsiness or insomnia, no psychedelic hallucinations, no dietary issues, no diarrhea or constipation, and absolutely no more painful indigestion or any debilitating muscle stiffness. As I said. I’m cured, and I blame turkey tail for it.

Where Can I Get Turkey Tail?

If you’re in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, you can buy turkey tail extract capsules, powder, and tincture from Amy at Vitamins and More in Thrifty Foods. Or we can drive up to Qualicum and see Alize. Maybe she’ll even take us to her secret spot near the falls, harvest wild turkey tail, and make some tea.More practically, I think you can purchase Tramete Versicolore at any health food store. Not at a Big Pharma store. Or you can order what you’d like online. It’s not restricted, no prescription needed, and sold to anyone of any age.

Rita and I are using a brand called Harmonic Arts. Coincidently, it’s packaged nearby in Cumberland on Vancouver Island. And I recommend checking out Freshcap.com. They have a wide product line and a great website.

Is Turkey Tail Really Nature’s Miracle Health Supplement?

In my opinion, yes.

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Dyingwords.net followers — I’d really appreciate feedback on this piece. Have you heard about turkey tail? Have or are you using it? And if it’s new to you, would you consider trying turkey tail? Don’t be shy about commenting.

THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE MANSON CULT MURDERS

When you read the words “cult” and “murders” in the same line, you’ll evoke evil images of Charles Manson motivating his deadly cult to commit Helter Skelter—an apocalyptic race war between blacks and whites. The picture of wild-eyed Manson with a swastika carved in his forehead, and the sight of his head-shaven girls occupying the courthouse steps, seared themselves into American criminal history. Charles Manson is gone, but his memory lives on in villainous infamy. However, Charles Manson’s true motive for his cult murders wasn’t Helter Skelter. That’s nonsense. But Manson’s real reason remained shrouded in secrecy—until now.

During the summer of 1969, Charles Manson’s family of social misfits and rebellious rejects went on a homicidal rampage in the greater Los Angeles area. At least ten innocent victims lost their lives. The high-profile Manson family mass-murders claimed actress Sharon Tate and her celebrity friends who were shot, strangled, and stabbed to death. Businesspeople Rosemary and Leno LaBianca fell as well to Manson-ordered, cult-wielding knives. Charles Manson was also directly responsible for three or more individual murders associated with Manson’s criminal enterprise.

Throughout the Manson Family murder trial, district attorney and prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi pleaded a case that Charles Manson masterminded the Tate and LaBianca murders, although Manson wasn’t hands-on during the killings. Bugliosi argued Manson exercised totalitarian mind control over his cult members and convinced them to commit murder on his behalf.

Manson’s motive, Bugliosi offered, was Charles Manson proclaimed he was the reincarnation of a Jesus-like messiah who’d rule the world following an inevitable race war between blacks and whites. Manson called this Helter Skelter. Bugliosi’s case rested on the motive theory that Manson organized the Tate and LaBianca murders to frame the Black Panther movement and start his imaginary race Armageddon.

Bugliosi claimed Manson’s convoluted motive was personal gain and control after Helter Skelter occurred. Helter Skelter was a term Charles Manson adopted from the Beatles White Album that Manson claimed described the race war and its fallout. There’s no doubt from the trial evidence that Manson preached Helter Skelter to his followers, and they took it hook, line, and sinker. The Helter Skelter motive theory was enough to convince a jury to convict Manson and six family members of first-degree murder, sending them to death row. Their capital sentences were eventually reduced to life in prison where some still remain.

Now, after fifty-five years, the theory of Charles Manson’s bizarre Helter Skelter motive no longer stands the sniff test. It’s bunk, and Manson knew it. As a clever and cunning con man, Manson didn’t believe his own BS. He had a much different motive for ordering his followers to carry out the Tate and LaBianca slayings. Charles Manson’s real reason for his cult murders was to cover up another crime.

Charles Manson’s Criminal Background

If ever there was someone born to be a career criminal, it was Charles Manson. His birth mother was a disturbed teenager from Cincinnati, Ohio. There’s doubt about who Manson’s biological father was, but he took the surname Manson from a man who married his mother while she was still pregnant. The name on his birth certificate was Charles Milles Maddox after his biological mother’s maiden name.

Manson’s mother spent his childhood years revolving in and out of jail. She was a destitute alcoholic, and Manson bounced between her relatives. He relocated to an aunt’s home in Charleston, West Virginia and then to another aunt’s place in Indianapolis. By age ten, Charles Manson was already incorrigible. He was caught breaking into a house and stealing a gun.

At twelve, Manson was incarcerated in a Terre Haute, Indiana juvenile delinquent home. He escaped and survived by living on the streets of Indianapolis. Now Manson graduated from break-ins to stealing cars. By his 14th birthday, Charles Manson was sentenced to five years in a Nebraska prison for armed robbery.

Manson had a rough go in the penitentiary. He was a little man with big little-man syndrome. Even as an adult, Charles Manson only stood 5’ 2” and weighed 125 lbs. Much larger prisoners repeatedly raped and sodomized tiny Manson. He developed a defense mechanism that would be a lifelong trademark. Charles Manson pretended to be crazy, and the act worked for him.

Manson got paroled in 1954 and moved to Ohio. Soon, he was back into stealing cars and took one for a ride to Los Angeles. He supported himself through thefts, break-ins and robberies but found time to get a girl pregnant and marry her. Manson also learned to make extra money by pimping-out his new wife.

In 1956, Charles Manson was back in the federal prison system for another five-year stint. This time he was psychologically evaluated and deemed to be aggressively antisocial. His prison IQ test scored 119 with the national average being 100. The shrinks said there was nothing crazy about Charles Manson. In fact, he was quite bright.

Manson conned his way into early parole. He was out by 1958 and practicing a new trade which he’d learned from the pros in prison. Charles Manson began assembling a harem and lived off the avails of prostitution. He’d realized it was easier and safer to get others to commit crimes for him.

But, like other criminal ventures Charles Manson tried, he got caught again when one of the girls turned on him. As well, Manson had been kiting bad checks which was a federal offense. Manson was back in the pen in 1959—this time for a ten-year sentence.

Manson’s Musical, Scientology, and Carnegie Influence

Charles Manson played the prison system well. He used the crazy act when convenient but also took some schooling. Another psychiatric assessment identified Manson’s “tremendous drive to call attention to himself”. By accident or design, Manson was cellmates with the infamous bank robber, Alvin Karpis. It was Karpis who taught Charles Manson to play the guitar.

Manson learned several more skills in prison. He became an astute student of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Manson also studied Scientology. Persuading people and gathering large groups became Charles Manson’s burning desire. His intent upon freedom was to use his musical aptitude, his charm, and his con-man conversion skills to gather a female following. Originally, Manson’s game was nothing more than a front for a profitable prostitution ring and a try at building a music audience.

In 1967, Manson made parole again. Now he was in Washington State where he’d been transferred within the federal system. The timing was right for strands of fate to align and begin building Charles Manson’s deadly hippie cult. He moved to San Francisco.

This was the “summer of love” and the peak of the California counterculture of hippies and freeloaders centered in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. Many of the hippies were disenchanted girls from broken homes or strict families. The hippie lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll was uber-attractive to these vulnerable kids. It was the perfect position for a perverted predator like Charles Manson to exploit.

Manson arrived in San Francisco at the height of the hippie movement. Now, he had two distinct and definite purposes. One was to start a prostitution ring. The other was to build a music career. Manson was smart enough to know he needed a following for both goals. He put his guitar, Carnegie, and Scientology skills to work and assembled his family.

The Manson Family Members

Today, most of the main Manson Family female members are household names. Everyone knows about Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford. And, of course, Susan “Sadie” Atkins is well known. So are Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, Linda Kasabian, Mary Bruner, and Diane Lake.

Although Manson’s intention was to build a female following, there were a few young men who joined the family. Noteworthy were Charles “Tex” Watson, Steve “Clem” Grogan, Bruce Davis, and a good-looking young guy by the name of Bobby Beausoleil. All four would eventually go down for murders orchestrated by Charles Manson.

Looking at the Manson Family objectively, it wasn’t Charles Manson’s original intention to build a cult. His big drive was to be famous through music, and he needed a built-in audience to attract a record label. Manson was fascinated by the Beatles’ success and their music. He intended to follow their path. The cult-thing was an accidental by-product of his grandiose delusion of stardom.

A cult can be either destructive or non-destructive. Generally, a cult is an organization of followers with a charismatic leader who preaches false information. Scientology is clearly a cult, but they don’t seem to go around killing people. The Charles Manson Family did. They were about as destructive a cult as you can find.

You’ve got to give Charles Manson some credit for both drive and balls. While in prison with Karpis, Manson got a lead on a Los Angeles record producer named Phil Kaufman who Karpis knew from the outside. Kaufman was business partners with the influential recording producer, Terry Melcher, who was Doris Day’s son. Melcher was also the producer for big names like the Beach Boys, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the Mommas and Poppas.

Charles Manson amassed about 100 followers who he plied with psychedelic drugs and mesmerized their strung-out brains with messiah-like preaching about Beatle song interpretations. He gained his audience in San Francisco but knew the music action was in L.A. In 1969, Manson packed up the family and headed south. He tracked down Terry Melcher and talked his way into Melcher’s home at 10050 Cielo Drive in north Los Angeles. This was the home Sharon Tate was about to occupy.

Terry Melcher wasn’t impressed with Manson’s musical talent, but he took an interest in Manson’s personality. Melcher never outright turned Manson down for a record deal. He encouraged Manson to keep writing, practicing, and building an audience. Manson took Melcher’s advice to heart and did just that.

Manson and the Beach Boys

Charles Manson’s big musical break came by total fluke. Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys picked up two of Manson’s girls who were hitchhiking. Seeing them as an easy sexual mark, Wilson took the girls back to his Los Angeles mansion and had his way. Once the two returned to the family and told Manson about the encounter, Charles Manson saw a tremendous opportunity. He had the audacity to take 20 of his female followers and invade Wilson’s house.

Tempted by unlimited sex, Dennis Wilson let the Manson Family stay until they wore out their welcome a few months later. By then, Manson and his followers sponged tens of thousands of dollars off Wilson and his associates. The Wilson connection gave Manson access to big names like Neil Young who Manson had many jam-sessions with.

Dennis Wilson (Beach Boys) left – Charles Manson right

In the spring of 1969, Manson was going nowhere in his music world and his grip on his cult was loosening. People dropped off and recruiting was slow now that the counter-culture revolution had run its course. Manson wasn’t interested in retaining men, but he did everything to hang onto women. They were still his bread and butter. That continued to work as long as he supplied them with drugs and continued to make them feel valued.

One thing about running a cult is that it’s hard work. It takes a lot of supplies and energy to keep up the charade. Manson constantly needed to take his game to a higher step to retain control. He did this by preaching Helter Skelter, and it worked.

By now, Charles Manson had convinced his hard-core followers that he was a messiah—the “Son of Man”. He played on their fears and hopes where he predicted a race war between blacks and whites where the blacks would kill all the whites and then turn to the Manson Family for leadership. This was all nonsense, of course, and Manson knew it.

However, this Helter Skelter nonsense acted as glue for the family, and they bought it. To buy time while he pursued other music leads, Charles Manson upped his preaching game. He also upped his LSD and methamphetamine supply. For that, they needed money, and this got Manson in a pickle.

The Start of the Manson Family Murders

After Manson and the family left Dennis Wilson’s place, they couch surfed, leaching off whoever would tolerate them. One place was next door to 3301 Waverly Drive in north Los Angeles—the home of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. After that brief stay, Manson found an old movie set called the Spahn Ranch in the desert northwest of L.A.

Manson paid his rent to eighty-year-old George Spahn in sexual favors performed by his girls. With this new spot and its remote location, Manson now had more control over who was coming and going in the family. One of the newcomers was a 21-year-old wanna-be musician, Bobby Beausoleil.

Charles Manson was under constant pressure to fund his family. It took money to pay for drugs, food, and vehicles that the Manson Family required. Most of their money came from prostitution, drug trafficking and petty theft. From that, they barely scraped by. Charles Manson saw an opportunity and hatched a plan for a big money score.

One of Manson’s musical acquaintances was Gary Hinman who was a quiet and well-educated man. Hinman found Manson and his followers interesting but had no desire to join them. Manson heard a rumor that Hinman recently acquired a large inheritance, so Manson sent Bobby Beausoleil and Susan Atkins to check it out.

Gary Hinman knew Beausoleil and Atkins. He willingly let them in. Both Atkins and Beausoleil were drugged and unstable. When they approached Hinman to join their family, he again declined. The conversation turned to money, and Hinman put his foot down. It turned ugly. The Manson Family members took Hinman hostage and began torturing him.

Beausoleil phoned Manson back at the ranch and told him they weren’t getting anywhere with Hinman. They asked for Manson’s direction. Manson told Atkins and Beausoleil to keep Hinman tied up till he got there. Once Manson arrived, he took over, cutting Hinman’s ear off to set an example.

Hinman still refused to give in. In frustration, Manson took Atkins and left—telling Beausoleil, “You know what to do.” Manson also told Beausoleil to make the scene look like the Black Panthers were involved, reminding Beausoleil of the apocalyptic doom of Helter Skelter.

Bobby Beausoleil took that as a clear signal and authorization from his leader—Charles Manson—to kill Gary Hinman. With Manson gone, Bobby Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to death while Hinman stayed tied to a chair. Beausoleil then wrote “Pig” on the front door in Hinman’s blood as well as leaving a bloody paw print which was the Black Panther symbol.

Beausoleil was drugged, fatigued, and not thinking straight. He stole Hinman’s car, hid the knife in the trunk and drove from the scene. Within hours, the police found Bobby Beausoleil asleep in Hinman’s stolen car. His clothes were bloody and so was the murder weapon that was still in the trunk. The police backtracked, found Hinman’s body, and charged Bobby Beausoleil with first-degree murder.

Charles Manson Plans the Tate & LaBianca Murders

Beausoleil’s arrest worried Charles Manson. He was concerned—really concerned—that Bobby Beausoleil would crack, squeal, and implicate Charles Manson as a murder accomplice. That got the wheels turning in Manson’s head, and his convoluted logic kicked in.

Charles Manson calculated that if similar murders occurred with a modus operandi (MO) like what Beausoleil did to Hinman, then the police would have to conclude the real killers were still out there. Therefore, they’d have to drop the charges, release Bobby Beausoleil, and the heat would be off Charles Manson.

Manson figured he’d put his other family members to work by casing out locations and finding suitable murder victims. He knew he could convince his most-trusted lieutenants who accepted his Helter Skelter prophesies. Manson gathered them and said it was now time to start Helter Skelter. He said nothing about covering up the botched Gary Hinman murder.

The first place Manson targeted was 10050 Cielo Drive. Manson knew Terry Melcher moved out. In fact, Manson came face-to-face with Sharon Tate when he went looking for Melcher one day. Manson picked Tate’s residence for two reasons. One was he knew that celebrity murders would get a lot of attention. Secondly, Manson was familiar with the layout.

On the night of August 8, 1969, Charles Manson instructed Tex Watson to take Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian and kill everyone inside 10050 Ceilo Drive. Manson also directed them to make the scene look like a Black Panther attack by writing bloody messages on the walls. He implicitly said this was the start of Helter Skelter and it was their privilege to carry it out.

The drug-fueled cult members bought every word of it. Without going into graphic details, the Manson Family members cold-bloodedly killed Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abagail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, and an innocent visitor named Steve Parent.

One mass killing wasn’t good enough for Charles Manson. The next night, Manson accompanied the same murderous group to the Leno and Rosemary LaBianca house on Waverly Drive. This time he took along Leslie Van Houten and Clem Grogan. Again, Manson didn’t get his hands bloody. He picked the LaBianca home simply because he knew the layout and that they were wealthy. Once Manson located the home, he left and the Manson Family cult members went in for the kill.

Bit by bit, Manson’s grip on his cult slipped away. It took a while for the police to connect the Tate and LaBianca murders and find evidence linking the Manson cult to the crimes. Even when the police raided the Spahn Ranch and arrested Manson and his remaining followers on car theft suspicion, they failed to make any connection to the August murder spree. It wasn’t until Susan Atkins opened her mouth in jail that the cat came out of the bag.

Many of the Manson Family members testified at the Tate and LaBianca murder trials. Each one attributed the motive to Charles Manson’s Helter Skelter vision. One can’t blame them for revealing this as the motive because that’s what they honestly believed. Only Charles Manson knew his real motive for his cult killings. That’s a secret Manson took to the grave with him.

*   *   *

I’m not making up this theory about Charles Manson’s real motive for his cult murders. Vincent Bugliosi is on the record for purporting the Gary Hinman murder connection as the real reason why Manson ordered the Tate and LiBianca “copy-cat” killings. It makes sense when you think about it. And if you think about it, Bugliosi ran with the Helter Skelter motive because he knew he could sell it to the jury—not so with the Hinman coverup.

Charles Manson was a psychopath, but he wasn’t psychotic. He was a shrewd little con-man and a calculating criminal. His entire MO was using people to commit criminal acts, and his cult following—which was supposed to be a Beatles-like fan club—got carried away into one of the most notorious murder cases in history. It was all about covering up a crime gone bad.

If you’re interested in a fascinating look at how Charles Manson built and controlled his cult, I suggest reading a 2015 undergraduate honors thesis by Robin Altman of the University of Colorado, Boulder. It’s titled Sympathy for the Devil: Charles Manson’s Exploitation of California’s 1960 Counter-Culture. The thesis also concludes Manson’s real motive for the Tate & LaBianca murders was to cover up Bobby Beausoleil’s blotched job and to protect/divert suspicion from Charles Manson.

SUPERCHARGE YOUR SCHEDULE: THE GAME-CHANGING 100 BLOCKS STRATEGY

There’s only one area where we humans are truly equal. Time. Each of us are given exactly the same amount of time in our day. 24 hours. 60 minutes. 60 seconds. It’s how we use, track, and manage our time that sets us apart. Think of what you could accomplish with your time, and your energy, if you were able to supercharge your schedule with the game-changing 100 blocks strategy.

This strategy of dividing your waking time into 100, 10-minute blocks and tracking it comes from Tim Urban. Tim is a thought leader and prolific writer who hosts the popular website Wait But Why. I’ve followed Tim Urban for years, and I find him a fascinating man. One of his posts was titled 100 Blocks a Day. With credit to Tim for the images and graphs, I’ll paraphrase and personalize the content.

You probably sleep 7 to 8 hours per night. That leaves you with about 1,000 active minutes in your day. If you break that into 10-minute intervals, you isolate 100, 10-minute blocks.

Click Here or on the Image to Print This Graph

Throughout your day, you spend your time progressing through the 100 squares of blocks. When you wake, you’re in the first block and you run out of blocks when you go to bed. By stepping back and looking at what you’ve done in each block, you gain immense clarity from which you can supercharge your schedule.

By time tracking with blocks, we can readily see where we’ve been productive and where we weren’t. We can see time management efficiency, or we can see a complete waste of this priceless resource called time. We can see where to cut back and where to double down.

Ask yourself if each time-block furthered your definite purpose in life and which block was merely enjoyed for its moment. Ask if each block was a time gain or a time suck. Ask if each block allowed you to constantly create, to continue to consume, or to just comfortably cruise.

If you imagine your time blocks laid out on a 10×10 grid, you’d get a total screenshot of your day. How much of it was spent at work, and how much of that work time was productive and necessary? Or unnecessary? How much of your leisure time was worth the lack of effort? How much of your family time and friend time was enjoyed? And what really mattered in your day?

Graphing and tracking time blocks lets you think about everything you spend your time on in context of value per 10-minute block. Preparing dinner might take 3 to 6 blocks. Ordering in takes none. Meditation might take 1 block and a yoga session 3 blocks. Ask what the dollar-per-hour or return-on-investment might be.

2 blocks of reading per evening might add 15 books per year to your mental library. Writing a novel might take 20 blocks per day, and researching/writing/formatting/publishing something like this 675 word post takes 23 blocks or 3.8 hours. I know because I tracked it on the 100-block graph.

As part of this post, I recorded my entire day from the time I awoke to the time I shut down. I’ve always kept a journal and loosely tracked my time, but this was the first crack at being so detailed. Here’s a screenshot of my 10-minute time blocks for June 28, 2024.

I have to say this exercise was enlightening. It made me focus intently as I moved from morning to night. In my writing world, I have a massive project underway called City Of Danger. It’s in its third year of production, and it’ll be a year or two more before release. From this point forward, I’m going to religiously track the City Of Danger production time with the 100 block strategy. I’m curious if I’ve finally found something that can increase my focus and productivity.

Tim Urban of Wait But Why has three more insightful graphs. One is a 90-year period of human life in years. One is a 90-year period of human life in months. The other is a 90-year period of human life in weeks. Feel free to download them and begin plotting your blocks, supercharging your schedule, and changing your game.

Click Here to Obtain These Charts From Tim Urban