Running from Running Water

Here's a photo I haven't seen before. It's Ron Hughes. He looks happy, even though his sartorial sensibilities are severely infected. He needs a shave. He is raising his fist in some sort of power salute which was stupid even then (Slippy Power?). He has Kanarek by his side. Kanarek doesn't look like the homeless troll last seen a few years ago on some TV Special. The guy whose storage locker was supposedly sold at auction to constitute the "Railroading" book.

And as the Col says, there's no show without Punch and there's the BUG in the back, lurking and seeming smug, wondering if the milkman really fucked his wife or not.

Also, if you made me bet, Hughes either just had a toke or was about to try one out.

Some short time later the poor guy drowned in Sespe Springs. We established that it wasn't a murder here. Also if you can find the newest version of Sanders, he says he drowned in the flash flood.

It makes me wonder what the defense attorneys were thinking. Like Fitzgerald seemed like a smart cat- he had to know that all of them were busted and you should plead. They all acted like it was theatre- all of them. And that is hard for me to fathom.

Ronald Hughes Drowned

I know I told you all that I concluded recently that Ronald Hughes was NOT murdered and was in fact drowned in a flash flood. Bug made that murder shit up. Here is a footnote where one of the last people alive sued BUG claiming he was maligned. He lost. The notes lead me to believe even more so that it was a tragic accident.

The allegations read as follows: "In publishing Helter-Skelter and in publishing the aforesaid portions pertaining to Plaintiff, which are more particularly set out in paragraph 13 above, Defendants, and each of them, deliberately, willfully, maliciously and with reckless disregard for the truth and Plaintiff's reputation, omitted the following facts: [¶] a) Shortly after James Forsher and Lauren Elder were forced to abandon her Volkswagen and hike out of Sepse [sic] Hot Springs, they were picked up by two independent witnesses and driven to Los Angeles: [¶] b) That these two independent witnesses were later questioned by police and verified the fact that they picked up James Forsher and Lauren Elder and the time at which they were picked up; [¶] c) That each of these two independent witnesses was polygraphed by the police and was shown to have been telling the truth; [¶] d) That the time at which these two independent witnesses attested to having picked up James Forsher and Lauren Elder was prior to the time three other independent witnesses, who were later polygraphed and shown to be telling the truth, reported that they talked to Ronald Hughes; [¶] e) That the rainstorm which occurred during the weekend of Hughes' disappearance was the biggest of that year in Southern California; [¶] f) That several people had previously died in flash floods occurring in the area where Hughes dispeared [sic]; [¶] g) That subsequent to Hughes' disappearance James Forsher and Lauren Elder were questioned by the police very throughly [sic] for long periods of time on more than one occasion and details of their stories were carefully checked by police. [¶] h) That James Forsher and Lauren Elder were neighbors of Ronald Hughes who drive [sic] him up to Sespe Hot Springs at his urging. [¶] i) That James Forsher and Lauren Elder had no connection whatsoever with Charles Manson, the Tate-La Bianca killers or the Manson 'Family.'"