Further reading for The Manson Family Western Surplus Shootout
The Manson Family Western Surplus shootout, which happened in 1971, refers to a profoundly bad caper to break Charles Manson out of prison by members of his cult, The Manson Family.
Charles Manson had been in prison for just a little while at this point following the horror of the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders committed by members of the Manson Family. Where the arrest and trial of those killers led to the breakup of the main body of the Manson cult, the arrest and convictions of their fellow family did nothing to break the spirit of what remained. Unfortunately, what this meant was that the remaining members were the dregs of the dregs, a real lowlife crew of also-rans that were every bit as fanatical as the core members but also the dimmest of the bunch.
Manson’s infamy and presence in San Quentin meant that he had a huge target on his back in jail and being a tiny little hippie man, mean streak notwithstanding, Charlie was getting his ass kicked on the regular and survival in the can meant shacking up with one of the prison gangs. Unfortunately, what this meant was that Charlie, being white, had one group to hang with: The Aryan Brotherhood. And thus, the forehead swastika was born.
The remains of The Family, still a bunch of starry-eyed acid casualties, were certain that Charlie’s Helter Skelter was just around the corner and they were going to need him out of jail if they were going to fulfill the prophecy and so they put a plan into motion to bust Charlie out. They were going to need guns. Lots of them. So they set their sites on the Western Surplus in Hawthorne, California (a store that is still operating, by the way). The heist went about as well as it could with a bunch of blitzed-out hippies and Aryan Brotherhood goons running it.
Episode: 422
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