Sandra "Blue" Good
“The verdict doesn’t
make any difference. It’s what has led
up to the verdict. He has not had a fair
trial. There are many more men who are
not having fair trials. They’ve hid his
word from you. Charlie hasn’t been able
to speak in the courtroom, the defendants haven’t been able to put on a
defense. They’ve thrown the Constitution
in the wastebasket, where does that leave your law? It’s anarchy, total anarchy is coming. ….that
was a trial, eight months of prosecution testimony.”
- Sandra Good, at the
time of the verdict in 1971. She and
many others were not allowed to testify in court, so they sat outside the
courtroom, in protest every day, waiting to testify.
“Those
murders were never allowed to be explained. Manson and the women were never allowed
to speak (in court). There is a whole lot about those murders that must be
explained, there is much more to those murders than you have ever read about or
heard about because Bugliosi would not allow any other story to be spoken about
at the trial.”
— Sandra Good, 1975
Q: …what I'm trying
to say is that it sounds like Manson sucked a bunch of people in.
Sandra Good: No, we sucked him in, if anything. We brought
our problems to him.
1988
“We’ve given them reason to
fear us. Three girls went out and killed seven people. They righteously did it,
because they loved Bobby. They did it for Bobby— Bobby BeauSoleil; copycat
murders.”
— Sandra Good, 1971 (Source: Death To Pigs)
From the very beginning the cards were totally stacked against him. He was denied his fundamental pro per (the right to be your own lawyer). It was taken away from him. Bugliosi knew that was illegal. Bugliosi knew that Manson had the intelligence, the capability. Other lawyers knew that he had more than the capability of defending himself, yet the truth that he spoke and his ability to put things across was frightening to the establishment. The judge stood up and just said, you know, gaveled, "Mr. Manson, this is my court room", and he took his pro per away from him. From that time on Charlie was denied his right to put on a defense. He couldn't speak for himself. He couldn't call witnesses. He couldn't cross examine witnesses. Bugliosi used the power of the district attorney's office, the money, the resources of investigators, he was able to coerce witnesses by making deals with them. There were people who testified for the prosecution who had pending charges against them. Bugliosi said, "You say what we want you to say or - and we'll drop your charges." People were paid. People were intimidated. Women's babies were taken away from them. They took my child. They tried to use my child as leverage to get me to testify against Charlie. They took Susan Atkins' child away from her. They took Mary Brunner's child away from her. They used every trick in the book to get people to say what would fit with Bugliosi's scenario. And this is still going on, even worse nowadays, the way they use snitches. Snitches always lie. All Manson really wanted was the right to speak for himself. Nobody can speak for Manson.
- Sandra Good
He didn’t
want to be a leader. He was interesting, he was self-contained, he was
self-assured, he was enjoying his life. Oftentimes he would walk away from us.
Our baggage and confusion was too much for him. He just had to get away and
clear his mind. We got him where he is at. This is our trip that got him in
prison.
We all had
complete autonomy and freedom and I think that's one reason that there was so
much harmony amongst everybody. We didn't feel constrained by anything. We were
free to evolve, to explore our- our inner selves, to grow - as Charlie said, to
be reborn. Every day was like a day to be reborn and to start all over, in a
new, good day. He absolutely did not control anything that went on at that
ranch. The only one thing that he insisted upon was don't lie. Make your word
good. He lived by the old convict code. Don't snitch. Do not snitch. Take
responsibility for your own actions. Whatever you do, you do because you want
to do it, and take responsibility for what you do. And unfortunately that's not
what people have ended up doing. They're going along with the D.A.'s lies in
order to get their freedom from prison. They have bought into the D.A.'s
reality.
Sandra
Good:
Actually Linda suggested the Tate house, because she had been there, and she
got in the car and she drove to the Tate house.
Laurence Merrick: Linda who?
Sandra Good: Kasabian, which that was not allowed to come out (in court)
either.
Brenda McCann: She got burned on a dope deal there. And another girl
wrote us a letter and told us about a contract that was out on some of the
people in the Tate house, because they were selling some bad dope, that may
have caused a couple people to die.
Laurence Merrick: Who sold bad dope?
Brenda McCann: Somebody outta that house.
Sandra Good: In fact it wasn’t planned, it was just done.
Laurence Merrick: Some of you knew about the, before the murder?
Sandra Good: It wasn’t planned, as things were moving, some people could
feel it was going to happen. We knew we’d do anything to get Bobby outta jail.
1971,
(Source: Death To Pigs)
“The motive for the
murders was love of brother, cause we knew we would do anything to get Bobby
out of jail. It was simply that Bobby had been arrested for the murder of
Hinman, and the girls, to get him out of jail, decided to commit copy-cat
killings. With writing on the wall and the whole thing. You know, multiple stab
wounds and thereby leading the police to believe that the killer was still at
large. Linda suggested the Tate house cause she had been there and she got in
the car, and she drove to the Tate house.”
- Sandra “Blue” Good (Source: Robert
Hendrickson’s Manson)
“Manson did not
direct anything that went on at the ranch. He was, like he said, in our will.
He did not ask that those murders be committed. He did not ask that anybody do
this, that, or anything. He was in our will. Those murders were committed to
get a brother, Bobby Beausoleil, out of jail. And we were young people, and we
saw the need for social change in this country and we were willing to go to war
to make the change to save our air, our trees, our water, and our animals.”
- Sandra
Good (Source: CourtTV
interview)
“I was really
impressed, not so much with Manson at first as with the gracious way the people
were living there, the way they treated each other. People were cooking and
sewing, doing useful things. They were happy and there were no books. I had been getting everything from books,
intent on getting a degree, and I was really taken with the way these people
were living.”
- Sandra Good (Source: The
Milwaukee Journal)
“The main reason,
the main catalyst for those killings were to get a brother, Bobby Beausoleil,
out of jail. He’d been arrested for killing Gary Hinman. Tex and Susan Atkins
owed Charlie favors. He had put his life on the line a number of times for
Susan Atkins, he had helped Tex out of a real sticky situation. When Bobby got arrested
for the Hinman murder, everybody wanted to get Bobby out. Charlie’s strong
thought, coming from years in prison, means you stand by friends, you stand by
your brother. He was raised by war veterans, World War II, World War I.
Brotherhood. Brotherhood goes deep. There is a time to kill, believe it or not-
it’s called war. When those young people went out to do what they did for
Bobby, there were other reasons for killing also which I can speak of because I
was complicit and I can explain to you our war on the system.”
- Sandra Good (Source: ManSon:
Menschensohn documentary)
“His [Manson] so-called “power,” only lies in his happiness. That’s
what attracts people, because he’s completely happy. He’s gentle, he dances, he
sings, he looks beautiful, he looks happy and this draws a lot of people just
like people are drawn to little babies.”
— Sandra
Good, 1970 (Source: BBC Documentary)
“Right and wrong is
what you yourself wants to make it. We killed six people for our brother Bobby,
that’s where it’s at. We did it for love of brother— Bobby.”
— Sandra “Blue”
Good, 1971
- Sandra Good, 1988
First of all, you're
misinformed, as is everybody misinformed, about the so called "The
Family." There was no organization or group called "The Family."
The Family was a term given by the media to an amorphous group of people, some
of whom went to prison in 1969. We lived on a ranch in the Santa Susanna
mountains, called the Spahn Ranch and later we lived in Death Valley. We didn't
call ourselves anything, but we made a lot of music and somebody said
"Well, what do you call your group?" And somebody said, "Well,
we're the Family Jams." So, over a period of time, because the media
usually needs to put labels on situations, we got the name "The
Family." But there were literally hundreds of people who came and went.
Later on, you might say, there was a core of people who were very very close
together and who stayed true to the thought that we had for stopping the war in
Vietnam and for protecting our air, our water, our trees and our wildlife. We
were so committed to those causes that the murders more or less evolved out of
our desire to change the system.
- Sandra Good, 1988
Q: Why didn't you
chose to accompany them?
A: I was eight
months pregnant and it wasn't my destiny to do that, anyway. And those murders
were not at the direction of Charles Manson. Those people that went out did so
of their own free will and of their own volition. There was reason in each
person's mind for what they did. It had nothing to do with Manson's will or his
direction. He had nothing to do with those murders. The kids that did those
killings were primarily middle-class people who were raised in similar ways
that I was raised and did not like what was going on in this country. They
wanted to stop the war in Vietnam. They wanted to stop the pollution. They
wanted to get one of their brothers out of jail who was arrested for something.
There were different reasons for those killings which haven't been fully
explained. It could be explained but it would take a lot of time...
What happened is
that the prosecution, the D.A. and all those people didn't want to face the
fact that kids that could have been their own kids did these things. So, they
had a person who was raised on the bottom of society, very poor, little
education, who had been raised in jail since he was nine years old - that's
Manson - and they said that he was the driving force behind what happened. Then
the D.A. saw that a lot of money could be made through the trial, through
books, through movie rights, T.V., Helter Skelter shows, and he covered up the
truth because he was selling something.
What happens when a
prosecution doesn't have a case is they'll take people, for example, they took
a biker who was a pretty sleazy guy. He had charges against him and they made a
deal with this guy that in return for false testimony they would drop all his
charges. It happens a lot. They (government) cut deals. They get people to lie
and then they give the person the false identity and money and relocate them to
another state. They dragged up people from all kinds of places, made all kinds
of deals and they created a case that would serve the prosecution. Of course,
the jury looks to the judge as a father figure and the judge is working for
public opinion and for dollars and holding hands with the D.A., etc. So, it's
really unfortunate these days that the court room is not a place where the
truth comes out. It's a very tragic situation because what this country was
founded on was the rights - what people died for were for people's rights in
the courtroom and Charles Manson did not get his rights in the courtroom. All
his rights have been taken from him.
- Sandra Good
Q: Is that another
motive for prosecuting Charles Manson, because he, the D.A., "doesn't have
any friends" and he was jealous because Manson had so many friends?
A: Well, people that
don't have substance within themselves and don't have a center in love and
faith and truth, they look to money. They bust their rear-ends on the freeway
going back and forth to jobs they hate to get money, to get approval, to get
attention. This is a motive in millions of people. It's not just the D.A.
that's been selling lies. It's the media, all the thousands of media people
that have been feeding off of what they call the Family. The D.A. was a very
competitive fellow and he did want to make a big name for himself and be a big
somebody. He was a very jealous person. I had several encounters with him. It
was eating him up that there were so many people that were loyal to Manson. He
didn't have anybody that would stand by him. So, that eats up a lot of people
when they don't have any loyalty or love that they can count on from somebody.
Manson didn't need friends, didn't need love, because he's self-contained. But
most people aren't self-contained, so they look to money and outside approval.
- Sandra Good, 1988
You better let Manson talk. Let him up or you’re going to die. He
should be able to have a new trial and the whole family should be together to
put on a new defense. Smile and smirk, but when the blood starts running out of
your face you’ll pray for Jesus and you’ll realize you killed him.
- Sandra “Blue” Good, September 7, 1975 (Source: Lakeland Ledger)