In this first installment of our Laurel Canyon deep dive, I review the history of Laurel Canyon and the weird ecology of cults and intelligence community activity that gave rise to the unique counterculture of Southern California.
It was as if there were some open-air field-testing of MKULTRA and other related programs going on out there, replete with a particularly toxic brand of sexpests and sociopaths.
Here’s what gets covered….
00:05:00 Shout-outs
00:05:00 Birth of the Canyon
00:12:11 Hollywood’s Babylon
00:12:42 Houdini
00:13:33 Clara Bow OG Manic Pixie
00:17:52 Richard Dix
00:19:07 Wallace Reid
00:20:28 Murder of Ramon Navarro
00:22:39 Big Sleep
00:24:28 Fatty Arbuckle framed?
00:27:27 In like (Errol) Flynn
00:29:14 Mary Astor’s dirty diary
00:30:11 Lookout Mountain Labs
00:32:50 Natalie Wood/James Dean
00:36:52 Dennis Hopper
00:40:34 Marlon Brando’s bloody brood
00:45:00 Wonderland murders
00:51:40 Masonic Hollywood
00:56:00 Azusa Street and the roots of Pentecostalism
00:57:50 Aimee Semple McPherson
01:01:48 I AM Activitie$
01:05:24 Yoga comes to US
01:07:27 The brutal Blackburn Cult
01:10:45 OTO/Jack Parsons
01:11:12 Robert Heinlein’s Canyon cabal
01:13:10 Scientology sets down roots
01:15:12 Source Family
01:18:46 Manson Family
01:19:45 EST: threat or menace?
01:20:54 Symbionese Army
01:22:30 Patty Hearst, girl with a gun
01:24:35 Cult assassins on the loose
01:28:06 Sunset Strip Riots
01:33:15 The perverted Vito Paulekas
01:42:38 Lucifer Fallen - death of Godo
01:46:57 Gary Hinman snuff
01:48:00 Donald Cammell’s sorry end
01:53:34 Counterculture Canyon
01:57:41 Mega-perverted Papa John
02:00:10 Michelle’s strange world
02:02:10 Tamar Hodel’s demonic dad
02:07:31 Black Dahlia
02:11:20 Mama Cass dies
02:13:07 Mackenzie’s sordid confession
02:14:27 Chynna and Bijou react
02:17:20 Monkee Shines
02:19:40 Jim Morrison
02:22:36 Love Street
02:24:30 Zappa
02:26:50 Groupies rise
02:30:05 Brian Wilson’s baby bride
02:31:35 Dennis Wilson’s guru
02:34:19 Behind the Byrds
02:36:22 David Crosby’s shadowy past
02:40:07 Monterey Pop and LSD culture
02:45:35 Altamont - Hell on Earth
02:49:02 Rise of soft rock
02:50:05 Foxy Linda
02:50:31 Tim Buckley’s Siren call
02:52:03 PKD’s prophecy
02:54:00 Eagles learn to fly
02:55:12 Don Henley’s statutorily bad night
02:56:22 Jackson Browne’s bad luck
