I ran across
this article about a parole recommendation for Bruce Davis, a member of the Manson family. It immediately brought to mind an event from 1980, maybe 1981.
My wife and I had a graphic arts and typesetting business in San Luis Obispo. One day a young woman came in to inquire about having some artwork and typesetting done for brochures. It was for a religious business called
Abounding Love Ministries. (Yeah, I had to look that up.) She was told to leave the drafts and specs and we would call her with a price for the job. She stated that, because it was for a religious business, she wanted us to do the work as a contribution. We told her that we didn't normally do that, but that if she left the drafts, we would take a look at it and see what we could work out.
When I later looked at the stuff she left, I realized that she was the wife of Charles "Tex" Watson, one of the worst of the Manson family, who was incarcerated in a local prison. As I was doing some post-grad work at the time, I got hold of my advisor and told him I was going to try to get an interview with Watson (thought I might make a trade with the woman for our "contribution"). John, my advisor, was aghast. He strongly advised me against becoming involved with Watson and his wife in any capacity. He had recently looked into this so-called religious business and said the worst thing I could do for my own business was for it to be known that I had any connection with what he described as "dangerous religious nut cases."
So when the young woman came back, I told her that we could not do the work as a contribution, and that we were so busy that it would be several weeks before we could get to it. I also gave her an unreasonably high quote for the work. She got so angry that her face actually turned red and she screamed that God would get me for treating her and Charles like this.
Just another day in the life.
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