Cult leader and mass murderer Charles Manson is dead, LA's second soccer team, scholarships to help trans people afford surgery.
Charles Manson’s shadow still looms large over LA
The gruesome murders committed by Charles Manson's followers and his own madness during the Helter Skelter trial both captivated and terrified Angelenos. During the summer of 1969, Manson's 'family' murdered actress Sharon Tate and six other people in Los Angeles. In the months following the killings, the city descended into a state of fear and panic as police spent months searching for the perpetrators.
Manson passed away Sunday at the age of 83, but his effect on the psyche of Los Angeles can still be felt. Jeff Guinn wrote the biography, "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson." Guinn joined Take Two's A Martinez to talk about Manson's impact.
The mood in Los Angeles following the murders
In between the actual killings and when Manson was actually apprehended and presented to the public as the leader of the killers, the paranoia really grew. It’s almost impossible today to imagine how frightened and how paranoid the atmosphere in Los Angeles was at the time.
You've got to remember that you had the Tate killings, five people slaughtered including an actress whose name was fairly well known. that’s in the newspaper one day. And then the next day in Los Feliz, which is an upper-class neighborhood, two more people are slaughtered. They didn't even consider that killings could be done by the same people.
But the gruesomeness of people literally butchered and words written on the walls with blood had people throughout L.A., especially in the well-to-do areas, in a widespread panic. It seemed like anybody could die.
I think the best example of this paranoia is that guard dogs were selling for maybe $200 apiece before the murders. On Monday August the 11th, that’s two days after the murders, guard dogs could not be bought in Los Angles for less than $1,500. Hardware stores sold guns in those days, maybe around three to four guns a day. But now every hardware store in Los Angeles was sold out of guns; I mean literally 200 to 300 guns were being sold at individual stores a day. The waves of revulsion and fear were touching everybody…
'Long hairs' or hippies -- because there was some sense once Manson was first apprehended that he was just a hippie -- had a grizzly joke among them that was ‘you may as well not hitchhike anymore, because nobody will pick you up; [everyday people] are afraid of us all.’
So the paranoia was widespread and it lasted for months and months, not just after the killings and Manson arrest, but all during the so-called Helter Skelter trial.
The role of the press in drawing attention to Manson
There were plenty of updates and here’s the reason why: Manson’s timing always worked brilliantly for him and terribly for the rest of the world. Just as this is happening, there is a newspaper war between the two Los Angeles dailies at the time. And they were competing with each other because a Manson or Helter Skelter or LaBianca story would pull lots of eyes to your newspaper...
So you’ve got the two newspapers in L.A. everyday competing over who can come up with the grizzliest story, the strangest story, and obviously there was plenty of weirdness to go around. It happened every day, so it kept escalating. I mean it was palpable -- almost a living thing -- this panic, this fear, this paranoia…
If you looked at the different areas in Los Angeles like Santa Monica, weekend nights teenagers would usually just be roaming the streets, but now that wasn’t happening. People were literally afraid to walk down the street in Los Angeles.
The role of Los Angeles in making Manson so well known
You’ve got to remember in 1969, California was the epicenter of culture for kids, the American public and the world. It was also frankly the epicenter of violence after Watts, but all eyes were focused on California. First in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, Charlie [Manson] pretended to be an omniscient guru where he collected most of his followers.
In Los Angeles, the heart of the recording industry and Hollywood, people were used to looking at Los Angeles for stories that entertained. And gradually as the Helter Skelter trial went on, people literally began forgetting that innocent people had died horribly at the hands of Charles Manson’s followers. And to a certain extent it became entertainment. think of Manson in that day as sort of a criminal Kardashian. He’s amusing people, he’s giving them something to look at and think about.
How Manson influenced the way we process high-profile murders in Los Angeles
Los Angeles was an epicenter of media focus then just as much as it is today. But beyond that, people in the rest of country, there’s an exaggerated sense of importance given to cultural events in California and that included crime and violence. It’s not that horrific things don’t happen all over the country, but somehow when they happen in California, particularly Southern California, there’s this fine line that’s crossed. It becomes not only something to be repulsed by; it’s also entertainment. And you’re right, if this had happened in podunk Nebraska, no we would be talking about them now. But here we are all these years later [still talking about it]. And I think for another generation Charlie Manson’s name is still going to generate interest in Americans.
TO HEAR MORE ABOUT MANSON'S INFLUENCE AND IMPACT ON THE PSYCHE OF L.A., CLICK THE BLUE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE.
This LA trans activist is helping others afford surgery
Rene Chavarria lives in a really small town in New Mexico where "everybody knows everybody," he says.
But he's also transgender. Born female, he identifies as male. It can be a struggle to hide part of his body when he just wants to pass.
"I feel even uncomfortable giving somebody a hug," he says. "You know, do I look flat-chested enough? When I go to hug them, what is it that they feel?"
Many trans people like Chavarria are priced out of getting medical care such as gender reassignment surgery.
"There's a lot of insurances that won't cover it because it's considered cosmetic surgery," he says.
Some of the nation's best doctors for trans-related care are also hours away from his home, meaning he'd have to spend thousands more to pay for travel and lodging.
And trans people are more likely to be unemployed or live in poverty.
Because he's the sole breadwinner in his family, Chavarria didn't earn enough to save. So he didn't have much hope.
"I honestly thought that I was never, never going to get it done," he says.
Then he reached out to activist and pre-licensed psychotherapist Rizi Timane, who's transgender himself.
Trans people are helping others like themselves
Timane works with patients at St John's medical clinics throughout Los Angeles. He founded a program that gives grants and scholarships to trans people who need help affording surgery.
"I just started feeling like we have to look out for each other," he says.
There are only half a dozen programs like it in the whole country.
"There's so many more resources for the LGB community," says Timane, "and for some reason, the trans community is still kind of behind."
Chavarria received one of the two scholarships handed out this year.
With it, a procedure that could've set him back almost $7,000 won't cost anything at all.
"I kept reading the email over again and I was like, 'Is this real?'" he recalls. "I had to show my wife and I was like, 'Are you reading what I'm reading?!'"
Timane bases his scholarship on the merit of the stories he receives, and he looks for those who are struggling like he once did.
"By the time my breasts were developing, I would tie them down with ACE bandages," he remembers. "Just seeing that this was not the body I should be in in the mirror, it was psychologically devastating."
His insurance wouldn't cover his surgery, but Timane was able to raise the tens of thousands he needed by making music and selling copies of his memoirs.
"As soon as I had top surgery and I could see a male chest in front of the mirror, all of the anxiety and all of the depression completely evaporated," he says.
With extra money he made, Timane created his scholarship in 2014 to help others.
Surgery can give some people hope
Hayden, 25, was one of the first recipients.
He asked that we don't use his last name because of the fear that he'll lose his job if his employer finds out he's trans.
It was hard enough for him to even find a job when he was younger at age 17.
"I just thought, 'Oh, I'll get a job and I'll save up however much money I need to get the surgery,'" he says. "By 19, I still hadn't had a job, could not get a job."
Hayden became depressed and desperate. He didn't see a future for himself at all.
"Without being too bleak, I would definitely not be here on Earth right now," he says.
But when he was able to get surgery using the money from Rizi Timane, Hayden remembers finally feeling free.
"It was November, so when I got back to New York from San Francisco, it was absolutely freezing and I wore just a T-shirt," he says. "It was just like, 'I don't even care if I'm cold!'"
'It's as though they've been set free'
Surgery can be a vital step in trans people's well-being.
"This is something essential for their life and their health," says Harper Jean Tobin with the National Center for Transgender Equality.
When President Obama was in office, he pushed to have health plans cover transgender-related care.
"But some plans still have broad exclusions that specifically target transgender people and their healthcare needs," Tobin says.
And the Republican effort to roll back the Affordable Care Act has trans people uncertain about whether their health care needs will still be covered. That's why some transgender people look to Rizi Timane for a glimmer of hope.
This year's other recipient is 50-year-old Tatiana Rivera, an immigrant from Mexico who's worked as a seamstress in L.A. for decades. When she found out she won, she cried tears of joy knowing she could fulfill a longtime dream.
"After working so hard for 30 years in the garment industry and paying my taxes, I'm getting back a small part of what I've given this community," she says.
And Rizi Timane beamed back.
"It literally means the world to them," he says. "It's as though they've been set free from being trapped in the wrong body."
Why California is not prepared to deal with a large aging population
California is getting older. As baby boomers age, the number of people over the age of 65 will nearly double by 2030.
"Right now we have about eight counties that have one in four people who are over the age of 65," said Donna Benton, research associate with USC's School of Gerontology. "By 2030, it's going to be 20 counties will have one in every four people over the age of 65."
The problem, Benton said, is that California is not prepared to take care of an aging population so large. There are deficits in both money and workers to care for older people.
That's why California's Department of Aging issues guidelines every few years on how older people can care for themselves and how caregivers can be better informed.
The latest report came out last week.
"We have a plan for aging, just like the Marvel Universe and Star Wars. They've planned their films all the way to 2030," Benton said. "We have to do that same kind of planning."
On the California aging plan and its importance
I think we have to be very aggressive in protecting and strengthening our social safety nets now so that our programs like Medicaid and Medicare and The Older Americans Act are not depleted in the short term because we really will need those funds, either for the older adults in our family or as we're aging. We don't want people in poverty homeless, suffering and not being able to access care in the next 15 years.
On the effects of having an older population without any services in place
What we will notice is that unless we put things in place now, we might see more older adults who are homeless. You will see more older adults who appear to be with Alzheimers. You may hear more reports ... of gray alerts that go out on the news. We'll see, when we go for housing, more people who will be older adults trying to vie for the same apartments as younger adults. Of course, in the workplace more of your colleagues will be older adults.
On what sort of care is most needed
We need to keep older adults where they have access to a healthy and active lifestyle. We have to begin to invest now in preventative health care. Most people want to age at home and you would like your services to be able to come to your home or within your local community within a daycare or an assisted living. We also need to be able to have more opportunities when we're working between that 60 and 80 age group so people if they choose to continue to work there's more flexibility, more part-time jobs, volunteering, job sharing, more creative ways of keeping people engaged in the community as we age.
To hear more about the California State Aging Plan, click the blue player above.
The plan to get women vets to use more health services
Is this town big enough for two soccer teams?
Next year, Major League Soccer will be getting another L.A. team -- the Los Angeles Football Club, or LAFC.
The team will play in the brand new Banc of California Stadium in Exposition Park, which is being constructed on the same spot where the old Sports Arena once stood. Already, the team is a potentially big player in the MLS landscape.
Take Two recently toured the site to get a sense of what the stadium will look like and what the impact might be on the community. A Martinez joined Fabian R. Wesson, chairwoman of the California Science Center and Exposition Park Board of Directors.
Take Two's A Martinez also spoke with Dave Denholm, host of Soccer Weekly on ESPN LA 710, about whether L.A. is big enough for two pro soccer teams. L.A. is known for having two of everything, especially when it comes to sports teams.
Angels and Dodgers, Laker and Clippers, Chargers and Rams. So LAFC joining the Galaxy to compete for the city's soccer fanbase follows a pretty long tradition. Still, it's not the first time it's happened.
Years ago the Galaxy shared its stadium in Carson with Chivas USA, the offshoot of the legendary Mexican league's
.
On the Lot: Is ‘Justice League’ for everyone or just comic book nerds?
When is a $96 million opening weekend a disappointment? When it's a $300 million Justice League movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gglkYMGRYlE
Vanity Fair's Rebecca Keegan spoke to A Martinez about the vast difference in how this movie was received by both critics and fans. Martinez argued this film was for the comic book nerds, while Keegan was quick to point out that there have been other franchises that have bridged the gap and found a way to appeal to everyone:
"The Marvel movies do seem to have found a way to appeal to both critics and fans and certainly there are movies that Warner Bros. has made in the comic book world like the Chris Nolan Batman movies that managed to attract both fans and critics."
Plus, Jeffrey Tambor's departure from "Transparent" is the latest in Hollywood's sexual misconduct news. Also, how from the ashes of the Weinstein Company, a woman may rise. She's proposing an all-female leadership for its board of directors.
And it's not holiday season in Hollywood, it's awards season. Believe it or not the most surprising Oscar campaign out there right now is the horror movie "It." Could this be a sign of a shifting Academy?