Did a CIA Agent Infiltrate the Manson Family's Inner Circle?

Another big eye-opener for what's kept from us. At one point in 2011, I had a researcher at the Washington Post, a woman there who has been there for years. I could get myself in trouble for this too. I won't say her name. But anyway, she's very well known, and she's their intelligence researcher. She works with all of the reporters at the Post on intelligence stories, national security stories. She had someone at the CIA in their information department who would confirm or deny stuff with her. She said, I completely trust these people. I've been working with them for 10 years. I'll ask them about Jolly West and see what they have on them. I said, all right, before you ask them, don't tell them, because she had the documents, I'd share them with her. Don't tell them what I have, proving that he was part of MKUltra. Just say you're working with an author on a book who wants to know whether they're, because I already done a request, and we can neither confirm nor deny. And she said, they'll tell me the truth. They're not gonna give me a neither confirm or deny. We'll just say, we have something, and we can't tell you if we can, or we have nothing. But we'll get the truth to see what they have. So a week later, she lets me know, and she said, they said there's nothing. He never participated in the program. There's no record. And I go, well, I don't wanna say her name. I go, well, I don't think you should be using them anymore because they're not reliable, and you know that, because you've seen the documents. So she had to rethink that. I don't know what she did after. Well, that's the way they can embed themselves with reporters by letting these reporters think, I'm your friend. Look, I'll tell you the truth. Okay, this is, it's a complicated world. We're out there trying to keep people safe, and sometimes we gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelet. But don't worry, I'll let you know. I mean, I'm your friend. Don't worry, if there's some wackiness, I'll tell you. That's hilarious. Yeah, and then I said to her, ask about, oh, Reeve Woodson, we haven't even discussed Reeve Woodson. He's the guy that claimed to it. He had infiltrated the Manson family. Oh, you haven't gotten to that chapter yet. No, no, no, no. Is that after 11, how many chapters are there? 13, including the epilogue. Yeah, yeah. Hell of a book. I mean, there were a lot of spooky people in and around the spawn ranch and in and around the family. And this one guy, Reeve Woodson, who was a spook, and unfortunately was dead by the time I started reporting. For people who don't know, spook is CIA. Yeah. Some people don't know what that means. Yeah, I didn't know what it meant before I started all this. I mean, maybe if I thought about it, but I wasn't interested in it. It's a strange terminology. I know. Spook. You don't see them. There's no trace, no record. And this guy, that's how he lived. And I had found out about him in my reporting. First I got to his attorney and then to some of his close friends. He lived in Los Angeles, and then he disappeared for months doing undercover work. And he said we never, he wouldn't even tell us who he worked for, but his wife and daughter who were in Sweden and other people who said it was the CIA, he told, before he died, and a couple years before his death, three or four of his closest friends, including his attorney, that he had worked on an operation, and he wouldn't tell them who, but he had infiltrated the Manson family prior to the murders, and his dying regret was he could have prevented them, but didn't. He also said that he was at the crime scene after the killers had left, but before the police had arrived, which was like a four or five hour window. And I was able to confirm, not that he was there those five hours, but that he was missing, and that the police set up a watch at his father's house, who he was living with, to try to figure out what was going on. He ended up helping Colonel Tate, Sharon Tate's father, who left his job in military intelligence to help the police in the investigation. He even dressed up like a hippie, right? He dressed up like a hippie, and so did Reeve. And Reeve was a really hardcore right wing guy. I mean, he was racist, and his daughter sent me pictures of him, and she said, once he died, in fact, this is how serious this guy was, he divorced, Reeve divorced his wife, who was a Swedish model. First he sent her and his infant daughter back to Sweden, from the United States in 61, because he thought there was gonna be nuclear war. And then, in the mid 60s, he told his wife he had a divorce her, and he couldn't have any relationship with his daughter, because his daughter was his only vulnerability, because of the work he did. That would be how they heard, even if they lived all the way in Sweden. So the daughter, Liza, who I've never met, but we started talking on the phone, and she started sending me materials, didn't meet him until a couple years before his death. He reached out to her, said, I couldn't have any relationship with you because of my work, but I wanna do that now. So he flew her to Los Angeles, introduced her to all of his friends, and after he died, she went to his apartment, and went through his things, and found a picture of him dressed up as a hippie. It's in the book. I mean, it's hard to tell, but it's in a parking lot, and the cars are all late 60s models. So, again, this is one of the parts of the book where I worked so hard to try to prove a definite link. I interviewed probably 12 or 13 Manson Family members, and I'd show them that picture, and they'd say he looked like any number of guys that came in and out of there. They'd come for a day to screw us, the women would say. Charlie would bring guys in, and we didn't know if they were the ones who were providing drugs or who they were, but yeah, maybe, or maybe not, you know? And they were all high most of the time, too. Yeah. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"]