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Jayne Friend

Jayne Friend

Naval historian, author and co-host of History's Devils podcast

Aug 11, 2026

28:06
What do, what do you make of O'Neill's book?
28:10
Ah, okay.
28:11
So I, I, I think, like a lot of alternative, uh, we'll say alternative/conspiracy theories, there is enough in there, there's enough grains of truth to make you say, "Oh, actually, this, this actually kind of makes sense.
28:27
Like, this could be a, this could be a thing." You know, if, if, if he's going to this clinic and he, and he's, you know, takes LSD and he, he could have had his mind controlled and, you know, he could be working for the government.
28:38
And, and there is this theory that he is doing some kind of work for one of the secret services, you know, and, and, and he's going out and do this, doing this for a, a, a higher purpose, um-

11 MINS LATER

40:18
No
40:18
... did Lennon and McCartney say, "Go, go and live in the desert and kill people and live in a hole." Um, however, um, I think you're absolutely right.
40:26
I said earlier that the, um, the, the Manson track that The Beach Boys put as their B side was, was a, was a bit of filler.
42:57
What is Spahn Ranch, and why are they allowed to s- just squat there?
43:02
[laughs] Um, so this, this is, uh, actually, I think not uncommon, but this was a, a, a place that was developed in the 1940s as a movie set, as a movie location.
43:14
And, and so it, it was, it was built up to have these Western-style sets.
43:19
Um, and like things like Bonanza and The Lone Ranger and, and things of that era were filmed there.
43:25
So it's, it's kind of used as this, this movie set.
43:27
It's, it's purchased by, um, a guy called George Spahn in 1953.
43:33
And by the time Manson and his family are there, basically he's, he's elderly, he's nearly blind.
44:03
I love it.
23:49
Like, his personality has just been fried completely.
23:53
Absolutely.
23:55
And this whole story takes place within a week or so.
24:01
His behaviour changes, his personality is changing.
24:04
He starts to express his concerns that there's evidence that places him at the scene of some of these experiments into mass poisonings.
24:15
And he's visited some CIA sites where there are some of these experiments going on.
24:21
And he sees horrible things and he sees people dying.
27:16
whiskey, have a pill, you'll be fine.

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