My Search for Krishna Venta

166. "WWSD?" by A.P. Miller

2011-09-14T14:19:00.004-05:00

If you're a fan of Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, Carl Hiaasen, et al., be sure and check out WWSD? ["What Would Satan Do?"] by my friend, Anthony Miller.

"Disgusted with God’s plan for Judgment Day, Satan has quit his job and abandoned Hell in favor of a quiet retirement in Washington, D.C. But life on Earth is tricky for an ex-angel with a short fuse and no impulse control. When a parking attendant mysteriously bursts into flames and a weight-challenged woman somehow ends up in low-Earth orbit, Satan finds that he has attracted the attention of several meddlesome federal agencies. Even worse, there are signs that the governor of Texas has somehow gone ahead and started up the end of the world without him. The Prince of Darkness heads for the Lone Star State, where he tangles with a megalomaniacal televangelist, joins the Militant Arm of the American Geriatrics Association, and wields the Flaming Shotgun of Divine Justice at a guy whose hobbies include invading churches to denounce ritualized cannibalism. Through it all, one thing is clear: Someone has to put a stop to Judgment Day. Now, having spent millennia trying to wreck the place, the Devil may be the world’s only hope."

165. "The Fountain" (a documentary by Callie Shanafelt)

2011-07-01T18:11:00.007-05:00

For more information, go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1229251034/the-fountain

About this project

The Fountain is a touching father-daughter story following filmmaker Callie Shanafelt's quest to understand her dad's childhood in a religious cult during the 1950's near Los Angeles. Shanafelt's grandparents followed Krishna Venta, a man claiming to be the second coming of Christ, until they were killed by suicide bombers at the cult he led in 1958. The film offers unique insight into why one couple rejected mainstream culture and the lasting effects of their choice on their children.

This half-hour documentary is complete but still needs final funds to pay for archival fees and distribution costs.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Music in the trailer is This Moment by Led to Sea.

164. March 29, 1911 - March 29, 2011

2011-03-29T00:02:00.002-05:00

Francis Herman Pencovic (the man who would be "Krishna Venta") was born 100 years ago today in San Francisco, California.

163. Krishna Venta: Recast as martyr by Charles Manson for his ATWA cause?

2011-03-19T22:55:00.053-05:00

[The following was written by the moderator of this blog and was originally posted at http://truthontatelabianca.com/topic/4298-marlin-marynicks-charles-manson-now-pp-137-139/]

________________________________________________________
2010 saw the release of Charles Manson Now by registered psychiatric nurse and Manson confidante Marlin Marynick. (See http://www.charlesmansonnow.com/)

Pages 137 through 139 of the book are devoted to Charles Manson’s musings regarding Krishna Venta and, since Krishna Venta is a subject with which I am somewhat familiar, Cats has asked me to address the contents of these particular pages. I appreciate Cats affording me this opportunity.

For the uninformed, Krishna Venta was a self-proclaimed messiah who oversaw the WKFL Fountain of the World cult (the term used in newspapers during his lifetime) in the 1940s and 1950s. (The "WKFL," by the way, stood for Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith and Love.) He was born Francis Herman Pencovic in San Francisco, California in 1911 and – prior to declaring he was "Krishna Venta" (which he claimed meant "the Christ Everlasting") – had been a con man, a convict, and a soldier.

Venta founded the Fountain of the World in Box Canyon, California in the latter 1940s.

In his monk’s robe, and with his long hair, beard, and bare feet, he cut an unavoidable figure in the America of the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations. He was in the headlines often for everything from gestures of goodwill to failure to pay child support to his ex-wife.

Among other things, he predicted a future in America that many say is eerily reminiscent of the "Helter Skelter" prophecies ascribed to Manson and outlined by Vincent T. Bugliosi in the book of the same name. (For additional information on this topic, see http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_articles/sutherland_shawn_krishnaventa_en0703.htm)

He was murdered on a December night in 1958 when two disgruntled ex-followers entered the Fountain compound intent on confronting their former master and accomplishing one of two things: either extracting from him an admission that he was a mere moral; or ending his life. (Among one of the men’s final words was the statement, "Dear God, give us this night freedom or death...We have dedicated our lives to this mission and whatever may come, this may be our last night in the world. We are making this tape so people may know our motives...Krishna Venta] isn’t what he claims to be. He doesn’t practice what he preaches...") To better advance their cause, these two carried with them to the Fountain a bundle of dynamite. Their "mission" ended in an explosion that killed both of them, along with Krishna Venta and seven of his disciples. (For a listing of those who died in this explosion, see http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/12/43-in-memoriam.html)

In the latter 1960s (a decade after Krishna Venta’s death), Charles Manson and the so-called "Manson Family" spent a number of their days at the Fountain. And more than one source cites to Manson’s supposed interest in seizing the Fountain property for the Family’s use. (See Jerry LeBlanc & Ivor Davis' 5 to Die, Ed Sanders' The Family, Paul Watkins' My Life with Charles Manson, and the 1973 documentary Manson. See also:
http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2009/04/121-1973-manson-documentary-more.html;
http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/12/47-paul-watkins-deceased-member-of.html; and
http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/11/25-5-to-die-by-jerry-le-blanc-and-ivor.html).

Whether or not the claims regarding his endeavors to take over the Fountain are true, Manson does offer one interesting meditation on Page 139 of Marynick’s book when he states, "So when I ended up over there at that area [at the Fountain of the World in Box Canyon], with all his [Krishna Venta’s] women thinking what the hell am I doing here? You know it’s like the spirit of everything had brought me there..."

What Manson did or did not learn about Krishna Venta during his tenure at the Fountain of the World is the great unknown. But Manson has mentioned Krishna Venta numerous times and via various venues in the past 25 years. However, most of Manson’s decrees regarding Krishna Venta are at minimum uninformed.

As early as August 1986, when he released an open letter to President Ronald Reagan, Manson has contended that, "Krishna Venta blew himself up in 1949 at the Fountain of the Word in Box Canyon, California, when the Feather River Project cut his fountain’s water off." (See Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason, Storm Books, 1992, p. 430)

These facts are in error, but Manson has repeated them (and other misinformation about Krishna Venta) with regularity. For example, in a 1989 interview with television personality Geraldo Rivera, Manson proclaimed, "Krishna Venta died in Box Canyon in 1949…when I was in reform school." As well, his assertion that Krishna Venta and some of his followers committed suicide in protest against the Feather River Project can be heard on the 1995 audio compact disc Manson Speaks and in numerous YouTube files. And most recently, in Marlin Marynick’s book, Manson again insists:

...Krishna Venta blew himself up in the [F]ountain of the [W]orld in Box Canyon, California. Krishna had a cult and they were based on the water and there was the Feather River project that just started...And Krishna seen it because he had a big fountain in his cult area and when it dried up it stopped, and he said, well, you can’t buy and sell the water…[and Krishna Venta] sacrificed his life and the life of nine women. I think it was nine, maybe it was fifteen, but what he did when his fountain turned off, he put dynamite under his house and blew everybody up...

Precisely where he obtained his information regarding Krishna Venta remains a mystery, but Manson’s contentions about him are clearly in error:

*Krishna Venta (a married man and the father of eight children) did not commit suicide, although he was the victim of a suicide bombing;

* The Fountain, which was in the middle of Box Canyon, was not "based on the water";

* According the Fountain members whom I have interviewed, there was no fountain on the Fountain’s property;

* Krishna Venta died in 1958, not 1949, as Manson has asserted; and

* Manson was not in reform school when Venta died but was instead a 24-year-old divorced man living in California who may or may not have been pimping.

Manson is presumably aware that his version of events has been challenged; on Page 139 of Marynick’s book he offers:

...the people that pick up the mess they don’t tell the truth. In other words they lie. Them guys didn’t die the way they said they did. No way in hell are you going to convince me that those people [who died at the Fountain of the World] laid in that fire and they didn’t jump up and say ouch or run or do anything. That’s bullshit. That was all put up. Yeah, that was the FBI, that was the system trying to get around for what we’d already done. I was in reform school when Krishna came on TV, that he had blown himself up with all his women, but you know as a child, I wasn’t impressed. That was just another movie.

In regard to this comment (specifically Manson’s "No way in hell are you going to convince me that those people laid in that fire and they didn’t jump up and say ouch or run or do anything"), having seen both the photographic evidence and documents compiled by authorities during the various investigations conducted following the explosion, it is safe to presume that the ten individuals who died in the December 1958 blast were killed instantly and were more than likely never even aware of what hit them.

Ultimately, it is a question of whether the information Manson presents regarding Krishna Venta is what he has actually heard over the years versus whether he knowingly presents erroneous information about the man in an attempt to reinvent and misappropriate him for his ecological crusade.

And if it is a case of the latter, what is Manson’s true knowledge regarding Krishna Venta and the Fountain of the World?

These are the questions that this author deems the most interesting in the Manson/Venta equation. They are, however, also more than likely ones that will never be answered.

162. www.krishna-venta.com is no more

2011-02-07T22:13:00.004-06:00

This entry is to acknowledge that http://www.krishna-venta.com/, a website which served as a photographic record of the WKFL Fountain of the World, and which was overseen by a former Fountain member, has apparently gone dark.

161. December 10, 1958...52 years ago today

2010-12-10T22:25:00.002-06:00

See http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/12/43-in-memoriam.html

160. Krishna Venta, 1956

2010-11-22T12:49:00.004-06:00

This group's moderator recently purchased the original of this photo.

159. Krishna Venta in Times Square, 1954

2010-11-17T17:42:00.009-06:00

In the foreground that's Krishna Venta and Asaiah Bates.

This group's moderator recently purchased the original of this photo.

158. Manson again with Fountain misinformation...

2010-11-11T11:51:00.005-06:00

Again, we have Charles Manson with the erroneous Fountain of the World story - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNtlJEFLiBk

157. More sloppy history...

2010-11-09T19:31:00.035-06:00

As I've said before, I am not a Krishna Venta apologist, but I do detest sloppy history.

For a couple of weeks now, I've fought the urge to respond to a post entitled "Krishna Venta v. Charles Manson" from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:y0BkZN93AYUJ:themansonfamily.tumblr.com/post/1364239872/krishna-venta-vs-charles-manson-since-both+%22krishna+venta%22+%2B+%22devil's+hole%22+%2B+%22charles+manson%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us. However, since silence can sometimes be construed as an endorsement, I've opted to rebut some of what's offered. Before I begin, though, let me acknowledge that I do respect the fact that this individual admits, "I am not a Krishna Venta aficionado, so hopefully my information on him is correct."

Unfortunately, much of this individual's information is incorrect. In fact, this person's web entry is an example of someone rubber-stamping the gossip and myth that's been handed down over the years and calling it history. In the interest of time, I'll address just a few random points:

* This person offers that Krishna Venta's "[f]avorite swimming hole" was Devil's Hole. Meanwhile, I have never seen anything documenting that Krishna Venta ever went swimming in his life...in Devil's Hole or otherwise.

* They also say that the criteria for membership in joining the WKFL Fountain of the World consisted of one handing "over all your worldly possessions." Granted, this is true. However, what must not be forgotten is that the majority of the people who joined the Fountain actually possessed nothing whatsoever and were more of a financial liability than anything else.

* The language "all [members of the Fountain] assumed aliases" is irresponsible; the term "alias" implies that these individuals were hiding from the law. The Pope no longer goes by his given name. So, then, is "Benedict" an "alias"?

* Under "run-ins with the law," Krishna Venta (in his Francis Pencovic days) was never charged with violation of the Mann Act; he was investigated in that regard but never charged. As well, regarding the purported "threatening" letter to President Roosevelt, the letter has been lost to time, so it's impossible to know just what Pencovic did (not) say in it. Based upon surviving documents, though, it seems Pencovic wrote a letter to Franklin Roosevelt in which he offered the President his opinions on what course FDR needed to take. (Remember - this was long before the advent of email, etc., and a President receving "advice" from a citizen was apparently somewhat of a rarity.) Consequently, Pencovic was interviewed by the Secret Service and summarily dismissed as a "crank."

* Finally, the "several suspicious murders surrounding the Fountain of the World" is likewise irresponsible. This is no doubt in reference to the Medina murder - see http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2009/01/60-people-v-medina-1974.html - and the American Indian Movement murder - see http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2009/01/61-skyhorse-and-mohawk.html - both of which happened on Fountain property a decade or more after Krishna Venta was already dead. Fountain of the World members, though, were not responsible for these murders. Instead, a handful of non-members who used the Fountain as a flop house were apparently the murdering types. In this regard, see http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2009/01/63-propinquity.html, where I write:

The lesson to be learned...is not that the Fountain intentionally served as a haven or as a "hideout" (to quote Dan Blackburn) for criminal types such as Medina, Townsend, Manson, Skyhorse, Mohawk, et al., or that Fountain members gravitated towards such individuals. Instead, Medina, et al. seemingly sought the isolation found in the most rural of locations, and the Fountain (having sought to build their California outpost on property that, in terms of real estate value, offered the most land for the least money) had the misfortune of having erected a "utopia" located directly in the cross hairs of outlaw country! Too bad that, at least in its latter days, Fountain leadership was so trusting and quick to believe everyone who visited the Fountain had only the best of intentions...

156. Manson gets it wrong again...

2010-10-24T15:27:00.043-05:00

Charles Manson gets his facts about Krishna Venta wrong repeatedly.

At http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=Na6SsffEja0&feature=related, one will find a September 22, 2010 audio recording by Manson in which he once again offers apocryphal history. At 2:35 minutes into this file, Manson says:

A long time ago, like in 1948, they had a guy called Krishna Venta who had a cult called Fountain of the World over in a place called Box Canyon...and his fountain turned off, and he [Krishna Venta] got all his girls together and put dynamite underneath the house and he blew the whole thing up in protest about the water...We [presumably the Manson Family] stood around the site where he blew himself up.

155. Krishna Venta (close up)

2010-10-21T19:31:00.002-05:00

154. Photograph of Krishna Venta taken during child support dispute

2010-10-21T13:26:00.011-05:00

Left to right: Sister Ruth Venta (w/ purse); Sister Nekona (Neva Booth); Sister Jane Shanafelt (w/ eyeglasses), Brother Samuel; Brother Asaiah Bates; and Krishna Venta. In the forefront is Leila Ruth Venta.

This group's moderator recently purchased the original of this photo.

153. Strange Horizons

2010-10-20T23:10:00.014-05:00

The 1967 book Strange Horizons is billed as a collection of, "Astonishing, true stories about supernormal people and events that defy belief - and mystify science" from Borderline magazine.

According to the back cover of the book, the reader should be prepared to, "Visit the startling world of the fantastic, the unreal, where terrifying dreams come true, where mediums, seers, poltergeists, ghosts, witches and other extraordinary psychic talents practice their occult powers!"

Among the stories included in the book are James Harvey's essay regarding Krishna Venta. For more information on Harvey's essay, see:

http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-on-this-article-in-my-next-blog.html

http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/11/krishna-venta-and-fountain-of-world-by.html

http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/11/11-this-authors-problems-with-harvey.html

http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/11/28-harvey-article-artwork.html

152. Moderator article published in The Jonestown Report

2010-10-12T21:16:00.010-05:00

"Prophetic Charisma By Len Oakes - A Brief Overview"
The Jonestown Report
October 05, 2010, Volume 12
The Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University:
Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple
http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JonestownReport/Volume12/Sutherland.htm

151. From "Manson Case File"

2010-10-12T10:40:00.009-05:00

The website http://mansoncasefile.co.cc/cults/Fountain%20of%20the%20World/ includes a previously available essay by the moderator of "My Search for Krishna Venta," as well as an entry from this blog regarding the book 5 to Die.

150. Fountain of the World referenced in the Barker Ranch raid report

2010-06-25T21:13:00.010-05:00

A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department document dated October 20 regarding the Manson Family's arrest at the Barker Ranch for auto theft records that Brooks Poston "stated that [Charles Manson] once gave an old panel truck, faded blue or green, to the W.K.F.L. religious order, Box Canyon, Chatsworth. This truck was obtained at an unknown location. Manson traded this truck to the cult so that some of the females at Spahn Ranch would have some place to live."

My comments concern the portion of this report in which it's stated that Charles Manson "once gave an old panel truck, faded blue or green, to the W.K.F.L. religious order, Box Canyon, Chatsworth. This truck was obtained at an unknown location. Manson traded this truck to the cult so that some of the females at Spahn Ranch would have some place to live."

I can confirm, based upon my own research, that Manson did indeed give a truck to one of the families that comprised the Fountain of the World in the latter 1960s. I'm still trying to confirm whether the description of the truck (e.g., color, etc.) is accurate.

However, the statement that "Manson traded this truck to the cult so that some of the females at Spahn Ranch would have some place to live" appears to be a product of Brooks Poston's conjecture. Specifically, until it was discovered that the Family was prone to stealing cars and stockpiling weapons, they were as welcome at the Fountain as was anyone else - free of charge. (After these discoveries were made, the Family was banished completely from the Fountain.) Such a trade would have been entirely unnecessary. Instead, Davis and LeBlanc stated in 5 to Die, "On several occasions Manson had said that he wanted to move in and run the Fountain of the World." Accordingly, it's more likely that the gift of the truck was what Paul Watkins described as "cultivat[ing] a religious order just over the hill from Spahn’s called The Fountain of the World."

For a complete copy of the report, see http://truthontatelabianca.com/

149. "Misunderstood Prophet"

2010-06-24T19:14:00.004-05:00

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937689,00.html

"Misunderstood Prophet"
TIME

December 22, 1958

Bearded, robed and barefoot, Krishna Venta (real name: Francis Heindswatzer Pencovic) stood before his Seattle audience and, with modest mien, announced that he was Christ returned to earth. As leader of the W.K.F.L. (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Love) Fountain of the World, Krishna went on: "It is true, children, I have served time for committing that bad check . . . that I . . . was convicted for a so-called burglary . . .'' Many in the audience wept; some doubted. One challenged: "Are you the embodiment of Christ?" Replied Krishna: "I cannot lie to you to please you. I must tell the truth in the sight of God. I am the Son of God." With that, a wild female shriek rang through the hall: "I knew it!"

Last week Ralph Muller, 33, and Peter Kamenoff, 42, two former members of Krishna Venta's California-based cult, became convinced at last that the "Master" had indeed lied—and had indulged in considerable un-Christian intimacies with their wives as well. After complaining in vain to the state attorney general's office, the two turned up at the cult's headquarters in a canyon near the San Fernando Valley with 40 sticks of dynamite, cornered the 47-year-old, self-proclaimed prophet in his headquarters building, blew him, themselves, and five other adults and two children to kingdom come. The killers were identified by fingerprints taken from severed hands found in the rubble; Krishna's death was certified upon examination of his less mortal dental bridgework.

148. Video footage of Krishna Venta

2010-06-24T19:04:00.006-05:00

"Krishna Venta Looks at Britain":

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=26534

"New Messiah":

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=56557

147. Another YouTube video

2010-04-01T12:03:00.006-05:00

This video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNtlJEFLiBk - contains audio from the CD "Manson Speaks." In this clip, Charles Manson offers that Krishna Venta committed suicide because the government damned up a river adjacent to the Fountain of the World. This is factually incorrect.

See also the text of the following blog entry:

http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2009/02/87-manson-weighs-in.html The weblink included in this particular blog entry has apparently expired.

146. Krishna Venta in JET magazine

2010-03-29T17:36:00.003-05:00

Krishna Venta is mentioned in the April 14, 1955 edition of JET magazine in a piece entitled "Mixed Couple of Barefood Sect Wed in Calif." For more information, see

http://books.google.com/books?id=-LEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA14&dq=%22krishna+venta%22&lr=&cd=38#v=onepage&q=%22krishna%20venta%22&f=false

145. Cool Krishna Venta photo

2010-03-29T11:06:00.001-05:00

From http://auktionsfynda.se/vad/k.+j.+st%C3%A5hlberg

144. March 29, 2010

2010-03-29T10:35:00.002-05:00

It's March 29th, 2010. Had he not died in 1958, today would have been Francis Pencovic's/Krishna Venta's 99th birthday.

143. "Another angle surfaces in Kay's Cross Saga"

2010-03-10T22:53:00.016-06:00

Thanks to "Anonymous" for forwarding this article from April 5, 1992 regarding "Krishna Pencovick": http://www.deseretnews.com/article/219287/ANOTHER-ANGLE-SURFACES-IN-KAYS-CROSS-SAGA.html. Please note that this article erroneously reports that Krishna Venta was killed in 1948.

For more information on Kay's Cross, see http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/4046/ and http://www.utahgothic.com/tour/Kay%27s%20Cross.html

142. Some cool, copyrighted LIFE Magazine photos

2010-02-22T18:26:00.003-06:00

141. My response to Brad Steiger's and Warren Smith's "Satan Assassins"

2010-02-03T22:47:00.009-06:00

The following, which can be found at http://truthontatelabianca.com/index.php?topic=4929.0, is my response to a posted essay regarding Krishna Venta from Brad Steiger's and Warren Smith's Satan's Assassins.
___________________________________________________

In the 1987 film "Angel Heart," Harry Angel is a private detective hired to locate former big band crooner Johnny Favorite. In the course of the film, while hunting for the missing singer, Angel encounters several of Favorite’s former friends, including blues guitarist Toots Sweet. Mistaking Angel for a journalist because of his incessant questions, the uncooperative Sweet encourages Angel to leave him alone, have a few stiff drinks, and then manufacture the details he needs according to his own whim.

As I read Steiger’s and Smith’s pages about Krishna Venta, that scene from "Angel Heart" came to mind since what the two men offer is the equivalent of tall tales spun in a barroom (possibly with the help of co-authors Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and Johnny Walker) by someone who knows just enough about a given topic so as to offer a plethora of misinformation.

That said, folks, I have so many problems with Steiger’s and Smith’s Krishna Venta essay that I do not have time to address them all. Instead, in order to demonstrate just how little they know about their subject matter, I will address only a few points chosen largely at random.

* Peter Kamenoff and Ralph Muller were never known at the Fountain as "Brother Kamenoff" or "Brother Muller." Instead, they were known, respectively, as "Elzibah" and "Jeroham."

* Francis Pencovic did not get the idea to become Krishna Venta "in the 1950s, as a young theology student." By 1950, Pencovic was already 39 years old, and he was never a theology student – unless being an armchair enthusiast who studied various religions on his own counts.

* Venta’s "supplicants" did not have to come to him "bearing gifts." That is not to say that individuals endowed with worldly possessions were not particularly encouraged to join the Fountain of the World. Nevertheless, the majority of those persons who joined the Fountain were flat broke when they did so. Consequently, the Fountain often lost money on many of their members.

* Krishna Venta was never the president of the Fountain of the World. When the Fountain was incorporated, possibly because he was enduring child support issues at the time, Venta was not listed as one of the entity’s officers.

* The quotation "Some female cult members were selected by [Krishna Venta] to administer sexually to him on a regular basis what he termed 'therapeutic reasons'" is ludicrous. This is not to say that Venta being sexually active with his followers is impossible. However, as best as can be determined, such activities were never ritualistic or tantric. Instead, if such was happening, it was more akin to a "quickie" squeezed into his day when no one was looking than anything else.

* The conversation between Venta, Kamenoff, and Muller which the authors assert occurred on the last night of their lives is ridiculous. For one thing, the only statements which anyone can recall being audible that night were to the effect of "You know you’re not supposed to be here" and "What do you think I am? A hypocrite?" Both statements are believed to have been uttered by Cardinal Gene Shanafelt since there is a high probability that Krishna Venta was asleep during the entire incident and never even knew what hit him.

* Finally, the author’s statement that Kamenoff "flicked his cigarette lighter and touched its flame to the fuse on the bundle that Muller held in his arms" demonstrates both just how little time they spent researching their subject matter. Aside from sounding like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, this is completely incorrect factually. The triggering mechanism was a blasting cap, not a fuse.

Accordingly, based upon multiple issues with the facts the authors present regarding Krishna Venta, at least pp. 115-118 of their book must be dismissed and discredited as mostly erroneous and entirely unreliable.

140. Krishna Venta mentioned in Manson letter?

2010-02-02T13:46:00.005-06:00

In a letter that is purportedly written by him (I have no clue whether it's authentic or not), Charles Manson mentions Krishna Venta by name. Refer to Page 6 of the above letter.

For more information, see

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:DN8kyUmtK_IJ:www.murderauction.com/CHARLES-MANSON--6-PAGE-LETTER-REGARDING-PRISON-LIFE-HIS-CRIMES-KRISHNA-VENTA-and-L-RON-HUBBARD,name,152251,auction_id,auction_details+%2522krishna+venta%2522&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

139. Krishna Venta related article published today

2009-10-14T02:17:00.013-05:00

"My Name is David E.V. Smith, and I'm a Violent Revolutionary"
The Jonestown Report
October 13, 2009, Volume 11
The Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University:
Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple
http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JonestownReport/Volume11/RememSmith.htm

No one who knew David and Gladys Smith could ever comprehend just what it was Gladys saw in her husband.

For openers, "Big David" – as David Elbert Vester Smith was known during his years with Krishna Venta’s WKFL (Wisdom Knowledge Faith Love) Fountain of the World cult[1] - was 20 years older than his wife was 20 years older than his wife and reportedly fairly self-centered.

When the couple belonged to the Fountain, where living arrangements were always sparse, Smith decided it would be healthier for Gladys if she slept on the floor while he took the one couch made available to them. It made no difference to him that his wife was pregnant. After all, the Fountain – where members had taken a Nazarite-like vow[2] to not cut their hair or trim their beards, and to wear robes but not shoes, until world peace had been achieved – was all about sacrifice. And Smith was all for Gladys learning to make sacrifices.

As if Smith’s ego was not enough of an irritant, he freely admitted that he did not like to work and tried to avoid it whenever possible. On one occasion, the man had actually gone to the Fountain’s nurse hoping some minor cuts and scrapes on his hands might get him out of washing dishes. Plus, the thought of keeping a full time job in society literally terrified him.

When Smith and his first wife Marilyn were contemplating joining the Fountain in the 1950s, his fear of responsibility was probably a factor in his decision. It may have also been one of the reasons he and second wife Gladys joined Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple a decade later.

What is interesting, if not ironic, about Smith belonging to first the Fountain and then Peoples Temple is that, in November 1958, advertisements in the Los Angeles Times referring to Krishna Venta as “The World’s Greatest Living Prophet” and Jim Jones (or "James Jones") as "A dynamic, thought-provoking preacher" had literally been positioned one atop the other in that newspaper.[3]

The paradox of Smith joining the Fountain and then Peoples Temple is that, by doing so, he unwittingly placed himself in environments where he would wind up laboring twice as hard as he would have, had he just taken a job in mainstream society.

Utopias do not build themselves, and Smith would find himself helping to construct two in his lifetime. In the 1950s, he was a part of developing the Fount, an offshoot of the Fountain, which Krishna Venta had opted to erect in the frozen backwoods of Homer, Alaska. Long hours of oftentimes grueling work were an unavoidable part of those homesteading efforts. Twenty years later, Smith must have known instinctively what lay in store for him when he learned of Jim Jones’ plans to relocate Peoples Temple to the wilds of Guyana.

In fact, Smith, of all people, should have seen Jones’ move coming before it happened.

In the 1950s, Smith had followed Krishna Venta – whose real name was Francis Pencovic – a man possessed of what psychologist Len Oakes refers to as “prophetic charisma” (i.e., the magnetic personality one would expect to find in a prophet).[4] Within the framework of a complex and sometimes convoluted message, Venta preached a social gospel of equality, emphasized the dangers of nuclear weaponry in the Cold War era, and predicted an eventual American civil war divided along racial lines. The culmination of Venta’s intricate theology had been the construction of the Alaskan compound to complement the Fountain’s California headquarters.

But Krishna Venta had been assassinated in December 1958 in a suicide bombing that had left a total of ten dead, a number of wounded, and much of the group’s California command center in ruins. With Venta’s death, the spark that had ignited the Fountain was gone, and the group began to steadily lose both its enthusiasm and its members. Also among the casualties was the group’s vision of an Alaskan heaven on Earth. Within a few years, the project was forsaken and the land donated back to the State to Alaska as a wild life preserve.[5] The California outpost was all that remained of the Fountain.

Following Krishna Venta’s death, Smith would come and go from the Fountain more than once. The first exit had been in a doomed attempt to save his marriage with Marilyn. When he returned to the Fountain again in the 1960s, it was with new wife Gladys. A few years later, they would both leave the Fountain forever when they realized the group could not long survive

Venta’s death.

No one knows the details of the Smith family’s enlistment with Peoples Temple. But in following Jim Jones, a man also endowed with prophetic charisma, Smith may have recognized bits and pieces of the message he had heard years before from Krishna Venta. Present also was the emphasis on bridging the racial divide and evils of nuclear weapons.

However, Venta and Jones were more different than they were alike. For one thing, in place of Venta’s social gospel, Jones preached pure Communism.

In addition, Jones’ sermons and personality both were dramatically darker, far more paranoid and radically more sinister than anything Fountain members ever saw under Venta. Ironically, on its best day, the Fountain’s membership barely totaled one-third of the number of people who died in Jonestown.

Nevertheless, having been a part of Krishna Venta’s vision, Smith should have known that a mass relocation to the backwoods of some desolate part of the world would be an inevitable part of the Jones equation.

What Smith, and everyone else associated with Jonestown, chose to ignore was Jones’ rhetoric about mass suicide, and the tragedy in November 1978 at the small outpost in the Guyanese jungle now seems inevitable in retrospect. The same day that Smith declared himself to be a violent revolutionary during a session of short taped statements, other Temple members pledged their willingness to die for the cause. It was language all of them had heard for years from the pulpit and the rest of the Temple leadership.

On that fateful day, David and Gladys Smith, along with their five children, would all perish. Smith and his wife were 52 and 32, respectively, and their children ranged in age from seven to 13.[6]

Others, meanwhile, had seen hints of what was coming.

A former member of the Fountain reports that, prior to the establishment of Jonestown in Guyana, she and her husband traveled to San Francisco to visit with David and Gladys Smith at Peoples Temple. There, the two couples were forced to visit in a space that bore the atmosphere of a police interrogation room. The Smiths – who seemed petrified of inadvertently veering from some scripted dialogue – were never out of the watchful gaze of an observer who monitored everything they said.

Because of this episode, says the former Fountain member, she was not surprised to hear of the death of her friends in Guyana.

And her friends included not only the Smiths.

Also among the dead was shy and retiring septuagenarian Erma Winfrey who literally bore the scars of having been a part of the Fountain before joining Peoples Temple. Winfrey had been at the Fountain on the night of the 1958 explosion and fire that ended Krishna Venta’s life. She had suffered second and third degree burns on much of her body.

In the years after she joined Peoples Temple, Winfrey sent glowing letters to her former Fountain brothers and sisters about how wonderful life with Jim Jones was. Since all outgoing correspondence – especially from Jonestown – was screened by a letter-writing committee, it is unknown if those comments reflected her true, or at least complete, feelings about her life in the Temple. In fact, she was publicly scolded by Jim Jones on at least one occasion: her infraction, according to Jones, was "taking advantage of the new special diet server" and obtaining sugar for her tea.

She had also been classified as having a "very negative" attitude because she had complained when Peoples Temple "didn’t give her money to buy anything in the States."[7]

Winfrey and Smith went to Guyana seeking deliverance from the United States, a nation Jones had convinced them no longer understood them. In the end, Winfrey, the Smith family, and more than 900 others who’d represented the dream of Jonestown, all lay dead on a tract of land far removed from anything that any one of them would have called home. [8]

[1] Please note that, while "new religious movement" is the preferred academic term in 2009, “cult” was the word used in the newspapers of the 1940s and 1950s to describe the WKFL Fountain of the World. Therefore, it is incorporated here.
[2] See Numbers 6.

138. I guess she really was sick....

2009-09-25T07:54:00.002-05:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090925/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_manson_follower

Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins dies

By LINDA DEUTSCH

28 mins ago
LOS ANGELES – Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson whose remorseless witness stand confession to killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 shocked the world, has died. She was 61 and had been suffering from brain cancer...

137. Posers, fakes, phonies, et al.

2009-09-03T19:37:00.007-05:00

All I can say is that there's apparently just something about the Krishna Venta/Fountain of the World story that brings out the posers, fakers, phonies, et al. in our society.

I can only presume that it has something to do with the fact that the whole story is just weird enough to where people think they can make all kinds of wild claims about things under the presumption that there's no way to prove whether or not they're telling the truth.

The ultimate phony approached me today claiming their parents had been members of the Fountain once upon a time. I was intrigued to hear that they supposedly had Fountain-related artifacts in their possession. However, I was immediately turned-off when - on top of sending their emails to me via an anonymizer of an email system - they stated upfront they were not willing to provide me with their name, the names of their parents (so I could verify their story with the Fountain members with whom I maintain contact), or to mail anything to me.

Sheesh! Again, there's just something about this story, I guess, that attracts all the internet's lurkers and phonies.

Today's email exchange goes into the "poser" folder along with the people I've encountered while writing my book such as:

1. A person who told my friend/a documentarian that they'd found Krishna Venta's driver's license in a tunnel under the Fountain. I told my friend to ask this person what the expiration date on the driver's license was. Six months later, they've yet to answer that question.

2. The person who emailed me to say they'd purchased photos of Krishna Venta at a garage sale. My suggestion that he was more than welcome to scan them and email them to me so I could verify that it was KV in the pictures apparently scared him off.

3. The girl who emailed me claiming she grew up across the street from the Fountain of the World's old facility and possessed Fountain-related documents she was eager to mail to me. Funny but the mail system out there apparently doesn't work.

4. The person who claimed they were a driver for the Fountain of the World in the 1950s and that they'd driven a bunch of Fountain members into town to watch "The Ten Commandments." They lived at the Fountain for months, supposedly, but couldn't recall the names of anyone there.

Of all the things in the world to make phony claims about, what's so attractive about the Fountain story that it brings out every faker in the world?

Again, I guess there's just something about this story...

136. Krishna Venta lectures for sale on eBay!

2009-09-01T18:02:00.033-05:00

If you have an extra $74.95 laying around, three of Krishna Venta's lectures are on sale at eBay. See http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Scarce-publications-by-Krishna-Venta-aka-The-Voice_W0QQitemZ300326616172QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiquarian_Collectible?hash=item45ecdc7c6c&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

I'm in possession of more than half of the lectures Krishna Venta delivered in his lifetime, and I didn't pay a dime for any of them!

135. Video footage of the Fountain of the World

2009-08-14T11:18:00.004-05:00

See footage at YouTube entitled "Manson Family attended Fountain Of The World" at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDEx6yfbupU&feature=channel_page

Thanks to "Cats Cradle" at Truth on Tate LaBianca - http://truthontatelabianca.com/ - for alerting me to this.

134. Tate/LaBianca...40 years later

2009-08-06T18:57:00.002-05:00

This coming Sunday (the 9th) and Monday (the 10th) mark the 40th "anniversary" of the Tate/LaBianca murders.

I mention this here for two reasons:

(1) Although the two men are worlds apart, books about Charles Manson do seem to be the window via which most people learn about Krishna Venta.

(2) Seven people died on those two night for no justifiable reason whatsoever, so they're acknowledged here:

IN MEMORIAM:

Abigail Folger

Voytek Frykowski

Leno LaBianca

Rosemary LaBianca

Steven Parent

Jay Sebring

Sharon Tate

For those interested in obtaining more information (especially primary source documents), http://truthontatelabianca.com/ is one of the more trustworthy websites out there on the subject.

133. Santa Susana (Images of America series) by Bill Appleton

2009-07-31T08:47:00.013-05:00

I just wanted to make everyone aware of a book due out on August 10, 2009 by my good friend Bill Appleton. The book, which is part of Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" series is entitled simply Santa Susana.

Bill Appleton, a professional photographer and member of the Simi Valley Historical Society, has the most amazing collection of photographs of Krishna Venta and the Fountain of the World I have ever seen. A select handful of those photographs, many of which have never been seen by the general public, are included in this new book.

Order your copy of this book today from http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Susana-Images-America-Appleton/dp/0738570494/ or http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Santa-Susana-California/Bill-Appleton/e/9780738570495/ or http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/index.html

Bill Appleton's other book - see http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/11/24-simi-valley-journey-through-time.html - usually sells for a small fortune on Amazon.

Here's what Arcadia Publishing has to say about their new title:

Book Description:

Santa Susana is one of three rural towns in Simi Valley that began at the turn of the 20th century. The town derives its name from the surrounding mountains, Sierra de Santa Susanna, and grew up alongside the railroad depot built by the Southern Pacific Company in 1903. The history of Santa Susana can be traced back to the Chumash Indian village of Ta’apu and a Spanish land grant, El Rancho Simi. The area was first surveyed by the Simi Valley Land and Water Company in 1887 for the sale of ranches. By the mid-1950s, Santa Susana had become a recognized agricultural center, noted for citrus and walnut production. Corriganville and Bottle Village are unique tourist destinations that originated near the Santa Susana Airport. In the surrounding mountains, quirky religious groups established communes away from the public with strange names and stories: Pisgah Grande, The Great Eleven Club, and WKFL Fountain of the World.

Author Bio:

Bill Appleton is a fourth-generation descendent of a Simi family and is actively involved with the Simi Valley Historical Society at the Strathearn Historical Park and Museum. The images used in this volume have been selected from his personal collection, the historical society files, and numerous other private collections and historical archives.

132. This Night Wounds Time

2009-07-09T12:33:00.021-05:00

Cover design by Al Ridenour

http://www.amazon.com/This-Night-Wounds-Time-Disappearances/dp/0557200458/

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/this-night-wounds-time-the-mysterious-disappearances-of-stacie-madison-and-susan-smalley/7927031

http://www.thisnightwoundstime.com/

131. More on the Process Church

2009-07-02T13:01:00.004-05:00

Following up on Post No. 130, a friend has informed me that a free collection of Process Church literature is available for download at http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/process-church-of-the-final-judgment-documents/4743458

Enjoy...zzzzz...

130. New book on the Process Church by Timothy Wylie

2009-06-07T12:19:00.017-05:00

Feral House’s Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment by Timothy Wylie, et al. has finally been published in the U.S. See http://www.amazon.com/Love-Sex-Fear-Death-Judgment/dp/1932595376/ or http://feralhouse.com/titles/new_releases/love_sex_fear_death_the_inside_story_of_the_process_church_of_the_final_judgment.php

For me the book was an overall disappointment. Granted, since I am working on a book about Krishna Venta, and since my book includes a section exploring the question of whether Charles Manson’s “Helter Skelter” (if indeed such was really his) was influenced by the Process, Krishna Venta, or neither, I read the book with an agenda. Namely, I read it hoping it might offer some insight into this question.

All I can say is that I was disappointed to see that, even forty years after the fact, Wylie (who offers the lengthiest essay in Love Sex Fear Death) sticks so firmly to the official Process party line. (I was also disappointed to see that the big “revelation” of this book is that Mary Ann MacLean, and not her husband Robert De Grimston, was the leader of Process. It’s fun, though, to read about how MacLean was such a manipulative and egotistical psycho bitch.)

In any event, since the Process is remembered solely because of the Manson allegations, this “review” of the book focuses on Manson’s appearances in it:

1. The "Images" section of the book, which covers 82 pages, includes “From Manson to Muggeridge” – the infamous article from the Process’ magazine which contains original quotations from Manson.

2. pp. 56-57 - "We lauded the extremes of human experience and were exploring the often taboo aspects of subjects like death, fear and sex. We had little thought for the long-term effects of what we were promoting. So much so that when the Ed Sanders book and the articles associating us with the Manson killings started appearing, we were baffled and appalled. How could anyone have thought we would have anything to do with Manson, or the murders? We had never met the man, nor to our knowledge did he ever visit our Coffee House in San Francisco even though, as is frequently trotted out in the conspiracy theory books, he lived several blocks away from Cole Street, and reputedly in the same time frame as we were there. But this was all purely guilt by tenuous association. Yet, had we applied the same harsh rules of responsibility to ourselves as we were preaching to the world, we might well have asked ourselves what we had done to magnetize these terrible lies to us? Or why we took it upon ourselves to interview Manson for the Death issue of the Process magazine? I don’t believe this was ever discussed."

3. p. 63 - "Possibly the rot set in when we lost the English court case against the Ed Sanders book. It was Mary Ann’s idea not to demand a substantial sum in damages when we settled the American case. She would have wanted to impress people with how decent we were and how it wasn’t about the money, but just about clearing the name of The Process. Presumably it was this miscalculation that encouraged the publisher in England to think we were rollovers – which turned out to be perfectly true. The English publisher won the case."

4. pp. 77-78 - "What none of us knew at the time, however, was that Charles Manson was also living with his coterie on Cole Avenue, a few blocks down from where our Chapter was located. Although we didn’t know him or his Family, and had never seen any of them in the Chapter, this unhappy coincidence has long fed the conspiracy theorists intent on proving that we had directly influenced Manson’s paranoid ramblings."

5. p. 79 - "In spite of meeting a wide variety of celebrities I tend to associate Los Angeles with Charles Manson, although the murders occurred in 1969, two years after we’d left the city. And it was 1971 when The Family came out and caused us such grief. With our dark cloaks and apocalyptic rhetoric, we were just too tempting a target. Vincent Bugliosi, the L.A. prosecutor who made his name on the case, thoroughly researched all possible influences on Manson and had completely absolved the Process Church of any association. What has come to be known is that Manson himself told Bugliosi that he’d first encountered Scientology in 1961 and had studied it, maintaining he was a ‘clear.’ Scientology material was also found at the Spahn Ranch when Manson was arrested. Understandably, this was not something Scientology would have wanted known...It took several more years for the Manson tar baby to indelibly stain The Process Church, when The Family hit the shelves. The time delay made this all the more of a shock since we thought the Manson accusations were behind us."

FACT CHECK # 1: Regarding Wylie’s statement about Vincent Bugliosi "completely absolv[ing] the Process of any association [with Manson]," Wylie must own a different edition of Helter Skelter than me; in my copy of the book, Bugliosi writes, "In view of Manson’s curiosity, it appears very likely that he [Manson] at least investigated the Satanists [the Process], and there is fairly persuasive evidence that he 'borrowed' some of their teachings." (p. 636) Bugliosi also writes, "I believe there was at least some contact, in view of the many parallels between Mansons’ teachings and those of the Process, as revealed in their literature." (p. 637)

For those interested, the "many parallels" to which Bugliosi refers is explored by Curt Rowlett in the "Charles Manson, Son of Sam and the Process Church of the Final Judgment" chapter of his book Labyrinth13. Rowlett offers the thesis that, "There is a body of strong circumstantial evidence that tends to show Manson was heavily influenced by the Process." (p. 92), and makes a first rate argument for his case. See http://www.amazon.com/Labyrinth13-Tales-Occult-Crime-Conspiracy/dp/1411660838/ or http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/labyrinth13-true-tales-of-the-occult-crime-conspiracy/156897

FACT CHECK # 2: Regarding Wylie’s comment about how Bugliosi "thoroughly researched all possible influences on Manson," I contacted Bugliosi in this regard in order to see if the names Krishna Venta and/or the Fountain of the World were to be found anywhere in his notes circa the Manson trial. Bugliosi could think of no instance of the Fountain being mentioned beyond Paul Watkins testifying at trial that Manson asked Watkins "if he would consent to be crucified on a cross at the Fountain of the World." (see p. 356 of George Bishop’s Witness to Evil) I provided Bugliosi with that reference up front, and beyond that he acted as though the Fountain and Krishna Venta were both heretofore unheard of entities. (This was two about years ago.) So, it’s a stretch to say Bugliosi "thoroughly researched all possible influences on Manson."

129. "Coming Down Fast" by Simon Wells

2009-05-27T15:49:00.022-05:00

I'm in possession of the pages from Coming Down Fast (the latest work out on Charles Manson) that reference Krishna Venta. (See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Charles-Manson-Chilling-Biography-Coming/dp/0340977019/) For whatever reason, this book is currently available only in the U.K.

Not surprisingly, what Wells offers is yet another tired retread of the (mostly erroneous) Krishna Venta material that's already been knocked around for decades by other authors post-Tate/LaBianca (e.g., Gorightly, Sanders, Watkins, et al.)

As stated previously on this blog, the problem with these authors who keep rehashing the same old misinformation is that Sanders presented a bunch of unsubstantiated claims about Krishna Venta in his book The Family, and subsequent writers have accepted his "facts" as gospel (no matter how stupid they might sound) without double-checking them.

What cracks me up about Coming Down Fast is that its subtitle describes it as a "chilling biography." Gee, is that to differentiate it from the "charming" and "uplifting" stuff that may already be out there about Manson?

128. Apropos of nothing related to Krishna Venta...

2009-05-15T20:06:00.005-05:00

I plug my nephew's latest video: http://www.vimeo.com/4653315

Hey, it's my blog...so, if you don't like it, too bad. :-)

127. Barker Ranch torched!

2009-05-08T16:42:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine alerted me to this story (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/07/state/n153858D52.DTL ):

Charles Manson's last California hideout burns

Thursday, May 7, 2009

(05-07) 15:42 PDT DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) --

Barker Ranch, an abandoned desert cabin that was Charles Manson's last hideout following his notorious cult murders, was gutted by fire, a park spokesman said Thursday.

The isolated cabin was discovered burned on Tuesday, Terry Baldino said.

"We don't know the cause. We don't know if it was an accident or on purpose," he said.

The cabin was last seen intact last Friday and may have burned over the weekend, he said.

The ranch, which included a main building and a guesthouse, was built of wood, stone and cement. The fire burned most of the wood and damaged the tin roof. Stone walls were standing but must be inspected to determine whether they are safe, Baldino said.

"Basically, it's a gutted building," he said.

The ranch was built in the 1930s by a retired Los Angeles policeman-turned-gold miner, Baldino said. It is located in a rocky canyon in the Panamint Range and can only be reached by a three- to four-hour drive up rugged roads.

It is still visited by off-road enthusiasts but is not listed as a major Death Valley tourist attraction, Baldino said.

Manson and his followers hid at the cabin after killing actress Sharon Tate and seven others in the summer of 1969. He was arrested there that fall and is serving a life sentence.

For years, rumors swirled that other Manson family victims might be buried on the property. However, investigators using high-tech forensic gear found nothing when they dug at the ranch last May.

A restoration crew went to the ranch about a month ago to clean it and make repairs, Baldino said.

Investigators planned to examine the building to determine the cause of the blaze, and a park archaeologist will help determine whether it should be rebuilt, Baldino said.

126. Recent photos of the Fountain of the World

2009-04-22T18:03:00.005-05:00

http://www.imageposter.com/uploads/get/630856

http://www.imageposter.com/uploads/get/630858

http://www.imageposter.com/uploads/get/630859

http://www.imageposter.com/uploads/get/630860

http://www.imageposter.com/uploads/get/630861

http://www.imageposter.com/uploads/get/630862

Regarding photo 630859, if you look, you'll notice that the door is carved to resemble the Fountain's insignia!

I forwarded the above weblinks to a former member of the Fountain of the World. Regarding the Fountain's current state of disrepair and rot, their comment was, "These photos could just make a person cry. Isn't this so sad!"

125. Book wanted

2009-04-22T13:06:00.011-05:00

In the mid-1940s, one of the Fountain's future members published what has apparently gone on to become the most obscure book on the planet. (Not to mention boring!) Details on it are as follows:

AUTHOR: Wilbur Foster Yates (sometimes spelled "Wilber")

TITLE: Master Passion - One Man's Search for Destiny

PUBLISHER: The William Frederick Press of New York

YEAR: 1945 or 1946

If anyone has a complete copy of this book, please contact me care of this blog. Thanks!

124. Skyhorse and Mohawk (still more)

2009-04-20T11:40:00.007-05:00

In an earlier blog entry regarding the Skyhorse and Mohawk case (see http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2009/01/61-skyhorse-and-mohawk.html), I note, "The Fountain members with whom I've spoken recall there being two separate groups of Native Americans living on the Fountain's property: (1) the group of good guys to whom they initially leased the property; and (2) a group of (obviously) not so good guys, including Skyhorse and Mohawk, who replaced the first group over time."

This contention is supported by Johanna Brand and Warren Allmand who, in their book The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash, state that by the time cab driver George Aird was murdered, "...whatever its original purpose, the camp [AIM Camp 13 based at the Fountain of the World] had become a crash pad where drugs and alcohol were often used heavily." (p. 108)

123. Skyhorse and Mohawk (more)

2009-04-19T22:51:00.009-05:00

This weekend, I uncovered some additional details regarding the Fountain of the World in regard to the American Indian Movement's use of its property in the early 1970s.

In Peter Matthiessen's book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, the Fountain is (laughably) described as having been used an "AIM rest camp in a secluded corner of Box Canyon...notorious as the site of the dynamite murder of a swami and his flock in the late 1950s." (p. 112)

Interesting piece of trivia: during the American Indian Movement's tenure at the Fountain, their name for the place was "AIM Camp 13." (See http://ishgooda.org/peltier/skyhorse.htm)

Just more secondary source references regarding the Fountain...

122. Interesting synchronicity - March 29, 1971

2009-04-16T19:37:00.004-05:00

On March 29, 1971 (what would have been Krishna Venta's 60th birthday), the Manson jury handed down guilty verdicts against Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten.

Talk about coincidence!

121. 1973 "Manson" documentary (more)

2009-04-16T16:50:00.012-05:00

In the 1973 documentary "Manson," Paul Watkins offers the following:

Well, Charlie was trying to take over this religious organization called the Fountain of the World. And Shorty had lived at the Fountain of the World. And, so, he [Shorty] knew what Charlie was doing at the Fountain. Charlie wanted to use the Fountain as a base of headquarters to go out and kidnap kids, bring them there [to the Fountain], tune them in or program them, or take them out to the desert.

Again, this echoes what's said in both 5 to Die and My Life with Charles Manson.

For the record, although it's reported that he frequently attended the Fountain's Saturday night talent shows, Shorty Shea never lived at the Fountain.

For additional information on the Saturday night shows, see: http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2009/02/74-keith-green-and-fountain-of-world.html

120. 1973 "Manson" documentary

2009-04-13T11:01:00.014-05:00

I recently heard that the 1973 documentary "Manson" (now available on DVD via http://www.exclusivefilms.com/) contains interviews with at least one former Family member who mentions the Fountain of the World.

From what I hear, what's said about the Fountain in this movie largely mirrors what's written in the books My Life with Charles Manson and 5 to Die.

(See http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/11/25-5-to-die-by-jerry-le-blanc-and-ivor.html and http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/12/47-paul-watkins-deceased-member-of.html)

It's literally been twenty years since I've seen this documentary, but I have a copy of it on order. So, I'll be able to report more on its references to the Fountain in the coming days.

119. Krishna Venta in shades...

2009-04-11T22:32:00.002-05:00

This photo taken on the last day of Krishna Venta's life.

118. This is the city...

2009-04-08T18:05:00.004-05:00

Just a cool drawing of Los Angeles' City Hall circa Krishna Venta's tenure in the city.

117. Fountain philosphy regarding animals

2009-04-07T18:55:00.003-05:00

"One of the teachings of the Fountain is: 'In nature is the answer to the Infinite; take the time to study it well.' We must learn to live with and control insects, rodents, or animals considered by man as nuisances, rather than taking the destructive method of taking their lives."

116. Did you know there was a Krishna Venta Conservation Area in Alaska?

2009-04-07T18:47:00.004-05:00

http://www.kachemaklandtrust.org/at_a_glance.htm

http://homernews.com/stories/110806/arts_2b_3b001.shtml

115. Eleven Rules of the Fountain

2009-04-07T18:32:00.003-05:00

1. To forget the outside world.

2. To become familiar with the inside workings of one’s self.

3. To become unified with one another – spiritually, mentally, and physically.

4. To forget self.

5. To create a desire within one’s self toward higher spiritual equality.

6. To obtain wisdom.

7. To search for understanding in all things.

8. To face problems without thought of escape.

9. To become absorbed in love toward all things seen and unseen, and so fulfill the Laws of God

10. To let the Spirit descend upon you.

11. To become teachers, not in the world, but in the Fountain, so that all men who come out of the world shall find comfort in our midst.

114. Manson's "Order of the Rainbow"

2009-03-24T16:17:00.002-05:00

Some (i.e., Nikolas Schreck and Adam Gorightly) claim this clothing, which was part of Charles Manson's "Order of the Rainbow," was inspired by Krishna Venta's Fountain of the World.

Yeah, no one had ever worn clothing like that before...

113. Cool Krishna Venta photo

2009-03-24T16:14:00.003-05:00

"The Culture of Simi Valley" (http://home.earthlink.net/~ridevirago/Blank%20Page%2013.htm) includes some cool photographs, including the one above. I've intentionally not posted this photo here in times past. However, seeing that it's already posted on Earthlink, what the hey...

112. John Ankerberg and Krishna Venta

2009-03-24T14:34:00.013-05:00

One of the strangest mentions of the Fountain is found in an essay by Dr. John Ankerberg entitled "Satanism and Witchcraft: The Occult and the East—Part 2."

(See http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/_PDFArchives/new-age/NA3W0604.pdf)

The excerpt is as follows:

Nevertheless, a major justification for such vicious murders was provided by Eastern philosophy and texts, a philosophy which is, unfortunately, increasingly permeating Western society: Charles Manson had claimed to be Jesus Christ, but he was also much influenced by Indian ideas which filtered through to him through such sects as OTO, "The Process," and "The Fountain of the World." From these ultimately Indian sources he derived the theory of reincarnation and karma.

As best I can determine from his footnotes, Ankerberg comes by his knowledge of the Fountain via R.C. Zaehner’s book Our Savage God: The Perverse Use of Eastern Thought, which in turn gets its facts about the Fountain from...you guessed it...Ed Sanders’ The Family.

(See http://krishnaventa.blogspot.com/2008/11/16-ed-sanders-and-family.html)

111. The Fountain and Jonestown

2009-03-23T21:10:00.014-05:00

Yesterday, I caught a documentary on MSNBC about Jim Jones titled "Witness to Jonestown." It reminded me that I've been intending to post here a listing of the former members of Krishna Venta's WKFL Fountain of the World who died alongside Jones in the Guyanese jungle in 1978.

1. Erma Winfrey - http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/bio.php?Id=962

2. David Elbert Vester Smith - http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/bio.php?Id=718

3. Gladys Smith - http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/bio.php?Id=720

Sadly, David & Gladys Smith's children also died in Jonestown:

1. Jeffrey Dale Smith - http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/bio.php?Id=722

2. Kelin Kirtas Smith - http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/bio.php?Id=725

3. Krista Lynn Smith - http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/bio.php?Id=729

4. Michael Vail Smith - http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/bio.php?Id=730

5. Karl Wayne Smith - http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/bio.php?Id=724

110. Just a random photo...

2009-03-23T21:04:00.002-05:00

...taken during the relocation to Alaska. Krishna Venta (giving the "A-OK" signal) appears to be in a good mood.

109. More gossip presented as fact...

2009-03-23T15:35:00.017-05:00

Then there's William H. Kennedy's book Satanic Crime: A Threat in the New Millennium (http://www.williamhkennedy.com/mvmsatanic1006A.pdf) that offers that the Fountain of the World's site was completely abandoned by the time the Manson Family was there. Of the Fountain, Mr. Kennedy writes:

This weird sect flourished in the 1950s and was founded by a religious con man named Krishna Venta (Francis Pencovic) who, like Charlie, thought he was Jesus Christ and demanded to be worshipped as God in sex rituals. He also asserted he was 244,000 years old and insisted he was immortal. Krishna Venta contended he was Christ Everlasting and seduced many of his female followers. In 1958, he died in a massive dynamite explosion ignited by the husbands of the women he was using in sex rituals. Whereas Pencovic only wanted to dominate a few followers for sexual purposes, Manson had much higher ambitions. (p. 21)

Dang! If even half of that were true, my book when published would explode off of bookstore shelves!

108. Wrong!

2009-03-23T15:23:00.003-05:00

This weblink (http://www.chacha.com/question/what-was-the-name-of-the-manson-family-commune) poses the question "What was the name of the Manson family commune?" The answer, per this site anyway, is "The Fountein [sic] of the World commune in Box Canyon, CA."

Uh...wrong!

107. Mt. Redoubt errupts!

2009-03-23T10:44:00.002-05:00

Mt. Redoubt, the volcano on Krishna Venta's beloved Kenai Peninsula, seems to be restless. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090323/ap_on_re_us/alaska_volcano_6

106. Random photo...

2009-03-20T19:14:00.003-05:00

...courtesy of the U.S. Secret Service/Department of Homeland Security I've been meaning to include here.

105. March 29, 2009

2009-03-20T12:24:00.004-05:00

While I was thinking about it, I thought I'd mention that Sunday, March 29, 2009 would have been Krishna Venta's/Francis Pencovic's 98th birthday...had he not been murdered in 1958...

104. Meanwhile...

2009-03-20T09:20:00.002-05:00

...Manson lives to be an old man...

103. Documentary regarding Box Canyon

2009-03-18T15:54:00.017-05:00

Just a quick entry to let it be known that Back From Mars Productions is currently at work on a documentary about the history of Box Canyon tentatively titled "The Box - The History and Mystery of Box Canyon, California."

The film, I'm told, will feature a brief segment on Krishna Venta and the WKFL Fountain of the World.

The moderator of this blog has provided documents and data to the producers of this documentary regarding the history of both the Fountain and Krishna Venta.

Can't wait to see it!

102. Additional perspective (George Reeves)

2009-03-14T11:53:00.017-05:00

In a continuing effort to provide those blog readers who were not around in 1958 with some perspective regarding what the landscape of America was like when Krishna Venta died, it must be noted that this coming June will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of actor George Reeves. The actor died within six month of the explosion that killed Krishna Venta, et al. From everything the moderator has heard and read, the day Reeves died was apparently a pretty traumatic one for the kids of America.

Those wanting to learn more about the life and death of George Reeves are encouraged to seek out Jan Alan Henderson's book Speeding Bullet, which is a much more responsible piece of journalism than is Hollywood Kryptonite.

101. Freebie regarding Jewel

2009-03-12T10:34:00.027-05:00

In the course of researching my book, I've discovered that Ruth & Yule Kilcher (below), the grandparents of singer/songwriter Jewel Kilcher (above) made frequent visits to the Homer, Alaska branch of the Fountain of the World in the 1950s.

Of course, they were not alone. As a registered nurse, Fountain member Neria Kamenoff was about the only medical professional in the area at the time. Hence, a lot of people in and around Homer, including the Kilchers, made the trek to the Fountain just to see her.

100. Boston University

2009-03-11T15:45:00.003-05:00

http://sthweb.bu.edu/index.php?option=com_awiki&view=mediawiki&article=Krishna_Venta&Itemid=360

Pretty cool: the Wikipedia text I wrote regarding Krishna Venta is now included at the Boston University School of Theology's website. (See above)

Three of the links included at the Wikipedia Krishna Venta page, as well as the above link, are mine:

1. Link to the International Cultic Studies Association article;

2. Link to this blog; and

3. Link to the semi-defunct Yahoo Group.

99. Hmmm....

2009-03-10T20:30:00.006-05:00

98. Burma

2009-03-10T18:54:00.003-05:00

The Fountain of the World owned a Burma truck such as this...and it apparently broke down with great regularity...

97. Paul Coates

2009-03-10T18:48:00.004-05:00

In the weeks before his death, Krishna Venta was interviewed by Paul Coates on the latter's Los Angeles television program.

96. Krishna Venta in Worcester, Mass.

2009-03-10T18:40:00.004-05:00

And another photo provided to me by David Lackstrom, this one featuring Krishna's wife, Ruth Venta.

95. Krishna Venta in Worcester, Mass.

2009-03-10T18:39:00.002-05:00

Another photo provided to me by David Lackstrom.

94. Krishna Venta in Worcester, Mass.

2009-03-10T18:35:00.003-05:00

This photo was one of three provided to me by David Lackstrom.

93. Portrait of Krishna Venta by Reuben Lackstrom

2009-03-10T18:31:00.004-05:00

This portrait of Krishna Venta was painted by Reuben Lackstrom in the 1940s. You will note Krishna Venta's hair is shorter in this portrait than in later photos.

The artist's son, David Lackstrom, has provided to me several source documents, as well as information and remembrances. This is truly appreciated!

92. Brochure photo

2009-03-10T18:29:00.002-05:00

This photo, which has also been posted at the Wikipedia entry, is taken from a Fountain brochure printed in the 1950s. Albeit in weather-worn shape, I am proud to say the brochure is today in my possession.

91. Additional perspective (Barbie)

2009-03-02T10:57:00.005-06:00

Additional perspective regarding what was happening in America when Krishna Venta died: the Barbie doll from Mattel was introduced fifty years ago this week...approximately ten weeks after the death of Krishna Venta.

By the way, the week Krishna Venta died, "Charlie Brown" by The Coasters was tearing its way up the music charts.

90. A KV ad on reincarnation...just because it's Friday...

2009-02-27T15:31:00.002-06:00

89. German language blurb on KV from 1949

2009-02-27T15:30:00.009-06:00

This is one of the many articles that circulated worldwide in June 1949 when Krishna was arrested and jailed for not supporting the children borne of his first marriage.

The author does not claim to be a German scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but the piece essentially says:

* Krishna Venta is a man from Los Angeles who claims to be the Messiah;

* He also claims he has 145,000 followers;

* He was jailed recently following his ex-wife's complaints that he has failed to child support his two minor children, which is embarrassing for a messiah; and

* He has since been bonded out of jail on bail.

Any German translators out there are more than welcome to correct me in this regard! I promise I will not take offense whatsoever.

88. Krishna Venta mentioned in Tom Cruise biography

2009-02-19T12:34:00.007-06:00

Krishna Venta is referenced in the unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise by Andrew Morton.

On page 97 of the book, the author says of L. Ron Hubbard's efforts to get his church going in California in 1954, "He faced stiff competition in acrowded field. In Los Angeles alone there were one hundred or so cults, one of his fiercest rivals being Krishna Venta, who told his disciples that he had arrived on a spaceship 240,000 years ago.Hubbard's philosophy was much more subtle, promising the spiritualequivalent of the alchemist's dream, turning pewter into gold."

87. Manson weighs in

2009-02-19T12:25:00.006-06:00

http://www.paperdragonstudios.com/noel/files/cmatf/454.htm

The above website reports that in an "open letter to President Reagan," dated 08/06/1986, Charles Manson stated, "Put the trees back fast before pollution destroys all life. I saw it dying in Death Valley. That's why Krishna Venta blew himself up at the Fountain of the World in Box Canyon, California, when the Feather River Project cut his fountains of water off."

Uh, wrong...

86. Leslie Van Houten, 2002

2009-02-19T12:24:00.006-06:00

From http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0206/28/se.04.html

VAN HOUTEN:

Yes. Manson got Pat and I out of the ranch area shortly after the murders and he told us to go stay at a place called Fountain of the World, which was an abandoned religious site in Box Canyon. And we stayed there for I don't know how long, and then we ended up in the desert.

85. Ghost towns

2009-02-19T12:19:00.007-06:00

More erroneous facts can be found at http://forums.ghosttowns.com/showthread.php?t=13552:

"I'm new to this site and saw a few posts regarding C. Manson locations. I have extensive knowledge of the Manson Caves and all locations involving the "Family". Regarding the chatsworth/simi valley area, there are places like the Manson Caves; Skull Rock (where LSD induced human sacrifices were taken place); Spahn's Ranch (including the rock C.M. carved his initials in the waterfall and bathing area and the wave cave which is in that famous pic of some of the "Family" squatting in. I have pics of these places too. I only have one scanned and saved though (me coming out of the Hell Hole entrance of the caves). The caves are not in Box Canynon like I've read on this site. They are in the hills above Santa Susana pass. And this isn't the best time to go climbing up there with the rain. The Skull Rock (Fountain of the World cult) is in Box Caynon. The cult still lives in the house which is still on the property of the skull rock. The caves were actually Krishna Venta's (F.O.T.W. cult leader who was dynamited in the caves) caves. C.M. and the "family" learned of the caves from them."

84. Author unknown

2009-02-19T12:14:00.002-06:00

http://www.nonduality.com/hl103.htm

This morning (after meditating on Adi Da) I drove up to
Burbank to the Valhalla Memorial Park, where Krishna Venta
is buried. Krishna Venta (born Francis Penkovic) was
another L.A.-based guru active in the 1950s. I guess very
few people have heard of him. He had a commune in the
desert by Chatsworth. I think it was called The Fountain of
the World or something like that. The guy wore white robes
and long hair and a beard years before the hippie movement.
He was probably the first American-born neo-Hindu guru in
these parts though he also claimed to be the Messiah. In
1958 some disgruntled followers accused him of fooling
around with their wives and blew him (and themseles) to
smithereens with a few pounds of dynamite. He's buried in
an unmarked plot. I had to ask a cemetary guide to locate
it for me and take me there. Then I told him the guy's
story, as apparently no one there had ever heard of him.
The guide also showed me Oliver Hardy's plot (of Laurel and
Hardy fame) which is nearby.

Krishna Venta is known to me only because he's mentioned in
a book about Charles Manson. Evidently when Charlie first
arrived in Southern Cal from jail in '68 or '69 he spent
some time at KV's commune and was fed and cared for by the
devotees, though KV was long dead. Then Charlie walked a
few miles over the hills and settled in at Spahn Ranch,
where of course he started his own commune and decided to
play the Messiah game himself.

82. "The Guru"

2009-02-19T12:07:00.004-06:00

At one time the following was posted at http://www.pharo.com/cults_and_magik/charles_manson/articles/cmcm_05_possible_influences.asp, and demonstrates just how lax some writers have grown in the past years with their basic facts regarding Venta.

The Guru

A possible influence on Charles Manson may have been FrancisHeindswatzer Pencovick a convicted burglar who had served time inprison and who became Krishna Venta mystic guru in 1948. In some-wayshe was a precursor of Manson.

As Krishna Venta, Pencovick claimed to be the reincarnation of JesusChrist and set up the headquarters of his cult in a canyon near theSan Fernando Valley in California, not far from where Manson wouldlater set up his community. Like Manson most of his followers wereyoung women. Venta was killed December 10, 1958 in a suicide bombing(the bomb consisting of 47 sticks of dynamite!) carried out by RalphMuller, 33, and Peter Kamenoff, 42, cult members who had come todoubt that the divine Master was in fact the true messiah after alland had simply been making it up all along as well as indulging insome decidedly un-Christian practices with their wives. Aftercomplaining in vain to the state attorney general's office the twomade their suicide attack on the cult's HQ the blast killing not onlythe 47 year old self-proclaimed prophet as well as themselves butfive other adults and two children. The death of the incarnategreat "universal consciousness" being confirmed by examination of hisrather more mortal dental bridgework.

Although there were many differences between Manson and KrishnaVenta, and their respective "followers", like him Manson's downfallcame as a result of the actions of some of his own "cult" members, inManson's case after their murdering of several rich and famouspersons - supposedly in his name and the testimony of one of themthat he had ordered the killings.

81. Another copyrighted photo

2009-02-18T17:43:00.008-06:00

Left to right: Ethel Martin Ray ("Sister Elvira"), Martin Baker ("Priest Paul"), and Sister Bitzi.

Priest Paul and Sister Elvira would both die in the bombing of December 10, 1958, and Sister Bitzi would relocate to the Alaska Fountain for a time. (See http://www.homertribune.com/archive.php?aid=464) Is that Oak Ridge Boys tune creeping into anyone else's head? Giddy-up-a-oom-pop-a-oom-pop-a-mow-mow...

Please note the copyright notice/watermark on this photo (Corbis), which may be purchased care of: http://pro.corbis.com/search/Enlargement.aspx?CID=isg&mediauid=%7B712259F9-8104-4286-8B65-95D0F86CFCE5%7D

80. Copyrighted photo - 2 of 2

2009-02-18T17:30:00.001-06:00

Please note copyright notice on this photo.

79. Copyrighted photo - 1 of 2

2009-02-18T17:28:00.002-06:00

Please note copyright notice on this photo.

78. One view of the Fountain today

2009-02-18T17:23:00.004-06:00

The Fountain doesn't look too bad from this angle. Otherwise, today, it looks like a cross between the city dump and a scrap yard!

77. Just a photo of Krishna Venta in glasses...

2009-02-18T17:22:00.001-06:00

76. Photo I purchased from eBay...

2009-02-18T17:20:00.003-06:00

Thus far, this is the only Fountain-related item I've seen on eBay other than a magazine.

75. Just a random photo of Asaiah Bates

2009-02-18T17:19:00.002-06:00

74. Keith Green and the Fountain of the World

2009-02-12T11:17:00.014-06:00

Another interesting tidbit regarding the Fountain is that, prior to embracing Christianity and embarking on a career as a Christian singer and songwriter, the late musician Keith Green (1953-1982)(http://www.lastdaysministries.org/) performed virtually every Saturday night at the Fountain's talent programs. (It was sort of an "open mike night" at which pretty much anyone who had nerve enough to get up in front of the audience would be allowed to perform.) Word has it that Keith Green was invariably the big hit at any of these shows! This factoid is even mentioned in (at least older editions of) No Compromise, Green's biography, as written by his widow.

Charles Manson is also known to have performed a time or two at these Saturday night shows circa 1968 and 1969, although the reception to his music was reportedly only lukewarm at best.

73. Maya Angelou and the Fountain of the World...sort of...

2009-02-11T23:02:00.002-06:00

On Page 53 of the book Brother Asaiah, Martha Ellen Anderson writes that at the Fountain there was a female member, "Sister Cathy, a white girl who had been married to a black gentleman called Bailey Johnson, whose sister has become one of the great black writers, Maya Angelou."

72. Paper, paper everywhere...

2009-02-06T17:51:00.015-06:00

Since I've been working with it this afternoon, I thought I'd share with everyone a couple of photographs of the stacks of documents I've received in the past couple of months from various former members of the Fountain of the World. Right now it all looks like this:

However, with any luck, it will soon look like this:

Oh, and here's a freebie of another tub containing the rough drafts of the various sections of my book on Krishna Venta:

And this doesn't even include the books (hardbacks and paperbacks alike), the electronic documents and data, and all of the hours of interviews that I've amassed!

[Note from February 17, 2009: the documents depicted above were organized on February 7, 2009. The moderator of this blog is now in possession of just under 1,200 documents regarding Krishna Venta and/or the Fountain of the World.]

71. Perspective (Buddy Holly)

2009-02-02T18:35:00.005-06:00

Just to give the blog readers some perspective as to when in America's history the death of Krishna Venta occured, I'll offer the following: tomorrow, February 3, 2009, will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, which occured just 55 days after the assassination of Krishna Venta.

70. Kamenoff & Muller

2009-02-02T11:56:00.014-06:00

The above photograph is courtesy of the April 1957 edition of Coronet magazine and depicts (left to right) Peter "Elzibah" Kamenoff and Ralph "Jeroham" Muller - the two men who killed Krishna Venta - in better times.

From an article titled "The Fire," this photo's caption says, "[T]wo bearded members of the Fountain of the World faith take over cooking duties at a forward fire camp."

69. WKFL insignia

2009-01-20T09:54:00.016-06:00

Not too long ago, I received a bundle of WKFL literature from a former member of Krishna Venta's WKFL Fountain of the World. Among the items received were several of the group's pamphlets.

The above insignia, which I'm including here just because it's cool, was on the cover of one such pamphlet.

For those who don't know, the "WKFL" stands for wisdom, knowledge, faith, and love.

The "K" and the "V" on either side of the Latin phrase, obviously, stand for "Krishna Venta."

As for the Latin phrase, I know "XPIETOE" means "Christ." However, I am not familiar with the term "AOANTOE," but I'm anticipating its supposed meaning is "everlasting" since Krishna Venta asserted that his name meant "Christ Everlasting."

68. "My Dark Places" by James Ellroy

2009-01-17T16:50:00.011-06:00

This week, as time has allowed, I've been re-reading My Dark Places by James Ellroy (author of such mysteries as L.A. Confidential, The Big Nowhere, and The Black Dahlia). My Dark Places is comprised of Ellroy's stunningly candid reflections on his mother's still unsolved murder. I mention the book here solely because the deaths of Krishna Venta and Jean Ellroy both occured in the gothic world of 1958 Southern California, when daily life was still largely black & white as opposed to Technicolor. My Dark Places, by the way, is an incredible, if not somewhat disturbing, read!

67. "Bloody Hollywood" by Troy Taylor

2009-01-14T17:39:00.016-06:00

Apparently the Troy Taylor book Bloody Hollywood mentions Krishna Venta in a section addressing:

Hollywood's Preachers, Cults, Kooks & Crazies

* "Fighting Bob" Shuler & Sister Aimee

* The Blackburn Cult

* Mankind United

* Heaven's Gate

* Fountain of the World

* Process Church of the Final Judgment

* Four P Movement

* The Manson Family

Beyond knowing it is part of the Dead Men Do Tell Tales series (https://www.prairieghosts.com/dead_tales.html), though, I know nothing about this book.

66. "The Moving Target" by Ross MacDonald

2009-01-13T12:02:00.012-06:00

Just some fun trivia here.

The 1949 mystery novel The Moving Target (originally titled The Snatch) by Ross MacDonald features a bogus cult leader named Claude, described on Page 62 of Robert L. Gales' A Ross MacDonald Companion as "a fraudulent cult leader, tall, bearded, and disreputable, to whom Ralph Sampson gave the mountain where Claude runs 'The Temple in the Clouds.' The location is a transfer point for illegal aliens."

In 1949, Krishna Venta was getting a lot of coverage in the headlines owing to his highly publicized lecture tours of both Europe and the U.S., the crash of the Standard Airlines flight, and his arrests for failure to pay child support.

Given all the attention he was commanding, could Claude’s physical appearance have been inspired by Krishna Venta? Could the name "The Temple in the Clouds" have been just a fictional variation on "The Fountain of the World"? And could MacDonald have placed the novel's Temple atop a mountain as a variation on the Fountain being located in a canyon? Interesting...

Strother Martin plays Claude and in the 1966 film version of the book released under the title "Harper." Paul Newman plays the title character in the film. He reprised the role in the 1975 film "The Drowning Pool."