The Opperman Report'

Scott Michaels : Six Degrees of Helter Skelter

Dearly Departed Tours’ founder Scott Michaels is the authority on the Dark Side of Hollywood. Dearly Departed Tours is a multimedia Hollywood bus tour like no other. Cases like Manson, Janis, Whitney and Michael, and lesser-known celebrities with even more spectacular exits. Peppered with crime scene photographs and audio clips (including 911 calls), the tour has earned it’s consistent 5-star ratings. We’ve been featured on the E! Show Hollywood Death Trip, Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover and dozens more, and the FX's American Horror Story even paid tribute to the tour. Scott Michaels’ one-of-a-kind collection of celebrity death memorabilia on display in the Gallery includes the pink suitcase Jayne Mansfield packed the night she died and Rock Hudson’s deathbed.

"The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter" walks in the footsteps of the Manson Family, visiting over 40 locations related to the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders, and tying together the dozens of odd connections between Charles Manson and the Hollywood elite. Entertainingly led by famous Hollywood historian Scott Michaels (E!'s 20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders, Dearly Departed: Vol. 1, FindADeath.com), this epic documentary employs never-before-seen autopsy reports (analyzed with the help of the Los Angeles Department of the Coroner), dozens of rare photographs, original Manson Family music recordings, and modern-day visits to the locations where the action went down, in the most complete retelling of the Manson Murders ever put on film. "You absolutely must by this DVD. (They) get the story right with witty commentary and tons of great footage of places you may have never seen." -- CharlieManson.com "Scott Michaels knows where the bodies are buried." -- The Los Angeles Times "Scott Michaels takes you on a journey in this feature-length DVD documentary... an entertaining and hauntingly unique retelling of the notorious Manson Family Murders!" -- MansonFamilyToday.info Featured on IGN and FilmStew.com. Visit the official website for the film at: HelterSkelterFilm.com

"A hair-raising trip to the dark side of Hollywood, better than any movie...Nothing helter skelter about it. It cuts to the facts and gives you nightmares!" - Rex Reed.

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MOVE or the MOVE Organization is a Philadelphia-based black liberation group founded by John Africa. MOVE was described by CNN as "a loose-knit, mostly black group whose members all adopted the surname Africa, advocated a peaceful but revolutionary 'back-to-nature' lifestyle.

The group lived peacefully communally and frequently engaged in public demonstrations related to issues of social and economic justice.

Since their founding in 1972, MOVE has been targeted by the Philadelphia Police Department. A major incident occurred in 1978, when the police unlawfully raided their Powelton Village home. This raid resulted in the imprisonment of nine group members, now known as the "MOVE 9." After this, the group relocated further west to a house at 6221 Osage Avenue.

In 1985 the group made national news when police dropped a bomb on the Osage house from a helicopter. The explosion and ensuing fire killed 11 innocent people, including five children and the group's leader, John Africa. Only two occupants survived—Ramona, an adult and Birdie, a child. In addition, approximately 60 other (non MOVE-affiliated) homes were destroyed as the entire block burned.

Police and firefighters standing by watching innocent people burn to death and an entire neighborhood destroyed.

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Guest: Mark Rudd

From 1965 t0 1968, I was a student activist and organizer in the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter at Columbia University. I was one of the leaders of the Spring 1968 occupation of five buildings and the subsequent strike against the university's complicity with the war and its racism. At the time I was identified by the press as the symbol of student radicals.

After being kicked out of Columbia, I became a full-time organizer for SDS, where I helped found the militant Weatherman faction. I was elected National Secretary of SDS in June, 1969, then helped found the "revolutionary" Weather Underground, which had as its goal "the violent overthrow of the government of the US in solidarity with the struggles of the people of the world."

Wanted on federal charges of bombing and conspiracy, I was a fugitive from 1970 to 1977. All of the charges were dropped because of government illegalities. From 1980 to 2006 I was a math instructor at a community college in Albuquerque, NM, and a perennial organizer and nonviolent activist locally on issues of native American land rights, nuclear, US military interventions, Palestine solidarity, unionization, environmental justice, and war and militarization.

I retired from teaching in 2007 and have been devoting myself since then to organizing and also writing and speaking on the history which I was involved in. In March, 2009, my book Underground was published.

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Kelly Banaski is a true crime writer, blogger and inmate liaison. She works to better the rate of recidivism by mentoring lifers and death row inmates. Her work has left her with strange friendships with some of the country’s most reviled inmates.

She wrote a chapter in this anthology:
2015 Serial Killers True Crime Anthology: Volume 2
selling as #3 bestseller in Amazon Kindle.
She is currently writing a book about a school friend, Greg Scott Hale, who killed and ate a woman last year in June.

Kelly Banaski
www.thewomancondemned.com
www.kellybanaski.com

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This meticulously researched book explores the concept of fame in all its fleeting glory and confounding inconsistency. Why do so many entertainers do so much better financially than peers who have comparable resumes? Author Donald Jeffries also examines a subject he is quite familiar with; the myriad of unnatural deaths which have plagued the entertainment industry since the dawn of Hollywood. The deaths of John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, and many others are scrutinized in exacting detail. Jeffries communicated with many older entertainers during the course of researching the book, and their perspectives are included here. On Borrowed Fame will be of great interest to fans, celebrities, and anyone with even a cursory affinity for the world of show business.


If you’re anything like me, and have a hard time not looking at the car crash as you drive by: You will love this book. I’m dyslexic and have difficulty reading but found it even more difficult stopping. The book showed me how very lucky I’ve been, pursuing my passions; Acting, Class A Speedway Racing and Inventing.
- Billy Gray, Father Knows Best, The Day the Earth Stood Still

Donald Jeffries’ On Borrowed Fame is indeed a revelatory and painful experience. It paints the big picture of the price of Fame in Hollywood. One that mercilessly illustrates through fact and story the real price paid by many of my colleagues and myself. Fame is not a blessing, it’s a curse. This book is a witness to the carnage and horrible truth of the matter. Fame is not what it appears to be on the outside. Fame is a glamorous car wreck. Fame sucks. This is an important book that tells us all as fellow human beings that attention must be paid.
I congratulate Mr. Jeffries for having had the courage to write it.
- Nick Mancuso, Paris 2020

“It’s possible to be a musician in the biggest band imaginable, and within a few years be forced to work a regular job.” That ominous statement is echoed throughout Donald Jeffries’ whirlwind of woe in the world of entertainment, On Borrowed Time. Those household name actors in your favourite TV shows you assumed were well paid and would surely always have a firm foothold in show business? Not so much it turns out, as stated here: “A regular on a television series is at least as likely to have their acting career end when their show does.” The arbitrary payment structures that seem to have been made up on the spot, the blatant rip offs and the sheer number of early and often suspicious Hollywood deaths that were rarely investigated would make anyone think twice about being an actor. What an eye opener this book is!
- Graham Parker, singer-songwriter

If you’ve ever dreamed of being famous--and who hasn’t--then Donald Jeffries offers a shocking literary vaccine--so you might avoid those pitfalls. Just maybe! “On Borrowed Fame,” his juicy and richly detailed fast moving dossier, catalogues the long and winding and perilous road trod by some of the most famous names in showbiz. Those talented celebs had one thing in common: They inevitably discovered that fame does not guarantee fortune-- but is often a prescription for bankruptcy and early death. I have reported on Hollywood for nearly half a century but can attest that Jeffries has entertainingly laid out the most detailed compendium of horror stories experienced by some of tinsel town’s biggest names. No one is spared--from Stan Laurel to Marlon Brando to Michael Jackson. And so, so many more. His research is formidable. This is the most fascinating chronicle of show business malfeasance, mayhem and misery I have ever read. The Beatles sang “Can’t Buy Me Love,” They should have added “happiness” as well!
- Ivor Davis

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Cindy Sheehan, aged 56, is an internationally renowned peace and social justice activist.

Sheehan’s oldest son Casey was killed in Iraq on April 04, 2004 and many came to know about her and her work when she set up a peace camp near the faux-ranch of then president George W. Bush in Crawford, TX in the summer of 2005.

Since then, Cindy Sheehan, has traveled the world working with fellow activists demanding peace and working with others to help create a world that is peaceful and more economically secure and equal.

Cindy Sheehan is a native Californian who was raised in a California where education was excellent and other social safety nets were not as small and filled with holes so big, millions of Californians fall through while the rich and corporations keep exploiting more of this state's wealth and resources.

Sheehan majored in California History at UCLA and envisions a state that leads the world in peace, economic stability and equality, environmental sustainability and delivering high-quality public education from pre-K through university. She knows it can be done because it has been done before.

Cindy Sheehan has published seven books, been arrested for peace about 21 times, is currently a resident of Vacaville, CA and the mother of three surviving children and four grandchildren who are her love and her inspiration.

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Guest: Phil Stanford, author of "White House Call Girl: The Real Watergate Story"

Phil Stanford is a true crime writer with a special interest in political corruption. His latest book, White House Call Girl, will be published this summer (2013) by Feral House Press.

White House Call Girl is the real story behind the infamous 1972 Watergate break-in that led to the downfall of the President Richard Nixon, and features an ex-stripper and call girl madam by the name of Heidi Rikan. Many of the book’s most important revelations are, in fact, based on Stanford’s recent discovery of Heidi’s little black book.

Stanford’s other books include Portland Confidential, which won the Independent Publisher’s “Best True Crime” award for 2005. The Peyton-Allan Files (2010) solves a 1960 lover’s lane murder for which two men were wrongfully convicted. City of Roses, a graphic novel with artist Patric Reynolds, is currently being serialized by Dark Horse Comics.

His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine, the Washingtonian, Rolling Stone, and Columbia Journalism Review. He has worked as a magazine editor and a licensed private investigator, and was a columnist for the Oregonian and the Portland Tribune.

As a journalist, Stanford is best known for his continuing work on the 1989 murder/cover-up of Oregon Corrections director Michael Francke. His 1994 Oregonian series on the “Happy Face Killer” case resulted in two innocent people being released from prison.

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A native of Joliet, Ill., John Ferak covered the stunning discovery of Scott Shanahan's remains inside his Defiance, Iowa home. Ferak later chronicled the awful tragedy in rural Murdock, also for the Omaha World-Herald, Nebraska's largest news organization. Ferak has appeared on Investigation Discovery's "Cold Blood" and also on HLN News.

His first book, BLOODY LIES: A CSI SCANDAL IN THE HEARTLAND, has been chosen as one of seven finalists for the 2014 true-crime book of the year at Foreword Reviews. His second book, about the Iowa murder of Scott Shanahan, has been an #Amazon bestseller since its release on #Kindle Jan. 15, 2015. It came out in paperback in April.

Ferak has appeared on Omaha's KETV, Omaha's Tom Becka Radio Show, Omaha's KFAB 1110-AM and Chicagoland's WJOL with host Scott Slocum. Ferak is a repeat special guest of Darkness Radio's True-Crime Tuesday: Twin Cities' Newstalk 1130 AM with host Dave Schrader, The Generation Why Podcast, and True-Crime Uncensored: America's most popular true-crime radio show, hosted by the legendary Burl Barer of Los Angeles.

These days, Ferak is an award-winning investigative team member for Gannett Wisconsin Media, based at The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis. He also has worked as a reporter or editor at the South Bend Tribune in Indiana, The Daily Herald based in Arlington Heights Ill., and the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

Although Ferak takes his writing and journalism seriously, he enjoys spending his free time with his wife, Andrea, and their three children. Ferak roots for the Green Bay Packers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He is a devoted follower of Major League Baseball and the Chicago White Sox. He is also known to enjoy a can or two of his favorite canned beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon, “The people’s beer,” as he likes to call it.Photo by Sharon Cekada

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Guest: Dave McGowan, author of "Programmed To Kill," "Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon," and many more.

David McGowan was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California, where he still resides. After graduating from UCLA in 1983 with an unused degree in psychology, he went to work in construction and now works as a general contractor. He is the proud father of three daughters and is a lifelong music fan.

As a native Angeleno who was born in 1960 and came of age in the 1970s, the music produced by the artists who populate this book provided the soundtrack to my youth, so it is a subject matter that is close to my heart. But what really set the hook was discovering, early on in my research, that there were a number of aspects of the Laurel Canyon scene that didn't really seem to fit in with the prevailing image of a hippie utopia that was ostensibly all about peace and love.

Having grown up right alongside this scene, I was shocked to learn that I didn't even know that it had existed at all! And after asking around, I discovered that no one else that I know in this city did either. After the passage of nearly 50 years, it seemed that this was a story that was long overdue for greater exposure. Even more overdue, it seemed to me, was an expose of some of the hidden truths of Laurel Canyon.
Though a few books exploring the scene have popped up over the last several years, all of them have a certain sameness to them, with the same stories told in much the same way. I felt it was time to tell a different version of the story - the one that can be found hiding in the details that are usually left out.

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