With celebratory talk about the 40th anniversary of Woodstock reverberating throughout the land, no one seems to be bringing up the darker side of that era, especially since August will also mark the 40th anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders. There exist several local connections I could perhaps explore: Charles Manson spent time in San Jose on his way from the Haight-Ashbury to Los Angeles; Susan Atkins, a.k.a. Sadie, spent part of her childhood in Cambrian Park and, like me, went to Leigh High School; and local Homestead alumnus-turned–conspiracy theorist Jeffrey Deane Turner claims that factions of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, to which Manson may have had connections, eventually morphed into a more secret and sinister operation with tentacles still operating here in the South Bay.

Whether or not there’s any such thing as an accident—and since the Conspiracy Convention 2009 just happens to hit the Santa Clara Marriott this weekend—I think I must probe a few seemingly connected spheres of influence. I originally met Turner in order to consider his claims that ‘60s sexpot Tuesday Weld is a descendant in a bloodline of druidic witches who indoctrinated her into the Illuminati, with whom she secretly unleashed nearly everything we currently know about the ‘60s counterculture. According to Turner, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, the Who and many more were actually Weld’s secret protégés, functioning as entertainment-industry fronts in her elaborately networked battle against the both the worldwide fascist network and another secret society, the All Nations Group, puppeteered by ‘80s pop star Tiffany.

I was introduced to Turner by his pal Douglas Hawes, a San Jose native who had appeared with Turner on Untamed Dimensions, an Internet radio show hosted by freelance investigative journalist Adam Gorightly. Originally writing for Steamshovel Press, Gorightly had been the first to break the story of Turner’s paradigm-shattering claims. The essay, “Tiffany Overtakes Tuesday Weld,” later appeared in Secret and Suppressed II: Banned Ideas and Hidden History Into the 21st Century (Feral House), as well as Gorightly’s own compendium, The Beast of Adam Gorightly: Collected Rantings (1992–2004).

Gorightly will infiltrate Silicon Valley this weekend to cover Conspiracy Con 2009 for Paranoia Magazine. He will also be hawking an updated version of his book The Shadow Over Santa Susana: Black Magic, Mind Control and the Manson Family Mythos, to be released Aug. 8 by Creation Books, just in time for the 40th anniversary. According to the hype, it takes “readers on a black magic carpet ride from the Hollywood ‘Beautiful People’ scene of the late ‘60s through to the vast desert landscapes of a Death Valley gone mad—with all the love-ins and murderous creepy-crawls that happened along the way.”

The book contains all the time-tested free-form 666-degrees-of-separation-alia: Manson’s connection to the Beach Boys, the Hollywood S&M scene in the ‘60s, UFOs, Sammy Davis Jr.‘s involvement in the Church of Satan, the Beatles’ White Album, the Second Coming of Christ, Yul Brynner, the CIA and good old-fashioned satanic hippie love. The updated version contains new information on the possible whereabouts of Steve Grogan, a.k.a. “Clem,” the only Manson Family member who was actually released from prison.

And getting back to the Process Church, Feral House will soon release Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, written by former church member Timothy Wyllie. Judging by publisher Adam Parfrey’s foreword, it looks to provide a more rational, thinking man’s approach to the whole ball of wax, disproving the more hysterical fear-fueled sensationalism previously written on this cult.

How’s that for a few meaningful coincidences? Seems like more sleuthing is in order, methinks. In the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path.”