HELTER SKELTER: Bobby Beausoleil grew up in Santa Barbara, left town as a teen, and made a big mistake: getting involved with Charles Manson. Today, he still sits in prison for the 1969 murder of fellow musician Gary Hinman.

I was reminded of this son of a milkman by the publication of local author Ivor Davis’s update of his 1970 book on the Tate-LaBianca murders. On the 40th anniversary of Manson’s sensational crimes, Davis is publishing Five to Die: The Book That Helped Convict Manson. It’s got 28,000 words of new material.

Davis told me that when the L.A. DA’s office was puzzling over how to frame a motive as they took Manson’s case to trial, they found Davis’s pre-trial 1970 book, Five to Die, a handy guide. Said Davis, “Years later, Aaron Stovitz, who had been head of the trials division … but was fired from the case because he violated a judge’s gag order, told me: ‘Your book, Five to Die, was the blueprint for our prosecution.’”

Davis, who covered the trial for an English newspaper, said the murderous Manson “family” threatened him, his wife, and child. “‘Do you know how it feels to have a long, sharp knife pushed down your throat?’ Squeaky Fromme shouted at me one day as I walked past her on the way to court.”

Beausoleil, who made a name for himself as a musician and composer, spent time in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury before moving to L.A., where he met Manson. Beausoleil apparently sold a bad or weak batch of the drug mescaline to a motorcycle gang. When they demanded their money back, Beausoleil went to Hinman, who’d supplied the drugs. When Hinman refused to pay, Manson supposedly showed up and sliced up Hinman’s face. The ill-starred Santa Barbara musician was convicted of stabbing Hinman to death the day after that confrontation.

(Five to Die: The Book That Helped Convict Manson, by Ivor Davis and Jerry LeBlanc; Thor Publishing, an imprint of Ether Publishing; $14.95. Visit mansonbook.com.)

PASS THE GUACAMOLE: While you’re munching that Fiesta enchilada, what would you call it if by law you had to slap an Anglo-Saxon name on it, and on the salsa?

The English-only movement came up the other day in a chat with a friend. The argument, he pointed out, is that since we captured about half of Mexico at gunpoint a century and a half ago, it’s time everything should be written or spoken in English. Everything.

How, my friend wondered, perhaps exaggerating a bit, would this apply to everyday food, for instance? What would we call that stuff we dip chips into if we didn’t call it guacamole? “Waiter, an order of mushy, spicy green stuff and chips, please. And make sure the alligator pears aren’t overripe.”

And how would you apply the Queen’s English to a burrito? I tried, and came up with something about eight words long.

An entire menu of California’s favorite food flashed before my Anglo-Saxon eyes: tortillas, enchiladas, carne asada, chuletas, chilaquilles, menudo, nachos, flautas, tortas, pollo, frijoles, and more. The lines in the Fiesta Mercado (oops, there’s another Spanish name creeping in) would be twice as long if people had to recite some new, improved names.

HILL AND DALE: How likely is it that Santa Barbara will elect a Republican mayor who donated money to the anti-gay-marriage Prop. 8 ballot initiative? First-term City Councilmember Dale Francisco, darling of the News-Press, apparently thinks that’s going to happen. Francisco, who made a surprise leap into the crowded mayoral race last week, donated $200 to Prop. 8. Not big money, but still. Prop. 8 won at the polls last November, banning same-sex marriage in California. The measure lost in Santa Barbara, however. Francisco, the only Republican on the council, gets a free ride in the November election because he’s only two years into a four-year term, so win or lose he will keep a seat on the council. Some City Hall observers believe that adding another conservative to the crowded mayoral field boosts progressive-liberal candidate City Councilmember Helene Schneider. So three people now rubbing elbows, or throwing them, on the council are running for mayor: Schneider, Francisco, and Iya Falcone. The News-Press, which had long flirted with Falcone while dissing Schneider, has apparently dumped Iya. (To her advantage?) As blogger Craig Smith put it, after the paper promoted Francisco’s entry like it was the second coming of the Messiah, “Yes, that thud you heard yesterday afternoon coming from the vicinity of De la Guerra Plaza was the sound of Falcone being thrown under the News-Press bus.” Meanwhile, Councilmember Grant House seeks reelection and Das Williams is on the primary ballot for Assembly. Only Mayor Marty Blum and Councilmember Roger Horton, who aren’t running for anything, are trying to stay out of the way of those flying elbows.

PALIN’S HALF-LIFE: Reports TAZ: “Bumper sticker seen in Alaska: ‘Palin for President: 2012 to 2014½.’”

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