And we continue to dangle here, not fulfilling our ambitions or making good on our promises. And we leave behind confusion and resentment for our families as a result of our nefarious act. And we mock the art and religion that bookend our demonstration.

The focus is on us.

Nobody dares to touch the rope, to try to help. They may still have some time to help. Whoever they ‘saved’ would not have the capacity to shed any light on the cult. But they’re not thinking that far ahead. They’re thinking of themselves.

There are more than fifty people on Millennium Bridge, and they are frightened. But it’s a strange fear. If there was a madman brandishing a weapon, they could fear for their lives. Yet, nothing is happening. Nobody is threatening them. And that scares them.

They should be scared.

Because any one of them could be next.

They’ll never know.

And it is almost finished.

He only needs four more.

69

HELP BY KILLING

Take four names and see if they mean anything to you. Anything at all.

Tex Watson.

Susan Atkinson.

Linda Kasabian.

Patricia Krenwinkel.

How many Krenwinkels do you know? You think you’d remember that one, right?

It’s midnight in California. The year is 1969. The address is 10050 Cielo Drive, Beverley Hills. Tex Watson climbs the telephone pole and cuts the cables. On the way up the path that leads to the house, he stops an eighteen-year-old student driving away from the property, slashing his hand open with a knife then sinking four bullets into his chest and stomach while the three women hide in the bushes.

They break into the house and massacre four people they don’t even know.

Five if you count the unborn child.

And you should.

Another four names: Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger and Sharon Tate.

Sebring and Tate are sat on chairs and tied together by their necks. Sebring is shot, left a while, then stabbed seven times to stop his moaning. Frykowski is kicked in the head. When he tries to escape, he is beaten with a gun, shot twice and stabbed fifty-one times. Just to be sure. Folger is only stabbed twenty-eight times, but that’ll do the trick, too.

Sharon Tate, the name most people remember, is eight months pregnant and pleading to save her child’s life. She’ll do anything.

It doesn’t help.

They are devils and they are here to do the Devil’s work.

She is stabbed sixteen times.

Her blood is used to write Pig on the front door of the house as the murderers leave.

It’s bloody and brutal. And it changes the landscape of an entire country. Politically and artistically.

Here’s the kicker: they were just doing what they were told.

‘Totally destroy everyone. As gruesome as you can.’