Gaikowski wrote "get your rocks off" two weeks after the BRS attack but one week before the first 408 correspondence? I had not read that before. That is unusual to say the least!
It was a very common expression, actually.
Not in newspapers.
How many times was it written in newspapers (plus other local magazines etc) in those couple of years?
I think you’ve got to consider that California (and in particular San Francisco) in the late 60’s to early 70’s was a little different to how things are half a century on.
Psychedelic drugs, Vietnam, the hippy culture, anti-establishment sentiment, racial riots, etc were all part of a turbulent society and it was quite “cool” for people to tune into this and act like they didn’t give a sh*t. Don’t think we can really compare the writings of cutting edge people of the time with how the average person acts today, especially given the number of snowflakes out there who go the press or the police if you say the word negro or make a joke about the mother in law.
Having said that, only an hour ago I was reading the comments and replies on a Facebook news thread about a mentally ill woman who had killed a friend. There must have been hundreds of comments from mothers, grannies, teenagers, etc who said they’d “burn the evil witch”, “torture her for days” or “kill her slowly”, etc. These angry rantings are either just the modern day equivalent to the anarchic writings of the counter culture or we have a disturbing number of homicidal mums and grannies out there.
Here is something to keep the 1960s in perspective . President Nixon wore black wingtip shoes to the beach. That says it all I believe. That is who they were fighting against. These are the freaks who almost ran this country into the ground. This was the spawning ground of the Zodiac.
I’ve read some things about GYKE that makes him an interesting subject.
I would love to hear why he was in a mental institution for a period of time. Anyone have any ideas?
