Someone's In The Cupboard

Someone put the flame to Barker Ranch, home base of singer/songwriter/race war inciter Charles Manson. From the L.A. Times:

In the late 1960s, the Manson gang roamed the barren Death Valley landscape in dune buggies and prepared for "Helter Skelter," a race war that Manson was trying to spark. The phrase was taken from a Beatles song, which Manson believed was encoded with predictions that the conflict would destroy modern civilization. Manson and his followers planned to survive by living in a tunnel, then emerge as leaders of a new world order.

Manson eventually was arrested in the cabin, hiding in one of the cupboards, after a 1969 murder rampage in Southern California that involved the killing of actress Sharon Tate, three friends and a teenager at the pregnant actress' Benedict Canyon home, as well as the slaying of a couple in Los Feliz.

Rules are rules, bub: No clearance, no putting out the fire next to the liquid hydrogen tank.

From the March 8 LA Times Magazine, some tales of how (not) to run a top secret and volatile-chemical-abundant airplane factory in the middle of Burbank--and how private security personnel have always had great judgment:

"The engineer in charge built what he called his 'own hydrogen-liquefaction plant.' At first, tests began in Dixie cups, but before long the place was producing more liquid hydrogen than anywhere in America. 'We wore grounded shoes and couldn’t carry keys or any metallic objects that might spark,' he recalls. 'We installed a nonexplosive electrical system and used only nonsparking tools.'

Still, storing liquid hydrogen presents a very clear danger. And in the spring of 1959, a stove only 700 feet away from the tank caught fire. Extinguishers were ineffective. When local firefighters showed up, they didn’t have top-secret security clearances, so according to the engineer, the facility’s guards wouldn’t let them on site."

The Death of Detroit

The decaying corpse of once-magnificent Detroit, as captured by two French photographers, at Time.com's Photos.

Thanks Duffy!

Always Bring Your Gun

The L.A. Times just finished up its crackerjack seven-part series about the LAPD's Gangster Squad (read about the series' genesis here). The covert group of cops was formed in immediate post-WW II L.A. to "keep East Coast Mafia out of L.A," by any means necessary. The photo (left) is from 1947, and shows crime boss Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, permanently relaxing on the couch of his "swank Beverly Hills home."

Haven't had time to read the whole thing yet, but first examinations are promising. There are also a good amount of video interviews and historic photos, along with a massive amount of text and a sweet organizational/conspiracy chart showing who was allied with (or scamming) whom. Hooray noir nerds.

From the series' first installment:

There had been three more mob rub-outs around L.A. since then, including the shotgunning of two Chicago men outside a Hollywood apartment. That one generated a "Gangsters in Gambling War" headline that was a prime reason Police Chief C.B. Horrall wanted those 18 cops to see what a Thompson submachine gun looked like.

"You'll be working with these," Burns told them.

The deal was: If they signed on, they'd continue to belisted on the rosters of their old stations. They'd have no office, only two unmarked cars. They'd almost never make arrests. They'd simply gather "intelligence" and be available for other chores. In effect, they would not exist.

Burns gave them a week to ponder advice from an old lieutenant at the 77th, who said an assignment like that could get you in good with the chief. "Or you could end up down in San Pedro, walking a beat in a fog."

After the week, only seven came back, making a squad of eight, counting Burns.

"We did a lot of things that we'd get indicted for today," said Sgt. Jack O'Mara.

Dharavi

(Much larger version here)

Today's L.A. times has a photo/audio megaslideshow sort of thing by Michael Robinson Chavez (and a companion article by Henry Wu) about Dharavi, one of Mumbai's worst slums (unlike the nice ones with the great water slides and golf course communities, I guess. Gah.) which happens to be on some of Mumbai's most desirable land.

About half a million people live and work in Dharavi -- recyclers, tailors, leather tanners, laundrymen, potters, cloth dyers and shopkeepers, all jammed into a single square mile of narrow alleys and rickety buildings made from corrugated metal sheets.

Yes, that's half a million people living in one square mile.

The new plan?

"You're talking of a location that's fantastic. This is the only location in Mumbai where I can bulldoze 500 acres of land and redesign," said architect Mukesh Mehta, whose $3-billion redevelopment plan was adopted by the Maharashtra state government in 2004 but has been subject to repeated debate and delay.

His goal is to "create a brand-new beautiful suburb," complete with green space, schools, hospitals and reliable public services such as sanitation, things Dharavi currently lacks.

Yes, that's half a million people living in one square mile with no sanitation.