Although Charles Manson was never a member of any of the many O.T.O. groups, the tabloid press often rehashes the story of his brief contact with Georgina Brayton's 1960's 'Solar Lodge of the O.T.O.' The 'Caliphate' (the new American O.T.O. founded in 1977) has frequently described this earlier O.T.O. lodge 'irregular', but Phyllis Seckler, one of the 'Caliphate's' main protagonists (she was the wife of its founder, Grady L. McMurtry) has recently admitted that the 'Solar Lodge' was a genuine O.T.O. body. To exaggerate a little, one could say that without Manson the 'Caliphate' would not exist at all. Let's unfold a bit of the history.
