The Fairshake Files

In Chapter 3, The Fairshake Files uncovers the moment COINTELPRO stopped hiding behind pretext.The threat was no longer violence. It was unity.We examine how the FBI expanded from monitoring dissidents to actively sabotaging peace groups, student organizers, clergy networks, and community coalitions — anyone capable of turning protest into political force.At the center of this shift was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose moral authority the Bureau viewed as a national risk. But King was only one node in a broader effort.We investigate the state’s campaign against the Black Panther Party, revealing internal memos that identified their Free Breakfast for Children program, not their militancy, as one of the greatest dangers to federal objectives.We trace the devastating smear operation against actress Jean Seberg, whose support for Panther community programs made her a symbolic target.And finally, we return to Chicago, December 1969, where a pre-dawn raid killed 21-year-old organizer Fred Hampton, a man building a multiracial working-class alliance the government considered intolerable.This chapter is not just about surveillance.It’s about the machinery built to prevent a coalition before it began.IN THIS EPISODE- The Pivot: How influence, not violence, became COINTELPRO’s primary concern. - Targeting King: Internal directives aimed at neutralizing a unifying national figure. - The Panthers & Community Power: Why breakfast programs triggered federal alarm. The Seberg - - Operation: A Hollywood smear campaign with tragic consequences.- Chicago 1969: The killing of Fred Hampton and the destruction of an emerging coalition.SOURCES & CITATIONSChurch Committee Report, Book II (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence)COINTELPRO Internal Memos & DirectivesBlack Panther Party Community Program RecordsTestimony & Legal Findings from the December 4, 1969 RaidSeberg Case Files and Press AnalysisBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.Thank you for listening.I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefilesAs an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/supportThank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.This episode includes AI-generated content.

In Chapter 2, The Fairshake Files investigates "The Good Lie"—the narrative shield J. Edgar Hoover used to protect his secret war.We examine the one COINTELPRO operation that history deems a success: the destruction of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. But beneath the surface of this victory lies a disturbing reality.We reveal how the FBI’s massive infiltration created a dependency on illegal tactics, protected violent informants, and inadvertently forced the Klan to evolve from a regional vigilante group into a revolutionary "White Power" network.This is a story about the cost of victory, the ethics of espionage, and the law of unintended consequences.IN THIS EPISODE:Force Majeure: The federal "invasion" of Neshoba County to find the bodies of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.The Informant Dilemma: The moral cost of the FBI paying 20% of the Klan's membership and the protection of violent asset Gary Thomas Rowe.The Mutation: How destroying the Klan’s hierarchy birthed the "Leaderless Resistance" strategy and the modern White Power movement.SOURCES & CITATIONSThe MIBURN Investigation (Federal Bureau of Investigation)United States v. Price (1966 Supreme Court Ruling)The Church Committee Report, Book II (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence)Bring the War Home (Kathleen Belew, Harvard University Press)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.Thank you for listening.I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefilesAs an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/supportThank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.This episode includes AI-generated content.

The Fairshake Files opens the story of COINTELPRO: the secret, illegal domestic spying program run by the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover.We reveal how the operation was created out of frustration with the Supreme Court's protection of free speech, leading Hoover to declare a secret war on dissent outside the law. This is American political history, surveillance, and true crime with deep context.IN THIS EPISODE:FDR's secret 1936 mandate to hunt the "fifth column" threat.The shock of real spies: the Duquesne Spy Ring and high-level Soviet agent Harry Dexter White.The Supreme Court's decisions (like Yates v. United States) that forced Hoover to illegally "neutralize" enemies.SOURCES & CITATIONSCOINTELPRO MandateDuquesne Spy RingYates v. United StatesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.Thank you for listening.I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefilesAs an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/supportThank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.This episode includes AI-generated content.

The world knows one story: "Helter Skelter."The story of a charismatic cult leader and a doomsday prophecy. But that's just the narrative they wanted you to hear.In this deep-dive investigation, The Fairshake Files deconstructs the Manson legend to find the truth by investigating the three competing narratives:THE CULT: The official "Helter Skelter" motive the prosecution sold to the world.THE CRIMINAL: The drug deals, rivalries, and copycat killings the evidence actually pointed to.THE ASSET: The declassified records of MKUltra and COINTELPRO that suggest Manson was less of a mastermind... and more of a "manufactured monster."This is not the story you think you know.Disclaimer: The following is an exploration of different historical narratives and theories. The goal is to examine the evidence presented for all sides, not to endorse any single conclusion.Follow for our next series: CointelproBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.Thank you for listening.I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefilesAs an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/supportThank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.This episode includes AI-generated content.

In Part 3, we dismantled the "Helter Skelter" narrative, revealing a simpler, more believable story of drug debts, failed ambitions, and chaotic copycat crimes.In our series finale, we explore the third and most unsettling narrative of all: that Charles Manson was not a mastermind, but a "monster manufactured in the shadows".The Fairshake Files investigates the documented realities of the CIA's Project MKUltra and its mission to control human behavior. We trace Manson's time as an inmate at the Vacaville psychiatric prison —a facility where CIA-funded doctors were simultaneously testing "behavioral-control materials" on prisoners.We examine the chilling "Haight-Ashbury Nexus," where Manson, his parole officer Roger Smith, and documented MKUltra contractor Dr. Louis Jolyon West all crossed paths. Was his parole officer a "handler" protecting an active operation?Finally, we connect the case to the FBI's COINTELPRO , a program designed to "neutralize" the counterculture. Did the Manson murders provide the "perfect outcome" —discrediting an entire generation and fulfilling the FBI's stated goal of preventing the rise of a "messiah"?This concludes our Manson investigation.Subscribe now so you don't miss our next deep dive into the FBI's secret war: COINTELPRO.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.Thank you for listening.I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefilesAs an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/supportThank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.This episode includes AI-generated content.

In Part 2, we laid out the official story: "Helter Skelter."In Part 3, we begin to dismantle it.Fairshake traces the fissures beneath the prosecution’s case to uncover motives that were far less theatrical but far more believable.We investigate how prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's personal ambition—and a "Helter Skelter" book deal signed before the verdict—may have shaped a narrative that served his quest for a legacy.We explore the personal vengeance motive: Manson's failed record deal with producer Terry Melcher, and the chilling, non-random fact that 10050 Cielo Drive was Melcher's former home.Finally, we lay out a clear, chronological timeline of the Manson Family's criminal underworld—from the shooting of Bernard Crowe to the murder of Gary Hinman.We ask: Were the Tate-LaBianca murders an apocalyptic prophecy, or a desperate, chaotic copycat crime staged to free Bobby Beausoleil from jail?Subscribe now so you don't miss our final episode, Part 4: The Manufactured Monster.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.Thank you for listening.I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefilesAs an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/supportThank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.This episode includes AI-generated content.

"Helter Skelter." It's the motive that defined an era. But was it the truth, or was it a brilliant prosecutor's perfect story?In Part 2 of our 4-part investigation, Fairshake dives deep into the official narrative that convicted Charles Manson and his followers.We explore the complete case built by legendary prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi—a story of a messianic leader who used a unique arsenal of psychological tools to turn lost flower children into killers.We examine how Manson allegedly weaponized Dale Carnegie, Scientology, and high-dose LSD to systematically break down his followers' egos.We'll trace the "clues" he supposedly found in The Beatles' "White Album" that led to his bizarre prophecy of an apocalyptic race war—a prophecy he tried to ignite with the words "PIG" and "DEATH TO PIGS" written in his victims' blood.This is the powerful, coherent story that convinced the jury and the world. Before we can find the cracks, we must first understand the foundation.Subscribe now to Fairshake so you don't miss Part 3: "Cracks in the Foundation: A Simpler Story of Drugs and Fear."Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.Thank you for listening.I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefilesAs an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/supportThank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.This episode includes AI-generated content.

What truly led to the Manson Family murders?Before the "Helter Skelter" prophecy and the Hollywood slaughter, a tinderbox was being set.In Part 1 of this 4-part investigation, The Fairshake Files explores the volatile world of 1960s America that created Charles Manson.We deconstruct the "Generation Gap," the utopian dream of the "Summer of Love," and the predatory collapse of the Haight-Ashbury.We also introduce the parallel, documented reality of a secret government war on its own citizens: the FBI's COINTELPRO.This episode sets the stage and provides the essential context for the three competing narratives of the Manson case: the official story, the criminal underworld, and the deep-state conspiracy.This is the first step in deconstructing one of America's most infamous true crime stories.Follow The Fairshake Files:Subscribe on this platform to get all four parts of the investigation.Watch the Video Documentary:This series is also available as a full video investigation on YouTube.Watch on YouTube (launching October 25th 2025) https://www.youtube.com/@thefairshakefilesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.Thank you for listening.I’d love to hear your thoughts — share your perspective in the comments or a review.🎥 The full video version, complete with visuals, is available on YouTube: @thefairshakefilesAs an independent creator, I deeply appreciate every listener and every bit of support. Your time and curiosity keep this project alive.💡 Supporters hear new episodes three days early and ad-free — and help keep The Fairshake Files truly independent. Join here → https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/supportThank you again — every single one of you makes this possible.This episode includes AI-generated content.