In 1964, my girfriend’s father, Donald Frank, called my home and threatened to kill me because I cut school with his daughter, Melinda, who my famous sister did a lithograph of in 1986.

“When I find your son, brother – he’s a dead man!” Don shouted at whom ever answered the phone, he making his promise several times over the course of four hours. Melinda and I were holed up in a motel in back of the Glenwood house waiting for Melinda’s grandmother to wire my sweetheart some money so we could put her on the hound for Texas. Grandma was poised to turn us in. She too heard Don’s promise I would be dead before that day was done, which Melinda and I took seriously, because Don and his two brothers were members of the Purple Gang, owned half of New Mexico, and this gang murdered Melinda’s first lover, a Venic Beat named Sky. He was twenty four, and looked just like Jesus. Melinda was sixteen. She was the Beat Lolita of the New Balladeer Coffee shop where Bryan McClean played his guitar. When he heard I was dating Melinda, he told me drop her, because…..

“She’s a Black Widow. Her father had two of his goons blowtorch my friend’s face off! They jacked him up against the wall in the Balladeer and told him he had twenty four hours to get out town.”

Now, this is before I took drugs. What occurred to me the other day, is, that no one called the cops on Don. I mean, here is a homicidal maniac on the loose. I think I’m going to put this real life story in a book. ‘The Beatnik Murder Case’. I’m going to raise Sky from the dead! I will expose the New Zion the Jewish Bootleggers have had in the works since Prohibition! The Zionist Beat goes on!

Here is a scene from the movie ‘Bucket of Blood’. I’ve been telling my friend Casey up in San Francisco to get his ass to a new Beat Bar, and give his rants in public – to cool saxophone sounds!

There is an art show at the Oakland Museum titled 1968. I have been meaning to donate my Rosamond’s to this museum.

Jon Presco

The Purple Gang, also known as the Sugar House Gang, was a mob with predominantly Jewish members of bootleggers and hijackers in the 1920s, operating out of Detroit, Michigan, which was a major port for running alcohol products during Prohibition due to Detroit’s convenient proximity to Canada, which did not participate in Prohibition.
Many openly violent crimes caused a string of convictions of Purple Gang members, while the intra-gang violence damaged their organization and its ability to control its turf.[1]
A line in the Elvis Presley hit “Jailhouse Rock” is “The whole rhythm section was the Purple Gang … “[2]
In the videogame series Saints Row there are some references to this subject. The street gang ‘The 3rd Street Saints’ all wear purple. The default car for the gang is called the ‘Bootlegger’.

March 31, 2012 – August 19, 2012
Experience one of the most powerful years in recent history in this unforgettable exhibition exploring the social, political, and economic events of 1968. A turning point for a generation coming of age and a nation engaged in war, 1968 saw the peak of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, riots at the Democratic National Convention, Black Power demonstrations at the Summer Olympics, Feminist demonstrations at the Miss America pageant, and much more. Throughout it all, the Bay Area was at the forefront with an emerging California counterculture. Presented as an ongoing collective of historical and personal stories, the exhibition is for those who lived through it, those who’ve heard about it, and those who wonder why it matters. For more information about The 1968 Exhibit, visit http://www.1968exhibit.org.