Timothy Leary / Gordon Liddy In Afterlife
Written & Narrated By Baltimore Writer Charles Rammelkamp
Timothy Leary and Gordon Liddy in the Afterlife
Back in Sixty-six,
when Leary and Alpert were at Millbrook,
the eternal party with a sense of purpose –
a center for research in consciousness expansion –
the Duchess County prosecutor was G. Gordon Liddy,
future dirty trickster for Richard M. Nixon,
on a moral crusade against
the depravity of Millbrook where, he said,
“the panties were dropping as fast as the acid.”
After staking out the mansion for months,
early one April morning, Liddy’s men made the raid,
kicking in the door, classic “no knock” fashion.
“Is that Inspector Clouseau?”
Leary quipped, alluding to Libby’s moustache.
The cops searched the estate for five hours,
turning things upside down, Gestapo style,
but just came up with a little marijuana,
the bust thrown out of Superior Court.
But Liddy continued his siege,
visitors to Millbrook routinely stopped,
given the third degree;
Leary abandoned Millbrook the next year.
Fifteen years later, both men ex-cons by then –
Leary’d had a cell in Folsom Prison
right next to cult murderer Charles Manson –
the two teamed up on the lecture circuit,
caricatures in a culture debate,
cashing in on their lurid pasts
at the expense of the last shards of their integrity.