The Special Ones

The coterie of runaways, burnouts, former Jesus Freaks, and hippie kids that Marshall has gathered about him over the course of 1973.

It started with three pairs of kids who showed up at Marshall’s LA pied-à-terre, Karuna, during his trip to Hollywood for The Tonight Show: Ethan and Jane, Ethan’s younger brother Stanley and Ada, and Will and Debra. They were separating from their congregation of “Jesus Freaks” in Orange County, Costa Mesa Calvary, led by pastor Chuck Smith. The kids (specifically Ethan and Jane) flung accusations at the group’s leadership. The Jesus People movement has lost quite a bit of steam from its heyday in ‘71, and Marshall successfully (critically) brought the six kids into his orbit.

During the spring and early summer of ‘73, the Special Ones added to their orbit four new members from Northern California. All four of the new recruits were 18 and older, and most of them are college dropouts who left after their first semester. One of them, who’s a little bit older at 20, was named Marianne – she left the group for parts unknown following the temblor at the St. Francis. The others were John, Thom, and Susan, all 18 or 19 and freshman dropouts.

The Special Ones live at the Mission, performing odd jobs and assisting where needed in exchange for room, board, and pocket money. Marshall also periodically uses them as stage dressing, unwitting informants, and as “crowd cover” during certain URIEL operations.