Louis Tackwood and the Glass House Tapes

Books Behind the Straight Haight ’67 Series

In 1967, Louis Tackwood approached members of the underground press with a strange and unsettling story. If true, it validated many of the counterculture’s worst suspicions about a concentrated government campaign to undermine the radical movement — which, today, is frequently (and inaccurately) lumped into the generic category of “hippie stuff.”

Contrary to popular mythology, the 1960s weren’t merely about promiscuous sex, drugs, and rock and roll. There were various levels of revolutionary commitment and multiple brands of philosophy within the counterculture of that era.

The rock stars were almost unanimously full of shit and humping a trend, but many of the ground-level participants were serious about the ideals. Some were primarily concerned with spiritual matters. Some were deadly serious about overthrowing the political order.

Some factions of the counterculture, in fact, were militant in a way that would shock modern folks who think that Antifa is something new or exceptional in American history. In the ‘60s and ’70s, radical militarism went well beyond cracking people in the head with bike locks. Groups like the Weather Underground were stockpiling guns and building bombs.