The origins of Skunk – Roadkill, Uncle Fester and Sam in the ’60s

Skunk is a cannabis strain with notorious origins. Skunk #1 is attributed to a breeder referred to as Skunkman Sam, although Roadkill is an even older Skunk phenotype bred by the much more mysterious Uncle Fester. (1)

In 1969, Sam (David Watson) began breeding Skunk phenoms in Hollywood, nicknamed Jingles. Skunk is simply a term for the potent cannabis that was popular at the time. Meanwhile, his supposed friends R. and J. lived a few hundred yards down the road and worked on Original Haze. (2) This was just two years after Sam left Hollywood High School without being listed as a graduate in his yearbook. (3) Sam had started smoking weed before he tried hash at the time, (4) evidently through his class photos.

Skunkman Sam 1965|Poinsettia. (3)

Festering from New Orleans into a Bucket O’ Nasties – 1959-1969

There are rumors that Roadkill Skunk existed before Watson left high school. Part of the early story is a breeder named Master Thai, who claims his old-school Skunk pheno descended from Uncle Fester. With no known connection, a prankster born in New Orleans in 1914 also went by the name Uncle Fester. However, a website written by Tony Van Dorsten contains the only historical account of the man. (5)

dr Born Hermes Labeouf, Fester is said to have lived in California from 1959 to 1969 before heading to New York to do some festering. By many accounts reminiscent of old school East Coast Skunk in the 80’s. People still blame Sam for losing Skunk’s pungency. In fact, nobody wanted weed that stank like a siren. and if Roadkill Skunk’s origins lie with that Uncle Fester, then it’s possible he just took the stinky old-school genetics from the East.

Fester earned his nickname early in his childhood, given by Louis Armstrong after a prank by Lil’ Fester about the jazz musician. dr Fester eventually became involved with a hippie commune in California known as The Hog Farm, which was affiliated with the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead Crew.

*Documented in contributions by Todd McCormick, the skunk phenom bred by Sam in Cali that was said to stink. It was only in Europe later in the story that Sam bred out the terpene profile.

Uncle Fester’s Bucket O’Nastie tour promo sometime between 1965-83.

Hippies and Bikers – Roadkill and a Strange Saga

Despite misunderstandings, Steve Preisler – aka Uncle Fester – has nothing to do with Skunk. The surviving Preisler was a former LSD and meth chef and occasional author. He was also prone to making bombs, earning him the nickname Uncle Fester, after the character of the same name from The Addam’s Family. However, Roadkill Skunk is often referred to as Hell’s Angel’s strain.

Master Thai’s OG Skunk is attributed to a chapter of Angel’s alongside the days of Orange Sunshine and Beatniks. Similarly, the late Dr. Fester, surviving only by Van Dorsten, less affectionately linked to Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. And when there was acid and bikers on a single California lot in 1965, Kesey certainly hosted it.

Hunter S. Thompson attended one of Kesey’s legendary parties for his first project, Hell Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga. 30 or more Angels from the Frisco chapter partied with the Merry Pranksters at Kesey’s Cabin and at the La Honda Endurance Proving Grounds. Unlike marijuana, LSD was legal in California and the United States in 1965.

And while no man named Fester was mentioned by Thompson, a myriad of people were present, from professors and criminals to Ram Dass and Allen Ginsberg. The quintessential Electric Kool-Aid acidity test. La Honda quickly became the Angels’ sole source for LSD, a new drug for the typically more violent bikers, until the next year when Kesey fled amid marijuana charges. (6) However, Thompson does recall little marijuana on the 7000th block of La Honda Road during the two-night affair.

Beatnik biker Rocky with Wednesday and Pugsley Addams. 1965. (7)

Uncle Fester’s motorcycle

Van Dorsten claims that Fester may also have met or influenced Addams Family cartoonist Charles Addams earlier in life. (3) Fester was only two years younger than Addams. While it still seems like a fantastical tale from a friend of a bygone legend, we must remember an episode from The Addam’s Family. Uncle Fester, the cartoon character who finally got a name for television in 1964, was also given a motorcycle.

More importantly, in an episode that aired in 1965 and was filmed in Louisiana, Morticia Addams’ uncle was gifted a motorcycle by a beatnik. (7) If not for culture in general, the director could very well have paid homage to a beatnik biker he knows instead of Charles. After all, the director was former jazz musician Sidney Lanfield, who could easily have known Louis Armstrong.

*No one by the name of “Fester” or “Lebeouf” was found in Stanford meeting notes for 1958, 1959, or 1960 for a newly appointed professor or member of the university with credible degrees (on or from salary.) It no evidence of Van Dorsten’s accounts has yet been found. However, “Lebeouf” and “Hermes” were names commonly used in Louisiana.

Skunk #18, genetics from The Nature Farm, photo by @familytrees. This 1969 Skunk is said to have originated from seed from cuttings grown by Uncle Fester. However, a genetic report by Phylos Biosciences suggests that it is related to the farm’s Pakistani heirloom, which strongly casts doubt on its authenticity.

Mel Frank comes to Cali with Afghani #1 – 1976

Little was known about the Skunk strain for a few years after Dr. Fester was said to have left the West Coast; after Sam swapped seeds with the Haze brothers. But Mel Frank traveled to California in 1976 after earning a degree in biology in New York. Mel went west with the successful intention of documenting cannabis cultivation. (8) This is the year Sam claims he revamped Haze and started selling seeds for the first time. (2)

A short time later, Blotter Magazine published an article in 1979 written by Skunk’s adoptive breeder (David Watson) under the pseudonym Sam Selgnij. (9) If you pay attention, you’ll find that Skunkman Sam simply flipped his previous alias jingles. Sam eventually fled to Europe, but not until the early to mid 80’s. The pressure mounted until then when the DEA began reaching out to breeders and breeders in California and Hawai’i in 1979. The origins of one phenotype, Skunk #1, therefore lie embedded in a spate of crackdowns on California’s breeders. (8b, 12)

So stay tuned for the next part of Skunk’s story when Sam officially bred his authentic Skunk #1 phenotype before a mystery DEA bust.

timeline

• 1959 – dr Fester (Hermes) Lebeouf, born in New Orleans, begins teaching at Stanford University in California.
• The 1960s – Skunkman Sam, already a bud smoker, tries hash.
• 1965 – A beatnik gives the Addams Family’s Uncle Fester a motorcycle in Season 2 Episode 15.
• 1967 – Sam graduates from Hollywood High School.
• 1969 – dr Fester leaves the West Coast and makes his way east to New York.
• 1969 – Sam’s neighbors, The Haze Brothers, R. and J., breed the strain known as Haze.
• 1969 – Sam operates under the Jingles name and begins breeding skunk weed phenoms.
• 1976 – The Netherlands passes the Opium Act and cannabis is decriminalized.
• 1976 – Mel Frank travels from New York to Berkley, California.
• 1976 to 1980 – Mel Frank gives Sam his Durban Poison and Afghani genetics.
• 1976 – Sam claims he reinvented Haze.
• 1979 – The first release of Skunkman, written under the name Sam Selgnij, is published by Blotter Magazine.
• 1981 – Sam breeds Skunk #1 ((Afghan x Columban) x Acapulco Gold).

sources

1. Countless anecdotal accounts and documentaries by Todd McCormick and others.
2. Sam. IC Mag Forum posts.
3. Christmas star. 1965. 1966. LA.
4. Hash Church. Bubbleman’s world. Ep. 73. 4b. Hash Church. An hour with Skunkman.
5. Van Dorsten, AS. who is dr tighter? Fast ‘n’ Bulbous.
6. Thompson, Hunter S. 1966. Hell’s Angels, A Terrible and Strange Saga. Any house.
7. Addams family. 1965. The Addam family meets a beatnik. Ep. 15. Uncle Fester, tycoon. Ep 16
8. Personal communication with James (Mel Frank) Goodwin. 8b. Melfrankconsulting.com, About.
9. Selgnij, Sam. 1979. Sun, Seed and Earth. Issue #4, Blotter Magazine
10. cushka. 2018. History of Cannabis – Chapter 1: California and the First Hybrids. Dina Femm. 10b. cushka. 2018.Wernard Bruining: “We have decided to make Holland the Jamaica of Europe”. Dina Femm.
11. Personal communication with Mila Jansen.
12. Documents from the enemy, the DEA.