San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, November 7, 1997 · Page C2 LIVELY ARTS -- Devil Of a Time
Jerry Carroll
Anton LeVey, 67, founder of the Church of
Satan and author of the ``Satanic Bible,'' died last week
of a heart attack. ``He didn't want
to die because he didn't want people to be happy about it,'' his
daughter, Karla, told me. ``When
you're in a position like that, you have a lot of enemies.'' He lived
quietly in San Francisco,
occasionally giving interviews to out-of- town journalists. I had dinner with
him once. He dressed in black, had
a shaved head and Mephistophelean beard. Very cultured chap,
a painter and musician. Complained
that he never got any local ink. Didn't believe in the devil, as it
turned out. It was all an act for a
marketing niche. ``It's a living,'' as he put it. His ``bible'' and four
other books sold more than half a
million copies and still sell abroad. He didn't hide his contempt for
his followers, who included the
Manson Family at one point. Saw them as humorless fanatics. LeVey
told me he felt he never got the
credit he was due for being a founder of the human potential
movement. ------