“Hippie cult leader; actually, hippie cult leader, that is your words. I am a dumb country boy who never grew up. I went to jail when I was eight years old and I got out when I was thirty-two. I have never adjusted to your free world. I am still that stupid, corn-picking country boy that I always have been. “
Charles Manson
"I am willing to face my own death because the night of the murders was my fault. I killed myself. I know that everything that was done was done. To kill someone is to kill yourself. We are all one. We all run on the same thoughts, God's thoughts."
Patricia Krenwinkel
She said Los Angeles police had offered her immunity if she testified for the prosecution in the case. "They offered me the $25,000 reward and a 9-to-5 job and a 24-hour guard."
Asked why she didn’t accept, Miss Van Houten answered. "Because if I was at that house - which I was - it was up to me to be judged accordingly and not be turned loose. I don't see where justice lies in that."
Leslie Van Houton
“Why is Doug discussing Charles Manson?” Because the more I learn of it, the more I see the common assumptions aren’t real. A while back I was sick for about a month and a half and searched the Internet for entertainment. One thing leads to another and suddenly I know more about Charles Manson then I probably need to. Whatever, it got me to thinking.
The story is so sad. And not just the victims. Obviously sitting at home and a gang of people you don’t know burst in and kill you is sad. But Manson was abandoned as a child and lived in youth homes or prison most of his life. Susan Atkins had drunk parents and was sexually abused by her brother. Patty Krenwinkel grew up feeling unlovable until she met Charlie. Then this man who preached a con of love and peace to the point they thought him Jesus returned, sent them out to kill and tried to throw them under the blade of the executioner to save his life. We wanted to kill them for what they did and as you can read from the statements above they accepted their death as right. But a trick was played on all of us. The the Death Penalty was declared unconstitutional and their execution was changed to life. Now they sit year after year thinking of what they did, to learn, while most of us hold them frozen in time and want them to suffer, disinterested if they want to atone or have remorse. As we didn’t care that Charlie was abused until he did something back. They now are held in our reflection, just like they said all those years ago. We don’t want them to grow, be redeemed. One has to wonder about the state of souls. Are they more a threat to society as people who have repented? For if they have, can you?
There is controversy about what happened. Everyone agrees some people associated with Manson snuck into houses and killed people. Everyone agrees on who they were. But then the story twists and turns. The prosecutor, based on conversations with members of the Manson group and hanger on’s, developed the motive of Helter Skelter, a race war worse than all war put together where blacks would triumph over whites, but once in charge they would be too stupid to run things so they would turn to the only white people left, Charlie and his gang. Exactly how the blacks would win, given the military power of all the white races and the historical willingness of whites to kill blacks, is not clear but that was the motive presented. As Manson was not present at the murders he had to be brought in as a conspirator, and Helter Skelter was the conspiracy. Charlie must have thought it stunning that of all the hair brained things he was convicted with that.
Over and over Vincent Bugliosi the prosecutor said Charlie brain washed them, controlled every thing, every thought, every act, a total control freak with delusions of controlling the world, claiming to be Satan and Jesus. Manson denied it but then demonstrated his control in the trial over and over. He was his own worst enemy.
Some members of “the family” said the Helter Skelter theory was untrue as the motive, though they did talk about a coming revolution. They say all the stories about a mind control cult were made up by Bugliosi just to drag Manson in. They said even the term “Manson Family” was made up by the press and prosecutor, there was no family, just a bunch a people on their own trips. Many of them said they pretty much ran Charlie, not the other way around.
Yet Charles “Tex” Watson, the main guy who killed everyone, said that Charlie gave him detailed instructions of what to do. Manson says he didn’t. Some think Manson is too smart to be present at the murder so he brainwashed Tex and sent him out. Others think Tex wanted this and asked Charlie how he, as a criminal, would handle this situation, and Charlie told him. He didn’t tell him to it, he just described it. According to Charlie when they came back Atkins showed him the blood on her hands and said she did it for her love of him. To which Charlie claims he said (and excuse this but it is a quote) “you dumb cunt, you just put me back in jail. Other’s say Susan had no blood on her and said no such thing.”
Some think it was a thrill kill. A bunch of smart kids breaking societies taboos, like murder, and blaming it on the dumb hick convict. Is Charlie an evil cult master, or a stupid convict the educated kids used for their own ends? Was the situation just out of control and Manson didn’t know what to do? That seems the most likely to me. It didn’t matter, they were all convicted because the laws of California don’t recognize zombies and assume the stabber and accomplices are at fault. If you know a crime is coming and don’t tell the police to stop it, then you are a joint conspirator. Manson claims he was trapped by his “family” and tried to get away but ended up in prison. He says this “family” got him in trouble when he wanted to keep his nose clean. And do you believe he thought he would take over the world? Well the Jury did. Now days he figures nobody believes him and plays the part of Evil Butcher as a service to our need for someone to hate, even though he didn’t kill anyone. He gets fed, has a roof, is comfortable in prison, why not play Evil Incarnate in return for food and lodging? He once said he should have killed a few hundred so he could have served society in the roll a lot better. People take it as a sign of his insanity, missing the character he is playing in the societal movie. He also claims he could take a book and beat people’s brains in and not feel a thing. That doesn’t endear him to anyone.
Watson demonstrated a lack of concern for others prior to the killings. He stole from a drug dealer and left his girlfriend with the dealer, with no concern for her fate. Eventually the dealer called out to the ranch saying either Tex brings that cash back or the dealer was going to cut the girlfriends head off and then would kill Tex. Manson said he would handle it. And he did. He went to the house of the dealer and shot him, freeing the girlfriend and having something Tex owed him for. Manson thought the dealer was a Black Panther which made Charlie afraid the Panthers would come after him. Add to the paranoia.
It has been suggested Watson went on a drug run to the Tate house. There are stories that Wojciech Frykowski (one of the dead at the Tate house) had no means of support (except his wealthy girl friend of the Folger family) and he was a drug dealer to wealthy people. Some say Watson was after him and the others just happened to be there and had to be wiped out, with the girls sent as support. However Watson insists that Manson wanted the killings and Watson owed him after the “murder” of the Black drug dealer. Krenwinkel says Manson is lying, there was nothing that happened without Manons’s express instructions and permission.
Total control view vs the family was just a group taking care of Manson. Part of the mist around this.
This wasn’t the first murder the group was involved in. Gary Hinman was killed by Bobby Beausoleil a few weeks earler. The mind control Helter Skelter theory is that Manson sent Beausoleil with a few of the girls to convince Hinman to join the group and move to the desert with them. Charlie and the group thought Hinman had inherited a bunch of cash and they needed it to live and fund the uprising. Again the theory is Charlie was controlling them, to support the Helter Skelter conviction.
Beausoleil claims if anything Charlie was learning from him. And it wasn’t about funding the revolution leading to Charlie’s Godhood and control of the world. It was another drug burn. A biker gang called the Straight Satan’s had funded a drug deal with Hinman through Beausoleil and Hinman had sold them bad drugs. The Satan’s told Beausoleil get our cash back or we stomp you. Beausoleil went with a couple of the women (one is Susan Atkins - yep her again) who apparently don’t know what is happening but just want to say hello to Hinman. Hinman denied he has the cash and tells them to leave. Beausoleil knowing that leaving means a date with the Straight Satan’s proceeds to beat up and torture Hinman to get the cash, which he doesn’t have. The Bugliosi story is Charlie showed up with a sword and cut off Hinman’s ear, forced Hinman to sign over his cars and house, then left telling Beausoleil to kill Hinman.
However Beausoleil has said (but also changed) this is not true. What happened was he and the girls hung around a couple days, during which Beausoleil cut Hinman’s cheek as part of the torture. Charlie was never at the house. After few days Beausoleil understands there is no cash. Worse Hinman is screaming that as soon as Beausoleil leaves he is going to call the police (kidnapping, torture, slicing face, drug dealing, all not good things to have the police after you for). So Beausoleil, no money or explanation for the Satan’s, not seeing another option, kills Hinman. Apparently without assistance. A few weeks later he is arrested sleeping in one of Hinman’s cars. (Not a bright idea - let’s see, assume LAPD is dumb, finds dead person, runs license checks for cars, finds car with a guy in it and the victims blood on his clothes - could this be the guy who killed the car owner? Stupid police how did they figure it out?).
There is another version starting with Beausoleil and the drug deal, Hinman says he has no money, they fight, then work out a deal where Hinman acknowledges he owes the Satan’s and agrees to sign over his cars as payment for the debt. Everything is cool, then Charlie arrives all full of manhood, storms in and cuts Hinmans ear with a sword and leaves, but later realizes he has screwed things up. Hinman is bleeding and wants medical assistance but Beausoleil doesn’t want the police asking questions. Atkins tries to sew the cut shut will a needle and some thread (and no pain killers). Beausoleil calls Charlie who says “you know what to do” which Beausoleil takes to mean kill Hinman, and seeing no other way he does so (after taking the title to the two cars to give to the Satan’s).
Atkins in her book wrote that Manson told Beausoleil and her to go get the supposed inheritance. Manson told her privately days earlier if she wanted to "do something important," she could kill Hinman and get his money. Or is this more of blaming the hick convict?
This is a puzzle where the accepted theory makes no sense (dumb uneducated hick convinces a bunch of bright young kids to surrender their souls and minds to him and to kill to start the revolution leading to his Godhood). The obvious one, the first one LAPD came up with, a bunch of drug dealers living together in a random “family” getting in over their heads and having to kill people, wasn’t the explanation that was used. Why? Because the defendants had no fear for their lives, sat around chanting unrecognized words in unison with Manson during the trial, and former members described a cult of controlled kids. In other words, they had surrendered their beings and killed for his Godhood.
Another explanation - a few girls in the “family” (some claim Atkins though she says no) want to help a Beausoleil in jail (he was apparently the king of fun in bed). They hatch a plan to get their pal out of jail. Kill some random folks as bloody as Hinman so it looks familiar to the police and they would think “hummmm, must be the killer is still out there” and then they would let Beausoleil go. The girls bring it to the dumb hick convict. He claims he said if you are going to do it, do it well, but I ain’t going to tell you to do it. He might explain it hypothetically but was not a murderer and not going to do it. Leave something “Witchy.” Bugliosi talks about this in his book but points out all this came up after the conviction and was not mentioned at all in the investigation.
The girls enlist Tex to help them in this plot and off they go. They pick the Tate house because they had been there before while visiting a record producer who was potentially interested in Charlie as a musician. Some say Charlie chose the house because his ego was bruised when he didn’t get a record deal and wasn’t able to deliver the New World Message to save the world and become Christ and ruler of the world. However he knew the producer didn’t live at the house any more having been to the Producers new home previously. If you buy the kill a brother to set him free scenario, the Tate house was selected simply because Tex has been there before and would know the way around the house, thus having situational awareness. In they went, killed everyone, and left the word “Pig” on the door. Supposedly Tex told Atkins to do this. So once again, the reason Sharon Tate was killed was - she was there. And members of the ‘family” were willing to kill out of love, for Beausoleil, not Manson.
Again you don’t have Manson there, though discussing how to commit murder is conspiracy, especially if you think someone will do it. Manson’s defense - his friends have always been stabbing and robbing people so what do you expect? It was how he was raised. That is how it is in prison. Unfortunately for him, most of us don’t have these types of friends.
Susan Atkins - one of America’s most glorified killers who apparently hasn’t killed anyone. At the Hinman death she either watched, didn’t see, or actually killed him depending on the version you read. Her constant version since the 1970’s after her religious conversion is she didn’t participate or see, which Prosecutor Beausoleil agrees with. When the family was raided for auto theft (to get dune buggies to fight from in Helter Skelter) she told people in jail she killed Hinman. She also told them she was the one who stabbed Tate, telling Sharon “Look Bitch I don’t care a thing about you. or your baby, you are going to die and there isn’t a thing you can do about it.” But now days she says she didn’t, and Tex Watson agrees, saying he did it. And the coroner statement says only one weapon was used on Tate, with strong thrusts, which again points at Watson According to her Grand Jury testimony her comment about no mercy was actually directed at herself, and her self loathing.
Susan was molested as a girl, was highly motivated to break rules, earning the name “Crazy Sadie” and “Sexy Sadie.” The Beatles recording a song with her name made an impression on her and The Family. Her confidant in jail who turned her in claimed Susan once said she had sex with a guy who was high who wondered what it would be like to shoot himself in the head while climaxing during sex, and Atkins encouraged this and supposedly watched the guy shoot his head right as they reached orgasm, to which she said “Far out” or “groovy.” Or she made it all up. For some reason people believe the convict who told this story, even though she had several aliases and a long history of making things up.
So you have Susan Atkin’s remembered as the butcher of Sharon Tate, even tasting her blood, when the evidence and the participants all say she didn’t kill anyone. She was guilty of assisting, of being highly insensitive to Sharon, of creating confabulations for her own end, but in the end didn’t kill anyone. And spent the rest of her life in prison for it.
The Manson “family” is famous for female subservience to men, as are most cultures. Under Charlie’s thumb they would do anything, endure any degradation out of their blind love for Charlie. Yet many say they directed Charlie, not the other way. Perhaps this was a game, a presentation by the girls, to convince the wealthy that Charlie was a guy with chicks to fuck - all you had to do was share some of the wealth and you had access to the Golden Pussy as much as you wanted, when really they were pulling the chain. This is a lot of wealthy guy’s dream. These girls seem interested in lots of sex, though with a goal, which is also normal. Where they slaves to Charlie, or taking from the wealthy while pretending to be Charlie’s slaves to get what they wanted? Placing him in front as the apparent leader - a shield in this male society, the weird guru with pussy to share? Hard to tell. Krenwenkel says nothing happened without Charlie’s express permission so it seems some thought he was in control.
To them it all was a big game, And most were young and it was a game. Life is a play act - keep pushing the boundaries to get what they wanted. Atkins seemed completely unconcerned in prison telling stories about her escapades, then changing it all, telling the prosecutor the entire bloody story and then claiming it was all a lie. Was