CHARLES MANSON: ATWA(r) WITH LIES

"You say Helter Skelter is what— a race war? How...

"You say Helter Skelter is what— a race war? How long has there been a race war? How long have we been in a race war, English? How long have we been at war with race? Since we come out of caves and you didn't like Irishmen? There's been a race war the entire time! All my life I've been in the middle of a race war."

— Charles Manson, 1993

• (Source: BBC) 

Manson's sense of humor. He tells a really stupid joke and...

Manson's sense of humor.

He tells a really stupid joke and laughs at how stupid it was.

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Charles "Tex" Watson's account of the Tate...

Charles "Tex" Watson's account of the Tate massacre, and how he killed them all.

"I want all the money you've got here," I barked, and Abigail took Sadie into her bedroom and gave her the money in her wallet. When they came back with only seventy dollars, I shouted: "You mean that's all you've got?"

"How much do you want?" Frykowski asked.

"We want thousands!" […]The women began to scream and someone asked, "What are you going to do with us?"

"You're all going to die," I answered.

They began pleading with us for their lives, and suddenly Frykowski started kicking and fighting, jerking at the towel that bound his hands. "Kill him!" I ordered Sadie, but he dragged her down as she flailed at him awkwardly with the knife, stabbing him in the legs several times.  I would have shot him, but he and Sadie kept rolling and fighting, so I finally threw myself on him and beat him over the head with the butt of the gun until it broke, a section of the grip dropping to the floor. He was enormously powerful, fighting for his life as he dragged the two of us across the hall toward the front door, knocking over the trunks. […]

I stabbed him over and over, blindly, the whole world spinning and turning as red as the blood that was smearing and spattering everywhere. Finally I shot him twice and he slumped onto the stone porch. 

As Frykowski sank down on the flagstones, Sadie yelled that someone was getting away. I looked across the lawn and saw Abigail Folger dashing toward the fence with Katie behind her, knife raised. Blood was already streaking the white nightgown.

I ran across the grass as Katie tackled her. Suddenly she stopped fighting. Looking up at me as she lay on her back, she whispered without emotion, "I give up; you've got me." It was as if my hand and the knife were one, plunging up and down. I felt nothing.

Then I realized that Frykowski had somehow managed to drag himself off the porch and was struggling across the lawn. I ran back to him, and once more the mechanical knife that was my arm drove down, again and again, until my wrist disappeared in the mess.

Finally I stood up and went back inside with Katie. Sadie was sitting next to Sharon on the couch as the pathetic blond woman sobbed, begging us to take her with us and let her have her baby before we killed her. It was the first time I'd realized she was pregnant, and for a moment it almost seemed like a good idea. But then Katie hissed, "Kill her!". But she just sat there holding Sharon, so I reached out and made the first cut across her cheek. Later, Prosecutor Bugliosi-because of some things Susan-Sadie bragged about in jail in one of her attempts to get attention-was convinced that it was she who killed Sharon Tate, but his suspicion was not true. It was my hand that struck out, over and over, until the cries of "Mother … mother …" stopped. Suddenly it seemed very quiet. It was over. […]

I told Sadie. "Write something that will shock the world." She grabbed the towel that had bound Frykowski's hands and disappeared behind the sofa. A moment later she stepped out to the porch and wrote the letters P-I-G on the front door in blood.

• (Excerpts from AboundingLove.Org)

Reporter: Why did you put that X (swastika) on your head Manson:...

Reporter: Why did you put that X (swastika) on your head

Manson: It's an Alcatraz Indian named "Walksontop."

Did you know that Manson used to buy penny candies at the...

Did you know that Manson used to buy penny candies at the Ballarat store and place them on the grave mounds in Death Valley?

Not at all shocking, but Leslie Van Houten was denied parole....

Not at all shocking, but Leslie Van Houten was denied parole. What IS shocking is that for the past two hearings Bruce Davis was suggested for parole.

Leslie Van Houten did not actually participate in the Tate murders, and she was at the LaBianca murders. Van Houten took no lives, but did stab an already dead Rosemary LaBiance when Charles Watson forced her to by knifepoint. 

Bruce Davis didn't participate in the Gary Hinman murder (but was convicted of it), but did participate in the Donald Shea murder. However, those murders were not as publicized so therefore they don't draw as much attention. Top that off with the fact that Donald Shea was a poor out of work "actor" and Gary Hinman was merely a music teacher and the LaBiancas were wealthy "entrepreneurs," and I use that term loosely because it's pretty obvious that a waitress whose worth is $3 million has something going on the side— maybe illegally.

Davis' and Van Houten's crimes are nearly identical. Davis had nothing to do with Beausoleil killing Hinman, but he was found guilty of conspiracy for that murder. Davis also admits that he stabbed an already dead Donald Shea— to get his hands "dirty." Van Houten and Davis are both convicted of one count murder, one count conspiracy to commit murder. Van Houten also stabbed an already dead Rosemary LaBianca to get her hands "dirty." However, she was in the home when Leno was murdered, Davis was not at the Hinman home when he was murdered. Still, we have two similar crimes.

It shocks me that Bruce Davis, a man who is suspected in many more murders (and it's pretty obvious he may be guilty in at least one more)— would be suggested for parole before Van Houten. I blame the the media attention on her name.

Still, Davis has been suggested for parole twice now with only one year denials. Van Houten was denied 5 years. Think about that. 

I won't even get into how many articles online credited Van Houten for the Tate murders. Double that with the fact that the parole board somehow allows Debra "Let me use my sister's name to show my vagina in OUI Magazine" Tate to speak at her hearing, and Van Houten may as well be guilty of those crimes as well.

The only people who are allowed to speak at parole hearings are family and friends. So, again, why do they let Debra Tate speak? Makes no sense.

I amcompletely indifferent whether Van Houten, or any of them, get out. If they do parole, well good. They've done their time. If they die in prison, again they have done their time.

Leslie Van Houten has a parole hearing today. Things to...

Leslie Van Houten has a parole hearing today.

Things to remember:

• Leslie Van Houten was only a participant in the LaBianca murders.
• It has been said that Van Houten killed Rosemary LaBianca and to this day it's still stated at her hearing that she took her life. However in 1978, Charles "Tex" Watson admitted that Rosemary LaBianca was already dead when he forced a "sobbing" Leslie "by knifepoint" to stab Rosemary, to "get her hands dirty."
• Van Houten was released from prison in 1977 - 1978 for a retrial. Her first retrial ended with a hung jury. She was again convicted at a third trial in 1978 and put back in prison. 
• Star witnesses to her involvement in the LaBianca murders were from two people not even there: Paul Watkins and Linda Kasabian.
• Van Houten was not a true "Manson Family" member. She was Bobby Beausoleil's girl. She went to the Family after his arrest for the murder of Gary Hinman.
• At the Gary Hinman trial, she lied and said she was at the Hinman murder. She said that the Tate and LaBianca murders were partly to "free Bobby."
• Of all of the Manson Family "killers", Van Houten and Bruce Davis are the most likely to parole. Davis was recommended for parole in 2010 and again in 2013.
• If the board recommends parole, will Governor Brown overturn it like he did to Davis?

Good luck, Leslie.

Radicals Planned Jailbreak; Oct 19, 1979 SEATTLE — Law...

Radicals Planned Jailbreak; Oct 19, 1979

SEATTLE — Law enforcement officials insist that radicals connected to the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Charles Manson Family, and other militant California groups were behind a bloody, ill-fated mass escape from the King County Jail. […]

Lawrence Edward Bailey, 30, arrested as one of the suspected accomplices in the jailbreak, also a member of the Wellsprings Communion and before that the Charles Manson Family. […] Members of the group also had backgrounds in the Weatherman Underground and the Black Panther Party. 

In his book "Helter Skelter," prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said that Bailey was one of those present when Manson ordered the killings. […]

In 1971, Bailey was convicted along with three other Manson Family members of trying to steal 140 guns from a Los Angles sporting goods store. Police said the guns were to be used to free Charles Manson. 

Bailey, wounded by police bullets in Sunday's jailbreak, gave his name as Jeffrey Pierce when he was arrested. The F.B.I. discovered his true identity through fingerprints. […]

Sunday's jailbreak was accomplished when prisoners obtained three automatic pistols and locked three guards in a cell. […] The escapees had two getaway cars loaded with automatic weapons. […] Five prisoners and two wounded accomplices were captured after a series of high-speed chases and shootouts. A sixth prisoner was killed by gunfire 

• (Source: Ellensburg Daily Record)

"Charlie was very open and he was talkative and he'd...

"Charlie was very open and he was talkative and he'd suddenly been given this crown of fame and thought he was gonna milk it for all it was worth.

I don't know how much of what he does is an act. I think he probably now, over the last twenty years, seriously believes his own act. He just reiterates, goes in to his repertoire. I think he kind of programmed himself to just 'do it'.

I mean I have to give the guy that, to stick by his guns… if you wanna look at it that way."

— John Gilmore, 2005

• (Source: EarcandyMag)

"I told the judge that I didn't feel any remorse...

"I told the judge that I didn't feel any remorse because I wouldn't give him that satisfaction. That's the only reason I told him that. As far as I'm concerned that man, Judge John Shea, is a helluva lot more diabolical than Charlie Manson ever was."

— Bobby BeauSoleil, 1981

• (Source: BardachReports.com)

"I don't give a fuck about what somebody else...

"I don't give a fuck about what somebody else thinks. You think and tell people that I'm a good guy— I don't give a fuck about other people. You ain't telling people nothing for me. You say I'm a good— what the fuck is a good guy? Good guys are in last place. I'm not a good guy. I'm a nasty son of a bitch. You ain't met me yet. Really, you haven't met me— I swear to God you haven't. You don't even believe in the devil. 

You don't understand what 40 years in prison— 50, 60 years in prison will do to you. I was raised in prison. There ain't nobody that can fuck with me. I'll knock them mother fucking asses out and cut their goddamn heads off. 

There's a level that I don't play. Tex knows me. He says 'mind control,' I'm mind control automatic! I'll mind control the motherfuckers to the graveyard. But that's a blessing. That's helping people. Once you start killing people you find out you have a whole entourage of people waiting in line to get killed. They'd love for someone to kill them. They're suicidal maniacs. They're near you, you find them, they're everywhere. But I don't respond to those kind of people. 

They got to come to me— they got to get in my cell to get to me. Fuck that shit, I'm not the fool killer. I don't need anyone to send no errands. I'm not shooting any buckets out of trees. What ever people do, they do it to themselves, soldier. Once you do something to me, it goes right back to you. I'm just a mirror on the road."

— Charles Manson, 2013

• (Source: Back Porch Tapes)

"I've got enough problems dealing with life every day in here. I...

"I've got enough problems dealing with life every day in here. I got fucking monsters on my ass that just won't let me rest for a second. I don't have time to run in the world outside. I have a hell of a time in here just getting through the day. Every time I turn around I got somebody trying to play some kind of mother fucking serial killer bullshit off on me. That was the district attorney's trip; had me going through the desert in a Helter Skelter plot to overthrow the black people. That's bullshit. That's his fear. That wasn't mine. But I'm still hearing all that garbage!"

— Charles Manson, 2013

• (Source: Back Porch Tapes)

More excerpts from Susan Atkins' final book The Manson...

More excerpts from Susan Atkins' final book The Manson Myth, explaining the true motive for the Tate and LaBianca murders.

"The fact that Manson sent Mary Brunner and myself with Bobby is also interesting. One was Gary Hinman knew and liked all three of us. The fact that Manson picked friendly faces to talk Hinman out of his money can not be a mistake. […]

If Bobby killed Gary then Manson would have something on Bobby that would ensure that Bobby wouldn't tell anyone that Manson had killed Bernard Crowe— Bobby's hands would be dirty too. […]

Charles Manson looked white as a ghost when he heard. [of Bobby's arrest]  If murder charges stuck, Beausoleil may try and bargain with the D.A.. And what did Bobby have to bargain with? How about the murder of Bernard Crowe. […]

Manson still had his hands all over the Crowe shooting, but now Manson couldn't even run to the desert. If Manson made a run for it Beausoleil would assume Manson was throwing him to the lions and he'd roll over on Manson in a minute. […]

Manson drew the Family together, he was more agitated than ever. "The Family has to get Bobby out," he said. "He's our brother, we'll do anything to get our brother out of jail!" […]

The Cielo - LaBianca murders were in direct response to Manson's fear of Bobby Beausoleil rolling over on him. On the morning of August 8, 1969 Manson sent Mary Brunner and Sandra Good  out to buy escape supplies, including rope, for a breakout attempt at the Los Angeles county jail."

• (Source: The Manson Myth by Susan Atkins)

The Manson Family - No Wrong  From the Valley of Death...

The Manson Family - No Wrong 

From the Valley of Death I come
Always writhing in the sun
Can you see the grave stones
It's far much better than the slave's tomes
Leaving with the boys and girls
Sunning with the devil's son
Can you hear the fires roar
Standing outside the devil's door
No wrong, no wrong, come along
Living with the snakes I see
Devil's breath inside of me
Demons in the sand
Fingers on devil man's hands
No wrong, no wrong, come along
Talking to the preacher just the other day
What he say, what he say?
Said the cities are at war
And he won't be coming round your door no more
Look for the man, look for the man….

"Looking down on a Horned Toad he may seem to be an insignificant being. But look up at him, and oh..."

"Looking down on a Horned Toad he may seem to be an insignificant being. But look up at him,...

"Rich people would ask us if we'd clean their horse...

"Rich people would ask us if we'd clean their horse stables for $5. And when we got there we'd get pissed off because they had their horses tied inside in piles of shit with nowhere to walk or lay down. We'd be shoveling shit all day because these people wouldn't give their horses a clean place to live."

— Charles Manson, 2013

• (Phone conversation)

"The 'Helter Skelter' that the D.A. put on me...

"The 'Helter Skelter' that the D.A. put on me was not the 'Helter Skelter' I was— it's not the same. In other words, the D.A. took words from anyone who would tell and pieced them together with his own imagination. […]

They try and put me at the top and I wasn't at the top. Them kids were the ones I followed. But I knew everything. I always knew everything. I knew what the kids were doing but listen to me: it is not my profession to tell people what to do and to tell the law what they have done. […]

Tex owed me. Watson would come for a week then leave for a month and come back with all these people after him and wants me to hide him. I'd have to go through his changes and fight his problems. In other words, Tex needed money and he did what he did [to Lotsapoppa] and I got a call so I was involved. I told him that the money he took was mine because I had to fight his problem. […]

All of them kids did what they did for their own problems. If Tex went to the top of the hill to get money that's not my affair.

Susie did just like Tex. She'd always leave and come back with some asshole on her ass that I'd have to cut off of her."

— Charles Manson, 2010

• (Source: 2010 conversation)

Here are some chosen excerpts from Susan Atkins' final...

Here are some chosen excerpts from Susan Atkins' final book The Myth of Helter Skelter. In these excerpts she explains why the real killings came down and had nothing to do with 'Helter Skelter' as prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi used as the motive. 

This began what might be called the hunt for the Magic Motive. That is to say 'the hunt for anything that would convince a jury that Charles Manson, and Charles Manson alone, was the beneficiary of these murders.'

But he didn't find out that the murder of Gary Hinman was connected to Bernard Crowe until well after the Grand Jury. How could he possibly uncover the real motive for the murders of those at the Cielo and LaBianca homes without understanding the real reason for Gary Hinman's death?

He couldn't.

It wasn't until the trial started that Vincent Bugliosi finally found out about the suspected murder of Bernard Crowe. This suspected murder would have an incredible effect on the actions of Charles Manson, but by the time Vincent Bugliosi discovered it he was already selling Helter Skelter to a jury. To have tried to change the purported motive at that point would have cost him his credibility in a case in which he was already stretching his credibility to the limit.

Bernard Crowe was a black drug dealer in the San Fernando Valley. What apparently happened, though none of us were privy to this at the time, was that in response to Manson's pressure Charles Watson had orchestrated a drug deal with Bernard Crowe. Apparently Watson convinced Crowe to give him the drugs, leaving his fiancé behind as security. Watson apparently told Crowe he would sell the drugs to a waiting buyer and then return immediately with the money.

But this isn't what happened.

Another thing worth noting is that the girl wasn't really his fiancé. He'd only just met her and apparently he decided to abandon her and run off with the drugs. Unfortunately the girl had heard Watson call some people earlier and she remembered the phone number. When Watson didn't come back and Bernard Crowe began pressuring the girl, she called the number she'd seen Watson call and she asked for "Charles." But Charles Watson was known as "Tex" at Spahn's Ranch. There was only one "Charles," and that was Charles Manson. When Manson answered the phone Crowe told him he was a Black Panther and he knew where Manson was and if Manson didn't come down and give him his money, he and all his Black Panther buddies were going to make a raid at Spahn's Ranch and kill everyone there.

To Charles Manson this was no small problem. There was no way he could run from the police, the bikers, and the Panthers… he was broke. So he had to deal with Bernard Crowe one way or another. If he couldn't con Bernard Crowe, Charles Manson believed the only way to prevent the Panthers from getting his name and where-abouts was to eliminate the source – Bernard Crowe. If something happened to Crowe no one would be around to tell the Panthers anything. But either way, it had to be done quick.

when Manson got to Bernard Crowe's apartment there were several of his friends there. Manson tried to smooth-talk him, but when that didn't work and an altercation became inevitable Manson signaled T.J. to pull the gun. But T.J.'s better sense prevailed and he refused to pull the gun out of the back of Manson's pants. This left Manson standing all alone in the middle of Bernard Crowe's living room, in a predominantly black neighborhood, facing several Black Panthers and one angry dope-dealer who'd just been ripped off.

Manson was forced to pull the gun himself. He shot Bernard Crowe right in the chest. Crowe fell to the ground and lay still. Manson and T. J. ran.

Believing he had murdered Bernard Crowe, Charles Manson became frantic. He had, through his undying self-centeredness and an incredible underestimation of T.J.'s integrity, put himself in a position where he had dirtied his own hands. Immediately he had two huge additional problems. The first was that many of the people in and around Spahn's Ranch knew he had gone to see Crowe. That meant there were possibly a dozen people who could corroborate any accusation against him. It was an incredible blunder for a boastful career criminal. Even among his loyal Family he must have felt as though a rope was coiling around his neck. And so he came up with a plan to protect himself from the very people he claimed he was willing to give his life for.

The true irony of this moment can only be appreciated if one understands the real reason all the killings began – to get money so that Manson could run away from the police and the Black Panthers, who he was sure were coming after him for killing Bernard Crowe.

At this one moment it must have all became obvious to Charles Manson. Bernard Crowe wasn't dead. Manson hadn't killed anyone that day. What's worse was that it was also obvious that Bernard Crowe must have never mentioned the shooting to the police. And none of Crowe's friends had either. And no Panthers had ever come up to wipe out Spahn Ranch. 

That was the moment when the true horror and tragedy of all those murders should have come to Manson. That was the moment when it was obvious that when Charles Manson had ordered the murder of Gary Hinman, no one, not the police or the Panthers, was pursuing him. There had been no need for desperation. There had been no need for money to flee. And there had been no need for Gary Hinman to die.

So, Charles Manson's fears about Crowe led to the completely unnecessary murder of Gary Hinman. Bobby Beausoliel's arrest for the murder of Gary led to the horrific murders at the Cielo residence and the LaBianca residence. The murders at the Cielo and LaBianca residences led, ultimately, to the murder of Shorty Shea. And all of it was for nothing!

Seeing Bernard Crowe alive and in police custody should have sent a sickening chill through Charles Manson. The horror of nine innocent people dead should have filled him.

But I don't know if it did. What I really think troubled him was the thought that Crowe might press charges or put a hit out on him.

On a personal note, I have often wished that I could have been there when this exchange took place. To see the look on Charles Manson's face at the moment when he realized nine people had died and eight more were on their way to death row for nothing. All for nothing.

I would have liked to have seen if even a flicker of recognition of that horror showed on his face for even a second - some sign that for one moment in his life he actually cared about those people, both for those victims he hadn't even known and for those young people who had trusted him.

And the heavens must have cried.

• (Excerpts from: The Helter Skelter Myth)

How it came down. April 23, 1969: Charles "Tex"...

How it came down.

• April 23, 1969: Charles "Tex" Watson arrested for drugs
• May 1, 1969: Bruce Davis arrives at Spahn Ranch
• May 20, 1969: Steve "Clem" Grogan arrested 
• May 27, 1969: Darwin Scott, Manson's uncle, murdered
• June 3, 1969: Record producers Terry Melcher and Gregg Jakobson visit Manson at Spahn ranch with a "starlet" named Sharon, or "Shara"
• June 4, 1969: Manson arrested for statutory rape
• June 11, 1969: Steve "Clem" Grogan arrested for molestation
• June, 25-ish, 1969: Tate guest house resident William Garretson kicks "Patty Montgomery" (Patricia Krenwinkel) out of his house 
• July 1, 1969: Charles Manson shoots Black Panther Bernard "Lotsapoppa" Crowe over Watson's burned drug deal
• July 4, 1969: Linda Kasabian introduced to Charles "Tex" Watson, and tells Watson about her boyfriend's inheritance, Watson suggests they steal it
• July 5, 1969: Linda Kasabian introduced to Charles Manson, steals her boyfriend's money and gives it to Watson
• July 18, 1969: Spahn Ranch "friend" Mark Walts found murdered
• July 19, 1969: Steve "Clem" Grogan escapes from mental home
• July 21, 1969: Police question Manson and Spahn Ranch residents about the murder of Mark Walts
• July 27, 1969: Bobby BeauSoleil murders Gary Hinman over bad mescaline
• July 28, 1969: Gary Hinman's Fiat found at Spahn Ranch
• July 30, 1969: Sharon Tate places call to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur
• July 31, 1969: Gary Hinman's body discovered
• August 1, 1969: Police helicopters flew over Spahn Ranch 
• August 1-2, 1969: Sharon Tate and Abigail Folger visit the Esalen Institute, Manson tells family he is going away to Big Sur
• August 5, 1969: Manson arrives at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur
• August 6, 1969: Bobby BeauSoleil arrested for the Hinman murder
• August 7 or 8, 1969: Joel Rostau delivers drugs to the Tate residence for Frykowski and Sebring, shorts them on $2,000 of cocaine
• August 8, 1969: Manson returns to Spahn Ranch when he hears of BeauSoleil's arrest
• August 9, 1969: Tate murders
• August 10, 1969: LaBianca murders
• August 15, 1969: The Straight Satans visit Spahn Ranch to retrieve their weapon that had been used in the Hinman murder
• August 16, 1969: Spahn Ranch raid
• August 26, 1969: Grogan, Davis, Watson, Vance, and Bailey murder Donald "Shorty" Shea
• September 1, 1969: Manson relocates to Death Valley