No crime in the 21st century has matched the macabre slayings of the Tate-Labianca murders that took place at the culmination of the Sixties. On August 9th, 1969, several members of Charles Manson’s “family,” Susan “Sadie” Atkin, Charles “Tex” Watson, Patricia “Katie” Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian invaded the residence on 10050 Cielo Drive, the rented home of actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski, where the family members brutally tortured and massacred an 8-month pregnant Sharon Tate, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, Folger coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polanski’s good friend Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent, an 18-year old who was simply visiting the caretaker of the premise, William Garretson. The following night, on August 10th, 1969, Charles Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten invaded the home of Leno and Rosemary Labianca, where, upon arrival, Manson ordered his followers to conduct a similar act of terror, concluding a two-day massacre that sent tremors down the spines of the Los Angeles elite. At both homes, the scene of the crimes were atrocious: the invaders inflicted upwards of twenty stab wounds to the victims, the hands and feet of some of the victims were bound together, and the words “War,” “Pigs,” “Arise,” and “Healter Skelter” (a spelling mistake on behalf of Patricia Krenwinkel, who meant to spell “Helter Skelter”) were spelled out with the victims blood across the living room walls. Later, after months of investigation, the murders were later charged to Manson and the members of cult, a band of hippies who served under the guidance of Manson and willingly participated in the sordid homicide of the victims. As details continued to emerge, the “crime of the century,” as it was later referred too, captivated the nation, due to Manson’s disregard for humanity, incoherent court soliloquy’s, and overall political philosophy. Furthermore, the youthful naivety of Atkins, Van Houten, and Krenwinkel served as a grander symbol of the growing anxieties towards the counterculture revolution, where three seemingly harmless woman, barely in their twenties, were able to commit such heinous crimes. It was the nightmarish image of how sex, drugs, and rock and roll effected America’s youth, contradicting the pacifist memorandum that largely inspired a wave of young adults to partake in the counterculture movement that dominated the Sixties. How, populates pondered, were these band of hippies able to conduct such a malicious criminal activity?
According to Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor for the Tate-Labianca trial and author of the spectacular true-crime paperback Helter Skleter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, offered a motive, one that defied logic, but nevertheless carried a semblance of truth. For Bugliosi, the answer was simple: Manson, who lured his followers with sexual intercourse, LCD hallucinations, and materialized a presence of fear, was able to manipulate his followers into believing his theory of an impending race war, where whites and African Americans would be pitted against each other and the African-American population would prevail as the victorious race. Strange, but far stranger, Manson supported his apocalyptic philosophy through the music of the Beatle’s White Album, which Manson used as the foundation for his argument as proof that the world would endure a pro-longer race-war. On the surface, such a theory appears preposterous, for it is presented as the drug-induced preaching’s of a self-identified guru, who offers zero credibility in the fields of theology. However, utilizing copious amounts of acid as a mechanism to manipulate his cabinet of youthful flower-children, all of whom abandoned their previous lives in search for an existential meaning to the universe, Manson offered his disciples an abstract assessment of the surrounding world that debunked the prior connotations of human existence: an assessment that would morph the image of Manson as a drug-riddled cult figure into an introspective messiah, whose universal philosophy was attuned to the earth in mesmerizing fashion. Coincidentally, under varied circumstances, such as consistent acid trips, a father-figure who accepted these soul-searching young adults, and the menacing intimidation tactics later attributed to Manson, the foreshadowed apocalyptic race-war through the Beatle’s White Album may not be as far-fetched as it seems. In fact, under similar circumstances, Manson’s philosophy might have made sense.
First, for Manson’s philosophy to make sense, one must contextualize the political climate of the Sixties, when television audiences were introduced to the heinous state of Jim Crow segregation in the south. Through vivid imagery, audiences across the nation witnessed from the comfort of their homes the extent of racism in the south, where African American’s and whites were lawfully segregated, African American’s endured racially-induced violence at the hands of local citizens and the law, and a racial hierarchy was in balance to suppress the upward mobility of southern African American’s. In turn, most people in America believed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 would offer a new chapter in American history that included African Americans as lawful equals, no longer to endure the immorality of violence, voter suppression, and segregation. However, unbeknown to Americans in the Sixties, and still ignorantly debated in modern politics, the white population was unaware (or inclined to ignore) the transitional period of racism, where racial attitudes evolved from de jure to de facto, and continued to course through the veins of the majority of white America. Furthermore, although the Civil Rights Bill was a momentous step in the right direction for equality, the substance of the bill was diluted, for politicians were unwilling to investigate the systematic oppression executed in local Law Enforcements, whose unaccounted acts of harassments resulted in various race-riots across the country, including Watts, Newark, and Chicago.
In turn, Manson, who maintained noxious racism and disallowed African American hippies from joining his family, began to experience spontaneous bouts of anxiety over America’s racial tensions. Moreover, Manson believe the Black Panthers were out to kill him, influenced by a drug-deal gone-wrong several months prior to the Tate-Labianca murders, when Manson attempted to kill Bernard “Lotsapoppa” Crowe, who was known to frequent local Black Panther assemblies. Above all, Manson believed the Black Panthers would militarize to a level that could counter the American Government, while recruiting fellow African Americans and disloyal members of the white population to escalate an all-out race-war. According to Bugliosi, Manson would preach about the impending race-war to his followers and devised a solution, where Manson would guide his family apart of a venture deep into Death Valley, hide-away in an unidentified secret hole, construct an clandestine metropolis underground, and emerge in the aftermath of the race-war. At which point, Manson believed the African Americans would be crowned the victors but did not retain the intellect of the white man, thereby deeming them incapable to rebuild civilization and in need of urgent leadership. Therefore, without any other white inhabitants, Manson and his followers would emerge from their hole as the leaders of the post-apocalyptic America, where Manson would reign as the supreme overlord, fulfil his self-perceived destiny, and force African Americans back into slavery. Again, this prediction of an inevitable race-war, living in a secret city underground, and rising to be the ruler of a post-apocalyptic world is truly bizarre, illogical, and akin to the drunk ramblings of a racist uncle at Thanksgiving. However, Manson’s deciphering of the Beatle’s White Album is where it truly gets interesting.
According to Manson’s theory of “Helter Skelter,” the band members of the Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, were summoned as the four horses of the Apocalypse, in congruence with the vision of John the Apostle in the book of Revelations, the last chapter of the New Testament. Chapter 9 of the book of Revelations was the primary source material Manson interpreted to mold his extravagant prophecy and for Manson, John’s apocalyptic vision, the release of the Beatles’ White Album, and the hostile racial climate of the Sixties was more than a mere coincidence. In accordance to Chapter 9 in the book of Revelations, John the Apostle envisioned the rapture of humanity, where a fifth angel had fallen to earth and was granted a “key of the pit of the abyss.” Upon opening the pit, locusts were unleashed onto the world, taking the shape of a hybrid of creatures, including the body of a horse, the face of a man, and the hair of a woman. Furthermore, the locusts were garnished an iron breastplate’s, speaking in fire, brimstone, and smoke, and were followed into the apocalyptic war with 200,000,000 soldiers riding on horseback. Finally, and most importantly, verse 15 of Revelation 9 reads “And the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of man.”
During Bugliosi’s investigation, he happened upon Brooks Poston, a past member of the Manson Family, who abandoned the cult following a series of disagreements with the family patriarch. Poston recounted the specifics of Manson’s prophetic vision in accordance to Revelation 9 and the Beatles’ White Album in his conversation with Bugliosi in spectacular detail, where Manson would often organize a congregation with his followers, supply acid to encourage the distortion of reality, and prophesize upon to his disciples his intrinsic enlightenment of the Beatles’ and Revelation 9. According to Poston, Manson believed himself to be the fifth angel, who was bestowed the key to unlock the “pit of the abyss” located in the desert of Death Valley. Furthermore, Manson articulated the locust’s that emerged from the pit were a different insect: beetles, or, as he argued, the band the Beatles, who had the face of men and hair of woman, an anti-counterculture critique of the Sixties generation of men who grew their hair out, resembling the appearance of the opposite gender. Moreover, the iron breast plates garnished on the locusts bodies were interpreted as the guitars the Beatle’s used, the fire, brimstone, and smoke that scorched out of the mouths of the locusts was the introspective lyrics of the Beatles’, and the army of 200,000,000 soldiers on horses was modernized to 200,000,000 soldiers on motorcycles, an interpretation Manson took literally for his constant recruitment of local, outlaw motorcycle gangs, such as Danny DeCarlo of the Straight Satan’s. Finally, Manson believed the four angels represented the band members who consisted of the Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, who delivered revolutionary rhetoric through their lyrics that encouraged the massacre of one-third of the population, similar to Verse 15 that suggested four angels prepared for the day of reckoning that would “kill the third part of man.” In turn, Manson suggested he was chosen to lead his followers in the pit of abyss to avoid the carnage, further claiming it was no coincidence his last name was “Man Son” or the son of man, shocking his brainwashed followers with such an epic reveal.
Furthermore, Manson supported his claim through the songs on the Beatles’ White Album, such as “Helter Skelter,” “Revolution,” Revolution 9,” “Black Bird,” “Piggies,”and “Sexy Sadie,” to add sustenance to his epiphany. First, the song “Sexy Sadie” was rather coincidental, for Susan Atkins, who participated in the murder of Sharon Tate and later revealed an astonishing amount of detail into the Manson family, had been nicknamed “Sadie” prior to the release of the White Album. Naturally, Manson exploited the title of the song to relay his message that the Beatles’ and himself experienced a universal connection, claiming he nicknamed Atkin’s “Sadie” because it was subconsciously wired to his consciousness at the behest of the Beatles’, and revealed the title of the song to the astonishment of his “family,” akin to a group of freshman who smoke marijuana for the first time, and listen to the nonsensical philosophies of a burnout senior. Next, whereas George Harrison’s song “Piggies” was intended to be a whimsical critique of the political establishment, Manson took the critique to the next level, dissecting the verse “what they need’s a good whacking,” which Manson interpreted to his followers that the Beatles’ were encouraging their African American audience to give a “good whacking” to the political elite, the law enforcement, and all the other “piggies” who oppressed the African American race for the generations. In turn, the members of the Manson family who participated in the Tate-Labianca murders wrote the words “Pig,” “Political Piggy,” and “Death to Piggy’s” in the blood of the victims in an attempt to arouse the LAPD’s suspicion that the murders had been inflicted by the Black Panthers and for Manson to add momentum to the impending race-war, which he believed was stalled due to the African American populations inability to understand the Beatles’ lyrics.
Furthermore, the song “Black Bird” was initially written by Paul McCartney praising the resilience of African American woman who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, yet, once again, Manson corrupted the song’s praise by illustrating the lyrics of the song as a foreshadowing of an African American uprising. The lyrics of “Black Bird” were as follows: “black bird singing in the dead of night/spread your tiny wings and learn to fly/ all your life/ you were only waiting for this moment to arise,” which Manson speculated that the “black bird singing in the dead of night” were African Americans singing protest songs, as they conducted murder in the “dead of night,” African Americans finally “spread their wings” and retaliated against the “Piggies,” as they “learn to fly,” and the moment they had waited arise was upon them, to take to the streets and retaliate for generations of subjugation. The lyrics for “Revolution” are rather straightforward, for Manson argued it was abundantly clear for African Americans that lyrics “you say you want a revolution,” “you tell me that it’s evolution,” and “we all want to change the world,” was a directed at the Black Panther’s who wanted to spark a social revolution, change the way in which the world operates, and evolve atop the racial hierarchy, where African Americans would consolidate racial power over the white population.
However, “Revolution 9” is more abstract and, with knowledge of Manson’s philosophy, quite frightening. “Revolution 9” consists of limited lyrics, rather playing a series of distorted sounds that include, gun shots, ambulance sirens, and a man frequently yelling the words “arise” and “9.” For Manson, “Revolution 9” was blatantly connected to Revelation 9, the chapter of Revelations he intertwined with the Beatles’ White Album. Furthermore, the distorted sounds of gun shots and ambulance sirens was not mixed within the studio, rather Manson believed “Revolution 9” was a recording of the future, that captured they chaos of the catastrophic race-war, where bullets riddled the streets and the sirens of law enforcement and ambulances were helpless in saving the white race. Lastly, the word “9” frequently yelled was too remind the listener that the sounds in “Revolution 9” coincided with the apocalypse predicted in Revelations 9, and the word “Arise” was repeated in a directed order from the ambiguous man to African Americans to finally “arise” and fulfil their destiny. Manson further reflected that the man yelling “Arise” was a follow-up of sorts to the lyrics of “Black Bird,” where “Black Bird” states “you were only just waiting for this moment to arise,” in contrast to “Revelation 9”, where ambiguous man stated the moment to “arise” was now. Later, during the Tate-Labianca murders, where the Manson family members spelled out the word “Pig” is different variations, so too did the Manson family spell the word “Rise” in blood, further insisting that the murders were attributed to the Black Panther’s. Finally, there is “Helter Skelter,” which is rather disappointing in Manson’s interpretation, for Manson interpreted the chorus “when I get to the bottom, I go back to the top of the slide/where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride/till I get to the bottom and I see you again” as simply the Beatles’ directing Manson and his followers to “ride out” the apocalyptic race-war at the “bottom” of the Death Valley pit of abyss, until the carnage is over, and Manson and his family would “see you again.” In actuality, “Helter Skelter” was written by the Beatles’ about a famous amusement park ride in Britain, but Manson, the all-knowing transcendent figure he pictured himself as, “knew” what the Beatles’ were really saying, leading to the most horrendous murdering spree in American history.
It is easy to label the followers of the Manson family as absent-minded for even granting Manson a semblance of credence for his bizarre theory of the Beatles’, the book of Revelations, and the impending apocalyptic race-war, yet it must not be forgotten that the Manson family was a cult in the truest sense of the word. Under the guise of a chosen messiah, Manson exploited the fears of a group of counterculture hippies, who felt cast aside by society and were willing to hear any explanation for an existential meaning of the universe, by warping their reality through the paranoia of hallucinations and allure of sexual intercourse to conduct Manson’s demonic misdeeds. However, regardless of Manson’s manipulation, the members of his “family” are still at fault, for their willingness to act on Manson’s direction resulted in the merciless murders of several innocent victims. Further speculation of Manson’s motives adds a little more clarity, for the residence of Sharon Tate was previously owned by Terry Melcher a record producer who Manson felt thwarted his promising music career. In turn, it makes sense that Manson did not believe his apocalyptic race-war philosophy, rather he used the epiphany to exert control over his followers, and send a message to Melcher, wherever he was, that Manson, at a snap of a finger, could order his followers to wipe him and his entire family off the face of the earth. Nevertheless, Manson must have had some belief in the Beatles’ message, for multiple members corroborated Poston’s recollection of Manson’s frequent utterances of “Helter Skelter.” Manson himself even asked for John Lennon to testify on his behalf during his trial. Overall, Manson has passed away, closing a chapter on the life of one of the most insidious human beings to walk the face of the earth, yet his legacy lives on, as a man who tainted the peace movement of the Sixties, exploited the fears of a group of counterculture young adults to serve at his whim, and a man who showed zero remorse for his leadership in the execution that took place at the Tate-Labianca households. Likewise, Manson’s philosophy of “Helter Skelter,” the apocalyptic race-war supported by the Beatles’ White Album and the book of Revelations, remains as a riveting examination of how Manson lured in his followers to conduct such malicious acts of violence.
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