On August 9 and 10, 1969 the Manson Family killed 7 people in two different massacres: the Cielo Drive massacre in which the actress Sharon-Tatecelebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, heiress Abigail Folger, her boyfriend Wojciech Frykowski and caretaker Steven Parent, and then the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. In reality, the victims were in a certain sense 8: Tate was pregnant and close to giving birth, she was due to give birth shortly to little Patrick, the son of her husband, director Roman Polanski.
When we talk about these events, we inevitably attribute them entirely to Charles Mansonleader of the Manson Family, who died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83. But one of the most important figures for understanding the Family is certainly that of Tex Watson: born in 1945, a former model student, he joined the sect after hitchhiking with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Watson was the guide in the two groups that committed the two massacres in view of Helter Skelter, the subversion of society in which the Family would have been spared.
Watson has also spent his entire life in prison. “The members of the Family themselves have never said that Manson told them to act in that way and during the trial Watson himself claimed responsibility for the massacres”, he explains to Il Giornale James Brown who, with Jacopo Pezzan, hosts the podcast True Crime Diaries.
Brunoro, who was Tex Watson within the Family?
“This is a crucial question. Bobby Beausoleil, another member of the Family who did not participate in the Tate-LaBianca murders because he was in prison for the Hinman murder, claimed that the real military leader, the real charismatic leader from the point of view of violence, was none other than Tex Watson. Who was a boy from a good family, born in Dallas and joined the Family. In fact, Tex Watson is the one who led the two attacks on August 9 and 10. Because Manson, in all of this, has a limited role, as an instigator – something he was convicted of. In prison, Watson converted, he became a born-again Christian: he is currently in the Richard Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego and has been denied parole 18 times. Watson is a bit of a mystery: there are those who have hypothesized that he committed these massacres, beyond the drug abuse, to demonstrate that he was the head of the Family”.
While trying to make an apology for himself, Watson’s website states: “Charlie Manson was the first person I had met who really knew what love was.”. How can the statement be read?
“There is an undeniable fact, and in my opinion it is the most disturbing element of the entire history of the Family, that is the magnetism that Manson was able to exercise on people. He had a hypnotic gaze and empathized, albeit in a sick way, with people: an ability that probably developed when he was already in juvenile prison. It is likely that even Watson was subjugated by the magical personality, from the esoteric point of view, of Manson”.
Is there any tangible evidence to suggest that Watson was also the theorist behind the Tate-LaBianca murders?
“The only evidence we have are the statements made at trial. Manson reiterated several times that he told the Family to do what they wanted, he never took any responsibility. The members of the Family themselves never said that Manson told them to act in that way and at trial Watson himself claimed responsibility for the massacres. From other testimonies Watson led the action. However we must ask ourselves a question: how reliable are the statements of people who are evidently brainwashed and also disturbed by the effect of hallucinogenic drugs?”
Everything that is known about the massacres comes from the trial. How did this information impact public opinion, also taking into account the figure, certainly not in the background, of the prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi?
“There is a critical version of Bugliosi, according to which the whole trial and the media frenzy that ensued was a political move to gain visibility. But, in my opinion, Bugliosi was very clever in building the Helter Skelter theory, true or false, because in fact there was no evidence to convict Manson except for incitement to crime. The goal was to incarcerate Manson, at the time public enemy number one. Manson was the great murderer of the American dream: the crimes came in the summer of ’69, after the libertarian wave of ’68, the flower children’s revolution. These communities that were seen in a positive light were definitively sunk by the Tate-LaBianca murders: a generational boulder on a dream”.
Back to Watson: in ’71 he was convicted, in ’75 he converted, in ’79 he founded his own cult. How can we read the change, if there was a change?
“I don’t think Watson has changed, I think he took advantage of his time in prison to understand what he really wanted to do, which was to found a sect. His cult is a sectarian religion that actually brings attention back to Watson and is also a form of economic support. In my opinion, all the kids who ended up in the Family had a strong need for spirituality, let’s call it that, and they were also very immature or aware of what could happen.”
The economic aspect fits well with the fact that Watson has a degree in business economics.
“He came from a good family, as did many of the people who gravitated towards the Family. Angela Lansbury didn’t work for a year, in order to free her daughter who had joined the Family. They weren’t just drifters, they came from cultured families. Watson is not a fool.”
You dedicated two episodes of your podcast to the Manson Family. Why?
“There is a practical reason: Jacopo Pezzan lived in Los Angeles for 20 years and we were able to visit the places where the family moved, including the Van Nuys area, where Manson had recorded his songs. Then there is a component that is the narrative charm of this story. Despite the extreme and horrifying violence, it is a story with many levels of interpretation”.
Borrowing the title of an episode of your podcast: what makes a crime story famous? Why does the Manson Family continue to be of interest even though Manson himself is dead and buried?
“For several reasons. One of the victims was Sharon Tate, a beautiful actress, at the height of her success, killed in a very violent way while she was pregnant. And the crime took place in one of those Hollywood villas, a setting that would seem like a dream, but the crime revealed the dark side of the human being.
But there is one aspect that scares us and that pushes us to ask ourselves: if we had found ourselves in that situation, would we have joined the Family? It is a bit like digging inside ourselves, asking ourselves if sometimes we too have not allowed ourselves to be influenced by figures who appeared to be gurus but were not. Finally, there is Manson’s crazy look: we know nothing about him except a few words he uttered, mostly nonsense. He has always remained as a disturbing presence”.