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For decades, the prevailing story of the Manson murders held that Charles Manson masterminded a murderous plot to ignite a race war inspired by the Beatles. But Joe Berlinger argues the infamous story never added up.
The true crime filmmaker directed a three-part Netflix docuseries titled “Conversations with a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes.” It features previously unreleased prison audio from the cult leader and some of his “Manson Family” members.
In 1969, the career criminal who surrounded himself with runaways and other lost souls directed his followers to commit a series of murders in and around Los Angeles. Prosecutors argued the killings were part of Manson’s “Helter Skelter” plan to ignite a race war.
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Charles Manson is brought into the Los Angeles city jail under suspicion of having masterminded the Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969. (Getty Images)
But after studying the previously unreleased recordings, Berlinger argues the murders were instead a desperate attempt to cover up “a series of blunders.”
“This whole idea of starting a race war was a false idea,” Berlinger told Fox News Digital. “He certainly believed a race war was coming, or at least that’s what he told his followers to control them. But the murders, in particular the Tate and LaBianca murders, were an attempt to get associate Bobby Beausoleil out of prison. He told his followers, ‘He’s my friend. You guys owe me a favor. Let’s get him out of prison.'”
Robert Kenneth Beausoleil, aka Bobby Beausoleil, talks with newsmen after the jury returned a verdict against him of first-degree murder in the torture slaying of musician Gary Hinman. Beausoleil, a former member of the Manson Family, claimed Charles Manson sent him to Hinman’s house to force the musician to turn over $20,000, but that Manson delivered the death blows. (Bettmann Archive)
“The truth is I believe, and others believe, that if they had succeeded in this crazy idea of getting Bobby Beausoleil out of prison, I think Manson would’ve killed him because he was a liability,” said Berlinger. “But listening to those tapes made the story come alive, not these crazy conspiracy theories and myths that turned Charles Manson into the most mythologized figure in the history of true crime.”
“Conversations with a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes,” directed by Joe Berlinger (pictured here) is available for streaming. (Netflix)
Berlinger traces the chain of events that led to the murders to a botched drug deal.
According to the documentary, Manson invited members of the Straight Satans motorcycle club to Spahn Ranch to protect him from the Black Panthers, whom he feared, offering them access to his female followers in exchange.
Dianne Lake, seen here in the documentary, is the youngest former member of the notorious Charles Manson cult, known by the nickname “Snake.” (Courtesy of Netflix)
“[Follower] Tex Watson tried to steal money from a drug dealer named Bernard ‘Lotsapoppa’ Crowe, who wants his money back,” Berlinger explained. “Manson goes out there and doesn’t intend to kill him, but thinks he killed him, a Black Panther.”
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Charles “Tex” Watson. Watson was convicted of murder for his part in the killings of Sharon Tate and others while a member of the “Manson Family.” (Getty Images)
According to the documentary, Watson stole Crowe’s money, prompting Crowe to threaten retaliation. Manson later shot Crowe and mistakenly believed he had killed him. Crowe was not a Black Panther.
A sign at the Spahn Movie Ranch, owned by American rancher George Spahn and residence of the Manson Family in Los Angeles County, California on Aug. 28, 1970. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
“He goes back to Spahn Ranch and becomes paranoid that the Black Panthers are going to come after him. He becomes friends with Bobby, tells him to join the family and also to help protect the ranch. Bobby becomes tight with some bikers who were also invited to protect the ranch from the Black Panthers.”
Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Charles Manson maintained during his tumultuous trial in 1970 that he was innocent and that society itself was guilty. (Netflix)
But the motorcycle gang wanted more than just women. The documentary says Beausoleil brought them drugs he obtained from music teacher Gary Hinman. The bikers were unhappy with the quality of the supply, and Beausoleil was pressured to recover their money.
Three bikers talk together in Venice, California. The man in front wears gang colors referencing the Straight Satans motorcycle club. (Getty Images)
“Bobby tries to get his money back from Gary and can’t get it,” said Berlinger.
According to court records, during the confrontation, Manson arrived at Hinman’s home and slashed Hinman’s face with a sword, cutting him from his left ear toward his chin. Over the course of about three days, Manson’s followers tortured Hinman. Beausoleil later stabbed Hinman to death and wrote the words “Political Piggy” on a wall in Hinman’s blood, along with an animal paw print intended to implicate the Black Panthers.
Susan Atkins sits at the defendant’s table at the Santa Monica Courthouse during a hearing regarding the murder of music teacher Gary Hinman in Los Angeles, on June 25, 1970. (Getty Images)
“Gary Hinman is killed because Manson comes in, wields a sword and then tells Bobby ‘finish the job’ to cover the tracks,” Berlinger said.
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Robert “Bobby” Beausoleil poses for a mugshot after his arrest on Aug. 7, 1969. (Getty Images)
Beausoleil was arrested about a week after Hinman’s body was discovered. Berlinger said Beausoleil was driving Hinman’s vehicle and had “the murder weapon stupidly in the stolen car.”
Berlinger said Manson wanted police to believe Hinman’s murder was the work of the Black Panthers to cast suspicion away from Beausoleil. He noted the attempt to free Beausoleil became the catalyst for the murders that followed.
Jay Sebring and Sharon Tate, circa 1966. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
On Aug. 9, 1969, Manson’s followers murdered five people at a Los Angeles home previously rented by music producer Terry Melcher: actress Sharon Tate, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant; coffee heiress Abigail Folger; celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring; Polish writer Wojciech Frykowski; and Steven Parent, who had been visiting the estate’s caretaker.
The five victims were found slain on August 9, 1969. From left: Woijech “Voytek” Frykowski, Sharon Tate, Steven Parent, Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger. (CPL Archives/Everett Collection)
Melcher had previously declined to sign Manson to a recording contract.
“The murder is tried to be made to look like it was part of Gary Hinman’s murder,” said Berlinger. “But when Manson picks up the paper the next day, and there’s no information about these two murders being linked, they do another murder. The logic is, ‘We’ve got to make people think that Bobby, who is sitting in prison, is not guilty.’”
Charles Manson travels in a police van to the Santa Monica Courthouse to appear in court for a hearing regarding the murder of music teacher Gary Hinman in Los Angeles, California on June 25, 1970. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
“This was all a series of blunders, a bunch of bad, spontaneous decision-making.”
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A road sign marks Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, where actress Sharon Tate was murdered in 1969 during a series of killings orchestrated by Charles Manson. (Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
The next night, wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary LaBianca, were stabbed and killed in their home across town. The killers scrawled phrases including “Pigs” and the misspelled words “Healter Skelter” in blood at the crime scene.
Manson was arrested in October 1969.
Doris Day is seen here with her son Terry Melcher. (Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Prosecutors maintained at trial that Manson ordered his followers to kill some of Los Angeles’ rich and famous to trigger a race war, a plan prosecutors said grew in part from his interpretation of the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter.”
Manson family members Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle and Leslie van Houton. (Bettmann Archive)
Manson frequently spoke about an impending race war and interpreted songs on the Beatles’ “White Album” as messages about the coming conflict, according to testimony from his followers. What remains disputed is whether those beliefs motivated the Tate-LaBianca murders or whether, as Berlinger argues, prosecutors elevated them into the central theory of their case.
Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi talks to journalists outside the courtroom after the jury decreed the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers in the Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969. (Bettmann Archive)
“[Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi] had to come up with a legal theory to convict a guy who actually didn’t do the killings,” Berlinger said. “Manson wasn’t even there when the Tate-LaBianca killings took place. So how do you convict somebody who wasn’t there? Well, you come up with this organizing principle that he convinced his followers that a race war was coming, and he was trying to make that race war happen. It was a brilliant legal theory, but it’s a false story.”
“The Manson murders are much more tragic, but much more banal than this idea of some crazy cult trying to start a race war,” Berlinger continued.
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Charles Manson sits at the defendant’s table at the Santa Monica Courthouse during a hearing regarding the murder of music teacher Gary Hinman in Los Angeles, on June 25, 1970. Manson follower Bobby Beausoleil murdered Hinman in July 1969, less than two weeks before the Tate-LaBianca killings. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
“This was a drug deal gone bad, trying to cover up Gary Hinman’s killing by doing another murder the next day to make it look like a copycat murder, which were the Tate murders. And when that murder didn’t hit newspapers like a Black Panther murder, they did the LaBianca murders. It’s a series of blunders by people who were trying to cover their tracks, not this grand scheme of ‘Helter Skelter.'”
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Bugliosi worked with writer Curt Gentry on a book about the case. Published in 1974, “Helter Skelter” became the bestselling true crime book of all time.
The book “Helter Skelter” by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, photographed on Jan. 10, 2014, in New York City. (Getty Images)
Manson and three followers — Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten — were found guilty and later sentenced to death. Charles “Tex” Watson was tried separately and convicted later. Their death sentences were reduced to life in prison after the California Supreme Court invalidated the state’s death penalty in 1972.
Charles Manson’s 1969 mugshot. (Getty Images)
Atkins died in prison in 2009. Van Houten was released on parole in 2023. Krenwinkel and Watson remain in prison.
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Manson died at a California hospital in 2017 while serving a life sentence. He was 83.
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According to Netflix, “Conversations with a Killer, The Charles Manson Tapes” features Manson’s final known recordings and documents his rise to notoriety. (Netflix)
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Berlinger maintained Manson’s reputation as an evil mastermind was fueled more by myth than reality.
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“He wasn’t killing or ordering people to kill to get some kind of satisfaction,” Berlinger said. “He was covering up a series of blunders and just getting deeper and deeper into a hole. The best way to honor the victims is to be truthful about what happened.”
