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What We Still Don’t Know About the Manson Murders

BBG News

During late summer of 1969, fear swept through Los Angeles. Over two nights in early August, a peculiar band of college-aged hippies residing at an abandoned film studio, under the influential guidance of Charles Manson, committed heinous murders. On the first night, five people were slaughtered, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate – wife of director Roman Polanski. The following night, the Manson followers repeated their grisly actions, taking the lives of Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary, leaving behind chilling, blood-stained messages on walls and doorframes.

Four months after the murders, Manson and his accomplices were apprehended. Later, they were convicted of first-degree murder. This was largely due to the meticulous work of lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, who presented a compelling motive for their crimes. He suggested that Manson’s actions were influenced by delusional, messianic beliefs—which he claimed were fueled by the Bible and the Beatles song “Helter Skelter”. According to Bugliosi, these beliefs led Manson to command his drug-addled followers to brutally kill upper-class residents of Los Angeles in an attempt to ignite a race war. If successful, Manson believed he and his followers would survive by hiding in a hidden desert refuge. These ideas were later expanded upon in Bugliosi’s bestselling 1974 book, Helter Skelter.

Vincent Bugliosi’s argument had long been considered the primary explanation for the murders, but this changed when author Tom O’Neill took on a writing assignment for Premiere magazine in 1999. This project eventually evolved into a 20-year book titled “Chaos: Charles Manson, the C.I.A., and the Secret History of the Sixties“, co-authored with Dan Piepenbring in 2019. In this book, O’Neill challenges the “Helter Skelter” theory by scrutinizing government documents, interviewing former intelligence agents, and cult members. The work raises and partially answers a number of thought-provoking questions such as: Was the murders connected to a drug operation? Were authorities hiding details about the case? Was Manson a manipulated puppet on drugs?

Six years on, filmmaker Errol Morris delves deeper into these theories and inconsistencies in a fresh Netflix documentary titled Chaos: The Manson Murders. This film breathes life into the book by combining old footage, audio recordings, and new interviews, accompanied by the haunting melodies of Manson’s music. Morris, an Academy Award winner, employs some of his signature methods, casting bright lights on his interviewees, discussing O’Neill in various settings, and positioning his numerous theories along a scale from plausible to outlandish.

In earlier discussions, O’Neill has acknowledged discovering inconsistencies in the belief that Manson aimed to ignite a “race war.” He also uncovered connections between the Manson family and drug dealers, law enforcement, and government personnel. However, he lacks definitive proof to refute Bugliosi’s claims entirely, as Bugliosi passed away in 2015. Interestingly, before his death, Bugliosi had an interview with O’Neill, but ceased communication as the author continued to challenge his theories. In the documentary, O’Neill states, “I’m still uncertain about what transpired. But I am certain that what we were told didn’t happen.

Let’s explore the primary concepts and questions raised by O’Neill and Morris in their book “Chaos: The Manson Murders“, shall we?

Mind Control and Operation MKUltra

In his youth, Manson resided in various foster homes and correctional facilities until his initial arrest in 1956. He emerged from prison in 1967 and shifted to San Francisco’s vibrant Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, famous for its hippie culture during the summer of love. It was here that he frequently visited a medical clinic where the CIA, along with psychiatrist Dr. West, were actively recruiting participants for LSD studies aimed at evaluating the drug’s effects and control over human actions.

The tests were thought to be a part of a highly confidential research project known as Project MKUltra, which spanned from 1953 to 1973 (the year its records were erased). This project aimed at discovering drugs capable of rendering people vulnerable and extracting confessions through brainwashing and psychological torment. The ultimate goal was to develop an individual who could be controlled like a puppet, although Morris doubts the government ever truly managed to create such a person. Although the LSD studies didn’t yield definitive results about the drug, many individuals, including intelligence personnel, considered it promising for mind control. In fact, West documented that he discovered how to swap real memories with fabricated ones.

To O’Neill, it appears highly unlikely that Manson, O’Neill, and West happening at Haight-Ashbury simultaneously was just coincidental. He points out in the documentary that for over a decade, West secretly influenced the sanity of his research subjects by administering LSD without their knowledge. Although he suspects Manson may have been associated with West’s LSD experiments, O’Neill could never find evidence that placed them together, even though they were both in San Francisco around the same time. However, many people think that Manson’s rapid growth of followers was facilitated by the use of LSD.

In addition to his argument concerning West’s views on the West case, O’Neill mentions that the psychiatrist had been assigned by the court to evaluate Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, prior to his testimony. During this evaluation, West stated that Ruby was afflicted with a severe mental illness caused by the pressure of his trial. However, O’Neill suggests that many found this diagnosis questionable, given how rapidly and significantly Ruby’s mental state would have needed to shift for such a conclusion.

Counterintelligence programs

What was the point of turning Manson (and his family members) into potential zombie assets? 

1960s’ end saw a surge of counterculture and civil rights activism, causing government apprehension about an anti-establishment backlash. In response, the CIA devised a program called Chaos, while the FBI had Cointelpro. The aim for both was to conduct covert operations aimed at destabilizing the left-wing movement by portraying hippies and alternative groups as dangerous and violent. What more effective way to discredit these groups than by making them seem like brutal killers?

O’Neill points out that the Manson murders were not orchestrated by the government itself, but it might be plausible that the government allowed Manson to act freely, enabling him to carry out killings of upper-class white residents and instill fear in the public about the country’s countercultural movements.

Were there law enforcement cover-ups?

O’Neill confesses that he’s unsure if any mind-manipulation experiments took place in the Haight-Ashbury medical clinic, but the notion piqued his interest upon investigating Roger Smith, Manson’s parole officer. As per O’Neill, Smith maintained an office within the clinic for weekly parole hearings. Over the course of Manson’s initial year there, Manson was apprehended six times; however, instead of terminating his parole, Smith penned a letter to the probation department endorsing the ex-convict and asserting that he had been conducting himself appropriately.

Each probation officer whom O’Neill consulted expressed puzzlement over Smith’s logic, suspecting that crucial details were omitted from the discussion.

O’Neill points out that the Los Angeles Police Department seemed less than eager to solve the Tate-LaBianca murders, showing a lack of urgency and failing to connect the dots initially. At first, authorities thought the murders were unrelated due to similarities in stab wounds and wall markings, but a week later, they raided Spahn Ranch for car theft charges. During this raid, they found stolen weapons, vehicles, underage runaways, and stolen credit cards which led to 26 arrests. Unfortunately, just three days after the arrests, everyone was released due to a technicality with the warrants being dated incorrectly.

“Somebody wanted this group out there,” O’Neill says. 

The truth is mundane

In one of his recent interviews, Morris speaks with Bobby Beausoleil, who is still incarcerated for the murder of Gary Hinman, which occurred only a few weeks prior to the Tate-LaBianca killings. In this documentary, Beausoleil recounts how he crossed paths with Manson through the music business, became entangled in his circle, and found himself in trouble due to a faulty drug transaction. This unfortunate deal eventually led him to murder Hinman under Manson’s instruction. Shortly after, police apprehended Beausoleil upon discovering the murder weapon in his vehicle.

Did his own foolishness cause his arrest? This is what Beausoleil suggests, arguing further that stupidity and self-preservation may have been the driving force behind the Manson murders. Although it seemed logical for Bugliosi to attribute the killings primarily to Manson’s strange religious beliefs (as he aimed to sell a book), it’s plausible that Manson became paranoid of his followers reporting him for various crimes and decided to implicate them in murder so they had no reason to approach the police. In Beausoleil’s view, the Tate murders might have been an unfortunate misjudgment.

Morris strongly believes that Manson’s rejection as a musician by record producer Terry Melcher in the late 1960s may have played a significant role in the murders. It’s worth noting that Melcher had previously lived at the Cielo Drive residence before Polanski and Tate, but Manson was unaware of this move. Using the principle of Occam’s Razor, it could be most plausible to explain this event as a misguided act of revenge.

Beauloseil explains to Morris on the call, “He finds it frustrating that they’re making things seem more complex than they need to be.” He adds, “It’s quite challenging to help them see past their imagined complexities.

In the majority of the documentary, Morris often questions O’Neill’s theories yet appears to recognize that there may be factors beyond our current understanding at work. It took O’Neill a fourth of his life to reach this conclusion.

“What does it all mean?” O’Neill says. “I’m very honest about not knowing.”

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2025-03-08 02:06

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