1969 Murders
On August 8, 1969, Manson announced, "now is the time for Helter Skelter", a term taken from a Beatles song that Manson believed (or convinced his associates that he believed) meant a revolution prophesied in the Book of Revelation via a race war between blacks and whites. That along with the desire to strike back at the society that had jailed several Family members and possibly create copy-cat crimes that would exonerate Family associate Bobby Beausoleil (arrested in connection with the murder of Gary Hinman), seemed to propel the events of the next two nights. In Susan Atkins's grand jury testimony, she stated that on the night of August 8, 1969, while in the car, Watson told the group they were going to a home to get money from the people who lived there and to kill them.
Read more about this topic: Charles "Tex" Watson
Famous quotes containing the word murders:
“Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true. The tension broke that day. The paranoia was fulfilled.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1935)