Paul Watkins (Manson Family) - Importance of The Testimony

Importance of The Testimony

Watkins testified against Manson in October 1970, some months into the trial in which Manson was ultimately found guilty of the murders. The testimony of Watkins and one of the other male defectors traced the growth of Manson's view of Helter Skelter from a vague vision to an inspiration for crime. Most importantly, details provided by Watkins in the period leading up to the trial enabled the prosecution to understand Manson’s stake, so to say, in the war the killings were intended to trigger. The details made clear that, in its complete form, the vision ended with Manson and the Family as the lone existing whites, presiding over blacks whose antipathy to whites would have been discharged in the gruesome conflict. At war’s end, Charles Manson, reform-school boy and convicted criminal, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, would rule the world.