The Motive

                                          The Motive

"Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided"

                        - John Locke

We all have our own personal theory on the true motive for TLB. I used to think  the truth could be traced to relationships forged in the Laurel Canyon scene where Stars, Musicians, and common hippies were all mingling together over dope and music. Over the years I have become surer that some of them must have met in this place and time, but less sure it means anything in the big picture as far as motive for the crimes. Here are some other peoples opinions on what the motive was and was not....

"Helter-skelter was the motive for the murders. Manson borrowed that term from a Beatles song on the White Album. In England, helter-skelter is a playground ride. To Manson, helter-skelter meant a war between whites and blacks that the Beatles were in favor of. When the album first came out, in December of '68, he got a copy, and he came racing back to the ranch all excited and said, "The Beatles are telling it like it is! The s___ is coming down!" It was this war that he felt he could ignite by killing white people and blaming black militants, this war called helter-skelter."

               Vincent Bugliosi  - Interview with Time Magazine, August 2009                



"So how did the Prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, make the mistake of concluding that Helter Skelter , a black/white race war that would bring on Armageddon, was the motive for the murders of the LaBiancas and those at 10050 Cielo Drive? The most obvious reason is that Mr. Bugliosi didn’t look at the events that led up to these murders in chronological order. If you don’t study what happened in the order it happened how can you ever understand why one occurrence followed another?

  It wasn’t until the trial started that Vincent Bugliosi finally found out about the suspected murder of Bernard Crowe. This suspected murder would have an incredible effect on the actions of Charles Manson, but by the time Vincent Bugliosi discovered it he was already selling Helter Skelter to a jury.

It’s worth looking at the incident that followed – the Crowe Incident – a little closer, because it is the true beginning of the terrible panicked spiral that led to the deaths of nine innocent people."

         

                      Susan Atkins-  excerpts from " The Myth of Helter Skelter"

"There were three basic motives behind the murders that took place sometime past midnight on August 9. The most obvious was the one Charlie had articulated to us that afternoon: to do what blackie didn't have the energy or the smarts to do-ignite Helter Skelter and bring in Charlie's kingdom. There was also the need for more cash, first of all to finance our preparations for Armageddon-the same thing that had motivated the drug burn and Bernard Crowe's supposed murder, the killing of Gary Hinman, and all the proposed abductions and murders in the Chatsworth area-and also to pay $600 bail for Mary Brunner, who had been arrested earlier that day for using a stolen Sears' credit card. If she had not been in custody, Mary would most likely have been the one sent with us that night, instead of Linda, since Mary had the other valid driver's license in the Family and had already proven herself at Gary Hinman's. Beyond getting money and bringing down Helter Skelter, there was a third, less important purpose: to clear Bobby Beausoleil of the Hinman slaying by committing a similar crime while he was in jail."

       

                      Tex Watson- "Will you Die for Me?"

PRESIDING COMMISSIONER DAVIS: Talking about the people that you've harmed, there was a greater goal in what you were -- what the Family was trying to accomplish at that time was this idea of a racial war?

INMATE VAN HOUTEN: Yes.

PRESIDING COMMISSIONER DAVIS: And you apparently had bought into that?

INMATE VAN HOUTEN: Yes.

PRESIDING COMMISSIONER DAVIS: Was -- you know, in addition to the nature of the murders themselves, have you thought about how you were able to, coming from this, again, this fairly normal background, to be able to buy into that kind of potential violence?

INMATE VAN HOUTEN: Yes, I've thought about it a lot, because at the time I didn't even think of it in terms of being racist. He -- it was presented as a eventual outcome, and I thought how dangerous it is to not pay very close attention to what people say. It was particularly painful for me because my sister and brother are Amerasian, and I had to live with that, with them too, and make my amends.

PRESIDING COMMISSIONER DAVIS: Commissioner, any questions?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No.

      

                        Leslie Van Houten- 2007 Parole Hearing transcript

“So, when Beausoleil come to me with, could I be a brother? I told him certainly, you know. So we were like in a little brotherhood together, like we didn't lie to each other. And whatever he said do, I would do. And whatever I said do, he would do.  But as far as lining up someone for some kind of helter skelter trip, you know, that's the District Attorney's motive. That's the only thing he could find for a motive to throw up on top of all that confusion he had. There was no such thing in my mind as helter skelter. Helter skelter was a song and it was a nightclub - we opened up a little after-hours nightclub to make some money and play some music and do some dancing and singing and play some stuff to make some money for dune buggies to go out in the desert. And we called the club Helter Skelter. It was a helter skelter club because we would be there and when the cops would come, we'd all melt into other dimensions because it wasn't licensed to be anything in particular. And that was kind of like a speakeasy back in the moonshine days behind the movie set.”
                         
                       Charles Manson- 1992 Parole Hearing Transcript


“First of all you are misinformed, as is everyone misinformed, about the so called “family.”  There was no organization called “The Family”.  The Family was a term given by the media to an amorphous group of people, some of whom went to prison in 1969. We lived on a ranch in the Santa Susana Mountains called Spahn ranch, and later we lived in Death Valley. We didn’t call ourselves anything, but we made a lot of music and somebody said, “Well what do you call your group?” And somebody said “Well were the family Jams.” So over a period of time, because the media usually needs to put a label on situations, we got the name “The Family”.  But there were literally hundreds of people who came and went. Later on, you might say, there was a core of people who were very close together and stayed true to the thought that we had for stopping the war in Vietnam, and for protecting our air, our water, our trees, and our animals. We were so committed to those causes that the murders more or less evolved out of our desire to change the system.”
       
                          Sandra Good-  Radio interview 1990 W. G.R. Buffalo NY


“Manson has been proclaimed by many to be insane. The question of whether or not he is insane is a question of opinion, which cannot have a “true” right answer. However, his beliefs, which fueled his and his family’s actions between 1968 and 1975 conflicted with society’s morals, around which this country revolves."
" He also believed that he was Satan, to come to Earth and start Helter-Skelter, what he called a prophetical Armageddon.”

" Helter Skelter, revenge were part of his beliefs. Humans had corrupted the Earth and ATWA, and were ignorant about it. Manson had felt that society dumped him and he felt great rage for society, and people, and later found an anthem for his rage. When asked about his actions, many years after the murders, he had said that he is a part of everyone, that he mirrors people, because they shaped him. The Beatles’ “White Album” included songs (Helter Skelter, Revolution #9, Piggies, and others) that Manson felt documented his rage toward society. When at the ranch, he and the family listened to these songs many times over. Manson thought he had heard his name being said in one of the songs. Their thoughts about Helter Skelter, or the Armageddon, were brought out by these songs. In Revolution #9, he heard machine gun fire, the oinking of pigs, and a man saying, “rise.”

"His beliefs would later incite Helter Skelter, using his family as a type of “army.” Some people believe that he just brutalized people, that the murders were for no cause, and he was just insane. Yet, more than twenty-five years after he and his family were convicted, he still has the same beliefs and still can logically explain his actions."

“Manson’s murder case was the most extraordinary of the time period, especially taking into account the hippie era. However, the murders partially stemmed from the era as he had so many people under his control, believing every word, what he thought of turned into a reality. Oliver Stone compliments Manson when describing his interview with Geraldo Rivera, saying that Manson had the upper hand of the discussion the entire time. Intelligence is not one and the same with sanity, however, which might have explained Manson’s retaliation against society. It is of somebody’s opinion to decide whether or not they think Manson is insane. Yet, his mind and motives can explain why he acted how he did, and why society didn’t approve.”
        
         Excerpts from: The Mind and Motives of Charles Manson -An essay by Dylan Klebold     (Columbine High killer)

"So what I am trying to say here is that the Charles Manson murders that happened in 1969 were a phony "show trial" that was created to cover up the Robert Kennedy assassination that took place a year earlier in 1968. I know that is hard to believe "but true.".Earlier you found out that the DAs office in LA altered the "motive" in the Sirhan Sirhan assassination case. How much Bugliosi played a part in this we may never know but during the Tate LaBianca murder trial Bugliosi "definitely" altered the motive while he was chief prosecutor of the case. He hid the Mafia/CIA connections to the case and created a motive where "wild crazed hippies on LSD were killing people at random" Anybody that has ever studied this case can prove that these murders were anything but random. The LAPD right from the start concluded the these murders were high end drug deals gone wrong and they were right all along. This is the first time in our country that people have seen how our Intelligence community were heavily involved in the Tate LaBianca murders."

"I mean you don't have to tell me what happened. I lived in the area at the time and saw the whole thing happen with my own two eyes. When I was in high school there were actually Manson girls going to my school. The rumor on campus was that the Charles Manson murders were some sort of Government operation what was being blamed on Hippies. All of the evidence seems to show that this "rumor" was true."

                 -  Excerpts from- "I was there and saw the whole thing happen"- Mark Carter as posted on Lets Roll Community Forums.

" I call it the Manson trial because nobody talks about it being Charles Watson's massacre. That's the boy who killed seven people, but the news media associates the name Charles Manson [with the killings]. He made the picture on the cover of Life; He is the man that you associate with killing Sharon Tate. Many people don't even know the name Charles Watson, because you're not supposed to know it. Right now there's a hung jury in Los Angeles on the decision of whether Charles Watson is guilty of murdering seven people. He was in the home. He did the stabbing forty times. He wrote "death to the pigs" on the door. The jury can't decide if he was guilty. My conclusions are, number one: that all of these persons involved—the major people—are agent provaceteurs. They come at a time to increase violence, to come down on a segment of our society prior to an election year to make law and order necessary to protect us from the people at large in our society. Number two: Charles Manson was a patsy. He is identical, historically, to Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan, and James Ray. Charles Manson killed nobody in the Sharon Tate home or in the La Bianca home. He was being charged with these murders and he didn't kill any one of those seven people. He was used. He was a person who had been in jail twenty-two of his thirty-two years of life. He was the product of our penal system. He was not a hippie or a part of the youth culture. They bought him a guitar, let his hair grow, put a leather jacket on him, gave him money, gave him a bus and credit cards, and told him to do his thing. It was like James Ray was a part of our penal system. He was in Missouri in jail, he met with certain persons, and the next day he was out and there was twenty, thirty thousand dollars of money spent. He traveled continents and everywhere. He was to be used at a certain time and place. Charles Manson was identical to James Ray, as a product of our penal system. He was used by the news media to slam down on the hippies. We could do one hour on the news control of how your brain is shaped to believe that Charles Manson made a robot out of a nice white Christian boy from Texas. Isn't this terrible? This kind of a criminal mind? He was used.

              -  Mae Brussell Talks about Charles Manson 1972 ( Whatsup- enjoy the journey.blogspot)

" The real motive was to get a brother, Bobby Beausoleil, out of jail by committing “copycat” murders that would convince the authorities that Beausoleil could not be guilty of the murder (of Gary Hinman) for which he had been arrested on August 6, 1969. This motive is much more realistic and has much more circumstantial support than the DA’s fantastic ‘helter skelter’ motive. It’s the real motive. There’s only one thing wrong with it from the prosecutorial point of view: It is not a personal motive for Charles Manson."

                          -  Manson ATWA(r) website


                 
              
                                     So Whats your opinion????