These pictures are in the 1961 Farmersville HS yearbook. Everyone of the pictures was signed by Charles and I'm also including the inscription he wrote to the yearbook's owner.
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| Tex is all the way to the right. |
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| Tex is in the bottom row, third from the left. |
I looked at Tex's yearbook picture and felt chills. It is like he already knew he was going to do "the devil's business" and was relishing it. But if I looked at this picture without knowing what Tex did, would I see something complete different-would he have looked merely mischevious? Did he get corrupted before he even set foot in California? Was it totally the drugs at the time or the influence of Manson? Was the experience with Manson so total that it took over his whole life or were the seeds planted long before then?
ReplyDeleteHe looks naughty
DeleteTex was the youngest of three children and had an overbearing mother. He really did not make decisions for himself, his mother made them for him. It wasn't until he went to college that he began to think for himself and having little experience he made bad choices. In some respects it's not surprising that he would look to Manson for guidance since he was use to someone telling him what he should be doing. However he was raised to know right from wrong.
ReplyDeleteI’m no psych but would imagine a psych would say that Tex’s stabbing was probably killing the mother influence inside him- every one of these kids was vulnerable in some way or another, it’s why they were on the streets.
ReplyDeletePersonally, (and we’ve had the whole nature vs nurture discussion before) don’t believe most are capable of murder unless they’re predisposed to it.
There’s a reason most cops miss what they shoot at- and for anyone who doubts this, check out the book “On Killing” by Dave Grossman. Humans in general, have an aversion to killing.
Did anybody besides me get an odd feeling seeing that yearbook ad for "Cello-Wrap Printing Company"? I don't know about you, but "Cello" and "Ceilo" (as in Drive) sound weirdly similar. Maybe I've spent too long (nearly 35 years) studying and thinking about this whole story, but that, to me, has the appearance of foreshadowing.
ReplyDeleteAnd at the bottom of the samr page, the guy - obviously supposed to be Tex - climbing through the window.
DeleteHe looked like such a typical Texas beef-fed kid. What a shame the direction his life took just a few short years later.
ReplyDeleteYeah. They're hicks, Rita.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFgpsHrGvWY
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of how real all of this stuff is. I keep looking at the faces of those kids next to him who, now, must be horrified 70-somethings. I think of different people I knew who have gone way downhill and when I remember them as kids. I cannot imagine how they could have turned. I came from a small town too, and I am sure Tex must have urband legend status. Scary campfire stories told about him and such, if they talk about him at all. Creepy.
ReplyDeletePeople go downhill, that's true. And Watson went about as far downhill as one can go. The guy just exudes evil
ReplyDeleteI found that there were three more pictures of Tex in the yearbook and have added them to the post.
ReplyDeleteChris said...
ReplyDelete"The guy just exudes evil."
IMO the guy exudes absolute normalcy. Bruce Davis too. BB's still exudes a little shiftiness, and Charlie exuded a malevolent sneakiness.
Strange how Sharon was born in Texas too, as were her parents. PS: Not everyone in Texas is a hick!
ReplyDeleteIn these pics he reminds me of actor Jerry O'Connell of Jerry McGwire and Stand By Me
ReplyDeleteI don't like the way he's looking at me in that 2nd pic.
ReplyDeleteMakes me want to go clean my guns.
Bobby Beausoleil’s parole hearing was moved to today, I vote a big ole... No!
ReplyDeleteBobby says "And if you’re going to dance, you’ve got to pay the fiddler."
ReplyDeleteThe fiddlers want their money Bobby, the fiddlers want their money again today.
xreles said...
ReplyDeleteBobby Beausoleil’s parole hearing was moved to today, I vote a big ole... No!
Not sure if the hearing will actually happen. I went to the parole hearing schedule for January 2019 and the hearing dates begin on January 7th.
https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/BOPH/docs/Hearing_Schedules_2019/hearing_sched_0119.pdf
Looks like Bobby was granted parole.....now for that next hurdle....that pesky Jerry Brown guy......
ReplyDeleteThese pictures brought back some weird feelings and memories - thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteI went to high school with a guy who was considered a borderline-"genius" ... incredible student with tons of potential, and often the HS teachers' pet who would have been voted "most likely to succeed in life."
Like many of us '60s kids (me too) he got into curious, relatively-harmless experimentation with drugs around age 16-17 (mostly weed) and by age 18 was dropping acid, doing speed, etc. but was still a decent guy with a lot of potential.
Then when he was 19, sitting in the back of a van, he/they thought they were going to get pulled over by a cop on a highway in another state, and they were "holding" a lot of illegal stuff that would make for a serious bust.
This kid ate an entire baggie of strong acid tabs to avoid getting busted. He went "berserk" (no kidding) and was never the same again. He didn't even look the same after that - his face literally "changed." Everything about him changed for the worst, in a very short time. (disclaimer: This is not intended to be an anti-acid / anti-drug rant). After that, he never returned to school, and couldn't even hold any type of job. Things went downhill from there.
Today he sits in USP Coleman II prison, in Sumter County, Florida in solitary confinement for murder(s) including the murder of a fellow inmate, and will never see the sun or freedom again.
The kid I knew in high school is not even close to being or even looking (unlike Tex) like the person he is today.
I wonder: if you interviewed many of the other kids in these pictures if they wouldn't say some of the same things about the "Charles" they knew as a high school freshman and the "Tex" they later read about in the press,
though imo the Charles in these pictures still looks a lot like Spahn's Tex and even the Charles Watson of today.
Maybe what I'm wondering is: does this mean that what happened to Tex, given the circumstances (including both Charlie and heavy drug use (LSD, speed) entering his life)
could happen to a lot of people? And I wonder what Tex would say? (if you could believe he was being honest and wasn't running a "con")
Anyway, again thanks for the pictures.
https://radaronline.com/exclusives/2019/01/charles-manson-family-killer-robert-bobby-beausoleil-parole-granted-helter-skelter-murder-crimes-sharon-tate-gary-himan/
ReplyDeleteThanks Debs
ReplyDeleteLookout California
The new governor will decide his fate. I think that will likely be ‘no’.
ReplyDeleteActually I almost forgot......it won't be Jerry Brown; it'll be Gavin Newsom who will decide. He's a lot younger and was just a toddler during the Helter Skelter era. Beausoleil and Van Houten may have a chance.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell did BB do RIGHT this time?? Everything in the past was negative on his hearings.
ReplyDeleteI don't think those phone parole hearings from Oregon did him any favors. Seeing an elderly man instead of hearing a cocky narccist probably helped. He's been his own worst enemy but I say he's paid for the crime. Not many murderers with one victim do 50 years especially in California. Having been in prison a few years I personally would have asked for the death penalty over decades of prison.Hes been punished severely. Not minimizing his crime by any means but he's done triple what most in simaliar cases do.
DeleteI wonder if Leslie is thinking, "If they let me and Bobby out, we can finally be together."
ReplyDeleteunknown said: I don't think those phone parole hearings from Oregon did him any favors. Seeing an elderly man instead of hearing a cocky narccist probably helped. He's been his own worst enemy but I say he's paid for the crime. Not many murderers with one victim do 50 years especially in California. Having been in prison a few years I personally would have asked for the death penalty over decades of prison.Hes been punished severely. Not minimizing his crime by any means but he's done triple what most in simaliar cases do
ReplyDeleteI agree. If the Hinman murder had not been connected to the Manson Family, Bobby would have been out many years ago. However, the thing that always bugged me about this killing is that Gary and Bobby were sort of friends and Gary helped him with a place to stay many times.
Totally agree. It was a heartless crime. No excuses. He's definitely all about himself. Some sort of personality disorder for sure. I see both sides. I seriously doubt he poses a threat to anyone today. Nothing will bring Hinman back. It's a tough desicion. Here in Maine life is life. You did in prison. But California has parole if he's found eligible after decades then I say he should get out.
DeleteBy DON THOMPSON | The Associated Press
ReplyDeleteSACRAMENTO — A California parole panel on Thursday recommended for the first time that Charles Manson follower Robert Beausoleil be freed after serving nearly a half-century in prison for murder.
Robert Kenneth Beausoleil. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP)
Beausoleil, 71, was not involved in the most notorious killings, of actress Sharon Tate and six others by the Manson “family” in 1969. He was convicted in the slaying of musician Gary Hinman that same year.
Hinman was tortured for three days, according to testimony at previous parole hearings, including when Manson cut his face with a sword.
Parole panels ruled against releasing Beausoleil 18 prior times.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which has opposed such paroles, did not respond to a request for comment.
Gary Hinman’s cousin, Kay Hinman Martley, who attended Thursday’s hearing, said Beausoleil was already lucky once when his death sentence in 1970 was reduced to life in prison by an appeals court in 1973.
“I constantly have hope that they’ll do the right thing and keep these people in prison, and now my hopes have to go with the governor,” she said, adding she plans to reach out to Newsom to tell him “this man does not belong outside the walls of prison.”
Beausoleil’s attorney, Jason Campbell, said his client is no longer dangerous and that his release “is long overdue.”
“He is a very thoughtful, insightful and compassionate person. He’s not the person he was in 1969,” Campbell said. “He’s matured dramatically since then.”
Beausoleil spent 1994 to 2015 at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem after marrying an Oregon woman. He fathered four children with her and was transferred back to California after her death.
He currently resides in the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.
Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, who also attended the hearing, said she will mount a social media petition drive so parole opponents can “make their feelings known to Gov.-elect Newsom, because he has a tendency to be very liberal. Without public opinion weighing in on this, there is no hope.”
She objected that Beausoleil keeps breaking prison rules by profiting from selling his art and music outside of prison. Beausoleil was an aspiring musician and actor before he joined the Manson family.
Newsom spokesman Nathan Click did not respond to a request for comment.
Hinman was a three-day torture murder. It will be hard to let him out while still arguing that Leslie stays put based solely on the heinous nature of her crime.
ReplyDeleteHow in the world did that happen when BB hasn't ever been honest about the murder? I don't agree with that at all.
ReplyDeleteThe new governor, Gavin Newsom, has aspirations of becoming president one day. His name has been proffered as possible democrat candidate in the past. I don't think that having the release of any of the Family members on his resume would do him any good and I'm sure he knows that. I doubt that he will allow Bobby to be released.
ReplyDelete