Filmmaker Joe Berlinger is challenging the long-held narrative that Charles Manson orchestrated the infamous 1969 murders to incite a race war, a motive popularized by the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter." Berlinger's three-part Netflix docuseries, "Conversations with a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes," utilizes previously unreleased prison audio from Manson and his followers to present an alternative theory: the killings were a desperate attempt to cover up a series of blunders, beginning with a drug deal gone wrong.
"The whole idea of starting a race war was a false idea," Berlinger told Fox News Digital. "He certainly believed a race war was coming, or at least that's what he told his followers to control them. But the murders, in particular the Tate and LaBianca murders, were an attempt to get associate Bobby Beausoleil out of prison."
According to the documentary's account, the chain of events leading to the murders began when Manson follower Tex Watson attempted to steal money from a drug dealer named Bernard “Lotsapoppa” Crowe. Manson then shot at Crowe, mistakenly believing he had killed him. Crowe was not a member of the Black Panthers, a group Manson reportedly feared.
This perceived threat from the Black Panthers led Manson to invite members of the Straight Satans motorcycle club to Spahn Ranch, his commune, for protection. In exchange, he offered them access to his female followers. The bikers, however, became dissatisfied with a drug supply provided by Beausoleil, which he had obtained from musician Gary Hinman. Beausoleil was pressured to recover the money from Hinman.
During a confrontation at Hinman's home, Manson arrived and cut Hinman's face with a sword. Hinman was subsequently tortured by Manson's followers, and Beausoleil ultimately stabbed him to death. Beausoleil then wrote "Political Piggy" on a wall in Hinman's blood, along with an animal paw print, in an apparent attempt to frame the Black Panthers.
Beausoleil was arrested shortly after Hinman's body was discovered, driving Hinman’s car with the murder weapon inside. Berlinger suggests Manson wanted police to believe Hinman’s murder was carried out by the Black Panthers to divert suspicion from Beausoleil. He argues this attempt to free Beausoleil became the catalyst for the subsequent murders.
On August 9, 1969, Manson's followers murdered five people at the Los Angeles home of actress Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant. The victims included Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent. The motive, as presented by prosecutors, was to stage a murder that would be blamed on the Black Panthers, thereby attempting to frame them and cover up Beausoleil’s involvement.
When the Tate murders did not appear in newspapers as linked to the Black Panthers, Manson's followers committed another murder the following night. Wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary LaBianca, were stabbed to death in their home. "Pigs" and the misspelled phrase "Healter Skelter" were scrawled in blood at the scene.
Berlinger contends that the "Helter Skelter" narrative, largely propelled by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's 1974 bestselling book of the same name, was a brilliant legal strategy but ultimately a false portrayal. "The Manson murders are much more tragic, but much more banal than this idea of some crazy cult trying to start a race war," Berlinger stated.
Manson and three followers—Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten—were convicted and sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison. Charles "Tex" Watson was also convicted. Atkins died in prison in 2009. Van Houten was paroled in 2023. Krenwinkel and Watson remain incarcerated. Manson died in prison in 2017 at age 83.
"This was a drug deal gone bad, trying to cover up Gary Hinman’s killing by doing another murder the next day to make it look like a copycat murder, which were the Tate murders," Berlinger explained. "And when that murder didn’t hit newspapers like a Black Panther murder, they did the LaBianca murders. It’s a series of blunders by people who were trying to cover their tracks, not this grand scheme of 'Helter Skelter.'"