New audio recordings from Charles Manson suggest the infamous Tate and LaBianca murders in 1969 were not orchestrated to ignite a race war, but rather to cover up a series of mistakes and crimes, according to true crime filmmaker Joe Berlinger.
Berlinger, director of the Netflix docuseries “Conversations with a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes,” claims that previously unreleased prison audio reveals a different motive than the long-held “Helter Skelter” theory, which posited Manson’s desire to incite a race war inspired by The Beatles.
"This 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."
Berlinger’s investigation traces the events leading to the murders to a botched drug deal involving members of the Straight Satans motorcycle club and a man named Bernard “Lotsapoppa” Crowe. According to the documentary, Manson follower Tex Watson attempted to steal money from Crowe, who was not a Black Panther as Manson later believed. Manson then shot at Crowe and mistakenly thought he had killed him.
This incident reportedly led to paranoia at Spahn Ranch, where Manson and his followers were living. Manson then directed his followers to commit the murders, initially to help Beausoleil, who had become entangled with the bikers and a music teacher named Gary Hinman.
The Hinman Murder
Gary Hinman was killed after Beausoleil, pressured by the bikers who were unhappy with drugs supplied by Hinman, failed to recover their money. Manson arrived at Hinman’s home and slashed his face with a sword before instructing Beausoleil to