1969: The Manson Family Kills to Ignite an Apocalyptic Race War
In the early hours of 9 August 1969, members of Charles Manson’s Family carried out the Tate murders at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, leaving five dead. The killings were the first act in what Manson called Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic race war he had been prophesying since at least New Year’s Eve 1968, drawing on the Book of Revelation and the Beatles’ 1968 White Album. Manson believed the murders, staged to look like the work of Black militants, would ignite a war between the races from which the Family would emerge as rulers.
At trial, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi used the testimony of Family member Paul Watkins to reconstruct the vision in full. Bugliosi later detailed the case in his 1974 book, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. Manson and three co-defendants were convicted on all charges of conspiracy and murder, though some writers, detectives, and even participants have since argued the killings were also driven by copycat motives or revenge for a bad drug deal.
