Paul Watkins (Manson Family)
Encyclopedia
Paul Alan Watkins was a member of Charles Manson
’s "Family." In the period leading up to Manson’s trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders, Watkins provided the prosecution with information that clarified the Helter Skelter
motive.
upbringing," the exceptions being, in his own view, a religious orientation and early years spent in Sidon
, Lebanon
, where his father worked on a pipeline.
The move to Lebanon took place when Watkins was an infant. After four years in Lebanon, the Watkins family moved to Beaumont
, Texas
, and then to Thousand Oaks, California
. When Watkins was a child, he enjoyed attending church and hiking in the oak groves near his home.
During his adolescence, Watkins became a Bible
student and was active in youth organizations and church camps. At age 13, he became involved in evangelicalism
, at first because he enjoyed the music and singing. By the time he enrolled in high school, his musical interests had become a "passion"; his religious interests had "waned."
Watkins dropped out of high school
during his senior year, in which school officials distressed by his use of psychedelic
drugs
terminated his stint as student-body president, a position he held in every grade from first through eleventh. Having come to find his studies less interesting than music
and marijuana, he became, as he would later write, "a fugitive flower child
in search of enlightenment and truth." In the same December 1967 week in which he was put on probation
after an arrest
for marijuana possession, two friends of his were returned dead from the Vietnam war
.
in Los Angeles County’s Topanga Canyon, at a house where Manson and several Family members were squatting. Watkins had come to the house to visit a friend who turned out no longer to be living there. After enjoying a candy bar
, root beer
, marijuana, and a night of group sex
, Watkins left.
For Watkins, there followed three-and-a-half months of hippie
desultoriness, most of it spent taking care of a farm that was near Big Sur
and whose owner had picked up the hitchhiking youth before going on to Hawaii
. Watkins returned to the Los Angeles
area, where, at a San Fernando Valley
street corner, he was recognized and picked up in a battered car driven by the same two Manson girls who had greeted him at the door of the Topanga Canyon house. As the girls took him to the Family’s new camp at Spahn’s Movie Ranch
, near Chatsworth
, one of them remarked that Manson was Jesus Christ. It was July 4, 1968.
Watkins remained with the Family and became Manson’s chief lieutenant. On October 31, he set out with the others in the group's school bus to Golar Wash, near Death Valley
. There, over the next few days, Manson set up additional Family bases at two unused (or little-used) ranches, Myers and Barker.
. For some time, Manson had been predicting blacks would rise up in rebellion in America's cities. Now, he explained that The Beatles
, too, were making that prediction, on their then-new White Album
. More than that, the musical group wanted Manson and the Family to create an album of their own, to trigger the predicted events:
Before long, Manson had moved the Family to a Canoga Park house where they undertook preparations for Helter Skelter, the prophesied conflict whose name Manson had taken from a White Album
song. They worked on music for their intended album and began preparing dune buggies and other vehicles for their escape to Death Valley
, where, according to the complete version of the prophecy, they would survive the America-ravaging war.
Watkins took the prophecy seriously enough. One day, as he looked out a window of the Canoga Park house, he wondered to himself whether the violence of Helter Skelter would reach the Family. Indeed, it was apparently his fear that the Family was lingering too long in the soon-to-be-war-torn Los Angeles
area that prompted him, in late June 1969, to ask Manson when the group would be leaving for the desert. Manson assured him Helter Skelter was "ready to happen." "[I]t’s gotta happen soon," Manson said, adding, with a wink, that the Family might have "to show blackie how to do it."
camps, Watkins embraced the opportunity to get away. At the same time, he was unsure whether to sever himself from the commune
. "[M]y insides were tied to Charlie and the Family in ways I hadn’t begun to sort out."
At Barker Ranch, Watkins came under the influence of one Paul Crockett, a middle-aged prospector
who, with metaphysical musings of his own, had begun to influence a male Family member and female Family member who had been left to watch the desert camp. Returning briefly to Spahn Ranch, Watkins changed his relationship with Manson by using a suggestion by Crockett. He asked that Manson "[release him of all his] agreements."
Within a few days, Watkins had settled in at Barker, with Crockett and the others. About a month later, on August 9, 1969, the group saw a television broadcast while they were in Kingman
, Arizona
, with plans to do some mining there. The news was of the Tate murders, which had taken place in Los Angeles overnight. "Wouldn’t it be somethin’ if old Charlie did that," said Crockett, whom Watkins and the others had made aware of Helter Skelter. Though chilled by the remark, Watkins dismissed it as a bad joke.
The next day, in a Las Vegas
newspaper report of the LaBianca murders, which, again, had taken place overnight, Watkins saw that police
were dismissing a connection between the two sets of murders and that a suspect
in the Tate murders was already in custody
. (The suspect was William Garretson, a youth who was employed as caretaker of the property where the Tate murders took place and who happened to have been the only person found alive on the premises the morning after the killings. By August 11, having been effectively dismissed as a suspect, he was released from custody.) The story did not indicate that the words "Healter [sic] Skelter" had been written in LaBianca blood at the crime site, that information not having leaked to the press.
Watkins continued to vacillate. He played music with the Family, had initially preserved a sexual relationship with one of the Family girls, and declined to dismiss Helter Skelter. But when, for instance, Manson asked him to join the efforts to find the entry to the underground hideaway in which the Family was supposedly to survive the cataclysm, he declined to do so. Even after Watkins helped two of the Family girls leave the area, the relationship with Manson survived, though the incident resulted in Manson’s threatening Watkins with a knife and a pistol.
A breaking-point arrived on a night when Manson sneaked on his hands and knees into the Barker Ranch bunkhouse; outside were Bruce Davis and Tex Watson, both of whom would ultimately be convicted of murders that, at that time, they had already committed under Manson’s direction. Although Manson was humiliated when Crockett, Watkins, and the two other defectors awoke before he could do anything, the four evidently concluded things were getting even more dangerous than they had been theretofore. The three other than Watkins soon left Barker Ranch. Before long, Watkins had joined two of them in the office of the local deputy sheriff.
and other charges that had no apparent connection with the murders. By the middle of November, Manson and Family members had become suspects in the Tate-LaBianca killings. The solving of the case was announced by LAPD
at the beginning of December.
By Christmas
time, Watkins had told the Los Angeles
District Attorney
’s office what he knew of the Family’s activities. He related a Manson admission
, made to him shortly after the Family had moved to the desert, of participation in the killing of Spahn ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea, murdered not long after the Tate-LaBianca crimes. Even so, the tie between Watkins and the Family was unbroken. Watkins visited Manson at the Los Angeles County jail
and moved in with Family members at a house in Van Nuys. He continued to visit Manson and acted as messenger between Manson and Manson’s female co-defendants. Moreover, he assumed quasi-leadership of the Family’s remnant.
Around the end of March 1970, Watkins split with Family members, in a blowup between a trio of Manson girls and him. This occurred at Spahn Ranch, to which the group had returned. The girls had learned of statements that Watkins had made to law officers and that Manson’s lawyer had obtained through an inevitable motion
for discovery
. Told he was a "Judas
," Watkins walked out. Later that night, he was badly burned in a fire that broke out in a Volkswagen
van
in which he was sleeping. He was "unsure of the origin of the blaze," which could have been caused by a candle he’d been using to read or a marijuana cigarette he’d been smoking before he fell asleep. A Family member would later claim to have set the blaze.
In May, after he had healed, Watkins decided he would testify against Manson. His decision was occasioned by a threat
delivered from Manson via Family members: "Charlie says when he gets out, you better not be around the desert."
. The testimony of Watkins and one of the other male defectors traced the growth of Manson's view of Helter Skelter
from a vague vision to an inspiration for crime. Most importantly, details provided by Watkins in the period leading up to the trial enabled the prosecution to understand Manson’s stake, so to say, in the war the killings were intended to trigger. The details made clear that, in its complete form, the vision ended with Manson and the Family as the lone existing whites, presiding over blacks whose antipathy to whites would have been discharged in the gruesome conflict. At war’s end, Charles Manson
, reform-school
boy and convicted criminal
, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio
, would rule the world.
. In addition, he lectured on cult
psychology and effects of substance abuse
.
In the 1973 documentary film
Manson
, Watkins appeared (as himself). The film featured music composed and performed by him and Brooks Poston, the other Family defector who testified against Manson. For a period, Watkins and Poston performed music in clubs in the Inyo County area, Inyo County being the location of the desert ranches to which Watkins first came with Manson.
, Watkins appeared on CNN
’s Larry King Live
. The segment was hosted by Maureen Reagan
. During the interview
, a woman identifying herself as "Jenny," called in and conversed with Watkins and Reagan. Jenny said she had begun living with the Family "about six months after the murders." Watkins recognized the caller and questioned the direction of her remarks ("I mean where are we going with this?"). In My Life with Charles Manson, the 1979 book Watkins co-authored with Guillermo Soledad, he had spoken of "Ginny," a girl who was new to the Family around February 1970, and with whom, on the suggestion of Family member Squeaky Fromme
, he had acted to slip LSD
to Family member Bruce Davis, during the latter’s trial at that time for auto theft. This conspiratorial activity had taken place before the decision by Watkins to testify against Manson.
. He was the unofficial mayor
of Tecopa, a small Death Valley
town, where he lived with his second wife and their two daughters.
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
’s "Family." In the period leading up to Manson’s trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders, Watkins provided the prosecution with information that clarified the Helter Skelter
Helter Skelter (Manson scenario)
The murders perpetrated by members of Charles Manson's "Family" were inspired in part by Manson's prediction of Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic war he believed would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites...
motive.
Background
By his own account, Paul Watkins lived "a pretty standard middle-class AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
upbringing," the exceptions being, in his own view, a religious orientation and early years spent in Sidon
Sidon
Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, where his father worked on a pipeline.
The move to Lebanon took place when Watkins was an infant. After four years in Lebanon, the Watkins family moved to Beaumont
Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and then to Thousand Oaks, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. When Watkins was a child, he enjoyed attending church and hiking in the oak groves near his home.
During his adolescence, Watkins became a Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
student and was active in youth organizations and church camps. At age 13, he became involved in evangelicalism
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
, at first because he enjoyed the music and singing. By the time he enrolled in high school, his musical interests had become a "passion"; his religious interests had "waned."
Watkins dropped out of high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
during his senior year, in which school officials distressed by his use of psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
drugs
DRUGS
Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...
terminated his stint as student-body president, a position he held in every grade from first through eleventh. Having come to find his studies less interesting than music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and marijuana, he became, as he would later write, "a fugitive flower child
Flower child
Flower child originated as a synonym for hippie, especially the idealistic young people who gathered in San Francisco and environs during the 1967 Summer of Love. It was the custom of "flower children" to wear and distribute flowers or floral-themed decorations to symbolize altruistic ideals of...
in search of enlightenment and truth." In the same December 1967 week in which he was put on probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
after an arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
for marijuana possession, two friends of his were returned dead from the Vietnam war
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Joining the Family
On March 16, 1968, several months after his departure from high school, Watkins met Charles MansonCharles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
in Los Angeles County’s Topanga Canyon, at a house where Manson and several Family members were squatting. Watkins had come to the house to visit a friend who turned out no longer to be living there. After enjoying a candy bar
Candy bar
A chocolate bar is a confection in bar form comprising some or all of the following components: cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, milk. The relative presence or absence of these components form the subclasses of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. In addition to these main...
, root beer
Root beer
Root beer is a carbonated, sweetened beverage, originally made using the root of a sassafras plant as the primary flavor. Root beer, popularized in North America, comes in two forms: alcoholic and soft drink. The historical root beer was analogous to small beer in that the process provided a drink...
, marijuana, and a night of group sex
Group sex
Group sex is sexual behavior involving more than two participants. Group sex can occur amongst people of all sexual orientations and genders...
, Watkins left.
For Watkins, there followed three-and-a-half months of hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
desultoriness, most of it spent taking care of a farm that was near Big Sur
Big Sur
Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...
and whose owner had picked up the hitchhiking youth before going on to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. Watkins returned to the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area, where, at a San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
street corner, he was recognized and picked up in a battered car driven by the same two Manson girls who had greeted him at the door of the Topanga Canyon house. As the girls took him to the Family’s new camp at Spahn’s Movie Ranch
Spahn Ranch
Spahn Ranch, also known as the Spahn Movie Ranch, was a movie ranch used for filming generally Western-themed movies and television programs. With mountainous terrain, boulder-strewn scenery, and an 'old Western town' set, Spahn Ranch was a versatile filming site for many scripts...
, near Chatsworth
Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California
Chatsworth is a district of Los Angeles, California, United States; in the northwestern San Fernando Valley. The district is bordered by the Santa Susana Mountains and unincorporated Los Angeles County lands to the north, Porter Ranch to the northeast, Northridge to the east, West Hills, Canoga...
, one of them remarked that Manson was Jesus Christ. It was July 4, 1968.
Watkins remained with the Family and became Manson’s chief lieutenant. On October 31, he set out with the others in the group's school bus to Golar Wash, near Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
. There, over the next few days, Manson set up additional Family bases at two unused (or little-used) ranches, Myers and Barker.
War foretold
On New Year’s Eve, 1968, Watkins was around the Family campfire at Myers Ranch when Manson delivered the Helter Skelter prophecyProphecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
. For some time, Manson had been predicting blacks would rise up in rebellion in America's cities. Now, he explained that The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, too, were making that prediction, on their then-new White Album
The Beatles (album)
The Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed on its plain white sleeve.The album was written and recorded during a...
. More than that, the musical group wanted Manson and the Family to create an album of their own, to trigger the predicted events:
- Are you hip to what the Beatles are saying?… Dig it, they’re telling it like it is. They know what’s happening in the city; blackie is getting ready. They put the revolution to music… it’s ‘Helter-Skelter.’ Helter-Skelter is coming down. Hey, their album is getting the young love [America’s youth] ready, man, building up steam. Our album is going to pop the cork right out of the bottle.
Before long, Manson had moved the Family to a Canoga Park house where they undertook preparations for Helter Skelter, the prophesied conflict whose name Manson had taken from a White Album
The Beatles (album)
The Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed on its plain white sleeve.The album was written and recorded during a...
song. They worked on music for their intended album and began preparing dune buggies and other vehicles for their escape to Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
, where, according to the complete version of the prophecy, they would survive the America-ravaging war.
Watkins took the prophecy seriously enough. One day, as he looked out a window of the Canoga Park house, he wondered to himself whether the violence of Helter Skelter would reach the Family. Indeed, it was apparently his fear that the Family was lingering too long in the soon-to-be-war-torn Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area that prompted him, in late June 1969, to ask Manson when the group would be leaving for the desert. Manson assured him Helter Skelter was "ready to happen." "[I]t’s gotta happen soon," Manson said, adding, with a wink, that the Family might have "to show blackie how to do it."
Indecision
Manson's remark disturbed Watkins, who had no trouble recognizing it as an indication the Family would be undertaking murders. When Manson instructed him to transport supplies to the desertDesert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
camps, Watkins embraced the opportunity to get away. At the same time, he was unsure whether to sever himself from the commune
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
. "[M]y insides were tied to Charlie and the Family in ways I hadn’t begun to sort out."
At Barker Ranch, Watkins came under the influence of one Paul Crockett, a middle-aged prospector
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
who, with metaphysical musings of his own, had begun to influence a male Family member and female Family member who had been left to watch the desert camp. Returning briefly to Spahn Ranch, Watkins changed his relationship with Manson by using a suggestion by Crockett. He asked that Manson "[release him of all his] agreements."
Within a few days, Watkins had settled in at Barker, with Crockett and the others. About a month later, on August 9, 1969, the group saw a television broadcast while they were in Kingman
Kingman, Arizona
Kingman is located in a desert climate on the edge of the Mojave Desert, but its higher elevation and location between the Colorado Plateau and the Lower Colorado River Valley tempers summer high temperatures and contributes to winter cold and rare snowfall. Summer daytime highs reach above 90 °F ...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, with plans to do some mining there. The news was of the Tate murders, which had taken place in Los Angeles overnight. "Wouldn’t it be somethin’ if old Charlie did that," said Crockett, whom Watkins and the others had made aware of Helter Skelter. Though chilled by the remark, Watkins dismissed it as a bad joke.
The next day, in a Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
newspaper report of the LaBianca murders, which, again, had taken place overnight, Watkins saw that police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
were dismissing a connection between the two sets of murders and that a suspect
Suspect
In the parlance of criminal justice, a suspect is a known person suspected of committing a crime.Police and reporters often incorrectly use the word suspect when referring to the...
in the Tate murders was already in custody
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
. (The suspect was William Garretson, a youth who was employed as caretaker of the property where the Tate murders took place and who happened to have been the only person found alive on the premises the morning after the killings. By August 11, having been effectively dismissed as a suspect, he was released from custody.) The story did not indicate that the words "Healter [sic] Skelter" had been written in LaBianca blood at the crime site, that information not having leaked to the press.
Vacillation
Within weeks of the murders, Manson and the Family members had come to Golar Wash, which they began fortifying for Helter Skelter, history’s grand finale. For a month, Manson, situated at Myers Ranch, vied with Crockett for psychological sway over the Family members who had come into the prospector’s orbit. Manson deployed his women as sexual lures, undertook intimidating visits in which he and others would fire shotguns on the Barker Ranch property, and jousted with Crockett in abstract discussions. A third male Family member came to Crockett’s side, while the female Family member he’d influenced had left the area with a friend of his, whom she promptly married.Watkins continued to vacillate. He played music with the Family, had initially preserved a sexual relationship with one of the Family girls, and declined to dismiss Helter Skelter. But when, for instance, Manson asked him to join the efforts to find the entry to the underground hideaway in which the Family was supposedly to survive the cataclysm, he declined to do so. Even after Watkins helped two of the Family girls leave the area, the relationship with Manson survived, though the incident resulted in Manson’s threatening Watkins with a knife and a pistol.
A breaking-point arrived on a night when Manson sneaked on his hands and knees into the Barker Ranch bunkhouse; outside were Bruce Davis and Tex Watson, both of whom would ultimately be convicted of murders that, at that time, they had already committed under Manson’s direction. Although Manson was humiliated when Crockett, Watkins, and the two other defectors awoke before he could do anything, the four evidently concluded things were getting even more dangerous than they had been theretofore. The three other than Watkins soon left Barker Ranch. Before long, Watkins had joined two of them in the office of the local deputy sheriff.
Choice to testify
In the second week of October 1969, right after Watkins left Golar Wash, the ranches were raided by law enforcement. Manson and others were arrested on vehicle theftMotor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle...
and other charges that had no apparent connection with the murders. By the middle of November, Manson and Family members had become suspects in the Tate-LaBianca killings. The solving of the case was announced by LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
at the beginning of December.
By Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
time, Watkins had told the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
’s office what he knew of the Family’s activities. He related a Manson admission
Admission (law)
An admission in the law of evidence is a prior statement by an adverse party which can be admitted into evidence over a hearsay objection. In general, admissions are admissible in criminal and civil cases.At common law, admissions were admissible...
, made to him shortly after the Family had moved to the desert, of participation in the killing of Spahn ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea, murdered not long after the Tate-LaBianca crimes. Even so, the tie between Watkins and the Family was unbroken. Watkins visited Manson at the Los Angeles County jail
Jail
A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...
and moved in with Family members at a house in Van Nuys. He continued to visit Manson and acted as messenger between Manson and Manson’s female co-defendants. Moreover, he assumed quasi-leadership of the Family’s remnant.
Around the end of March 1970, Watkins split with Family members, in a blowup between a trio of Manson girls and him. This occurred at Spahn Ranch, to which the group had returned. The girls had learned of statements that Watkins had made to law officers and that Manson’s lawyer had obtained through an inevitable motion
Motion (legal)
In law, a motion is a procedural device to bring a limited, contested issue before a court for decision. A motion may be thought of as a request to the judge to make a decision about the case. Motions may be made at any point in administrative, criminal or civil proceedings, although that right is...
for discovery
Discovery (law)
In U.S.law, discovery is the pre-trial phase in a lawsuit in which each party, through the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from the opposing party by means of discovery devices including requests for answers to interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for...
. Told he was a "Judas
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
," Watkins walked out. Later that night, he was badly burned in a fire that broke out in a Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
van
Van
A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...
in which he was sleeping. He was "unsure of the origin of the blaze," which could have been caused by a candle he’d been using to read or a marijuana cigarette he’d been smoking before he fell asleep. A Family member would later claim to have set the blaze.
In May, after he had healed, Watkins decided he would testify against Manson. His decision was occasioned by a threat
Threat
Threat of force in public international law is a situation between states described by British lawyer Ian Brownlie as:The 1969 Vienna convention on the Law of Treaties notes in its preamble that both the threat and the use of force are prohibited...
delivered from Manson via Family members: "Charlie says when he gets out, you better not be around the desert."
Importance of the testimony
Watkins testified against Manson in October 1970, some months into the trial in which Manson was ultimately found guilty of the murdersCharles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
. The testimony of Watkins and one of the other male defectors traced the growth of Manson's view of Helter Skelter
Helter Skelter (Manson scenario)
The murders perpetrated by members of Charles Manson's "Family" were inspired in part by Manson's prediction of Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic war he believed would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites...
from a vague vision to an inspiration for crime. Most importantly, details provided by Watkins in the period leading up to the trial enabled the prosecution to understand Manson’s stake, so to say, in the war the killings were intended to trigger. The details made clear that, in its complete form, the vision ended with Manson and the Family as the lone existing whites, presiding over blacks whose antipathy to whites would have been discharged in the gruesome conflict. At war’s end, Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
, reform-school
Reform school
A reform school in the United States was a term used to define, often somewhat euphemistically, what was often essentially a penal institution for boys, generally teenagers.-History:...
boy and convicted criminal
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, would rule the world.
Later life
Watkins went on to become the founder and first president of the Death Valley Chamber of CommerceChamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
. In addition, he lectured on cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
psychology and effects of substance abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
.
In the 1973 documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Manson
Manson (film)
Manson is a 1973 documentary film directed by Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick. It deals with the "Manson family" and has many interviews with the members of the group, including Charles Manson, "Squeaky" Fromme, and Sandra Good...
, Watkins appeared (as himself). The film featured music composed and performed by him and Brooks Poston, the other Family defector who testified against Manson. For a period, Watkins and Poston performed music in clubs in the Inyo County area, Inyo County being the location of the desert ranches to which Watkins first came with Manson.
CNN Interview
In 1989, after he had been diagnosed with cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, Watkins appeared on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
’s Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
. The segment was hosted by Maureen Reagan
Maureen Reagan
Maureen Elizabeth Reagan was the first child of former President Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman...
. During the interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
, a woman identifying herself as "Jenny," called in and conversed with Watkins and Reagan. Jenny said she had begun living with the Family "about six months after the murders." Watkins recognized the caller and questioned the direction of her remarks ("I mean where are we going with this?"). In My Life with Charles Manson, the 1979 book Watkins co-authored with Guillermo Soledad, he had spoken of "Ginny," a girl who was new to the Family around February 1970, and with whom, on the suggestion of Family member Squeaky Fromme
Lynette Fromme
Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme is an American member of the Manson Family. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975...
, he had acted to slip LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
to Family member Bruce Davis, during the latter’s trial at that time for auto theft. This conspiratorial activity had taken place before the decision by Watkins to testify against Manson.
Death
Watkins died in 1990, of leukemiaLeukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. He was the unofficial mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Tecopa, a small Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
town, where he lived with his second wife and their two daughters.