“Manson’s Right-Hand Man Speaks Out” by Charles “Tex” Watson: A Review

Or Tex Watson Puts His Spin on Helter Skelter

Since reading Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry at the age of eleven, the winding and disturbing story of the Manson crimes has stuck with me. This interest not only led me to read many other true crime books over the years and honed an interest in psychology but also to re-reads of this grandfather of the true crime genre on a regular basis.

If you have read Helter Skelter, you will quickly recognize Charles “Tex” Watson as the personal executioner of seven people on the nights of August 8 and 9, 1969. If you have kept current on the post-sentencing lives of the incarcerated Manson Family members, you will also know that Watson alleges to have become a born-again Christian, started his own ministry while in prison as well as marrying and fathering children. Yes, after butchering an eight-months pregnant woman begging for her life and the life of her child, this individual was allowed to become a father himself.

So why would anyone be interested in reading what this murderer has to say? I can only answer for myself but as a continuing student of abnormal psychology and true crime, I am always willing to open another book on the Tate-LaBianca murders. Oh, and it was free for my Kindle.

So let’s talk about this “book”, or truthfully, answers to questions submitted to Watson by an investigative journalist. If you’re looking for Watson to take any accountability for his horrific crimes, you won’t get it here. Ever the con man, he places the blame for the vicious murders on Manson, on drugs, on alcohol, on the times, even on rock and roll music. Basically on anyone but himself. And while I do think that the crimes wouldn’t have happened without Manson, I can hardly keep a straight face and accept that Flower Power played any part whatsoever in the brutal and senseless butchering of people.

While the crimes themselves are questioned (naturally), Watson gives little input other than the aforesaid placing of blame. He claims to be sorry, so, so sorry, for the pain and grief he caused but has no good reason for why he has chosen to not…