: 247 According to Watkins and Tex Watson, frightened White people would retaliate with a murderous rampage, and militant Black people would exploit it to provoke a war of near-extermination between racist White people and non-racist White people over the treatment of Black people. : 241Īccording to Bugliosi, Black men would thus be deprived of the White women whom the political changes of the 1960s had made sexually available to them and would lash out in violent crimes against White people. He and the Family would create an album with songs whose messages would be as subtle as those he had heard in songs of the Beatles.

: 244 Watkins said the scenario had Manson as the war's ultimate beneficiary and its musical cause. : 244 According to Paul Watkins, Manson's first use of the term was at a gathering of the Family on New Year's Eve 1968 at Myers Ranch near California's Death Valley. : 238–44 Other scenarios besides Helter Skelter exist, with some writers, police detectives, attorneys involved with the case, and perpetrators identifying the Tate–La Bianca murders as either copycat killings, revenge for a bad drug deal, or a combination of two or all three.Īccording to Vincent Bugliosi, Charles Manson had been predicting racial war for some time before he used the term 'Helter Skelter'. : 311 This involved reference to music of the Beatles, particularly songs from their 1968 'White Album', and the New Testament's Book of Revelation.

According to Bugliosi's theory, Manson often spoke to the members of his Family about Helter Skelter in the months leading up to the murders of Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in August 1969, an apocalyptic war arising from racial tensions between Black and White people. Bugliosi described his theory at trial and in his subsequent book Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders.

It is mostly based on the testimony of Paul Watkins, as a motive for the series of murders that were committed by the Manson Family in order to convict Charles Manson of conspiracy to commit murder. The Helter Skelter scenario is a theory put forward by Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor in the Tate–LaBianca murder trial.

What did helter skelter mean