You Must Remember Manson · Karina Longworth

E9: August 8-10, 1969

November 20, 2017·48 min·4 clips

The moment Manson learned Bobby Beausoleil was jailed — and decided to unleash Helter Skelter.

The host begins with dread. Karina Longworth says this is the installment where Charles Manson and about a quarter of his followers begin to become murderers. August 8th is the break point. Manson returns to Spahn Ranch and learns Bobby Beausoleil is in jail for Gary Hinneman's murder. His reaction mixes anger, fear, and calculation. Charlie thinks Bobby may say anything if it helps him get free, and that thought becomes an order. The episode then tightens around Cielo Drive. At the end of the long driveway, Tex tells Linda, Susan, and Pat they are to kill everyone inside. This is news to them. Charlie has told them to follow Tex, though, and the transcript leaves their obedience sitting there in plain sight. Steve Parent appears at the gate. His plea is small and terribly human before Tex slashes his arm and shoots him four times. No one inside the house responds. Linda Kasabian watches from the bushes, terrified, then keeps quiet about the two open windows she has seen. It barely matters. Tex finds another cracked window, cuts the screen, and sends Linda back to the gate while Susan and Pat go inside. Wojciech Frykowski wakes on the couch. His ordinary questions, first about the time and then about the strangers in the room, make the scene feel worse because it is so domestic. Tex answers by performing evil. Longworth links that line to movie-like improvisation happening inside real violence. The episode ends by returning to production credits. Wiley Wiggins is named as the voice of Tex Watson, and the show moves back into formal podcast business after crossing its bleakest threshold.

As heard by us

A grave, controlled account of the Manson family's turn from cult menace to murder.

"August 8-10, 1969" reaches the point Karina Longworth says she had been dreading: the moment Charles Manson's followers begin killing. The episode frames Bobby Beausoleil's arrest for Gary Hinman's murder as a breaking point for Manson, who fears betrayal and chooses to tighten…

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Why you'd press play

You want the moment Manson's murders stop being theory and become action.

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