greta: one of the other men was 22-year-old charles tex watson. a former wig salesman. watson had picked up a hitch hiking dennis wilson on sunset boulevard. when the beach boy invited him into his mansion, watson came face to face with his future, charles manson. tex watson didn t have the longhair and gruffy look, you could confuse him as a freshman at cornel university. from farmersville texas. he had an a average in high school. football, basketball and track star. one of the sweetest guys i ever met. nice guy with a texas accept. drove a beautiful semi restored old pickup truck and was a sweet heart. loved to smoke we d and just was always out for a good time and party with the girls and go swimming. greta: for the family, life with the beach boy was pretty good but they were beginning to wear out their welcome. manson was always hitting wilson for money. they appropriated his wardrobe,
while roman was away. coffee heiress folger and her boyfriend. sharon, voitek tech, abigail and jay all went out to dinner that night. greta: the four came here to the coyote restaurant. unbenorthwesterned to them, this would be their last meal. left a little after 10:00, 10:30. greta: meanwhile, a sinister plan was being hatched by charles manson. he said we can ignite helter skelter and start the where between blacks and whites by committing the murders ourselves. manson told watson to go up to the house at cielo drive and kill everybody there. greta: why that house? it was a symbol. it don t matter who lived there. it was striking out at something that melcher had been
returned home. tex watson decided to bolt back to texas. tex is the only one that i was ever suspicious of at that time. he was the butcher boy. the other members of the family remained with manson at the ranch. it was much like living at spahn ranch but it was different, too, it was much darker and more desperate. you could feel the tension. rating through the desert in stolen dune buggies, manson dreamed of recreating the dreams of the desert corps. a california high patrolman began to take a closer look at family. our interest in the group was as a group of hippies with stolen items. we had no knowledge that this was a group from the los angeles crimes. purcell and a park ranger made a visit to barker ranch where they encountered a group
kremwinkle. greta: they were charged with seven counts of murder. they were kids from average american homes. it shocked the country. hippies up to that point were never associated with violence and murder. i m not committed to nonviolence in anyway. the killings did not go unnotice by the radical weather underground s leader. weatherman s mark rudd says the group adopted a four finger fork salute. 24 july, 1970. manson atkins, kremwinkle and van houghton went on trial at the hall of justice in downtown l.a. the problem is that manson is not physically at the murder scene participating in the murders and the two main pieces of evidence that they used to connect manson with the murders were motive and his domination over the family. back in texas, tex watson was fighting extradition to
another time and i said absolutely. greta: sharon did have some company that night. her friend, jay see bring was a regular visitor and she had two house guests staying with her while roman was away. coffee heiress folger and her boyfriend. sharon, voitek tech, abigail and jay all went out to dinner that night. greta: the four came here to the coyote restaurant. unbenorthwesterned to them, this would be their last meal. left a little after 10:00, 10:30. greta: meanwhile, a sinister plan was being hatched by charles manson. he said we can ignite helter skelter and start the where between blacks and whites by committing the murders ourselves. manson told watson to go up