Manson Helter Skelter timeline

 

1969

• Around January 10: according to Paul Watkins, word comes from Manson, who is in Los Angeles, that the Family is to move from the desert to a house he found in Canoga Park. Because the canary-yellow house is a place where the Family, preparing for Helter Skelter, will be "submerged beneath the awareness of the outside world," Manson, in the account of Watkins, dubs it the Yellow Submarine, another Beatles reference.
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• Mid-February: according to Watkins, while he and Manson are driving together, they see a white woman and black man holding hands. Manson tells Watkins that access to white women has pacified black men to the point that they have not yet risen up.
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• March: hoping he will agree to record the music that is intended to trigger Helter Skelter, the Family vainly expects a visit from Terry Melcher, a producer for Columbia Records.
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• March 23: entering uninvited upon 10050 Cielo Drive, which he has known as Melcher's residence, Manson is received by a male friend of Sharon Tate, the new lessee. Manson, who is looking for someone unknown to the friend, is told to check the guest house. After walking back to that, Manson leaves. Later in the day, Manson revisits the guest house and speaks with Rudy Altobelli, the owner of the property. Altobelli tells him Melcher no longer lives there.
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• Around April 1: the Family start settling back into Spahn Ranch. During Helter Skelter, as Watson relates it, they must be at Spahn, from which they would have a "clear escape route to the desert."
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• July 27: in a dispute over money, Family member Bobby Beausoleil fatally stabs Family acquaintance Gary Hinman and writes "Political piggy" on a wall in Hinman's blood.^[
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• August 6: Beausoleil is arrested after he is caught driving Hinman's car; the knife he used to stab Hinman is found in the car's tire well.
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• August 9: After midnight, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel murder Sharon Tate and four others at 10050 Cielo Drive. With Tate's blood, Atkins writes "Pig" on the house's front door. Upon the killers' return to Spahn Ranch, Manson, according to Watson, asks whether it was Helter Skelter. Watson assures him it was.
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• August 10: After midnight, Tex Watson and two female Family members murder Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at their Los Feliz home. Using Leno LaBianca’s blood, Patricia Krenwinkel writes "Rise" and "Death to Pigs" on the living room walls. She writes "Healter [sic] Skelter" on the refrigerator