Charles Denton “Tex” Watson…The Man Behind The Monster Part Four – The Interviews, Part E

In another chapter from   (Click Book Cover to Read), Tex Watson covers the topic of Music and his opinion on the effects of said on the young.

I must say, it must be nice to live in an all White or all Black kind of consciousness, having no grey area to create doubt and house guilt or own up to responsibility.
What boggles the mind is his fervent life-long adoption of extremes, albeit Christian-based fundamentalism now, and Manson-based ideology then, but extremes nevertheless, and he seems not to recognize the existence of this extreme psychic dysfunction even today, long after the drugs and Manson’s influence had died.
One wonders how Tex can now be so dogmatic when it comes to judging music – its Good or Evil expression of the human experience. But, mind you, southern American Bible-Thumping Baptist freaks broke Elvis Presley records in half in the 1950s, positive that that country bumpkin with the brooding looks and those flailing hips was going to wreck American youngsters by the millions. Elvis seems kind of hokey and anything but destructive compared to contemporary musicians. Yet, in my opinion, it’s never about the musician and his music; it’s about the psychological well-being of the listener and Tex could have listened to choir music in 1969 and still have had a creative way with knives and human flesh, if you ask me.
Tex does ask a profound question in this chapter, “Who is in control?”. Yet, according to him, everyone BUT himself seems, at one time or another, to be in control of his life. I don’t mean to preach a sermon on the mountain here, but I believe that God created Man to have self-control. Looking for someone to bear the responsibility Tex should have owned up to for himself, whether in Charles Manson or now in God, is a complete cop-out.
It seems as if Tex and Sadie, and possibly Bruce Davis, need a leader to survive in this world. That they were not born or not raised to have self-control, and if other leader-figures didn’t tell them what to do, they would be as wild predator animals and do/say/feel whatever satisfied their bestial needs at that moment. The tragic part is that in meeting a fellow bestial Wildman leader such as Manson, there was then NO excuse NOT to let all Hell reign over Los Angeles for these kids…
One also wonders how such lack of moral backbone was not noticed by Tex’s parents, relations, friends or others within the community of Copeville at an earlier age.
The fact that he likens secular music to “witchcraft” or “voodoo” is very disturbing. I have no idea where he has obtained these views but it makes one wonder how such extremist religious methodology has been able to gain such a foothold inside prisons, that this kind of dysfunctional ideation can take root in a man like Tex. He allows for only two kinds of music – the glorification of God or the work of Satan – and the reality of the existence of music to the average man has always been defined far more deeply than that.
I don’t believe we can place the blame on his naive point of view, solely on his sheltered childhood or country-life upbringing. There must be more to Tex than meets the eye, that he would so easily fall pray to any theology - “Mansonism” or Christianity/Theism – or, for that matter, that he would crave an extreme belief system in the first place, in order to develop his own moral compass.
With this in mind, one can speculate that Watson never really developed a moral centre. He may have always known that he lacked said and secretly spent his time prior to the murders mimicking what he saw in other people. This, for the experts, may be a clue as to the origins of sociopathy, that one can academically understand a human experience but that that same person cannot integrate or internalize it.
Tex may have been basically window-shopping for a moral centre, but why he rebelled against the examples his parents offered him is beyond me. I understand youth rebellion against authority figures but by the time Tex was 23, one would assume that maturity had gained enough of a foot-hold to bring his rebellion back under control and see the positive affects his parents, family and friends could have had on him had he accepted their efforts to guide him.
I do not have allot to say on his classifying the Harry Potter book series as “voodoo” other than it makes me gobsmacked to imagine J.K. Rolling more evil than a bayonet-wielding, seven time murderer…again, the world in which his mind lives must be a freaky one!
His less-than-scientific take on the correlation between youthful music listening and drug abuse makes me giggle like an 8th grade school girl!
In my youth, I listened to everything the music world had to offer produced from the ‘40s onwards, and damn if I didn’t still feel like a cocktail gown on my body and a cocktail glass in my hand wasn’t the cat’s meow over anything like a smoky fire in my mouth, a needle dangling from my arm or a bunch of swallowed pills!
Yep, I listened to music Tex and I have NEVER smoked, swallowed or shot up anything!!! POOF! There goes your ‘scientific study” out the window, Big Boy…(snicker)…
In his discussion of the issues surrounding music ratings, I just LOVE what he said;
“We must take charge of our own lives…”
Is he hearing his own voice, do ya think? Where the Hell was this statement of belief in him forty+ years ago??? Hmmmmm, Tex???
If you’re anything like me, TLB2ers, doncha just wanna shake this dude until a REAL human being pops out?!!!
And on the subject of raising children, he states;
“If we don't raise them, someone will be there to raise them for us.”
Soooo, if that’s the case, is he back to subliminally blaming in parents’ passive parentage of him as the cause to why he turned out to be a loser and a murderer?
This has NOT been the first time Tex has couched phrases to suggest said. He’ll always deny or disclaim but the subtle parental blaming always seems to be in the background of his mind. I actually think he blamed them for why he was a loser after high school, that it was their fault the dude couldn’t hold down a job or complete college courses, that it was because of them that he had to “flee” and “escape” to L.A. He has admitted to allot of pent-up rage in the years prior to the murders and in my opinion, all that rage stems from is him being pissed off he couldn’t continue to have Life served to him on a fully-paid-for silver platter, a life that his parents HAD given him up until he flew like a lazy-ass, spoiled little brat to sunny southern CA.
In his discussion on the part Manson’s music played on the overall behaviour of The Family and in the subsequent murders, he has no problem citing Manson’s music as one of the paramount culprits;
“Let me try to explain how his music was used as a chant to charm us. In a ritualistic Manson worship ceremony, our whole bodies vibrated with his sound. We'd sit in a circle, surrounded by his offbeat guitar strum, on drugs, swaying and sometimes even dancing to his tune -- being enticed into his web. His musical chants were repetitive lyrics and pitches that produced a hypnotic effect or a trance-like state. His words filled the air -- "Cease to exist, come say you love me…kill your ego, die" -- so once you ceased to be, you could be free to totally love, totally come together, and totally give yourself over to his demonic thoughts. Unbeknownst to us, a spell was cast and the demons were summoned and free to emotionally consume us.”
All I have to say on this is the following…
Was it the music and lyrics themselves that were the evil ingredient to make evil monsters out of them all OR was it their own warped perceptions of his music and lyrics? In other words, do we blame the words in Hitler’s speeches as the impetus for his twelve year reign of terror OR do we blame the German citizenry for approving his message??? 
People can tell ya to “Kill” but who’s the dolt? The one who says kill or the one who actually thinks it’s okay to carry out the message?
Manson, by anyone’s definition is a creepy little dude who has more than his fair share of destructive ideas, but in all the time at Spahn’s, how come nobody who stayed around, and especially nobody who ended up carrying out is fantastical ideations, ever bothered to ask themselves…WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!
To me, Charlie’s “messages” are only as dangerous as you let them be. If a person listens to the lyrics of his songs, what normal individual would say in response to those lyrics, “Hey, Man, YEAH He said ‘cease to exist” so damn if I ain’t gonna get me some de-CEASED Bel Air bodies!!! (pant, pant, drool, drool)”…. Okay, inbred human bottom feeders with nary two grey cells to rub together may…and BLAMO! here we have JUST described every one Manson’s devout followers! Whodathunkit???
Charlie above all, is no dumbass. He well knew that with people other than described above, he could rant and rave and paint his lyrics all over their bodies, if he wished, all day long, but blood thirsty sycophants he would never get. Conversely, he knew his idiotic ideas would take idiotic, dysfunctional listeners for those ideas to come to life. Just remember, there were MANY people in 1933 Germany that said anything BUT “Heil Hitler” with glad hearts and open arms!!!
Tex claims that Manson should have taken “…responsibility for his delusional thinking or false beliefs.” Am I missing something here or was it not the bayonet, the buntline and the buck that killed nine people and not “delusional thoughts or false beliefs”? If Charlie had stated that the world was indeed flat, then according to Tex’s premise, these dolty kids should have been well excused for spending the rest of their lives looking for the cliff to jump off.
Life just does NOT work that way, Tex! This world is FULL of weird ideas that people don’t own up to every day, but it is our responsibility to recognize and reject the wackos from the wise…and to god damn well know the difference!
IF Tex and the girls did NOT agree to head up Bel Air that night, how many at 10050 Cielo Drive would have been killed by Charlie and his delusional thinking and false beliefs? Hmmmmm?
Zero, zilch, nada…none.
Tex later admits to adopting dysfunctional perceptions out of Manson’s music and then excuses his behaviour by saying that he was like “…children who haven’t formed sound belief and value systems, nor developed a strong conscience.” He had been offered sound beliefs and values systems from his parents, friends and community but the high school jock chose to drop’em like so much hot field potato sizzling in the Texas midday sun. If my Mother raises me to not swear, and then I grow up to swear like a drunken sailor (yes, I could be talking about myself here…but I doubt if I’ll admit it!), whose fault is it now that I swear?
Tex, in other statements, readily admitted to attending church services and knowing about the Commandment “Thou shall not commit murder”, so exactly whose fault is it that he did commit murder? If you know what is Right from Wrong and you decide to choose of your own free will the Wrong, who but yourself have you got to blame? The guy wasn’t raised by wolves, nor even by Manson, for that matter, and if he had been, then, yes, killing by Tex may have been expected. Instead, he was raised by loving, caring, humane parents, had loving siblings and a supportive community but, in the end, it was too damn irresistible to vent one’s rage at strangers for not receiving a lifetime’s worth of a Free Ride, paid for by people who had worked hard for what they had…people like the people who lived at 10050 Cielo Drive and 3301 Waverly Drive.
If you just examine the different vehicles his parents had bought him alone, in 1960s dollar valuation, Tex drove what only other teenagers could dream about or have as a poster on their bedroom wall. And when he tried to make that level of income for himself and failed, he was miffed that what he expected to be there for him, wasn’t, and in his spoiled, lazy, little mind, he had long decided someone had to pay!
Sigh…could he not have just asked Sharon to write out a cheque for the difference instead?