Paul Watkins (Manson Family)

Paul Alan Watkins (January 25, 1950 – August 3, 1990)

During adolescence, Watkins became a Bible student and was active in youth organizations and church camps. At age 13, he became involved in evangelicalism, at first because he enjoyed the music and singing. By the time he entered high school, his musical interests had become a "passion"; his religious interests had "waned."^[1]

Watkins dropped out of

Watkins remained with the Family and became Manson's chief lieutenant.[3] On October 31, he set out with the others in the group's school bus to Golar Wash, near Death Valley. There, over the next few days, Manson set up additional Family bases at two unused (or little-used) ranches, Myers and Barker.^[8]

Helter Skelter involvement

On New Year's Eve, 1968, Watkins was around the Family campfire at Myers Ranch when Manson delivered the Helter Skelter prophecy. According to Watkins, Manson had been predicting blacks would rise up in rebellion in America's cities. Now, he explained that The Beatles, too, were making that prediction, with the song "Helter Skelter" on the White Album. More than that, the musical group wanted Manson and the Family to create an album of their own, to trigger the predicted events. Manson, according to Watkins, said:

Are you hip to what the Beatles are saying?... Dig it, they're telling it like it is. They know what's happening in the city; blackie is getting ready. They put the revolution to music... it's 'Helter-Skelter.' Helter-Skelter is coming down. Hey, their album is getting the young love [America's youth] ready, man, building up steam. Our album is going to pop the cork right out of the bottle.^[9]

Before long, Manson had moved the Family to a

Watkins took the prophecy seriously. One day, as he looked out a window of the Canoga Park house, he wondered to himself whether the violence of Helter Skelter would reach the Family.[9] His fear that the Family was lingering too long in the soon-to-be-war-torn Los Angeles area prompted him, in late June 1969, to ask Manson when the group would be leaving for the desert. According to Watkins, Manson assured him Helter Skelter was ready to happen.^[10]

Desert camps

According to Watkins, Manson's remark disturbed Watkins, who had no trouble recognizing it as an indication the Family would be undertaking

At Barker Ranch, Watkins came under the influence of Paul Crockett, a middle-aged prospector who, with metaphysical musings of his own, had begun to influence a male Family member and female Family member who had been left to watch the desert camp.^[10][11] Returning briefly to Spahn Ranch, Watkins changed his relationship with Manson by using a suggestion by Crockett; he asked that Manson "[release him of all his] agreements.]"^[12]

Within a few days, Watkins had settled in at Barker, with Crockett and the others. About a month later, on August 9, 1969, the group saw a television broadcast while they were in

Within weeks of the murders, Manson and the Family members had come to Golar Wash, which they began fortifying for Helter Skelter. For a month, Manson, situated at Myers Ranch, vied with Crockett for psychological sway over the Family members who had come into the prospector's orbit.[14] Manson deployed his women as sexual lures, undertook intimidating visits in which he and others would fire shotguns on the Barker Ranch property, and jousted with Crockett in abstract discussions. A third male Family member came to Crockett's side, while the female Family member he'd influenced had left the area with a friend of his, whom she promptly married.^[15]

Watkins continued to vacillate. He played music with the Family, had initially preserved a sexual relationship with one of the Family girls, and declined to dismiss Helter Skelter. But when, for instance, Manson asked him to join the efforts to find the entry to the underground hideaway in which the Family was supposedly to survive the cataclysm, he declined to do so. Even after Watkins helped two of the Family girls leave the area, the relationship with Manson survived, though the incident resulted in Manson's threatening Watkins with a knife and a pistol.^[16]

A breaking-point arrived on a night when Manson snuck on his hands and knees into the Barker Ranch bunkhouse. Outside were Bruce Davis and

In the second week of October 1969, right after Watkins left Golar Wash, the ranches were raided by law enforcement. Manson and others were arrested on vehicle theft and other charges that had no apparent connection with the murders. By the middle of November, Manson and Family members had become suspects in the Tate–LaBianca killings. The solving of the case was announced by LAPD at the beginning of December.^[3][17]

By

Around the end of March 1970, Watkins split with Family members, following a blowup between him and a trio of Manson girls. This occurred at Spahn Ranch, to which the group had returned. The girls had learned of statements that Watkins had made to law officers and that Manson's lawyer had obtained through an inevitable motion for discovery. Told he was a "Judas," Watkins walked out.^[19] Later that night, he was badly burned in a fire that broke out in a Volkswagen van in which he was sleeping. He was "unsure of the origin of the blaze," which could have been caused by a candle he'd been using to read or a marijuana cigarette he'd been smoking before he fell asleep. A Family member would later claim to have set the blaze.^[3][20]

In May, after he had healed, Watkins decided he would testify against Manson. His decision was occasioned by a threat delivered from Manson via Family members: "Charlie says when he gets out, you better not be around the desert."^[3][20]

Importance of testimony

Watkins testified against Manson in October 1970, some months into the trial in which Manson was ultimately found guilty of the murders. The testimony of Watkins and one of the other male defectors traced the growth of Manson's view of Helter Skelter from a vague vision to an inspiration for crime.^[3] Most important were the details provided by Watkins in the period leading up to the trial, which enabled the prosecution to understand Manson's stake in the war the killings were intended to trigger. The details made clear that, in its complete form, the vision ended with Manson and the Family as the lone existing whites, presiding over blacks whose antipathy to whites would have been discharged in the gruesome conflict. At war's end, Charles Manson, reform-school boy and convicted criminal, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, would rule California.^[3]

Later life

Watkins went on to become the founder and first president of the Death Valley

In 1989, after he had been diagnosed with cancer, Watkins appeared on CNN's Larry King Live. The segment was hosted by Maureen Reagan. During the interview, a woman identifying herself as "Jenny" called in and conversed with Watkins and Reagan. Jenny said she had begun living with the Family "about six months after the murders." Watkins recognized the caller and questioned the direction of her remarks ("I mean where are we going with this?").^[23]

In My Life with Charles Manson, the 1979 book Watkins co-authored with Guillermo Soledad, he had spoken of "Ginny". She was a girl new to the Family around February 1970, and with whom, on the suggestion of Family member

See also