I Picked Up "Tex" Watson Hitchhiking AFTER the Manson Murders

On this episode of Our American Stories, following the Charles Manson murders, Manson's lead henchman, Tex Watson, stayed in Los Angeles for almost two months before fleeing to Texas where he was arrested. But it’s those two months following the Manson murders, where this story from our listener (Patty Kingsbaker) picks up.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
And this next story comes to us well, Greg Hangler
brings it to us, and actually the person providing this

(00:34):
story is a listener in Colorado.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Charles tex Watson was just a young guy from Texas
in nineteen sixty nine when he came under the spell
of drugs and Charles Manson and helped kill seven people.
Watson attended cal State Los Angeles but dropped out less
than half a semester. Later got a job selling wigs
and began living it up in the party scene of
Los Angeles. One faithful evening, he was driving home and

(01:01):
picked up a hitchhiker. In Watson's words, hitchhikers were pretty
common on Sunset Boulevard, and I pulled over to pick
one up. When he told me his name was Dennis Wilson,
it didn't mean anything to me, but when he said
he was one of the Beach Boys, I was impressed. Wilson,
the Beach Boys drummer then directed Watson to his home

(01:24):
on Sunset Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles.
Watson was shocked when he pulled up. In the living room,
Watson found a man sitting on the floor with his guitar,
surrounded by six young women. He looked up, Watson later recalled,
and the first thing I felt was a sort of gentleness,

(01:44):
an embracing kind of acceptance and love. Another man at
the house introduced them, This is Charlie Charlie Manson. On
August ninth, nineteen sixty nine, under the direction of Charles Manson,
Watson and three other Manson girls murdered pregnant actress Sharon

(02:06):
Tate and four other people on Benedict Canyon. The following night,
Manson accompanied the previous night's killers and supervised the murder
of two more victims in Los Felis. These murders are
considered some of the most gruesome and shocking in American history.
Tex Watson stayed in Los Angeles for almost two months

(02:29):
before fleeing to Texas, where he was arrested. But it's
those two months following the Manson murders where the story
from our listener in Colorado picks up. Here's Patty Kingsbaker.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
This story happened in nineteen sixty nine. I had graduated
from high school in Miami and moved out to California
to live with my brother who was living in Los
Angeles at the time. And it was my brother was
ten years older than me, so we kind of, you know,

(03:04):
it felt like we had really grown up in different
generations and our ideals, and he was a little worried
about me being hippy and maybe going down the wrong
path with him at this time of my life. So
I had been in Los Angeles four year, had gotten
to know a few people, and you know, was doing

(03:26):
the things that kids in the sixties did.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
You know.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
One of the days, I was with a friend of
mine and I'm not sure why I was hitchhiking either.
I didn't have a car yet. It was kind of
probably right after I got there, but we had hitchhiked
from the valley San Fernando Valley over to the beach.
And when my brother heard about it, he lost his
mind and he was like, no, no, you were not

(03:54):
hit anyway. So I eventually got a car, and you know,
it was a time when things were just more opened
and a lot of people were hitchhiking, and you know,
we picked people up. You know, it was just what happened.
But this one night, I had been over in Malibu
with some friends and I was coming back into the

(04:15):
valley and I was coming through to peg A Canyon
and when I made the turn off Pacific Coast Highway,
there was this guy. It was raining, it was like
torrential raining, and there was this guy on the side
of the road, and so I pulled over. A. He
was out there in the middle of this rainstorm, and
B that's just what we did back then. So I

(04:37):
pulled over. But as soon as he opened the door
and got in my car, I just got this sick feeling.
It was I don't know what evil is. I don't
know what it is, but I felt it. I was scared.

(04:58):
I was absolutely scared. And I was like, I knew
right then I hadn't made a mistake letting this guy
in my car, but there was nothing I could do.
He's there. So we're driving through Panga Canyan. Now, I
mean it is torrential rain and there are mud slides
on the road. I'm scared. I'm having to go much

(05:21):
slower than I would have gone through the canyon. I'm
just thinking, God, get me to the other side of
this canyon. And he was going to Resida. I remember that,
and I lived in Woodland Hills, which is another part
of the San Fernando Valley. But I just wanted him
out of my car, and he was trying to engage

(05:42):
me in conversation, and I was just like, I finally
just said, you know, I really can't talk. I can't talk.
I really just need to concentrate on the road and
my driving. I just can't talk. I was I've never
felt anything like that before. So when we got to
the other end of Panga Canyon, I just pulled over

(06:05):
and I said, I'm really sorry, but I'm going a
different direction and I need to leave you here. And
he was like okay, and he got out and there
was no incident. I mean, there's nothing, nothing bad happened.
But it was just that feeling just stuck with me,
and I was just like, I didn't get it. It

(06:28):
was a few months later that I picked up the
paper one day and on the front of the paper
were the pictures of the Manson family and the guy
who was in my car that night was Tex Watson.
Needless to say, I've never picked up another hitchhiker ever.

(06:49):
That was enough that night, Just that feeling taught me
not to do that. And there's been times I've passed
people that I think, oh that I just have never
been able to bring myself to do it.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Oh that's a heck of a hitchhiker's story picking up
Tex Watson, one of the worst killers and murders of
all time, and she could feel evil. Patty Kingsbaker's story
a great listeners story, a really awful hitchhikers story. Here
on our American Stories. Here are our American Stories. We

(07:31):
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(07:53):
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