Tapes Might Prove More Manson Family Murders
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police detectives are seeking to review old audio tapes of conversations between Manson Family member Charles “Tex” Watson and his former lawyer, hoping they will shed light on any additional murders the cult may have committed.
The eight hours of recorded discussions between Watson and attorney Bill Boyd were made more than 40 years ago and have surfaced as a part of a bankruptcy case involving Boyd’s now-defunct Texas law firm.
“We are trying to get our hands on a copy of those recordings,” Los Angeles police commander Andrew Smith told Reuters on Friday. “We are doing this to be extraordinarily thorough. We think it’s good police work to continue to pay attention to these cases.”
Smith said the recordings were made in 1969 or 1970, following Watson’s arrest for murders carried out at the direction of Charles Manson that were among the 20th century’s most infamous crimes.
But detectives had no access to the tapes until Watson, now 66 and serving a life prison term in California, waived his attorney-client privilege so that they could be sold to satisfy unpaid legal fees. Boyd died in 2009.
In a letter to a U.S. Department of Justice trustee obtained by local KNBC-TV, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck requested that the recordings be given to his detectives.
“The LAPD has information that Mr. Watson discussed additional unsolved murders committed by followers of Charles Manson,” Beck said in the March 19 letter.
A bankruptcy court hearing has been scheduled for next week in Plano, Texas, to determine if the tapes should be handed over to Los Angeles police investigators.
I am not so sure that there would be any incriminating information on the tapes since Watson waived his rights. He comes up for parole and knows that they will charge him if they can. Still, he was pretty brain-dead back then and he might not remember all that he said.
We can hope.
Real Life Monsters 