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 Edit request on 24 January 2012 

I'm requesting that the Charles Manson article be edited to reflect the fact Manson ALLEGEDLY believed in ""Helter Skelter"" but this has NOT been confirmed by the man himself. As a matter of fact, Vince Bugliosi stated in a recent interview that ""Helter Skelter"" was NOT on Manson's mind and the killers had the instinct in them already to commit the murders. This interview can be found on ""YouTube"" and is what I consider to be a total contradiction to Bugliosi's past claims. This is how I feel the following article sections should read:

{Manson allegedly believed in what he called ""Helter Skelter,"" a term taken from the song of the same name by The Beatles. It was said Manson believed Helter Skelter to be an impending apocalyptic race war, which he described in his own version of the lyrics to the Beatles' song but this is debatable since Manson never publicly confirmed anything of the sort. According to prosecutor Vince Bugliosi, Manson supposedly believed his murders would help precipitate that war. From the beginning of his notoriety, this connection with rock music linked him with a pop culture in which he ultimately became an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre.}

{Helter Skelter
Main article: Helter Skelter (Manson scenario)

For some time, Manson had been saying that racial tension between blacks and whites was growing and that blacks would soon rise up in rebellion in America's cities.[29][30] He had emphasized Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, which had taken place on April 4, 1968.[23] On a bitterly cold New Year's Eve at Myers Ranch, the Family members, gathered outside around a large fire, listened as Manson explained that the social turmoil he had been predicting had supposedly also been predicted by the Beatles.[26] The White Album songs, he allegedly declared, told it all, although in code. Furthermore, it was said he maintained (or would soon maintain), the album was directed at the Family itself, an elect group that was being instructed to preserve the worthy from the impending disaster.[29][30]

In early January 1969, the Family escaped the desert's cold and positioned itself to monitor L.A.'s supposed tension by moving to a canary-yellow home in Canoga Park, not far from the Spahn Ranch.[2]:244–247[26][31] Because this locale would allow the group to remain ""submerged beneath the awareness of the outside world,""[2]:244–247[32] Manson called it the Yellow Submarine, another Beatles reference. There, Family members prepared for the impending apocalypse,[33][34] which, around the campfire, Manson had allegedly termed ""Helter Skelter,"" after the song of that name.

By February, the so-called ""Helter Skelter"" vision was complete. The Family would create an album whose songs, as subtle as those of the Beatles, would trigger the predicted chaos. This is just a theory however and many have viewed the album differently. Supposedly, ghastly murders of whites by blacks would be met with retaliation, and a split between racist and non-racist whites would yield whites' self-annihilation. Blacks' triumph, as it were, would merely precede their being ruled by the Family, which would ride out the conflict in ""the bottomless pit""—a secret city beneath Death Valley.[35] At the Canoga Park house, while Family members worked on vehicles and pored over maps to prepare for their desert escape, they also worked on songs for their world-changing album. When they were told Terry Melcher was to come to the house to hear the material, the women prepared a meal and cleaned the place; but Melcher never arrived.[29][33]}

{Crowe shooting

On May 18, 1969, Terry Melcher visited Spahn Ranch to hear Manson and the women sing. Melcher arranged a subsequent visit, not long thereafter, on which he brought a friend who possessed a mobile recording unit; but he himself did not record the group.[2]:156,185[36]

By June, Manson was allegedly telling the Family they might have to show blacks how to start ""Helter Skelter"".[2]:244–247[34][37] When Manson supposedly tasked Watson with obtaining money supposedly intended to help the Family prepare for the conflict, Watson defrauded a black drug dealer named Bernard ""Lotsapoppa"" Crowe. Crowe responded with a threat to wipe out everyone at Spahn Ranch. Manson countered on July 1, 1969, by shooting Crowe at his Hollywood apartment.[2]:99–113[2]:91–96[38][39]

Manson's mistaken belief that he had killed Crowe was seemingly confirmed by a news report of the discovery of the dumped body of a Black Panther in Los Angeles. Although Crowe was not a member of the Black Panthers, Manson, concluding he had been, expected retaliation from the group. Spahn Ranch was turned into a defensive camp, with night pa