Tex Watson

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Tex Watson
Born	Charles Denton Watson Jr. (1945-12-02) December 2, 1945 (age 75) Farmersville, Texas, U.S.
Other names	Charles Montgomery Texas Charlie ("Tex")[1]:xvii​
Criminal status	Incarcerated
Allegiance	Manson Family
Conviction(s)	Murder, conspiracy
Criminal penalty	Death penalty (commuted to life in prison)
Details
Date	August 9–10, 1969
Date apprehended	November 30, 1969

Charles Denton "Tex" Watson Jr. (born December 2, 1945) is an American murderer who was a central member of the "Manson Family" led by Charles Manson.^[2] On August 9, 1969, Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, and three other people at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles. The next night, Watson traveled to Los Feliz, Los Angeles, and participated in the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Watson was found guilty of murder and imprisoned in 1971.

Early life[]

Watson was born in Farmersville, Texas, on December 2, 1945, and grew up in nearby Copeville. He was the youngest of three children.^[3] Watson grew up attending church locally, and was an honor student, editor on the school paper, and captain of the football team, and set a state record for the high hurdles at Farmersville High School.^[3][4] In September 1964, Watson moved to Denton, Texas, to attend the University of North Texas, where he became a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.^[3]

Tate-LaBianca murders[]

Tate murders[]

In January 1967, Watson began working at Braniff International as a baggage handler. Using free airline tickets to travel, he visited a fraternity brother in Los Angeles; there he became interested in the psychedelic and music lifestyle of the late 1960s. In June 1968 Watson picked up Dennis Wilson hitchhiking, who was then introduced to Charles Manson at Wilson's 14400 Sunset Boulevard home. Watson decided to join the Manson Family shortly afterward.^{[citation needed]}

On August 9, 1969, as a member of the Manson Family, Watson led Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel to 10050 Cielo Drive, the home of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. Present in the house were Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger.^{[citation needed]} They murdered all four and Steven Parent in the drive-way. Watson and his crime partners inflicted 28 stab wounds to Folger alone.^[5] Tate, Sebring, and Frykowski all suffered numerous stab wounds. Sebring and Frykowski were also shot.^{[citation needed]}

LaBianca murders[]

The following night, Watson and six others went to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Manson and Watson entered the home. According to Watson's book Will You Die For Me?,^[6] Manson held the occupants at gunpoint while Watson tied them up. Manson then returned to the car and sent Krenwinkel and Van Houten into the house.^{[citation needed]} Watson, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten then murdered the couple.^{[citation needed]}

Conviction[]

On October 2, 1969, Watson fled the Spahn Ranch and headed back to his native state of Texas. On November 30, 1969, Watson was arrested in Texas for the Tate–LaBianca murders. He and his lawyers fought extradition to California for nine months. Upon arriving in California, Watson stopped talking and eating, losing 55 pounds, and began regressing to a catatonic state. He was admitted to Atascadero State Hospital for a 90‑day evaluation period to determine if he was fit to stand trial. Watson stayed there until February 1971, when he was deemed able to stand trial.^{[1]:514–515}​

On October 12, 1971, Watson was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.^[7] One week later, the same jury took only two and a half hours to determine that he was sane.^[8] On October 21, 1971, Watson was sentenced to death. He arrived on California's death row on November 17, 1971. Watson escaped execution when the California Supreme Court's People v. Anderson decision resulted in the invalidation of all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972.^{[1]:661–662}​ He was found guilty of the murders of seven people: Abigail Folger; Wojciech Frykowski; Steven Parent; Sharon Tate Polanski, who was eight months pregnant; Jay Sebring; Leno LaBianca; and Rosemary LaBianca. His seven counts were to be served concurrently.^{[citation needed]}

Incarceration[]

According to his prisoner outreach web site, Watson converted to Christianity in 1975.^[9] Will You Die for Me?, Watson's autobiography, as told to "Chaplain Ray" (Ray Hoekstra), was published in 1978.^[10] In 1979, he married Kristin Joan Svege. Through conjugal visits they were able to have four children (three boys, one girl), but those visits for life prisoners were banned in October 1996. After 24 years of marriage, Svege divorced Watson after meeting another man in 2003. Svege and Watson remain friends. He had become an ordained minister in 1981, and received a B.S. in Business Management in 2009 from California Coast University, a distance-learning college.^[11][12]

In August 1982, a Southern California‑based group, Citizens for Truth, submitted some 80,000 petition signatures and several thousand letters opposing Watson's parole. The group received support from Doris Tate, the mother of victim Sharon Tate. The group was asking the California Board of Prison Terms to deny parole for Watson. In later years the group, along with Doris Tate, and her daughters, Patricia and Debra, submitted petitions with more than two million signatures.^[13][14]

In 2012, Watson disputed a request to release recordings made in 1969 with his defense attorney Bill Boyd. The recordings became part of a bankruptcy proceeding involving the deceased attorney's law firm. Members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said they believed the recordings might contain clues about unsolved murder cases involving the Manson family. Watson asked the presiding judge to allow police to listen to the tapes but not take possession of them.^[15][16] Judge Richard A. Schell ruled Watson had waived attorney-client privilege for the tapes after he allowed the co-author of his 1978 memoir to hear the recordings. The LAPD did acquire the tapes, which allegedly contained Watson confessing to other murders,^[17] but reported that they did not contain any new information. In September 2014, Richard Pfeiffer, an attorney for Leslie Van Houten, said that he was considering subpoenaing the tapes to look for information that might help Van Houten in her next parole hearing.^[18]

Watson's own minimum eligible parole date was November 26, 1976; he has been denied parole 17 times since then, including two stipulations. He was most recently given a five-year denial of parole at a board hearing on October 27, 2016.^[19] He remains incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.^[20]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Will You Die For Me?. Abounding Love Ministries.
• Bardsley, Marilyn. "Charles Manson and the Manson Family". Crime Library. Archived from the original on February 9, 2015.