6.12.2009

DENNIS WILSON: DEATH AND THE MANSON FAMILY


The most gorgeous of the Beach Boy's Wilson brothers, Dennis Wilson lived on the edge and walked on the wild side. His hard partying with drugs and alcohol and associations with undesirables led to his untimely death at age 39. He was buried at sea before such things became illegal.


The tale commences with the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson, who first encountered Manson and his dreams of rock stardom in Southern California sometime in 1968.

The Beach Boys drummer was blown away by the demos written and recorded by the recently freed ex-convict -- suffice to say Wilson was equally impressed by the free-love attitudes of the female members of the Manson Family cult.


The charismatic leader and his followers went as far as relocating lock, stock and barrel to Wilson's house, and the Beach Boy proceeded to shop Manson's songs to various record labels, even introducing him to hip young producer and Columbia Records A&R man Terry Melcher, son of the famous singer-actress Doris Day.


Terry Melcher had just moved out of !0050 Cielo Dr. and Poor Sharon Tate moved in with her husband director Roman Polanski. Insiders have said that Manson picked that house planning on murdering Terry Melcher for rejecting his desire for a recording contract. Dennis is said to have felt terrible guilt for the rest of his short life.


So Manson was desperate for a record deal. Wilson was his connection to Melcher, who agreed to meet the twisted guru and some of his gang at Wilson’s home. But the music magnate grew more interested in one of Charlie’s girls, Ruth Ann Moorehouse, the runaway daughter of a former Congregationalist minister, than the group’s leader.

Melcher wanted to move Moorehouse into his Cielo Drive home as a housekeeper, “but Candy Bergen knew what kind of housekeeping chores Terry had in mind and vetoed the plan,” says Guinn.


Manson grew livid that he never got an invite to attend Melcher’s star-studded parties, and felt doubly humiliated when the record exec was a no-show to hear Charlie sing at Spahn Ranch, the family’s San Fernando Valley base.


The snub was the kiss of death to Manson, who wanted Melcher butchered. But Melcher and Bergen moved into a beach house Doris Day owned – saving them from certain death. Instead, Tate and her guests – hairdresser Jay Sebring, aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski and Folger coffee fortune heiress Abigail Folger – paid the deadly price of being in the house that fateful night.

Writes Guinn, “Manson had NO idea Melcher didn’t live at Cielo anymore.”

Dennis was once questioned about the integrity of recording that song, and he responded by saying that Charlie didn’t want writing credit – he wanted cash. He’d stolen enough from Dennis that he felt justified in recording the song, and not giving Manson any residuals.

Nice pics of Dennis in this video

4 comments:

Beth said...

I've read quite a bit about the Manson family murders, and it's still disturbing today.

Lorenzo in LA said...

Most of it can be linked back to Dennis too. Namely haw did they know how to find that house up in the canyon? They had been up there with Dennis to see Doris Day's son Terry Melcher

Master Frequency said...

They lucked up! The undertakers should have had their fame

Nancy Stephens-King said...

A tragedy. He was TALENTED and georgeous, and just like that, gone way before his time.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

addtoany