Manson dominated the Family, and increasingly impressed on them his theories that an apocalyptic race war was imminent, and that the Family would be the survivors and winners. He developed a theory he called Helter Skelter, taking the name from the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter” on the White Album.

He believed that the Beatles understood his prophecies about race war and had embedded coded messages about it into the album, and particularly into the song Helter Skelter.

Manson’s Helter Skelter theory proposed that the Family would record powerful music and use it to lure San Francisco’s young white women into the Family. This, he believed, would cause the area’s young black men – who he thought were sexually attached to the white women – to riot and trigger a full-scale race war.

Manson believed all whites would be eliminated, but he reassured the Family that they would be able to hide in secret underground locations in Death Valley. After the apocalypse, he promised, the Family would emerge and rule over the remaining humans.

By now Manson’s followers believed he was an all-wise incarnation of both Christ and the Devil. Following the Family’s murder of a drug dealer in July 1969, Manson decided it was time to trigger Helter Skelter.