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“Dad Did a Horrible Thing… but Dad’s been forgiven”
Life after murder for Manson Family killer Tex Watson
On September 11th, 1970, Charles ‘Tex’ Watson lost his fight against extradition and was flown to Los Angeles. Immediately upon landing in California, Tex refused to eat. He claimed that the guards beat him for his hunger strike, but he kept at it. On September 18th, during the trial for Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, Tex was brought into court so that one of the witnesses, biker Danny DeCarlo, could identify Watson.
“Watson had finally been returned to California… after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black refused to grant him a further stay of extradition. Sergeants Sartuchi and Gutierrez, who accompanied Watson on the flight, said he spoke little, mostly staring vacantly into space. He had lost about thirty pounds during his confinement, most of it during the last two months, when it became obvious his return to Los Angeles was imminent.” — Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry ©1974 W.W. Norton & Company
Tex continued his hunger strike, dwindling to 110 pounds. Someone intervened and he was force-fed, by tube. Nearly a year later, on August 24, 1971, he was finally brought to trial. Bugliosi was again lead…
