Good question. All of the killers had known for Manson for well over a year (some nearly two years): was it just a lengthy indoctrination into his rhetoric that conditioned them over that time? What about Charles 'Tex' Watson who came and went as he pleased, who defied Manson at several turns? I think the answer to that question is that after the drug burn of Bernard 'Lotsapoppa' Crowe, Watson was on the hot seat with Manson. I wonder what made him so eager to please at that point, rather than walking away and doing his own thing as he'd done countless times before.

There are so many variables with the members of the Family including the killers: certainly the women had different motivations than the men, but there was also a hierarchy among the Family, a jockeying for position that would have encouraged some members more than others to fight for attention and acceptance.