That race war Helter Skelter bit was used successfully (and wisely) by Bugliosi to to get guilty verdicts for Manson and the four girls, and Manson had the girls believing all that shit, but the murders were really driven by money, drugs, and a power struggle of trust between Manson, Tex Watson, and Bobby Bousoleil - the three men who ran the “family.”
Manson needed Watson to commit murder to even the score - Bobby had committed one in Gary Hinman’s murder and was in jail for it, Manson thought (and Watson believed he had) killed a Black Panther and Shorty Shea, and Manson didn’t trust that Watson wouldn’t rat him out if the cops got to him - so he instructed Watson to take the girls up and do the murders, so all three had something on each other as insurance. The Helter Skelter and Pigs written in blood were done to mislead police into believing the “real’ killer of Gary Hinman was out on the loose and therefore spring Bobby Beausoleil, since he had written in blood at that crime scene.
Secondly, Manson was a shitty criminal and he got dicked on a large crank deal by a bunch of Hell’s Angels and sold some Black Panthers the counterfeit dope (or the other way around, cant remember), and he was scared he would be killed if he didn’t get the money together. So they picked the house owned by Polanski on Cielo drive because Charlie had been there before in his failed attempt at a record deal with the previous owner and figured they would get plenty of cash, jewelry, drugs, etc - but they came away with very little. All of this would have proven much harder to establish in court and Bugliosi went with the trip Charlie was laying on the girls to get convictions for all. Smart.
It’s been a while, but in my 30s I got really interested and read all the books I could on the murders, traveled to the sites while in SoCal, etc. He was a fucked up guy who’s whole life was shit basically because his parents were addicts and he ended up in orphanages and reform schools his whole life, was a pimp for a short time, then when he got out of prison went down to Haight Ashbury at just the right time with just the right skills to get a bunch of homeless hippie runaway girls to bang him all day and shoplift for him and get him high and all that. Of course, everything got all fucked up and he ended up back in prison on 7 charges of murder and he was finished.
Also interesting, is that Watson pretty much did all the killing. The girls weren’t cold blooded killers, and they were not effective killers and were just in chaos at the first scene, and they had to make whatsername stab the dead body the second night to get her involved. He was filled with crank during the murders and in his book said he felt nothing while he did it. Noticeably, he fought extradition from Texas (where he was from and located when the charges came down) was prosecuted separately and not much fanfare around him. Bugliosi smart to not to press for extradition or make a deal.
Oh yeah, and Manson went up to Cielo drive later that night to look at the bodies, and to plant eyeglasses at the scene. Dude was fucking nuts.