Manson Family members Bobby Beausoleil, Mary Brunner, and Susan Atkins held musician Gary Hinman captive for two days before stabbing him to death in July 1969 — two weeks before the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders.
Public DomainGary Hinman was just a “lost artistic soul” before he became the first victim of the Manson Family.
“Fear is not a rational emotion, and when it sets in, things get out of control — as they certainly did with Charlie and me.” These were the words spoken by Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil as he recalled the moment when he killed a man he considered a friend: Gary Hinman.
In July 1969, just a few weeks before the infamous Manson murders of actress Sharon Tate and supermarket executive Leno LaBianca, Charles Manson sent Beausoleil to get money from Hinman, who he believed had inherited some $20,000.
When Hinman refused to hand over any cash — because he didn’t have any — Beausoleil and fellow Manson Family members Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins resorted to torturing him. After two days, Beausoleil saw no other way out, so he fatally stabbed Hinman.
While Gary Hinman’s murder has largely been forgotten today, the cold-blooded act set in motion the chilling chain of events that led to the Tate-LaBianca murders — the crimes that propelled the Manson Family into infamy.
Who Was Gary Hinman?
In 1969, 34-year-old Gary Hinman was a music teacher who was pursuing a Ph.D. in sociology. He lived outside of Los Angeles, and while he wasn’t personally involved in the Manson Family cult, he knew several of its members. He’d even given guitar lessons to Charles Manson himself.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesCharles Manson is escorted to the Santa Monica Courthouse for a hearing regarding the murder of music teacher Gary Hinman.
Hinman was a kind-hearted man who frequently allowed others who were down on their luck to stay with him at his home on Old Topanga Canyon Road — including Bobby Beausoleil. He had recently become interested in Buddhism, and he was planning a pilgrimage to Japan to learn more about his new faith.
“He played at Carnegie Hall and he just got in with the wrong crowd,” Hinman’s cousin, Charlotte Hood, told PEOPLE in 2017. “He befriended Manson. He was a very generous soul.”
Unfortunately, Hinman had met Charles Manson around the same time he was building his cult at the isolated Spahn Ranch. From the compound, Manson preached a prophecy that he called “Helter Skelter.”
Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSpahn Ranch in the San Fernando Valley, where Manson and his “Family” dwelled in the late 1960s.
Manson believed that the future of humanity balanced on an inevitable race war. While this conflict took place, the Manson Family would be underground, waiting for the opportunity to seize power and, effectively, take over the world.
So, how did Gary Hinman get involved?
Inside The Manson Family’s First Murder
Bobby Beausoleil’s testimony about Hinman’s murder varies from the story put forth by prosecutors — that Charles Manson wanted money he believed Hinman had inherited. According to Beausoleil, he had purchased mescaline from Hinman and, in turn, sold it to members of the Straight Satans Motorcycle Club.
Beausoleil claimed that he went to Hinman’s house to get his money back after the bikers complained that the mescaline was bad. “I didn’t go there with the intention of killing Gary,” he told Oui magazine in 1981. “I was going there for one purpose only, which was to collect $1,000 that I had already turned over to him, that didn’t belong to me.”
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesBobby Beausoleil’s August 1969 mugshot after his arrest for the murder of Gary Hinman.
However, prosecuting attorney Vincent Bugliosi doesn’t even mention this faulty drug deal in Helter Skelter, his famous true crime tell-all about the Manson Family murders. He sticks to the theory that Manson sent Beausoleil to extort money from Hinman’s supposed inheritance.
Regardless of the reason behind the visit, Beausoleil showed up at Gary Hinman’s house on July 25, 1969. He was accompanied by fellow cult members Susan Atkins and Mary Brunner, who had both allegedly had prior sexual relationships with Hinman.
In his 1981 interview, Beausoleil claimed, “If I was going to kill [Hinman], I wouldn’t have taken the girls… The girls didn’t even know what was going on. They just wanted to go party and see him. No one was going there with any intention of killing Gary Hinman.”
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesSusan Atkins (left) was one of the Manson Family members who participated in the murder of Gary Hinman.
But whether Beausoleil was driven by Manson’s orders or by his own beliefs that Hinman had purposely sold him bad drugs, he nonetheless decided that force was necessary that evening. He would come to regret that decision.
At first, it seemed as though violence could be avoided. When Beausoleil, Brunner, and Atkins arrived at Hinman’s house, they “just talked for awhile,” Brunner told Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators in December 1969.
“[T]hen Bobby told Gary that we needed some money,” Brunner continued, “and Gary said he didn’t have any and then jabber, jabber, and then Bobby took the gun out and said that, you know, we weren’t kidding, we really do need some money and… they got fighting over it and Gary got hit with the gun.”
When Beausoleil realized that Hinman didn’t actually have any money, he called for backup. Shortly after, Charles Manson himself arrived at Hinman’s house with Family member Bruce Davis. After Beausoleil told Manson that there was no money, Manson pulled out a samurai sword he’d brought along and sliced Hinman’s ear and cheek.
At that point, horror set in for Bobby Beausoleil. He reportedly confronted Manson, disgusted at the cult leader’s penchant for blood. He asked Manson why he’d hurt Hinman.
As reported by Oxygen, Beausoleil stated in an interview for the 2018 Fox special Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes, “He said, ‘To show you how to be a man.’ His exact words. I will never forget that.”
Unbothered, Manson and Davis took off in one of Hinman’s cars, leaving a panicked Beausoleil alone with an injured Hinman and the two women. They did what they could to help Gary Hinman, using dental floss to stitch up his wounds. Hinman reportedly seemed dazed. He kept insisting that he didn’t believe in violence and simply wanted real medical attention.
“I knew if I took him [to the hospital],” Beausoleil stated in Inside the Manson Cult, “I’d end up going to prison. Gary would tell on me, for sure, and he would tell on Charlie and everyone else. It was at that point I realized I had no way out.”
After agonizing over his options and speaking to Manson several times, Beausoleil decided that he had to kill Gary Hinman. The Manson Family members held him hostage for two days before Beausoleil stabbed him twice in the chest.
Getty ImagesBobby Beausoleil speaks with the media after he was found guilty for the murder of Gary Hinman.
Hinman didn’t die immediately. His killers reportedly took turns holding a pillow over his face to smother him as Hinman clutched prayer beads and chanted a Buddhist mantra. At some point, they used Hinman’s blood to write “Political Piggy” and draw a paw print on the wall in an attempt to convince the police that the Black Panthers had been involved and to instigate the race war that Manson had predicted.
Beausoleil left the scene of the crime in Hinman’s second car — but the chilling crimes of the Manson Family had just begun.
How Gary Hinman’s Death Led To The Tate-LaBianca Murders
Gary Hinman’s body was found on July 31, and Bobby Beausoleil was arrested on August 6 after police officers found him sleeping in Hinman’s vehicle. He was initially sentenced to death for Hinman’s murder, but his sentence was later commuted to life in prison. He remains behind bars to this day, though he’s petitioned for parole 19 times.
Three days after Beausoleil’s arrest, Charles Manson’s followers began their notorious killing spree that led to the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and her unborn child, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
One theory about the murders claims that Manson ordered his followers to kill the victims to further implicate the Black Panthers and thus free Beausoleil from jail. If that was indeed the plan, it didn’t work out the way Manson intended. By the end of the year, nearly the entirety of the Manson Family had been arrested.
While Gary Hinman’s murder was overshadowed by the subsequent Tate-LaBianca killings, his death was seemingly the catalyst that set the infamous slaughter in motion.
After learning about the murder of Gary Hinman, go inside the horrific events that took place at 10050 Cielo Drive. Then, discover whether Charles Manson actually ever killed anyone himself.
