Episode #48 | 12.19.19

The Beach Boys (Part 2): An Endless Bummer, More Manson, Hollywood Paranoia, on Stage Fist Fights, Incest, Cocaine, and the Pacific Ocean Blue

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In this episode

In the aftermath of the Manson Family murders, Hollywood was gripped with fear. Various investigations stitched together a deluded White Album-inspired explanation of the killing spree. But Dennis Wilson knew the truth; that he had made a terrible, irreversible mistake and that now, the sunny dream of the sixties was over and the nightmare it brought about, haunted him to his final days.

 
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Sources

Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, by Peter Ames Carlin

Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy, by Jon Stebbins

Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, by Mike Love

https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/beach-boy-mike-love-claims-bandmate-charles-manson-kill-man-article-1.2773092

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent Bugliosi

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, by Tom O’Neill

Inside the Manson Family’s Wild Summer at Beach Boys’ Drummer Dennis Wilson’s House, by Katie Serena

Hitchhiking with Evil: The Beach Boys’ Surreal Relationship with Charles Manson, by Dan Caffrey

How Charles Manson Ruined Dennis Wilson’s Life, by Jacob Shelton

How a Stolen Beach Boys Song Helped Lead to Charles Manson’s Murderous Path, by Daniel Kreps:

Beach Boys’ Mike Love Recalls Meeting Charles Manson Through Bandmate Dennis Wilson for the First Time, by Glen Gowan and Alexa Valiente: 

Charles Manson’s Surreal Summer with the Beach Boys: Group Sex, Dumpster Diving, and Rock ‘n Roll, by Michael S Rosenwald

How the Beach Boys Ended Up Recording a Song Written by Charles Manson, by Katie Dowd

Manson Criminal Timeline:

Family Members list

Bobby Beausoleil interview, Hinman account:

Shawn Love date info:

Slavin Dave Venice citation:

Manson and Cielo Drive:

Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

 

Music

Score by Jake Brennan. 

Mixed and Engineered by Sean Cahalin.

Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.

*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak