I Picked Up "Tex" Watson Hitchhiking AFTER the Manson Murders

Welcome to mile 12,002. Your dog just locked you out on a cross-country road trip. Fortunately, your Tucson comes with available Hyundai Digital Key, so your compatible smartphone is all you need to get back on the road. When it comes to smooth sailing, we're thinking of every mile. The new Hyundai Tucson. It's your journey. Test drive the new Tucson at your nearest Hyundai dealer or learn more at HyundaiUSA.com.

Call 562-314-4603 for complete details. For each person living with myasthenia gravis, or MG, their journey with this rare condition is unique. That's why Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis, a new podcast from iHeartRadio in partnership with Argenix, is exploring the extraordinary challenges and personal triumphs of underserved communities living with MG. Host Martine Hackett will share these powerful perspectives from real people with MG, so their experiences can help inspire the MG community and educate others about this rare condition.

Listen to find strength and community on the MG journey on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Football is back and NFL Plus has you covered. Get ready for the 2023 NFL season and get access to the NFL preseason. Watch live out-of-market preseason games on NFL Plus, including all 23 live NFL Network games across devices. Stream exclusive coverage of the top 100 players of 2023 and discover all-access content from players, coaches, analysts, and more. Sign up today at Plus.NFL.com. Terms and conditions apply.

Live preseason games are subject to local blackouts. This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between, including your stories. Send them to OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. And this next story comes to us while Greg Hengler brings it to us. And actually, the person providing this story is a listener in Colorado. Charles Tex Watson was just a young guy from Texas in 1969 when he came under the spell of drugs and Charles Manson and helped kill seven people. Watson attended Cal State Los Angeles, but dropped out less than half a semester later, got a job selling wigs and began living it up in the party scene of Los Angeles. One fateful evening, he was driving home and picked up a hitchhiker. In Watson's words, hitchhikers were pretty common on Sunset Boulevard, and I pulled over to pick one up when he told me his name was Dennis Wilson. It didn't mean anything to me, but when he said he was one of the Beach Boys, I was impressed. Wilson, the Beach Boys drummer, then directed Watson to his home on Sunset Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. Watson was shocked when he pulled up. In the living room, Watson found a man sitting on the floor with his guitar surrounded by six young women. He looked up, Watson later recalled, and the first thing I felt was a sort of gentleness, an embracing kind of acceptance and love.

Another man at the house introduced them. This is Charlie, Charlie Manson. On August 9th, 1969, under the direction of Charles Manson, Watson and three other Manson girls murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people on Benedict Canyon. The following night, Manson accompanied the previous night's killers and supervised the murder of two more victims in Los Feliz.

These murders are considered some of the most gruesome and shocking in American history. Tex Watson stayed in Los Angeles for almost two months before fleeing to Texas, where he was arrested. But it's those two months following the Manson murders where the story from our listener in Colorado picks up.

Here's Patty Kingsbaker. This story happened in 1969. I had graduated from high school in Miami and moved out to California to live with my brother, who was living in Los Angeles at the time. And it was the 60s. My brother was 10 years older than me. So we kind of, you know, it felt like we had really grown up in different generations and our ideals.

And he was a little worried about me being a hippie and maybe going down the wrong path with him at this time of my life. So I had been in Los Angeles for a year, had gotten to know a few people and, you know, was doing the things that kids in the 60s did. You know, one of the days I was with a friend of mine and I'm not sure why I was hitchhiking. Either I didn't have a car yet. It was kind of probably right after I got there. But we had hitchhiked from the valley, San Fernando Valley, over to the beach. And when my brother heard about it, he about lost his mind.

And he was like, no, no, you were not hit anyway. So I eventually got a car. And, you know, it was a time when things were just more opened and a lot of people were hitchhiking. And, you know, we picked people up, you know, it was just what happened. But this one night I had been over in Malibu with some friends and I was coming back into the valley and I was coming through Topanga Canyon. And when I made the turn off Pacific Coast Highway, there was this guy, it was raining.

It was like torrential raining. And there was this guy on the side of the road. And so I pulled over.

A, he was out there in the middle of this rainstorm and B, that's just what we did back then. So I pulled over. But as soon as he opened the door and got in my car, I just got this sick feeling. It was, I don't know what evil is.

I don't know what it is. But I felt it. I was scared. I was absolutely scared. And I was like, I knew right then I had made a mistake letting this guy in my car. But there was nothing I could do.

He's there. So we're driving through Topanga Canyon now. I mean, it is torrential rain and there are mudslides on the road. I'm scared. I'm having to go much slower than I would have gone through the canyon.

I'm just thinking, God, get me to the other side of this canyon. And he was going to Reseda. I remember that.

And I lived in Woodland Hills, which is another part of the San Fernando Valley. But I just wanted him out of my car and he was trying to engage me in conversation. And I was just like, I finally just said, you know, I really can't talk. I can't talk.

I really just need to concentrate on the road and my driving. I just can't talk. I was I've never felt anything like that before. So when we got to the other end of Topanga Canyon, I just pulled over and I said, I'm really sorry, but I'm going a different direction.

And I need to leave you here. But and he was like, OK. And he got out and there was no incident. I mean, there's nothing nothing bad happened, but it was just that feeling just stuck with me. And I was just like, I didn't get it. It was a few months later that I picked up the paper one day and on the front of the paper were the pictures of the Manson family. And the guy who was in my car that night was Tex Watson. Needless to say, I've never picked up another hitchhiker ever. That was enough that night. Just that feeling taught me not to do that.

And there's been times I've passed people that I think, oh, that I just have never been able to bring myself to do it. Oh, that's a heck of a hitchhiker story. Picking up Tex Watson, one of the worst killers and murderers of all time.

And she could feel evil. Patty King's Baker's story, a great listener's story, a really awful hitchhiker story here on Our American Stories. Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.

We can't do it without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love our stories in America like we do, please go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Help us keep the great American stories coming.

That's OurAmericanStories.com. For each person living with myasthenia gravis or MG, their journey with this rare condition is unique. That's why Untold Stories Life with Myasthenia gravis, a new podcast from I Heart Radio in partnership with Argenics, is exploring the extraordinary challenges and personal triumphs of underserved communities living with MG. Host Martine Hackett will share these powerful perspectives from real people with MG so their experiences can help inspire the MG community and educate others about this rare condition.

Listen to find strength in community on the MG journey on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Football is back and NFL Plus has you covered. Get ready for the 2023 NFL season and get access to the NFL preseason. Watch live out of market preseason games on NFL Plus, including all 23 live NFL network games across devices. Stream exclusive coverage of the top 100 players of 2023 and discover all access content from players, coaches, analysts, and more. Sign up today at plus.nfl.com.

Terms and conditions apply. Live preseason games are subject to local blackouts. Now is the time to experience America's pastime in a whole new way. Major League Baseball has teamed up with T-Mobile for Business to advance the game with next-gen 5G solutions, going deeper with real-time data visualization, new camera angles that put fans on the field with their favorite players, and even testing an automated ball strike system in the minor leagues. This is the 5G era of baseball. See what we can do for your business at tmobile.com now. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission. Officially licensed product of MLB Players Incorporated.