Bobby Beausoleil - Helter Skelter

Bobby Beausoleil was convicted of murdering Gary Hinman

Robert Kenneth Beausoleil (aka Bobby Beausoleil, Cupid, Jasper, Cherub, Jase, Robert Lee Hardy, Jasper Lee Daniels, Gary Boy, Box Boy)

Bobby Beausoleil is serving a life sentence for the Hinman murder

Bobby Beausoleil, born on November 6, 1947, is a former associate of the Charles Manson “Family.” Beausoleil is serving a life sentence at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville for the July 1969 murder of Family friend Gary Hinman.

Early life

Beausoleil grew up with the support of a good working-class family in Santa Barbara, CA. Beausoleil was a good-looking but rebellious youth. By fifteen he was in reform school. After he got out, Beausoleil drifted between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Beausoleil was involved in music and acting. He joined several rock bands, such as The Milky Way and Love. In 1967, Beausoleil met Kenneth Anger and had a part in Anger’s film Lucifer Rising.

In 1969, Beausoleil was living with Gary Hinman when he began associating with Charles Manson.

Aftermath

Originally, the jury sentenced Beausoleil to death for Hinman. However, it was commuted to life in prison when the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972. He was transferred in 1994 to the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem at his request. During that time, he married a woman from Oregon and fathered four children. In the summer of 2015, the California Department of Corrections relocated Beausoleil to the Deuel Vocational Institute in Tracey, California.

“I killed a man by the name of Gary Hinman by stabbing him twice. That’s the bare bones facts of it. I didn’t have a very good reason. In fact, the reason that I had that seemed so important at the time was petty. It’s selfish.” – Bobby Beausoleil

According to Manson murderer Susan Atkins, as well as Manson himself, it was actually Beausoleil’s arrest for the murder of Gary Hinman that instigated the Manson Family’s murder spree. Furthermore, she would claim the motive behind the Tate murders was to convince police that the killer(s) of Gary Hinman were in fact still at large.

Excerpt from Bobby Beausoleil interview with Truman Capote in 1981:

Truman Capote: You’re not making much sense-at least to me. And I don’t think you’re stupid. Let’s try again. In your opinion, it’s all right that Manson sent Tex Watson and those girls into that house to slaughter total strangers, innocent people?

Bobby Beausoleil: Who says they were innocent? They burned people on dope deals. Sharon Tate and that gang. They picked up kids on the Strip and took them home and whipped them. Made movies of it. Ask the cops, they found the movies. Not that they’d tell you the truth.

Full interview available here.

Bobby Beausoleil and author Truman Capote

Truman Capote: The truth is, the LaBiancas and Sharon Tate and her friends were killed to protect you. Their deaths were directly linked to the Gary Hinman murder.

Bobby Beausoleil: I hear you. I hear where you’re coming from.

Truman Capote: Those were all imitations of the Hinman murder-to prove that you couldn’t have killed Hinman. And thereby get you out of jail.

Bobby Beausoleil: To get me out of jail. (He nods, smiles, sighs-complimented) None of that came out at any of the trials. The girls got on the stand and tried to really tell how it all came down, but nobody would listen. People couldn’t believe anything except what the media said. The media had them programmed to believe it all happened because we were out to start a race war. That it was mean niggers going around hurting all these good white folk.

Bobby Beausoleil (cont’d): Only – it was like you say. The media, they called us a “family.” And it was the only true thing they said. We were a family. We were mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son. If a member of our family was in jeopardy, we didn’t abandon that person. And so for the love of a brother, a brother who was in jail on a murder rap, all those killings came down.

“That [Helter Skelter] was the prosecution’s theory because they wanted to get Manson into the act. They tried every trick in the book. Actually Hinman’s ear was never cut off- never gone. It was more that his cheek was sliced that intersected the edge of his ear and you can see it in his autopsy report. Bugliosi told the jury Manson cut his ear off, but it’s there in the autopsy [report]. You see the Sheriff’s Homicide Department wanted to get Manson involved with my case, which was very difficult because Manson was not involved.”

“I had my back against the wall. He, Gary Hinman, said, I’m going to tell the police what you did to me. This guy is a drug dealer. He’s playing the game. And if you’re going to dance, you’ve got to pay the fiddler. You burn somebody, that’s the way it is. I stabbed him in the heart twice. He died immediately. Susan Atkins seemed to think, Oh what fun, how interesting. Susan Atkins is now a Jesus freak in jail. She gave five different testimonies and in one of them, she claimed she killed Hinman.” – Bobby Beausoleil

Bobby Beausoleil now has served over fifty years in prison. On July 1, 2020 his parole was denied. He’ll be eligible again in January 2025. The California Parole Board had already recommended him for release in 2019, however Governor Gavin Newsom overturned their decision.

Bobby continues to create music and art while serving his sentence. In addition, he has his own website that contains writings, paintings, and free examples of his music.