I Picked Up "Tex" Watson Hitchhiking AFTER the Manson Murders
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, after the Tate–LaBianca murders, Charles “Tex” Watson vanished—just not right away. For nearly two months, he remained in Los Angeles as the city searched for those responsible. That’s where this story begins. Our American Stories listener Patty Kingsbaker recounts the day she unknowingly gave a ride to Manson’s most loyal killer, unaware she was sitting just feet from one of the most wanted men in the country.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
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| 0:31.0 | Thank you. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, |
| 0:52.6 | from the arts to sports and from business to history, |
| 0:55.3 | and everything in between, including your stories. |
| 0:58.0 | Send them to Our American Stories.com. |
| 1:01.0 | They're some of our favorites. |
| 1:02.8 | And this next story comes to us, |
| 1:04.9 | well, Greg Hangler brings it to us, |
| 1:07.1 | and actually the person providing this story is a listener in Colorado. |
| 1:12.4 | Charles Tex Watson was just a young guy from Texas in 1969 |
| 1:16.4 | when he came under the spell of drugs and Charles Manson |
| 1:20.3 | and helped kill seven people. |
| 1:23.6 | Watson attended Cal State Los Angeles but dropped out less than half a semester later, got a job |
| 1:28.7 | selling wigs and began living it up in the party scene of Los Angeles. One fateful evening, |
| 1:35.1 | he was driving home and picked up a hitchhiker. In Watson's words, hitchhikers were pretty common |
... |
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