Dennis Wilson, the late drummer for the Beach Boys, hosted the Charles Manson “family” — a well-documented history. But a new book by bandmate Mike Love tells how Wilson said he saw the serial killer shoot dead a man and “stuff him” down a well.
As People first reported, “The experience, … left Wilson unnerved and paralyzed with fear. ‘Dennis was too frightened to go to the police,’ [Love] writes. ‘I think he was just hoping that Manson and his family would disappear.'”
People isn’t the first to note Dennis Wilson’s fear of the family that later would slaughter others.
Mark Dillon, a Toronto-based freelance journalist, wrote in 2012:
“Dennis would not talk publicly about Manson right up until his drowning death in 1983. Some close to him insist that episode changed him. He was worried about Manson ever getting out of jail or putting a hit on him from behind bars.”
Dillon’s story in the National Post concluded: “It made Dennis paranoid and even more agitated than usual. Some attribute his subsequent spiral of self-destructive behavior ― particularly his drug intake ― to these fears and feelings of guilt for ever having introduced this evil Wizard into the Hollywood scene.”
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