LAPD to Hear Manson Follower’s Chilling Tapes

SHERMAN, Texas (CN) - The Los Angeles Police Department can have the audio recordings in which Manson follower and convicted killer, Charles "Tex" Watson, allegedly discussed unsolved murders with his former attorney, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled.

Deceased attorney Bill Boyd took on defending the Charles Manson cult member against charges concerning the Sharon Tate and LaBianca murders in 1969. The attorney recorded eight hours of conversations with Watson.

Boyd's law firm, Boyd Veigel, P.C., filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December 2009. Trustee Linda Payne held the original tapes which were among the property belonging to the firm's estate.

But in a letterto the U.S. Department of Justice dated March 19, 2012, LAPD Chief of Police Charlie Beck sought access to the tapes.

"The LAPD has been made aware that Mr. Watson authorized the sale and release of copies of the audio tapes to the Chaplain, Ray Hoekstra, to satisfy unpaid legal fees and to be used to write the book entitled, 'Will You Die For Me? The Man Who Killed For Charles Manson Tells His Own Story: Tex Watson As Told To Chaplain Ray,'" the letter stated. "The LAPD has information that Mr. Watson discussed additional unsolved murders committed by followers of Charles Manson," Beck wrote.

The police chief said that his department's Robbery-Homicide Division would examine the tapes for such information.

Payne filed a motion to have the tapes handed over to the LAPD on April 27, 2012, and attached Beck's letter as an exhibit.

The trustee contended that Watson waived his attorney-client privilege regarding the tapes in a document signed and dated September 1976.

"The court finds that, with Mr. Watson's consent, his attorney previously sold copies of the recordings to third parties," Chief US. Bankruptcy Judge Brenda Rhoades wrote in a one-page order signed on Thursday.

Rhoades concluded that the trustee should give the recordings to the LAPD. However, she ordered that any other legal materials go to Watson, who continues to serve a life sentence in California.

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