# "Helter Skelter" and Charles Manson - Why the connection? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678 "2005-03-22T03:47:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678/21 "2005-03-22T15:29:02Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I’ve seen those at amusement parks in the US, but they are never circlular/conical like that. Rather, they are usually just a long, uneven slope. There were plenty of “twisting” slides like that where I grew up (though they tended to be free-standing rather than wrapped around a conical structure). We always called them **tornado slides**. (Maybe it’s a Midwest thing.) ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678/22 "2005-03-22T19:03:46Z")
> [@davmilasav](#): > > I’m from Western PA (check my Location tag) and grew up in the 70’s. I was born in 1969, and was 5 months old when the murders occurred. > I googled “sliding board playground” and found plenty of references, so I’m not the only one who calls it that. However it was eeeeexcellent to be compared to Mr. Burns! 🙂 : [etymological hijack] FWIW, I knew that as soon as you said “sliding board”, without looking at the location tag; my wife’s family is from Pittsburgh. To explain to other Dopers, Pittsburghese is an oddly localised dialect[sup]_[/sup], with unique terms for things that aren’t found even as close as Youngstown, OH. “Gum bands” for rubber bands is another one I’ve heard. [/etymological hijack] [sup]_[/sup]Or, at least used to be, prior to cultural homogenization. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678/23 "2005-03-22T19:12:23Z")
> [@Antonius Block](#): > > I’ve always thought that the whole Manson “Helter Skelter” horror could have been avoided if he’d just had a British-American dictionary. If you’ve never seen the term before, it might seem sinister (shades of “hell” and “skeleton”, woOOoh!), but if your cultural reference point is as something that kids slide down at a FunFair, you wouldn’t associate it with Manson except as an afterthought (and I’d be willing to bet that most people who ride down a helter skelter have never even _heard_ of Charles Manson). May I point out that the twisting slide was named (early 20th century) after the much older term _helter skelter_ (Oxford English Dictionary: “In disordered haste; confusedly, tumultuously, pell-mell”) which goes back to the 16th century. Given that Paul McCartney was using the term _helter skelter_ in _both_ ways (i.e., his relationship with his lover is full of disorienting twists and turns and restarts), it’s not unreasable that Manson chose the “chaotic” meaning. The rest is nutso, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678/24 "2005-03-22T19:17:11Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I’ve seen those at amusement parks in the US, but they are never circlular/conical like that. Rather, they are usually just a long, uneven slope. > > But the british version seems cooler. I’ve seen [corkscrew slides](http://elyriapride.elyria.com/timemachine/1949.html) in lots of playgrounds. (Scroll down to see an image of one.) I see they are also called[spiral slides](http://www.poolslide.com/summitusa-inc/slide.html). I always understood it as other posters have explained, that Manson thought the Beatles were sending him special messages via their songs, and that he was trying to start a race war so he could take over the country. He also aspired to be a rock star. Wasn’t it the Beach Boys who recorded at least one of his songs? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678/25 "2005-03-22T19:33:25Z")
The Beach Boys album _20/20_ has the song _Never Learn Not to Love_ by BB drummer Dennis Wilson that is a slightly reworded version of the song _Cease to Exist_, written by Charles Manson. Manson and his gang had crashed at Wilson’s house for several months in 1968, while Manson pursued an elusive music career. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678/26 "2005-03-22T21:08:16Z")
> [@davmilasav](#): > > The murders were particularly gruesome and phrases from the songs were written on the walls in the victims’ blood. And curiously ‘Helter Skelter’ was actually misspelled (as Healter Skelter). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678/27 "2005-03-23T13:58:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > And curiously ‘Helter Skelter’ was actually misspelled (as Healter Skelter). This proves that literacy is essential to global domination. So stay in school kids!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678/28 "2005-03-28T13:12:11Z")
> [@davmilasav](#): > > As for the twisty slides, every McPlayland in my area has them. My HS band once got kicked off the playground for getting a trombone player stuck on a covered spiral slide. He was over 6’ tall and the turns were too tight. Why didn’t he just retract the trombone? Or release the spit valve and use the lubrication to free himself? (Yes, I know you didn’t mean he actually had the trombone **with** him. Still, I’m busting a gut here, picturing that. _wurnt wah wahhhhhhhh…_) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helter-skelter-and-charles-manson-why-the-connection/295678.md?page=1)