How much do/did the Beatles know about Manson and their music being his alleged motive for the Tate/La Bianca murders? Did any of them ever speak publicly (or privately, later revealed by someone else) about it?
(Actually, I wrote my senior thesis on this a quarter of a century ago – a Religion seminar on the Apocalyptic. Unfortuantely, I don’t know the answer to either of your questions. Sorry.)
Other then mentioning that the “Helter Skelter” was a name for a playground slide, I think they always just denied to comment on it.
I’m sure it was a bit of an embarrassment.
Manson has said that there were a number of Beatles songs that "inspired/were the inspiration for the murders, which is a complete and utter copout.
Anyway, besides Helter Skelter, Piggies, Dear Prudence, Revolution, Blackbird, Sexy Sadie, and Happiness Is A Warm Gun were all cited by Manson.
The only thing I know for sure, Otto, is that Lennon & McCarthy gave Vincent Bugliosi permission to quote their lyrics in “Helter Skelter,” while Harrison did not. (“Helter Skelter” is Bugliosi’s account of how he and others prosecuted the Manson Family murderers.)
Lennon asked Bugliosi to pass along a message to Manson, to the effect of “Paul wrote Helter Skelter, please leave my name out of it!”