Was record producer Terry Melcher Charles Manson's intended target? Their connection in focus as new Netflix doc streams

Record producer Terry Melcher’s connection to Charles Manson is in focus after the release Netflix's ‘Conversations with a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes’.

Record producer Terry Melcher’s connection to Charles Manson is in focus amid renewed conversations about the notorious cult leader’s life after the release of a new Netflix documentary – ‘Conversations with a Killer: The Charles Manson Tapes’. It was directed by Joe Berlinger.

Was record producer Terry Melcher Charles Manson's intended target? Their connection in focus as new Netflix doc streams (Netflix/YouTube)

The new documentary explores the brutal 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others, orchestrated by Manson.

Some theorize that Melcher was targeted by Manson because Melcher declined to give him a recording contract.

The victims of the August 8, 1969 rampage included Tate, the pregnant wife of movie director Roman Polanski; coffee heiress Abigail Folger; celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring; writer Wojciech Frykowski; and teenager Steven Parent. Supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary LaBianca, were stabbed and killed the following night.

How did Terry Melcher know Charles Manson and was he the intended target?

Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson introduced Manson to Melcher in 1968.

It all started when Wilson picked up two hitchhiking Manson Family members and brought them to his Pacific Palisades home in the spring of 1968. This led to a chaotic relationship where Manson and his followers moved into Wilson's mansion, reportedly costing him over $100,000 in expenses. Wilson eventually cut ties with them.

One evening, Manson allegedly broke into Wilson’s home. An unlikely friendship began after Manson appeared as though he meant no harm, and even went on to kiss Wilson’s feet.

At the time, Manson was an aspiring singer and was looking for a recording contract, according to Fox 10 Phoenix.

“Through Dennis and some of those gatherings, I met a lot of people with solid connections, including Terry Melcher … and several others who liked my music enough to want to record and market me and my material,” Manson wrote in his 1994 book Manson In His Own Words.

Melcher invited members of the band, and Manson, to parties that he and his girlfriend, actress Candace Bergen, threw at their 10050 Cielo Drive estate in the Benedict Canyon area. Melcher visited Manson in 1969 at Spahn Ranch, which Beach Boys’ Mike Love wrote in his memoir may have been a favor to Wilson. During the visit, Manson auditioned for Melcher.

“Terry told the LAPD … once he got to [Manson’s place] he just wanted to get the hell out of there,” said Bill Cassara, a retired Monterey County Sheriff’s deputy, in his memoir, according to Fox News. “It was filthy and very obvious that there was no talent. He described hearing Manson’s girls singing while he played the guitar. He felt he had to get out. So he tried to make a graceful exit.”

Love said in his memoir that Manson failed to impress Melcher with his singing abilities, adding that Melcher refused to give Manson a recording contract, which Manson did not handle well.

“Manson wouldn’t stand for it,” Love wrote. “Consumed by rage and seeking revenge against a corrupt society, he convinced his followers that the apocalypse was coming in a bloody race war, at the end of which, he and his disciples would take over.”

Melcher moved out of his Cielo Drive estate in January 1969 after his mother urged him to, Love wrote in his memoir. The house was then rented to Tate and Polanski.

“The move was no accident,” Love wrote. “Terry, Doris’ only child, was extremely close to his mom. He had told her about Manson, and about some of his scary antics, his brandishing of knives, his zombie followers, and that Manson had been to the house on Cielo, and she insisted he move out.”

Seven months later, members of the Mansion Family brutally murdered Tate and the others.

Prosecutors argued during Manson’s murder trial that Melcher’s refusal to sign Manson a recording deal was part of the motive for murder. They argued that Manson was unaware that Melcher had moved out and was targeting him that night, per The New York Times. However, police later said that Manson did know that Melcher had moved out before the murders.

The incident shook Melcher.

“No one would ever talk about the Manson murders in front of Terry,” Cassara said in his memoir. “Terry was a very paranoid person. He did not like to be around crowds. He certainly didn’t like being recognized.”

In November 2004, Melcher died after a long battle with cancer.

Manson died on November 19, 2017, at the age of 83. He died at a hospital in Kern County, Bakersfield, California, while serving a life sentence for mass murder. He passed away from cardiac arrest resulting from respiratory failure, brought on by colon cancer.