The Beatles‘ The White Album has several connections to the Manson Family. For example, the cult thought The Beatles’ “Sexy Sadie” was about one of its members. Subsequently, the member in question discussed what another tune from The White Album meant to Charles Manson and his followers.
Susan Atkins was a member of the Manson family. According to the book Helter Skelter, Manson gave Atkins the nickname “Sexy Sadie” long before The Beatles released a song with that title on The White Album. When Manson’s “family” heard The White Album, they thought “Sexy Sadie” proved their leader had a mental connection to the Fab Four.
In her 2005 book Child of Satan, Child of God, Atkins discussed The White Album at length. “Charlie obtained The Beatles’ so-called White Album in late 1968,” she wrote. “It had a tremendous impact on our lives, especially Charlie’s. One night when many of us were playing records and listening to the album, Charlie said, ‘They’re speaking to me.’
“He was convinced that he had some sort of apocalyptic connection with The Beatles,” she added. “I never fully understood it, but I knew Charlie, our unchallenged leader, was deeply affected.”
Atkins said there was an apocalyptic feeling in the air, which she connected to the lyrics of The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.” “I and most of the others believed that, in some way, ‘helter skelter’ — the end of the world — was ‘coming down fast.’ But, as always, our pattern was inconsistent. We were running helter skelter ourselves.”
Atkins acknowledged her interpretation of “Helter Skelter” was not the same as The Beatles’. “To us, helter skelter was real,” she said. “To the Beatles, their song was a takeoff on the use of a slippery slide in a children’s park, to which they added some suggestive, primarily sexual, connotations. To us, it meant things were going out of control in the world, and the end was coming.” Atkins recalled the Manson Family listened to The White Album repeatedly while taking large quantities of drugs.
Some of the tunes from The White Album became classic rock staples, like “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” On the other hand, others languish in obscurity. “Sexy Sadie” is perhaps most known today for its connection to Atkins, rather than its melody or its lyrics.
Sadly, its lyrics connect to Atkins in the worst possible way. The title character of Sexy Sadie “broke all the rules,” similar to how Atkins helped commit some of the most notorious murders of the 1960s. In addition, John sings that Sexy Sadie will get her comeuppance. Notably, Child of Satan, Child of God says Atkins was given a life sentence.
“Sexy Sadie” is an innocuous little song but it has a gruesome place in history.