Robert Kenneth Beausoleil (born November 6, 1947) is an American murderer and associate of Charles Manson and members of his communal Manson Family. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the July 27, 1969, fatal stabbing of Gary Hinman, who had befriended him and other Manson associates. Beausoleil was later granted commutation to a lesser sentence of life imprisonment, after the Supreme Court of California issued a ruling that invalidated all death sentences issued in California prior to 1972.

During his incarceration in the California state prison system, Beausoleil has recorded and released music. He has also worked on visual art, instrument design, and media technology. Although a parole board recommended him for parole in January 2019 in his 19th hearing for eligibility, the recommendation was denied by the governor of California.

Early life

Beausoleil was born on November 6, 1947, in Santa Barbara, California, to working-class parents Charles Kenneth Beausoleil and Helen Arlene Mattox. He was the first-born child in a Catholic family and has four siblings. When he was 15, Beausoleil was sent to Los Prietos Boys Camp for ten months for running away from home and a series of juvenile pranks.

After his release, Beausoleil moved to the Los Angeles area and drifted between there and San Francisco, gravitating towards the emerging counterculture music scene and acting. He did brief stints as a guitarist for several rock bands of the era, including The Grass Roots (later to become Love) in 1965 in Los Angeles. Beausoleil then joined The Outfit in San Francisco for several months early in 1966, before founding the free-form psychedelic group The Orkustra alongside David LaFlamme. This lasted until he became involved with underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger in the summer of 1967. He secured a part in Anger's film Lucifer Rising and organized The Magick Powerhouse of Oz band for its soundtrack.

In 1968, Beausoleil was living with Gary Hinman in Topanga Canyon when he met Charles Manson. He became associated with Manson and the communal group known as the "Manson Family".

Murder of Gary Hinman

According to Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi in his book Helter Skelter, Gary Alan Hinman was killed over an issue of money and property that Manson believed Hinman had, and that Manson felt the Family was owed for a Hinman-supplied Beausoleil drug deal gone bad. At Beausoleil's second trial, prosecutors said it had been rumored that Hinman had received a $20,000 inheritance.

Accompanying Beausoleil that night were Susan Atkins and Mary Brunner. Brunner was granted legal immunity as the key witness for Beausoleil's prosecution. Atkins subsequently became involved in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders and other crimes perpetrated by Manson and his followers.

Beausoleil went with Atkins and Brunner to Hinman's house in Topanga Canyon, where Beausoleil had lived briefly. They demanded that Hinman give them money, but Hinman said that he did not have any money to give. Beausoleil called Manson at Spahn Ranch and said there was no money. Manson told them to hold Hinman captive at his house and convince him to get the money before Manson arrived.

Bruce Davis drove Manson to the Topanga Canyon home, taking a samurai sword or bayonet. Beausoleil said he stitched up Hinman's ear with dental floss; other reports say the stitching was done by Atkins and Brunner. No reference to a drug deal was made in either of Beausoleil's two trials for the murder or in related books by Ed Sanders and Vincent Bugliosi.

Conspirator Susan Atkins stated before her death that she never heard Beausoleil indicate that a drug transaction was related at all to why they went to Hinman's house seeking money from him.

Conviction, life in prison, and parole hearings

On April 18, 1970, a Superior Court jury in Los Angeles found the 22-year-old Beausoleil guilty of first-degree murder of Hinman and sentenced him to death.

Beausoleil's 18-year-old girlfriend, Kathryn "Kitty" Lutesinger, had testified against him during the trial; she was then pregnant by him and later gave birth to a daughter, who would be raised by Lutesinger's parents.</blockquote>

Beausoleil's initial parole suitability hearing was held on August 15, 1978. Prior to 2019, he had a total of 18 suitability hearings; each time the parole board rejected his bid for parole. His wife, Barbara, whom he had met while in California, moved to Oregon to be near him. Bobby and Barbara had no children together, but she had children from a former marriage.

Following the death of his wife and having committed a disciplinary infraction in the Oregon prison, he was transferred back to California in 2015, to the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. In recommending parole, the panel cited Beausoleil's youthful offender status as having been a mitigating factor in his crime. They noted that, during his nearly half-century of incarceration, he had pursued creative outlets and pro-social growth, gradually maturing into a person exhibiting compassion and empathy. The Los Angeles District Attorney's office disagreed, saying that the panel's recommendation was "unfortunate". Six years later, a state parole board panel again recommended on January 7, 2025 that Beausoleil was suitable for a thorough and comprehensive parole review by the Board of Parole Hearings and Gov. Newsom. Governor Newsom reversed Beausoleil's parole recommendation on May 2, 2025.

As of 2023, only two people who have been convicted of murder in the killings committed by the Family have been released from prison: Steve "Clem" Grogan, who was paroled in 1985, and Leslie Van Houten, who was paroled in 2023. Several others, including Manson and Atkins, have died in prison. Bruce Davis remains incarcerated after having had seven recommendations for parole denied by California governors.

Private life

Beausoleil has three biological children.

Film roles

Beausoleil was to star in Kenneth Anger's 1967 version of the film Lucifer Rising, but little footage was shot before the two had a falling out, and the project was abandoned.

Beausoleil at the age of 16 had a brief appearance as Cupid in the 1967 film Mondo Hollywood, a documentary about the social, political, and cultural climate of Los Angeles. It included a wide cast of Hollywood figures, including Manson Family murder victim, hair stylist Jay Sebring.

Music career

In 1965, Beausoleil was for a brief time a member of Arthur Lee's band the Grass Roots. Lee’s band later changed their name to Love to avoid confusion with the San Francisco Bay area group The Grass Roots, but Beausoleil departed before the name change and never recorded with Lee.

By the fall of 1966, Beausoleil had formed a band called The Orkustra. Collaborator violinist David LaFlamme later had success with his band It's a Beautiful Day.

Incarcerated for most of his adult life, Beausoleil has nonetheless produced a significant body of musical recordings, visual art, and writings. The Lucifer Rising Suite released by The Ajna Offensive in 2009 documents the film's soundtrack project from its beginnings in 1967 to its completion and delivery to the filmmaker in 1979. In addition to the soundtrack, some alternate themes, musical and soundscape experiments, and live performances are included in the boxed set; the anthology box set was released on CD in 2014.

Subsequent additional Beausoleil albums feature compositions often recorded in correlation to and released in conjunction with his drawings and paintings. The 2014 compilation Whispers Through The Black Veil was released on the Wyrd War label, containing the song "The Wailing On Witch Mountain", composed, performed, and recorded in 2012. His most recent musical release is Voodoo Shivaya (2018), a 2-disk concept album recorded between 2008 and 2015. It features both covers and original songs with vocal and instrumental tracks showcasing Beausoleil's instrumental and vocal skills. Guest performances, with the approval of the Oregon State Penitentiary administration, included Annabel Lee Moynihan, Michael Jenkins Moynihan, Robert Ferbrache, and Mike Behrenhausen, all members of the dark folk band Blood Axis. The triple gatefold LP and CD packaging integrates Nicholas Syracuse's photography with calligraphy by Timo Ketola.

Interviews

Truman Capote interviewed Beausoleil in 1972, while the latter was imprisoned in San Quentin State Prison. Capote published the interview in the form of a short story "Then It All Came Down", Following the book's publication, Beausoleil said that Capote took gross literary license in his reporting of the interview from eight years earlier.

Filmography

  • 1967: Mondo Hollywood
  • 1969: The Ramrodder
  • 1969: Invocation of My Demon Brother
  • 1972, released 1980: Lucifer Rising, soundtrack composer

Discography

Studio albums

  • 1981: Lucifer Rising (reissued in 2005 and 2016)
  • 1997: Running with the White Wolf
  • 1998: Mantra: Soundscapes for Meditation
  • 2001: Orb
  • 2002: 7
  • 2009: The Orkustra: Experiments in Electric Orchestra from the San Francisco Psychedelic Underground, 1966-67
  • 2013: Dancing Hearts Afire EU LP (reissued on CD in 2016)
  • 2014: Orb EU LP
  • 2018: Voodoo Shivaya LP and CD

Compilations

  • 2007: Dreamways of the Mystic, Vol. 1
  • 2007: Dreamways of the Mystic, Vol. 2
  • 2009: The Lucifer Rising Suite (4-LP Boxed Set) Reissued in 2013.
  • 2014: The Lucifer Rising Suite CD boxed set

Singles

  • 2002: "Big House Blues"
  • 2013: "Red House"
  • 2014: "OM's Law"
  • 2014: "Angel"
  • 2014: "Who Do You Love"
  • 2015: "Ghost Highway"

References

  • Official website
  • Exposés Review of The Lucifer Rising Suite CD
  • Official YouTube Channel
  • Plethoramag.com
  • It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine Interview with Bobby BeauSoleil
  • Bobby BeauSoleil: Lucifer Rising for Bardo Methodology
  • Bobby BeauSoleil Interview for Bardo Methodology
  • Bobby BeauSoleil on Spotify