Who Really Killed Sharon Tate and Charlie Kirk?

“I'm certain of one thing: much of what we accept as fact is fiction.” – Chaos

After the shocking assassination of Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk, in September 2025, former TPUSA employee and Kirk friend, Candace Owens, made it her personal mission to find his killer. Often dismissing the evidence released by state and federal authorities, the conspiracy-minded Owens vowed to leave no stone unturned.

In Tom O’Neill’s 2019 book, “Chaos”, O’Neill details his research journey from a magazine article to a 20-year trek to uncover the truth surrounding Charles Manson’s murder spree in 1969.  His findings, at best, would suggest a cover-up that could essentially overturn the verdicts, and at worst, implicate the government in a mind-control scheme that ended the lives of seven people and an unborn baby.

The official story, retold in the 1974 book “Helter Skelter”, authored by the prosecutor of the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi, advanced a race war motive, with the murders used to frame the Black Panthers.  This version of the story was not true, as revealed by the suppression of files and other evidence by the Los Angeles DA’s office, other law enforcement agencies, and federal agencies.  A best-selling true crime book at the time, the declared narrative was accepted without dispute.  O’Neill would be the first to reinvestigate the case and leave significant doubt that Manson and his followers acted alone.

MKUltra was a CIA-led program of illegal experimental mind control using LSD and hypnosis that operated between 1953-1973.  Beginning with federal prisoners, evidence suggests the possibility that Manson was a protégé of the program during his incarceration between 1960 and 1967 at Terminal Island in Los Angeles.  Upon his release, Manson received unprecedented leniency from both federal agencies and law enforcement, often receiving immunity from further prosecution.  The speculation is that Manson may have been a Manchurian candidate brainwashed to carry out the murders.  The sinister program would be exposed in the 1970s, with its records destroyed thereafter, burying proof with its demise.  A whistleblower would reignite its existence with evidence of financial records residing at another warehouse. 

Operation CHAOS is yet another clandestine CIA-led counterintelligence program from 1967-1974 that sought to identify and eradicate anti-war activists and other radicals of the day in a bid to uncover possible foreign influence on domestic race, anti-war, and other protests.  COINTELPRO, the FBI-led version, worked to neutralize subversive groups from 1956-1971.   That is, to make hippies, leftists, and black panthers, the boogie man, during the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. 

Other infamous characters also have potential ties to these covert schemes.  Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, entered Harvard at the age of 16.  In his second year, he participated in a psychological experiment that may be tied to his future actions, where 3 people were murdered, and 23 more were injured.  Whitey Bulger, a future mob boss, received a reduced sentence in exchange for his participation in an 18-month LSD experiment in a federal prison in the 1950s.  After becoming a federal informant in 1975, he would later be charged with 19 murders.  Lee Harvey Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby, was treated by MKUltra doctor, Jolly West, following his arrest, with hypnosis and sodium pentothal, and other mind-altering treatments.  Ruby would significantly change his story after West’s visit.

During Manson’s stay in San Francisco, he regularly visited a clinic run by MKUltra doctor, Jolly West.  West’s ventures were acknowledged to be funded by the CIA for two decades.  Following the Tate/LaBianca murders, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office were seemingly steered by a higher authority, with the prosecution fabricating motives.  There is now substantial speculation that Manson and his family had connections to both CIA and FBI programs. 

Charlie Kirk’s murderer may well turn out to be the young man with the trans boyfriend who was radicalized on Reddit.  Or he may have been radicalized by bad actors from within governments or intelligence agencies.  Whatever the case, all scenarios are now on the table after realizing that all things are not always as they appear.  Our eyes have been opened, and nothing can be accepted as gospel again.