true crime

Manson Killer Bobby Beausoleil Name-Dropped Lady Gaga at His Latest Parole Hearing

Lady Gaga. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Bobby Beausoleil, whose torture and killing of Gary Hinman was the precipitating action of the Manson murders, has been recommended for parole. It was his 19th parole hearing, but the first one that mentioned Lady Gaga. According to TMZ, Beausoleil was asked many questions about his music in connection to Charles Manson. Beausoleil referred to his soundtrack for Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising, which he recorded while imprisoned. “The Lady Gaga documentary used a portion of it … and it has been used in other films,” he is reported to have said in transcripts, referring to the Netflix doc Gaga: Five Foot Two. “It is respected on its own merits as art. I think it is important to try to see it as something that is not representative of something that is related to Manson.”

Beausoleil recorded Lucifer Rising with his band, the Freedom Orchestra, composed of fellow inmates at the Deuel Vocational Institution. Beausoleil was supposed to record something for Anger before he even met Manson, but the two had a falling out. After Anger also fell out with Jimmy Page, Beausoleil approached Anger about finishing what they had started. He recorded the album with the full cooperation of the prison. Debra Tate, Sharon Tate’s sister, objects to Beausoleil’s release in part because he has been profiting off of music while in prison, according to Rolling Stone.

Bobby Beausoleil Name-Dropped Lady Gaga at Parole Hearing