Horrible Distortions of Reality: Another Assessment of The Abuse Allegations Against Marilyn Manson (NSFW/CONTENT WARNING)
Anything could be misinterpreted. People can look at Christ on a cross and think this is an image of murder, this is violent, this has sexual imagery in it. I think it’s my job as an artist to be out there pushing peoples’ buttons, and making them question everything. I respect you for challenging me, and that’s why I came on the show.
-Marilyn Manson on The O’Reilly Factor, 2001.
It’s been over a year since actor Evan Rachel Wood publicly claimed that rock star Marilyn Manson abused, tortured, and raped her during their relationship in the late 2000s. There are now well over a dozen public allegations and four lawsuits in progress. Many more anonymous allegations have also surfaced. There are stories of being starved, kept awake for days with cocaine, verbally threatened with death, spied upon, locked in close confines for several hours, having photos of them “mutilated” and naked while they are sleeping posted on social media without permission or knowledge, and so forth.
Police raided Manson’s home, confiscating “hard drives and storage devices”. Nothing conclusive has been reported yet from authorities. Some still insist that there isn’t an ongoing police investigation into sexual assault claims. While there is not a criminal case, there is certainly a criminal investigation, and not just about the “snot attack” that Manson allegedly unleashed upon a camera person. This article serves as a scrapbook of sorts, documenting various tidbits of information that have accumulated over the years.
The Lawsuits
Of the lawsuits, Manson’s lawyers tried to get the cases dismissed on the grounds that the statute of limitations has long expired, but there are now discussions on whether or not the victims “discovered” the nature of their abuse within a reasonable amount of time.
Due to their purported level of trauma, and the possibility that the manipulation visited upon them was pervasive enough to last for years, it’s possible that the lawsuits can do what the criminal courts can’t — hold someone responsible for criminal acts that were committed well after the statute of limitations has expired, although it is unclear as to whether this “delayed discovery” will put the cases within range for either prosecution or a lawsuit.
Some sources say 5 years, although they tried for 10. Chances are the statute of limitations was extended to five years, but there are stipulations that may allow all four of these lawsuits to go forward, despite statute of limitations, due to the period after the victim “discovered” the nature of their abuse. There is also a seemingly distant angle on a “sex trafficking” charge, the difference between domestic abuse and sexual assault, for instance.
California State Senator Susan Rubio has personally requested a federal investigation on Marilyn Manson, born Brian Warner. She has also helped pass a bill penalizing psychological abuse, intimidation, and coercion, specifically with regard to the time after a person “discovers” their abuse, with things like revenge porn in mind. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with regard to “artistic” matters of almost 15 years ago, for example, as far as coercion goes.
Heart Shaped Glasses
When asked for her response to these claims, [Phoenix Rising documentarian Amy] Berg told Newsweek: “There were a lot of lawyers that looked at every single second of this film, and every frame.
“So I don’t know, like, what else we could do, our film is completely legally sound. And that’s all I can really say about that.”
Most recently, a new documentary, Phoenix Rising, was released, which revealed yet another allegation, that Manson even raped Wood on set during the filming of the music video Heart-Shaped Glasses. Some crew members have publicly or anonymously claimed that the sex was consensual or even instigated by Wood, but below is a quote from the time implying that the sex was real, although Manson championed the notion of it being real (“real good”), while Wood denied that it was real. In the past year, Wood has claimed a great deal of atrocities that were allegedly visited upon her, not to mention threats to her son and her friends.
From Stereogum, quoting Radar, who has since apparently rescinded their statement:
According to a source close to the production crew, Manson and Wood elected not to fake their intercourse. Though their naughty bits are concealed on-screen by bedclothes and each other’s bodies, the logistics of the shoot ensured the crew members had an intimate view of the proceedings: The video was originally intended to be shot in 3-D, meaning the couple’s writhings had to be shot from several different angles simultaneously. And just to be sure they got it right, Manson and Wood got it on three times for the cameras.
Of course, as we’ve noted in the past, planting rumors that hot on-screen sex was real is hardly an original publicity gambit. And a rep for Manson insists, “It was simulated sex.”
But our source had no doubts either about what took place, or about why Manson, who cultivates an air of calculated outrageousness, would be anxious to deny it: “The Christian parents will be sharpening their steak knives for him.”
What A Tangled Web We Weave.
While media outlets are generally quoting the alleged victims and running with their narrative, there are a handful of other outlets who argue that Marilyn Manson is innocent of all charges, usually acting like his patterned behavior can’t be used as character evidence, and that witness’s testimonies can’t be used in court despite statute of limitations. Since those outlets don’t generally like to use citations of any kind, and also offer to discuss things “off the record” only to publish anyway, this article won’t be linking to them for their general lack of integrity. As we have seen with Bill Cosby and Johnny Depp, these incriminating interviews and social media posts can be used in court.
Regardless, there are Youtube channels, blogs, and Instagram accounts that make some claims which may look valid on the surface, and at other times seem awkwardly conflated. Either way, it’s hard to confirm unless you want to take their word for it, and since they weren’t directly involved with anything relevant, only a fool would do that.
For example, people have said that Ashley Morgan-Smithline used stock images to give the illusion that they were photos of her own wounds, but she was actually just making a slide show. There is a video interview of her ex saying that she’s a terrible, vindictive person. There are also others suggesting that she mixed up her story about whether or not she agreed to be “kinky” or not, and quickly changed it on facebook, or people splitting hairs about whether or not she broke her nose at the hands of Manson or not, as well as when.
There is another interview with a schizophrenic stalker who Morgan-Smithline has had a restraining order against, but his word is still being used as valid when he claims he is an ex, and “she’s a lunatic”, etc. These people will do anything to obfuscate glaring evidence of abuse. Really, it makes no difference if all four of the lawsuits are entirely fabricated, as they have given way to an outpouring of allegations that are corroborated by the actions of the abuser himself. Photos of Evan Rachel Wood with Ed Norton or Amber Heard are being used to conflate a friendship or relationship on the part of Wood, and it’s more than a stretch.
There will be a flurry of screenshots forthcoming, and it will be up to the reader to decide their validity, for whatever that is worth, because people can’t be trusted. It’s a shitstorm to chronicle. Just one glaring example is a Manson fanatic being outed for fabricating screenshots of an imaginary conversation between himself and Evan Rachel Wood. Wood apparently responded with a threat of a lawsuit to stop the falsification and libel.
There is an unreleased film called “Groupie” that allegedly depicts a young woman being degraded and eventually killed by the Marilyn Manson and some of his bandmates. One of the accusers said that they were forced to watch the film at high volume and told that it was real. Pola Weiss, the woman who played said “Groupie” stated emphatically in an interview that she was of age at the time of filming, nothing nonconsensual happened, and she witnessed nothing that wasn’t on the level.
That said, while Manson and Weiss did have a short relationship, of no consequence as it relates to this matter, it might just be that she wasn’t abused because she was an ex of Trent Reznor, who was still friends with Manson at the time, not to mention being the man responsible for his record deal. The fact remains that the film was said to be used for the purpose of intimidation, as was “River’s Edge” and even “Rules of Attraction” in other instances with other former partners, due to their content depicting rape or murder of women. Manson is now trying to sue for defamation because Illma Gore more or less repeated what he’d said in interviews about the Groupie film, that the actress was portrayed as underage, and that it was meant to be implied that the groupie was killed.
Some sites inaccurately imply that the accusers who watched the Groupie film actually thought someone was killed, or they were underage, but really what they seem to want to communicate is that the film was used to scare them, just as the film “River’s Edge” was allegedly used to scare dates prior to that. Of Marilyn Manson’s recent defamation lawsuit, that is the only aspect that addresses the actual abuse allegations. Interestingly, the accusers themselves are being accused of falsifying FBI reports, hacking, swatting, and fraudulently organizing a support group for the purpose of smearing the artist.
This support group was filmed for the Phoenix Rising documentary, and Evan Rachel Wood expressed fear for her life about retaliation. Below is a video where Manson is stating clearly that he knows and is friends with dangerous people and gang members, and “freedom of speech doesn’t come with a dental plan”.
From an interview with A.V. Club:
I’m not someone you want to piss off, because I’ve got friends that are in really low places. Not saying Hells Angels, not saying MS-13 gang, not saying any of those… but I’m not somebody you fuck with….
…I like to commit crimes that are unnoticeable by the law.
What’s even more confusing on the part of his defenders is the complete disregard for Manson’s known behavior over several decades — in interviews, performances, and art, which diminishes the credibility of any journalist claiming to have done objective reporting when they choose to ignore it.
In short, both sides of the argument (mass media and these “the real truth” bloggers) are, with few exceptions, looking like Hollywood gossip rags, Fox News, or even The National Enquirer at times, with those who look toward proving Manson’s innocence generally scrutinizing dates and why the victims continued to attend Marilyn Manson concerts or do photo shoots throughout their alleged abuse and well into its aftermath. There are some inaccuracies in some of their assumptions, and those gaps are often filled with baseless conjecture. There are some enlightening interviews with people who were close to Manson, but there are also dozens of allegations. Of every public allegation, there are 10 more anonymous allegations, some of whom have sent evidence to authorities, while others are too scared of retribution.
Oddly, deranged Christians are supporting Manson now, when their parents protested him in the 90s, in addition to the usual pseudo-intellectual metalheads. Organized religion has continued to be a teeter-totter of faddist, anti-intellectual propaganda having nothing to do with the message of Christ, as Manson has stated himself.
Video interviews from this so-called “influencer” not only include supporters and friends, but also comedians, random irrelevant shirtless people, and a confirmed schizophrenic stalker pretending to be the accuser’s ex-husband. And this information is divulged as fact without any other consideration. In particular, people are ignoring evidence in favor of testimony, while also ignoring testimony from the other side. Rush Limbaugh spoke for his team no matter what the circumstances were, and that’s not only biased, but an obviously unreliable source.
Looking at a situation with a lot of variables and trying to force it to be black and white is not a productive use of time, just because one likes someone’s music or their image. There is a fine line between journalism and propaganda. The branding of a particular agenda, in this case it would be supporting allegedly abusive celebrities, speaks to an ingrained flaw in human instinct as it relates to herd mentality and mob justice. This all harkens back to the people who harassed the parents of youths who were killed at Kent State.
The aforementioned Youtube channel has interviewed former collaborators, lovers, fans, and one rare former personal assistant that isn’t disenfranchised (although there are many who are) of the notoriously difficult artist. Among the people they are defending are not only Marilyn Manson, but also Andrew Cuomo, Johnny Depp, and Ryan Adams, and even Ron Jeremy, as if to suggest that the curator of this channel not only wants to exploit the popularity of hot-button issues such as Britney Spears’ recent dispute, but to also operate as a hub for dysfunctional people who apparently think women should be, to quote Donald Trump, grabbed “by the pussy”, and keep their mouth shut about it. And of course, a patreon link for every entry. What will the evangelist Christians think of next?
As is to be expected, if we are to believe these “damning” testimonies by fans on said Youtube channel — Evan Rachel Wood was pregnant due to infidelity, had an abortion (according to the documentary, Wood said it was Manson’s baby that was aborted), swore privately that Manson was vanilla and “cuddly” (not into BDSM or sadism, much less abuse), gladly wore Nazi regalia, imbibed cocaine of her own free will and snorted it off the blade of a vintage Nazi knife to boot, and openly did a Sieg Heil salute during Manson’s performances, despite later claiming that her Jewish heritage was ridiculed during their relationship.
“Innocent Until Proven Guilty” is just fine, but in terms of coercion, the general public is still learning about the true nature of abuse, obviously, and so it becomes necessary to give these women the benefit of the doubt just as quickly as one should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. If there are gaggles of fans who claim they met Manson once and he is innocent, it’s also important to note that Ted Bundy had 200 letters a day from adoring women thinking he was innocent, and Richard Ramirez had “groupies” in the courtroom winking at him, and adoring fans from all over the world.
In both cases, some of these fanatics dressed as the killers’ victims. In order to look at this situation objectively, it is necessary to consider that some of the alleged victims of Marilyn Manson have evidence that they do not have any obligation to share prior to the court case, that they have very likely shared with authorities privately. These same people who blab about him being “innocent until proven guilty” have no problem harassing alleged victims on twitter, not to mention those who posted photos of Amber Heard crying during her defamation trial. This country is brimming with abusive, dysfunctional, and counter-intuitive behavior.
Any attempt to smear the accusers can come during court time. If we look at R. Kelly’s case, it may be a while before the criminal case comes, but since one source says that there are probably more like 50+ (mostly anonymous) abuse allegations against Manson, and many of them have been reported to the FBI, it would be silly to assume that the FBI is not investigating the matter. They said that they could neither confirm nor deny, which usually means they would deny that they’re investigating if they could… If we look at Bill Cosby’s case, a number of women who claimed to have been raped long after the statute of limitations had expired were able to testify against Cosby. If we look at Johnny Depp’s case, it’s quite clear that his interviews can be used against him in a defamation case, given the right context and presentation.
As for the authorities, it’s likely that, in the event of Manson’s guilt, they’re in a “too little, too late” type of situation, where they raided his home far too late (purportedly due to false reports of child pornography issued by Illma Gore), and all the most convincing evidence is either long gone or years old. It’s extremely curious to see how it would play out in court (the lawsuits), which won’t be apparently even beginning until late 2023, if they aren’t dismissed due to statute of limitations.
Hey victim, should I black your eyes again?
Hey victim, you were the one who put the stick in my hand-Marilyn Manson, Lyrics to Irresponsible Hate Anthem
In the event of a criminal case, which does seem inevitable regardless of Manson’s innocence or guilt, due to the amount of allegations, character evidence, and, to some degree, circumstantial evidence, despite the lapsing of the statute of limitations, it is definitely a matter of contention as to why Marilyn Manson hasn’t been brought into custody or charged yet. If this “coercion” is truly punishable by law, then what are they waiting for?
Wood also claims that Manson carved swastikas into the end table near their bed when he was angry. At one point, he allegedly spray-painted the words “Kill All Jews” on the wall. In fairness, one of Manson’s tattoos was misinterpreted as a Totenkopf, but looks more to be a “Skull of Adam”, and this point would be a nice diversion if Manson didn’t also have “MM” stylized in the orientation of a swastika on his chest, plus a couple other symbols that resemble a swastika tattooed. The Heart of Tursas may be more forgivable than what looks like The Triskele fashioned more in the way that fascists used it rather than the way that Celts used it.
Needless to say, the rock star not only likes to push limits, but also to flirt heavily with questionable imagery. He also likes to collect oddities, and Nazi memorabilia is among them. Most importantly, Wood claims that she was told how to dress and how to act. She also said that she was kept from her family. Photos of Wood dressed in Nazi regalia doing cocaine may just be part of her desire to placate. Just because there are photos of her with her family at Disney Land, does not mean that this statement has no truth to it. It’s reasonable to observe that there are some holes, basically everywhere, in statements from both sides.
Nevertheless, in two different interviews, the aforementioned former assistant/die-hard Manson fan on Youtube first claims that she wasn’t around for a certain European tour, then later claims she was not only around for said European tour, but was present when a certain website intro was filmed. The video, which was one minute in length, depicted Manson punching Evan Rachel Wood in the face and cutting her.
According to the assistant, who previously admitted they weren’t “really around” while Manson was dating Wood, they were magically there in Europe for this instance, and it was all fun and games, totally fake. It was later stated that Wood was present when the “I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies” video was filmed with Esmé Bianco, which wasn’t apparently filmed in Europe, but at Manson’s home in Los Angeles, and some of that material was then used for a website intro, it just didn’t happen to include Bianco.
If one were to believe this person, it would be self-evident that a violet wand couldn’t possibly hurt anyone (there are obviously painful options available on these devices), and a woman should be grateful for being told to walk around in lingerie, possibly also showing off their bruises to strangers. It’s clear that the accusers are not angels, but while some will testify that Manson was not kinky, and others will pass off the photos of scarred women posted by Manson himself as “consensual BDSM”, one then would inevitably be asked to choose, “which is it”? No one is 100% innocent in this matter, just as it’s safe to assume that no one in California is 100% honest in any capacity.
There are several instances of Manson talking about a “rape room” or a “bad girl room” in his own interviews. This is apparently a reference to “American Psycho”. The aforementioned former personal assistant goes through great lengths to emphasize that this “bad girl room” was a running joke, that in reality it was actually used as either a vocal booth for a recording studio, a sauna, or for storage, and didn’t have a lock on it at all.
That’s all fine and good, if it weren’t for the fact that Manson allegedly had another “glass cage” in different homes, which was “widely known”. Ever the showman, Manson even bragged about building one for his then-girlfriend, now-wife Lindsay Usich-Warner in an obscure German edition of Playboy. This would place Manson’s “bad girl room” not only in a temporary apartment above a liquor store, but also a residence that came after, leaving his fans, defenders, and cohorts with a bit more explaining to do.
PLAYBOY: How many groupies have you had over the years?
MANSON: A few hundred I think. I feel like a kid in an amusement park that gets everything for free. A great honor.
PLAYBOY: [Your] Los Angeles studio features a soundproof “Bad Girl Room”. What is behind it?
MANSON: (laughs) Just because I’m in a committed relationship doesn’t mean I live like a monk. I just like to have fun, which includes sex. And it can get louder.
PLAYBOY: What does your friend, the New York photographer Lindsay Usich, have to say about this?
MANSON: Well, she was one of the reasons I set up this room. And she has also played her part in other ways. That I have overcome my little low of the last few years. For example, it makes me want to go out more often again. Around in Las Vegas, there were people recently to a karaoke marathon.
Another Instagram outlet seems to suggest that “I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies”, an angry track obviously levelled against Evan Rachel Wood, was to become a video (never released) where Wood was allegedly present, based on what would appear to be a poorly read interview snippet. Instead, what’s more likely is that Esmé Bianco was enlisted without Wood to do a video of Manson’s many revenge songs on his ultimate breakup record, The High End of Low. It’s also been suggested that this material, which ended up as a website intro that included Evan Rachel Wood being punched in the face, was part of the aforementioned [9 minute long] music video.
Esmé Bianco claims that she was lured to Manson’s lair, under the pretense of a low-budget music video with light bondage. “You’d have to pretend you enjoy it”, he apparently said in an email. Instead, in so many words, Bianco claims to have spent three days being tortured and starved, denied of sleep. Although there are photos of her looking excited supposedly on this day (no way to know for sure what day it was), it hasn’t been established by anyone else credible who was on the set.
In a Hollywood movie, would an actor actually be whipped, or even given rope burns for a film? Or would they find a way to work around it for legal and ethical purposes? Were there any contracts signed? If a person has sex with a contracted employee while they are under any influence (perhaps cocaine or absinthe), is that going to fall under “sex trafficking”? Or, if there wasn’t sex, then what does awkwardly-arranged bondage with poor communication at best fall under? With the amount of Non-Disclosure Agreements that seem to fly around in Los Angeles, and allegedly on Manson’s tour bus (the assistants even hold fan’s phones when they come onto the bus, it has been said) wouldn’t there be a paper trail for the “actors” in this video?
More contention can be found within Evan Rachel Wood’s statements in interviews prior to outing her alleged abuser. There was high praise of Marilyn Manson always throughout their relationships and break ups. Although the couple did get back together and become engaged, for several months, Marilyn Manson went on to later say that he cut himself “158 times” for every instance that his lost love didn’t answer the phone. During one of their break-ups, the “outrageous” (as one writer called him) rock star went on to say he fantasizes every day “about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer.”.
Regardless, in 2008, People Magazine reported that Wood emphatically protested about how she’d like to dispel rumors of an abusive relationship. This “false report” was apparently levelled by The Los Angeles Times, an entry which is no longer available on their website. Where did the rumors come from?
“…the person that said such horrible things about Manson being ‘controlling’ and ’emotionally abusive’ is certainly no source ‘close’ to me,” Woods says. “Manson has been by my side and taken care of me through the best and worst times. I love him as a person and as an artist. I will always be proud to have been a part of that.”
There are more quotes of this nature as late as 2016 supporting innocence of Manson on the part of Evan Rachel Wood. It appears that from 2016 on is when she started expressing that she’d been a victim of abuse, and technically raped at the hands of two different people. Because Wood is among a circle of accusers who understandably/purportedly put together a support group (presumably headed by a former assistant, Ashley Walters) to help cope with the trauma of sustained abuse from a mutual abuser, they’re being called “hoaxers”. What if the “support group” was larger than the public allegations would lead us to believe?
One woman who does not claim to have been abused by Manson in a sexual experience received an email from the fledgling support group. Apparently they were also named in the lawsuit as a witness without their corroboration. Screenshots of the email were shared, and the contents were merely offering to listen and help, yet their intentions have been exacerbated so as to have the viewer misconstrue them as part of a conspiracy and a calculated attack on Marilyn Manson. It hardly looks like the receiver of the email is being asked to participate in a widespread conspiracy, although stranger things have happened.
“I know this is a strange way to reach out but my name is _____. I work with The Phoenix Act. I run it alongside Evan Rachel Wood. We were organizing a group to meet in Los Angeles and Zoom/Skype in to talk about experiences they had that might be similar to yours. I’m not sure you that would be interested in participating — you aren’t obligated to speak, but if you wanted to listen in, that would be fine. It’s a small group, and you are personally invited. If you wanted to know more, I would be happy to jump on the phone or email more details.”
It’s true that there are some confusing aspects about the timeline of allegations. For one, Manson must have been mighty busy between 2010 and 2012 to abuse so many women. However, the people who are saying that Evan Rachel Wood is lying, because she did some risqué photo shoots at the time, or because she had nice things to say about her alleged abuser, don’t seem to understand the nature of manipulation and abuse.
Further, although, in fairness, it sounds like a stretch to those unfamiliar, a person might have their own form of Trauma Bonding and Stockholm Syndrome until they really do come to a point of realization. There is still a need to suss out the fine lines surrounding the concept of “discovery” in court. How exactly does a person go 7–10 years before being able to come to terms with their trauma? Are repressed memories going to be considered legitimate in court, despite being regarded as easily fabricated in psychology?
At least according to a producer at HBO, Wood was in “a rough place.”
“I would believe every single thing Evan has said about Marilyn Manson, because we were there,” Emmy Award-winning producer Ilene Landress, who in addition to Mildred Pierce worked on The Sopranos and Girls, is quoted saying.
“He came to visit once, and I remember the vodka bottle flying out of the trailer. She would come to work in bad shape. She would come to work like the train had run her over… Pretty much every morning if I saw Evan Rachel Wood, the first question would be, ‘Where’s the medic?’ She was in a rough place.”
In her testimony for the Phoenix Act in 2019, prior to naming her alleged abuser, Evan Rachel Wood describes the nature of “Tonic Immobility” and how being raped and abused doesn’t prepare her for further attempts. To the contrary, it makes her more inclined to “freeze”, I.E. disassociate, compartmentalize, or rationalize further offenses.
To add to that, just because there are a number of people who say that Marilyn Manson is a “charming guy” doesn’t mean that he isn’t an abuser. In a recent Rolling Stone article, Tim Skold, Manson’s long-time bandmate, for instance, stated:
“If you’re asking me if I saw any aggression or abusive behavior, I did not.”
while former guitarist Rob Holliday said:
“I never witnessed any kind of abuse in any setting”
That’s all fine and good. The nature of narcissism, and certainly people with self-admitted personality disorders (Manson has been fairly vocal about “multiple personalities”, having schizophrenia in the family, and being “co-morbid”), always allows for a person of his intelligence (Manson reportedly has an IQ of 148, others say 170) to manipulate the grey areas, especially when they flagrantly boast about it in interviews.
None of these “hoaxer” sites address the overwhelming pile of evidence suggesting that Marilyn Manson’s character is exactly as such that would make rampant abusive behavior fertile and ever-present. After all, it would not be surprising to many if Manson were brought to criminal court and then acquitted due to “affluenza”. The problem of separating the artist from the art becomes the main overarching theme here, when all of the suggestions that certain photos and other evidence are “fake” don’t hold up for long.
In fairness, F.B.I. statistics reveal that as much as 8% of rape accusations are found (in one way or another, it’s obviously not an exact science) to be false. There is the infamous case of the Pennsylvania high school where five girls falsely accused one boy of rape simply because they “didn’t like him”. So much of this situation is, to use an overused term, “problematic”.
Although Manson’s lawyers were looking at settling out of court for the Jane Doe lawsuit, and his lawyer said that a “global settlement” may be in the cards, these settlements likely can’t be used as evidence in the event of a criminal case. Even if it does look like an admission of guilt for the accused to settle out of court, it can apparently have no legal bearing for the prosecution. They’d have to build their case from the ground up, regardless of the settlements. Many people look at the settling out of court in a lawsuit the equivalent of a “plea deal” in a criminal court, so basically an admission of some guilt, or in exchange for other valuable information/assets.
It is readily apparent that it would be a done deal if Manson didn’t have a good lawyer, considering that, in California, it can be considered rape to have sex with someone who is under the influence of alcohol, or any other “intoxicating substance”. This may be the prevailing angle for the prosecution, if it ever gets to that point.
Evan Rachel Wood was under the age of 21 for close to two years while in her relationship with Marilyn Manson, and while there were photographs of her with a Hitler mustache drawn on her face with sharpie marker, purportedly to “shut her up”, those photos might be damning if it can be proven that Wood was underage and under Manson’s supervision at the time. Photos have surfaced of Wood seemingly about to do cocaine off of an antique Nazi knife, for example. Looking at the grey areas that lawyers must navigate in the event of what they perceive to be false rape allegations, the situation still remains “problematic”, not even remotely cut and dry.
Evidence
Fanatics have suggested that the above image is fabricated (along with everything else) — that those wounds are pencils, crayons, and even consensual BDSM. The latter would have to constitute a discussion about safe words and none of the allegations have ever mentioned such a discussion. Less sensitive types say that a person should have known better than to date Marilyn Manson, and yet, will also argue that we all now should know better that it is just an artist being edgy and so therefore everything he does should be interpreted as “art”. Which is it? Whatever is convenient for the argument at the time? In terms of making a coherent argument, “It takes two to tango”, especially when dancing with a double-edged sword in hand.
Can anyone provide an honest and compelling testimony that bondage culture cultivates mutilation, not to mention taking photos of it while the subject is sleeping? Some have argued that “regret” is not the same as “rape”, but yet, when does pushing the levels of consent become nonconsensual, and therefore rape? Is raping a person’s lifeless body while they are sleeping considered BDSM? In what circles?
It’s one thing to bite someone during sex without discussing it first, which is another thing Manson is known to do, but it is altogether another thing to cut people up and photograph them in their sleep, only to post these images to social media without consent or knowledge on the part of the victim. Prior to court, that is as close as we’re going to get to a smoking gun, and none of the Manson defenders have even come close to making a coherent argument that this photo isn’t an admission of guilt on the part of Manson.
“Misunderstood artist” and “outsider” Marilyn Manson said that he cut himself “158 times” for every time he tried to call Evan Rachel Wood. Some try to speculate that these cuts were actually from previous videos such as the (s)Ain’t video where Manson cuts himself in a different orientation altogether. When Metal Hammer asked Manson about Evan Rachel Wood’s rumors of abuse prior to being named by her, he hung up the phone during the interview. Later on, a representative stated that:
“The comments in Spin where Manson had a fantasy of using a sledgehammer on Evan and he cut himself 158 times was obviously a theatrical rock star interview promoting a new record, and not a factual account. The fact that Evan and Manson got engaged six months after this interview would indicate that no one took this story literally.”
Let’s run it around the flagpole:
“I wanted to show her the pain she put me through. It was like, ‘I want you to physically see what you’ve done.’”
Clearly there is an intimidating nature to these quotes from interviews, but unfortunately, outside of the workplace, emotional and psychological abuse goes unchecked, and isn’t given enough credence in the courtroom. Could a person even be charged with simple assault at that time? But in interviews, he not only wanted to smash her head in with a sledgehammer, he also threatened:
“”If you say you’ll be with me until I die and then you change your mind, you should run very fast. Because I’ll kill you.”
Within less than a year of Manson and Evan Rachel Wood getting back together and becoming engaged, despite the aforementioned unpleasantries, his official website unveiled a video intro that was said to have first been featured on October 20, 2010. You can see Evan Rachel Wood’s tattoo on her back in the video, so it is not likely a different actor, as it was with the video for Running To The Edge of The World, where Manson had an E.R.W. look-a-like that was portrayed as being beaten to death at the end of the song.
Artistic merit being what it is, imagine a young woman going back to someone after several months apart, where a rock star said he wanted to smash her head in with a sledge hammer, and then just consenting to a video where she is being punched in the face repeatedly, without any inkling of real abuse. It doesn’t seem likely. These aren’t isolated incidents, either. There are also photo-ops of the barely legal lover with a bloody nose, and other less glamourous marks.
Character Evidence
“If you laugh after you fuck her, it is not rape.”
As a rock star, Marilyn Manson has taken heat with being blamed for the Columbine shootings, not to mention from the religious right, but ultimately benefited from a great deal of privilege. He’s managed to avoid jail time for decades while others were not so lucky. Numerous rappers have been put in jail for lyrics alone, in some cases reportedly with no other circumstantial evidence to support such a case. In many instances, with the defendants being black, their juries were entirely white, statistically much more likely to find a black defendant guilty over lyrics. Obviously, this is cruel and unfair, while other more entitled artists prance around threatening their ex-girlfriends in interviews.
In another scenario, where the plea was “guilty”, a controversial writer/vocalist who recorded a track called “Let’s Hear It For Violence Towards Women” had the record exhibited in court as evidence against him (in a case of domestic abuse, if that’s not obvious).
There are a number of questionable lyrics, especially from around 2009, on the part of Marilyn Manson, when he allegedly abused Evan Rachel Wood. Those lyrics were expanded upon in interviews, so as to remove any doubt of their intent. As if that weren’t enough, the “Rape of The World” tour, for example, featured a robotic mannequin rendition of Evan Rachel Wood, who brings out a bottle of absinthe on a cart, later to be beheaded by the singer. There was a prototype version with his previous ex, too, without the requisite Hamlet or Alice references.
Concerning the video for “I Want To Kill You…”, I filmed it with a British actress and I also directed something brutal, and which will probably never be released for legal reasons with my ex girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood. For the time being I’m still sure of nothing. It’s a violent portrait I made in only one shot. The spectator will have to decide by himself, after seeing it, of the way he’s feeling the thing. I watched it and it’s very disturbing as it represents an “emotional insight” of our relationship. My house became a sort of perpetual shooting and I’m very happy of all I’ve been able to capture.
Marilyn Manson, interview for RockOne, June 2009
Translated from French
“I wrote all the lyrics on the wall of my room. It wasn’t to be decorative, it was one of those things, like it’s the last thing that someone sees before they put them somewhere else. I think it looks good. And if anyone wants to come into this room and fornicate with me, I think they are a keeper… and when I say keeper, I mean kidnapping.”
Marilyn Manson, interview for Kerrang, March 2009
“I want to transfer my domestic surroundings on stage. I want to blur the line between my art and my personal life on stage.”
Marilyn Manson in Metal Hammer (Germany), June 2009
If You’re Not Afraid of Getting Hurt, Then I’m Not Afraid of How Much I Hurt You
Lyrics from “Leave A Scar”, on the 2009 album The High End of Low
To put it simply, the lines between art and personal life were sufficiently blurred during the vampiric “Lustmord” phase of Marilyn Manson’s career, which happened concurrently with his relationship with Evan Rachel Wood. By many accounts, Manson doted on her, but definitely not by all accounts.
Cancel Culture & The MeToo Movement
Manson’s friend, John Galliano, was taken to court and fined €16,500 for “anti-Semitic insults”, and at another time saying “I Love Hitler” on video, which he blamed on concurrent addictions: alcohol, Valium, and “sleeping tablets”. At the time, it appeared that his prestigious fashion career was ruined. Numerous others, including Louis C.K.’s chronic uninvited masturbation in front of female guests, Kevin Spacey’s inappropriate comments to minors, Mel Gibson’s raging misogynist or racist remarks, and so on, have been equated to “cancel culture”, while Manson has generally escaped undeterred, despite numerous questionable remarks.
This article isn’t about policing language. It is about character evidence that would be admissible in a criminal court, directly alluding to abuse, rape, sex trafficking, and/or coercion. This is a legal concern that won’t likely be dealt with in a satisfactory way by authorities, because people with money and clout don’t have to deal with the law of the land as much as others. However, let’s just assume that character evidence can be used to establish a pattern of behavior. This article will touch on some of that behavior.
Like other famous people such as Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, who would probably otherwise be in jail if it weren’t for their in-demand status and their financial clout, Manson has settled out of court or received misdemeanors and fines in the place of real criminal sentences, where a defamation case wasn’t applicable. In 2001, he rubbed his genitals on the head of a security guard (wearing only a G-string).
He could have been charged as a sex offender, but instead he was given a fine and charged with a misdemeanor. Also in 2001, Manson and his bodyguards physically assaulted an editor of Spin Magazine because the band wasn’t on the cover of a recent issue. Manson later said in an interview that he had the magazine editor by gunpoint. In 2017, sexual assault allegations against him didn’t hold up in court, prior to the MeToo Movement.
In 2013, Seraphim Ward, then-partner of former Marilyn Manson keyboardist, Stephen Bier, who is also known as Madonna Wayne Gacy or “Pogo”, claimed that her publicist spread false allegations about her being married to Marilyn Manson. She claimed in a statement that Manson’s aggression was really rooted in the fact that she revealed Manson had parted with his house after losing a lawsuit from Stephen Bier over unpaid royalties.
She also called him a “Nazi sympathizer”. For this, Ward said, she was harassed by Manson and his fans for years, including them allegedly breaking into her home and having her two cats killed. Ward says that Manson “harassed” editors every time they tried to give her an interview. Ward’s case was dropped for being “without merit”, and her mental health has been called into question.
Stephen Bier said on social media in 2017 that …”he gave away my home phone number, my parents home phone number, my cell phone number, my social security number, and my parents and my address during our lawsuit…”, just as MM promised in a blog post on myspace years prior. The blog post came around the same time that Manson threatened journalists, also in a myspace blog.
“If one more ‘journalist’ makes a cavalier statement about me and my band, I will personally or with my fans’ help, greet them at their home and discover just how much they believe in their freedom of speech. I dare you all to write one more thing that you won’t say to my face. Because I will make you say it. In that manner. That is a threat.”
And then later on:
Marilyn Manson- kill all journalists that have the cowardice to be anonymous. 1 hour ago from mobile Mood: you are dead.
Marilyn Manson- talk is cheap until we find out where you live. 1 hour ago from mobile Mood: you are dead.
Marilyn Manson- is laughing at how predictable, the cynical make themselves look. 3 minutes ago from mobile — Mood:amused
….And then in a myspace bulletin titled “a call for war”:
“Do not be afraid to express yourself. In all ways imagined.”
Testimony
There are a number of accusations to come out of the woodwork since Evan Rachel Wood and others came forward with their stories. One of the more compelling (and lengthy) is from Bianca Allaine. Although her story is not recent, it sets into motion a pathological and methodical formula for what is alleged against Manson. While Allaine claims that she was groped and kissed while underage, what she claims to have witnessed, as well as what she claims happened to her as an adult through a short three month long relationship with Manson, strikes as an obvious blueprint for abusive behavior.
In a podcast for nearly an hour and a half, Allaine details how she was insulted, manipulated, and guilted into having sex with strangers in front of Manson, and generally pushed beyond the established levels of consent. Presumably it’s not illegal for a 19-year old to be talked into having sex with strangers to appease her partner, but it does raise ethical concerns about consent and coercion. She also recalls witnessing a then-13-year-old friend, among others, being brought onto the tour bus and allegedly raped by Manson. That friend has since died from substance abuse issues. According to the 41 year-old actor, groping and fondling of underage women was regular on Manson’s tour bus. She claims she has video to support her argument, but won’t release it publicly. Maybe she doesn’t need to.
When an EP called Smells Like Children came out, it initially had two tracks which were later removed due to an inability to get consent from the “victim”. “Abuse, Part 1 (There Is Pain Involved)” featured one of the torture devices crafter by tour bus driver, Tony Wiggins, as described in Manson’s autobiography. These contraptions, according to the book, were nerve-wracking, because they put people in a position where they had to hold awkward poses for sustained periods of time, otherwise they might fall over or “break their neck”.
The transcript doesn’t necessarily imply a lack of consent, but considering the possibility of said person being underage, and certainly that they did not give clearance for the recording to be released (Abuse, Part 2 includes someone confessing to the molestation of a child), the two recordings could be evidence of something illegal or at least contributing to the delinquency of minors, not to mention the possibility that it gives investigators a window into the perpetrator’s mind, of what they may think they can get away with when the recorder is turned off.
It was a perfect preface to an album about abuse: sexual abuse, domestic abuse, drug abuse, psychological abuse. Midway through the record, we [initially] included one of the taped confessions we had gathered, from a girl who molested her seven-year-old male cousin. It underscored the subplot of the album, about the most common target of abuse: innocence. I’ve always liked the Peter Pan idea of being a kid in mind if not in body, and Smells Like Children was supposed to be a record for someone who’s no longer a child, someone who, like myself, wants their innocence back now that they’re corrupted enough to appreciate it.
Another thing that Bianca Allaine describes as part of her experience is witnessing the abuse of Manson’s then personal assistant Johnathan Pavesi. She describes how Johnathan was made to apply hemorrhoid cream to the singer’s affected area, and was intentionally beaten every time Manson was “too high”, at which point he’d get an additional $100 added to his salary. By Manson’s own admission, he “beat the shit” out of Johnathan after laying out $500.
Marilyn Manson’s former guitar/keyboard tech and later personal assistant, Dan Cleary, details being punched in the back of the head on stage, as well as witnessing verbal abuse, which, in the above clip, included breaking things. In the documentary, Cleary says that there were threats of death involved, and a lot of abusive behavior towards Manson’s now wife Lindsay. Cleary initially kept quiet, but amid the allegations, claims that he could no longer hold back when he witnessed people on Twitter calling the accusers liars. Below is some of what Cleary added to Twitter threads.
I worked directly with Marilyn Manson in 2007–2008 for his touring band when Evan Rachel Wood was with him. She was on tour with us the entire time. Over the course of 1 year he turned her into a different person. He broke her. I didn’t totally realize until later in life.
I then starting working for him as his personal assistant in 2014–2015. I saw first hand, over and over him being an abusive violent boyfriend to his girlfriend Lindsay. Over the almost two year stretch I saw her in tears and him screaming and belittling her more often than I didn’t.
He would threaten to kill her, cut her up, bury her, embarrass her to the world. Making her cry and fear him made him feel good. He would remind her that she’d be homeless without him and make fun of her learning disabled family member.
Everyone in his immediate circle knows this. But everyone (including myself) is afraid to say anything because of “the code”. It’s frowned upon to tell people’s private business.Those of us that stay quiet do it because we were making a living. And it’s hard to find work in music if you can’t keep your mouth shut. But enough is enough. His fans will be angry and not believe it because they don’t want to. I understand that. I’m sorry to them. But it’s true.
I will also say that a reason I stayed quiet is because of a kind thing he did. On tour in 2007, my stepmom died suddenly. The Manson camp flew me home for a week on their dime and paid me anyway. I will still never forget that and it sincerely meant a lot to me.
But as I see so many people defending him and calling his accusers liars I’ve just had enough. Believe them, I saw it. I have nothing to gain from this and plenty to lose. There are people in his band/crew that I’m still close to. My apologies to them. But they also know I’m right.
He is a brilliant musician, an incredibly smart & funny man. But he’s also a mentally & physically abusive drug addict that has the ability to be super kind & emotional. It’s hard to wrap your head around. I’m not asking for him to be “canceled”, fuck ALL that cancel stuff.
My sole focus is for people to not call these women liars. They’re not. Manson gave me a living for a long time, gave me great music as a kid, I appreciate the opportunities. I saw the entire world for the 1st time with him. This was not easy but I had to do it. I stand by it.
This “code of honor” is echoed for former drummer and keyboardist Chris Vrenna. Vrenna was around during Manson’s relationship with Evan Rachel Wood, initially due to the previous drummer’s numerous injuries (Ginger Fish), and later because the original keyboardist, Stephen Bier AKA Madonna Wayne Gacy AKA Pogo left the band and filed a lawsuit against Manson for unpaid royalties.
He burned me out though. Quick version of why I quit is it’s a very dark lifestyle. There’s a lot of substance problems, the hours are insane. It’s just really intense. It’s as crazy as everything you’ve ever read and everything you’ve ever heard.”
“If I could even come up with it, I probably wouldn’t even tell you because one thing about this stuff, there’s kind of a code of honor where you don’t want to, because it would involve perhaps other people. Mine were always with other people. I was always the one that was like, ‘You can’t do that. Are really going to do that? Oh my God, you’re doing that.’ And I’m the one in the corner laughing. I witnessed a whole lot of horrifically bizarre stuff.”….
….Chris Vrenna is like my other little brother, although he’s older than me. One of my hobbies is to see how banged up he feels in the morning after I have my way with him. He just looks so fragile and destroyed. I feel like I need to buy him some sort of vitamins or something. One night I was up and I was actually beating Chris senseless with a potted plant. I made him drink the plant water on a dare.
On tour, sources say, he was just as erratic. Warner attacked bassist Fred Sablan, threw his mic stand into Jason Sutter’s drums, and treated his own crew recklessly. “One time in Vegas, he had this prop mirror,” remembers a source who was on tour with Manson around 2012. “It didn’t work the way he wanted it to, and he took the microphone stand that weighed 60, 70 pounds, and he tried to smash through it. The stage manager was standing behind it, and it knocked him out; he had to go to the hospital.”
Jason Sutter interviewed in Ultimate Guitar:
What were rehearsals like with Manson?
In rehearsal, Manson was throwing my drums around, kicking drums over, pouring flour and sugar all over them and crumbling up Granola bars so when I hit them they’ll fly all over the place. It’s funny but I didn’t care about the drum setup. Most dudes would be like, “Don’t fuck with my drums” but that’s not what you do with him.
Was it a challenge playing Marilyn Manson’s music?
Oh, hell yeah. They were playing to tracks and you’ve got Manson screaming at you. Any mistake that’s made by Manson onstage, you get blamed for it because you’re a sitting duck. The manager had a meeting with me before I joined and said, “I need you to know if Manson screws something up, you’re getting the blame for it in public. You have to be cool with that and you can’t call him out on that.” It gets old but he always screwed shit up and he had to let the audience know it wasn’t him. It was [in nasty, vindictive Manson-like voice] “Youuuuuu!” You with me? I’m a professional, I have a Master’s Degree, I’ve played with all these people and now I have this guy screaming at me and trying to make fun of me with the audience ’cause I’d screwed up a song that actually he screwed up. You’ve really got to put your ego in check and I know a lot of friends of mine wouldn’t have hung.
He really is a strange cat.
This is a charade that goes on even after the show ’cause you’re in an altered reality. After the show, you have to go up and say, “Sorry, dude. Sorry I screwed that up. He’s like [in sarcastic voice], “Well don’t do it again.” This is reality, bro. This is the shit they don’t teach you in college. It was excruciating on and offstage a lot. He’s a tough character but I love the guy and we had great times. If I saw him now, I’d love it. He’s awesome but it was a horror show. It was a fucking war.
You also have a Marilyn Manson guitar pick, right?
A guy made them for me. I remember there was a moment with Manson where someone had mentioned I was selling picks online. He was like, “Are you selling picks with my name on it?” I was like, “No, dude. I’m not that much of a dork.” He’s just a nut when it comes to anything [with his name on it]. I don’t know but god bless him. He’s one of those dudes where no one can make a profit off him and it’s more egotistically than professionally. At one point someone mentioned in his camp, “Oh, by the way, your drummer is selling picks on eBay.” He’s got this weird camp and they’re always searching every post about him and it’s a big deal. It’s kinda silly but it was about a two-second conversation. I looked at him and said, “You really think I’m trying to make $5 a pick?”
Okay, so I’m gonna have to ask you about something: In a few of his recent interviews, Manson has mentioned a box cutter incident that involved you. Can you tell us what exactly happened?
Oh man, that’s too funny. Okay, you have to understand, if you know Manson well and you’ve spent as much one-on-one time with him as I have, we’re like brothers. So we were on The Pale Emperor tour and he kept breaking beer bottles so he could cut himself, but the shards of glass were hitting our drummer Gil. I got really pissed and told him to stop with the fucking glass. I think he probably wasn’t happy that I had to leave the tour — I was going to play two more shows in Canada with him, then they were gonna move on with The Smashing Pumpkins for that joint tour — so he like, kicked a beer and it hit me on stage and I’d just had enough. I was just like, “What the fuck?”.
So instead of the bottle, he pulls out a box cutter and says “You want me to cut you open with this box cutter, Tyler Bates?”
I said, “You fucking come near me and I’ll kill you with that box cutter!” (laughs)
And this is all happening on stage, you know? It’s kind of our sense of humour, but it got a little heated. I thought, you know, maybe it’s time for me to get back to my kind of things and my job. My work for with Manson for that period of time was done.
“Marilyn Manson… I was in the band for nine months [as a touring member in 2008 and 2009]. He’s not a great guy. Every single thing that people have said about him is fucking true. So relax about the allegations towards the women… like when people say [bad things about] these women that are coming after him right now… fuck off, they are speaking the truth.
“I’m sorry to everyone on this podcast right now who doesn’t like this. But that guy, he’s amazingly talented, but he’s fucked up and he needs to be put in check and he needs to get sober and he needs to come to terms with his demons. He is a bad fucking guy.
“I was there when he was with Evan Rachel Wood, I was at his house, it’s not fucking cool. That’s all I’m gonna say about it.
“If anyone is coming after these girls and going like, ‘You blah blah blah, this and that’ — fuck you; that’s all I’m gonna say.
“Sorry to take this to a dark place, but that guy is canceled, goodbye, don’t let the door hit you on the way out…
“He tried to choke me out on stage and I flipped him over and knocked the breath out of him. He’s not a great guy. Goodbye. My apologies. I was the biggest fan and [now] I am not.”
Paul R. Brown, a graphic designer and artist who worked with Marilyn Manson on a number of pivotal album covers, made a statement on instagram saying that he had to cease working with the band because of “the treatment of others”. He goes on to lament the “darkness” that afflicts people he could have prevented from being hurt, and suggests to “believe all of them, and hope that their words and confessions will spare someone else…”
Musician and Filmmaker Spencer Rollins posted a series of screenshots and details surrounding being harassed by Marilyn Manson. He detailed having his contact information published to a male escort website called “Rentboy.com” and various threatening messages or phone calls. Rollins also stated that he had a couple of friendships that were ended due to false claims such as that his girlfriend stole Manson’s hard drive, among other things. This is apparently for the sin of being a male friend of Evan Rachel Wood, according to Rollins. Although this harassment was said to have occurred prior to 2010, Rollins later went on to be a touring band member for Marilyn Manson for some time between 2010 and 2013.
Former Marilyn Manson guitarist “endured a lot of abuse” during his tenure. Manson even made a painting of him called “John The Beaten”. John5, born John Lowery, said in an interview that he was forced to sleep in urine soaked beds when on the tour bus, and “punched in the dick” on a daily basis, due to Manson’s sadistic behavior. Lowery can be found apologizing for defending himself, after being kicked at the above concert. Being that Lowery has a known propensity for teenage girls, perhaps underage, it may have been grounds for blackmail to “keep his mouth shut”.
The Rolling Stone Article
People tend to ignore the mountainous paper trail of evidence left in the wake of Manson’s antics, and maybe when they’re a victim of it themselves, there is something hanging over their heads enough to keep them quiet. Is money so important that Ginger Fish continued as a drummer for so many years, in a band where he has been injured numerous times on stage? What could prevent a person who has been knocked unconscious, bloodied, with bones broken, to stay away from legal action?
Rolling Stone published an article, “The Monster Hiding In Plain Sight”, highlighting some independently sought testimony from otherwise untapped sources. There is a lot of character evidence that, if true, would establish a pattern of behavior, largely outside of the realm of Marilyn Manson “as an artist”, blurring lines or otherwise.
The piece starts out with the discussion of the “bad girl room”, and leads into the “temper tantrums” that Manson allegedly indulged in on a regular basis. On one such occasion, Esmé Bianco says that she was chased around with an axe, and several holes were hacked into the walls. Although Dita Von Teese said that she was not abused, she also at the time, insinuated that Manson broke “all of the windows in the house”, not to mention that living with him was like “Mommie Dearest” and that once the marriage happened, things got “very dark”.
As a side note, Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese appeared on the Tom Green Show in 2003. Manson confesses that they met because he “kinda stalked” Von Teese and “pretended he wanted her in a video”. This “stalking” likely began to occur while Manson was still dating Rose McGowan, three years prior.
I was used to people hurling things at me in the middle of the night in a cocaine rage…
‘Well, you know, I had taken a lot of abuse. It hasn’t always been easy but this time I am asking myself how much more am I going to take?’”
Dan Cleary corroborates the claim that “breaking things” was something Manson did to intimidate his current wife, then-girlfiend Lindsay Usich-Warner. Tim Vaughn, who claims to have been a friend in the early 1990s, said of Manson’s mother: “He chased her down the hallway with a microphone stand. I asked him, ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ He’s like, ‘The bitch is always coming in at the worst times.’
Manson, in his autobiography, confirms that he abused his mother, specifically throwing a perfume bottle at her and scarring her. He also stated that he abused a band member named “Nancy” on stage. Although photographs of “Nancy” in a cage haven’t surfaced, there are photos of her wrapped in plastic and crucified, just out of eyeshot of a six year old boy, who was unable to see “Nancy”, and therefore the performance was a play on stretching the limits of legality on stage.
“Nancy” said in another interview that she wasn’t abused on stage, and focused on the amount of trouble Manson went through to instill fear into her, to the degree that she moved thousands of miles away. However, Paige Harvey, member of then-local band Livid Kittens, said that “Nancy” was “hit” on stage. In the book, Manson plotted to kill her, and stated that he could have her killed for $50, but ultimately abandoned the plan. “Nancy” moving to LA to avoid Florida Manson, who moved to L.A. shortly after… seems a little counter-intuitive, but that is her claim.
Friends of Warner’s from that time say that he taped sexual encounters and showed them to other people. Russell Vaughn recalls hanging out one night with his brother Tim Vaughn, a female friend, and Warner. “Brian popped in a compilation tape of every girl he had ever taken into his closet for a blowjob,” he says. “He was proud of it.” Both Vaughn’s brother and the friend, who asked to remain anonymous, confirm seeing the tape to Rolling Stone.
After Warner befriended Jeordie White, later known as Manson bassist Twiggy Ramirez, the pair started prank-calling a woman who worked at their local mall. They’d threaten her, telling her they were watching her, and Warner claimed in his book that they once told her, “We’re going to rape you in the parking lot and then crush you underneath your own car.”
“He would joke about rape all the time,” says a source who knew him around that time, echoing multiple people who spoke for this story. “He loved the idea of rape — talking about rape, seeing it in the movies.”
“Coercive control cannot be underestimated,” Bianco says. “There is no consent when you think you might be killed or raped if you don’t do what you’re told and you’re locked in somebody’s bedroom.”…
…Multiple people who knew him say Warner was a master of cult-like mind-control techniques, such as asking his employees, girlfriends, and hangers-on to monitor one another and report any dirt back to him. “You couldn’t trust anyone,” says one source. Drugs were everywhere: “Anybody that was in his inner circle knew that he was probably doing, like, an eight-ball a day and drinking absinthe and various pills,” the source adds. “He offered [cocaine] like hors d’oeuvres.”
In Manson’s 1998 autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, there are a number of concerning behaviors set in motion from early on in childhood. Although it’s been said that the book was partially fictionalized, Manson also said in his Dinner For Five discussion hosted by Andy Dick, that in a lot of cases, the story was changed because the events depicted hadn’t reached the statute of limitations yet. The amount of times Manson has mentioned the statute of limitations alone can be a bit concerning.
From Page Six:
Elsewhere, Manson recalled how he and another friend harassed a “hot brunette” whom they both had a crush on, but “wouldn’t even acknowledge our humanity.”
“I fell back on my usual deviant way of getting a girl’s attention: malicious, asinine behavior,” he wrote, saying that they would make threatening calls “every day for nearly a month.”
“At first, the calls were harmless. But they quickly grew meaner,” he wrote.
“‘We’re watching you,’ we’d threaten her at the height of our spite-masked lust. ‘You better not leave work tonight, because we’re going to rape you in the parking lot and then crush you underneath your own car,’” he wrote.
Trent Reznor has denied involvement in what was described in the autobiography since at least 1999. Here is what was said in the book.
From Tonedeaf:
One of the times when Manson and Trent Reznor* allegedly physically and sexually assaulted an inebriated woman in the 1990s:
Well, what we did was we pulled a trick that I’ve become quite famous for. It is pouring a large glass of tequila for your adversary, or your victim, and then pouring a large glass of beer for yourself and pretending that yours is tequila also. You convince them to drink down their large glass until they vomit and pass out and are left to be tormented. A similar trick had been done to me when I was young.
So the trick worked, as it always does, and Kelly and her friend were drunk and running around the lawn where Sharon Tate’s friends had been murdered. They jumped in the pool and somehow I was convinced to join them. That’s something I don’t like to do because I don’t know how to swim. So I was in the pool with this sea bass, I suppose you could call her. By smell she was some sort of porpoise fish-woman, and by sight she looked like a water behemoth. Trying to create some sort of entertainment for everybody, I said, “Why don’t we play Guess Who’s Touching You? We’ll put a blindfold on you and try to figure out whose hands are on you.” So Trent and I take this sea bass back into his living room. The other girl had since passed out and was hopefully drowning in her vomit.
We blindfolded the sea creature. No, I think we just wrapped a towel around her head, which also covered up her face and made us both feel better. Not that her body was any greater than her face. It was all terrible. I grow ashamed of myself right now as we speak of this.
So we started squeezing her nipples and prodding around her genitals and what-have-you. We were laughing because we were both drunk, though not nearly as drunk as she was. In the background a Ween album was playing, “Push the little daisies and make ’em come up…” as me and the young Trent Reznor poked our fingers into the birth cavity of a bizarre fish lady in search of some sort of caviar. But what we ended up finding was a mysterious nodule — maybe it was white fuzz or a piece of corn — that she had on the outer region of her rectum. It horrified us and we looked at each other with disgust and shock. But we knew that we must continue with our debasement of this poor unsuspecting person. So I found a cigarette lighter, and I started to burn her pubic hair. Though it didn’t hurt her, it didn’t help things smell any better than they already did. Unfortunately, there isn’t any real climax to this story other than I think that she wanted to cuddle with someone and we both ran.
- Note: This has since been denied by Reznor.
Marilyn Manson’s knowledge that his influence has dark repercussions:
I walked away exhilarated by my success, because there’s nothing like making a difference in someone’s life, even if that difference is a lifetime of nightmares and a fortune in therapy bills.
“I have been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago,” he wrote. “As I said at the time, the passage from Manson’s memoir is a complete fabrication. I was infuriated and offended back when it came out and remain so today.”
Trent Reznor in 2021
“You can’t explain this to people who weren’t around it,” Trent insists. “It’s not sane, but imagine the kind of people who come to that show, and they’re all trying to outdo each other. Some of the guys in the Circus have horns and a tail, and one of the guys was trying to have trepanation performed on him in my studio — drilling a hole in the back of the head so the spinal fluid leaks out, and you’re high forever. That’s the level it was getting to. Pretty soon there’s going to be bodies showing up — and questions. I’m going to point the finger at Jim Rose. The first time I was ever around him, I was eating a light bulb, thinking, ‘What am I doing?’. I always get sucked in. We were sitting in a cafeteria and he said, ‘Have a chew on that’. I didn’t swallow it, but the fact that I even allowed it in my mouth?”
You feel Manson violated your trust?
“If certain people do certain things which cross a line of what is decent, I don’t deal with them any more,” he answers cautiously. “With Manson, that line has been crossed. He said some very ignorant, mean, malicious things. You can believe me or you can believe someone else, but on that tour I was peripherally involved as an observer, and suddenly I’m pictured as the ringleader. It’s just stirring up shit. That friendship was a big fuck-up for me,” he adds wearily. “It fucked me up pretty good.”
Courtney Love
Courtney Love is mentioned in the book as well, having allegedly been involved with bassist Twiggy Ramirez and Trent Reznor. After The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell was published, Love toured with her band Hole in a co-headlining spot with Marilyn Manson. Of this experience, and her leaving the tour early, she had this to say:
Hole toured with Marilyn Manson on the Beautiful Monsters Tour in 1999, but dropped out after nine performances; Love and Manson disagreed over production costs, and Hole was forced to open for Manson under an agreement with Interscope Records. Hole resumed touring with Imperial Teen. Love later said Hole also abandoned the tour was due to Manson and Korn’s (whom they also toured with in Australia) sexualized treatment of teenage female audience members.
Love told interviewers at 99X.FM in Atlanta: “What I really don’t like — there are certain girls that like us, or like me, who are really messed up … and they do not need to be — they’re very young — and they do not need to be taken and raped, or filmed having enema contests … going out into the audience and picking up fourteen and fifteen-year-old girls who obviously cut themselves, and then having to see them in the morning … it’s just uncool.”
Anonymous or Lesser Known Allegations
Jessicka Addams
In 2017, Jessicka Addams, who was initially a member of the band Jack Off Jill, coming up in the same Florida scene that Marilyn Manson & The Spooky Kids did, publicly alleged that bassist Twiggy Ramirez raped her. Since then, Addams had some choice words about Marilyn Manson, and especially some of the anonymous messages she’d been receiving from former fans of Marilyn Manson. Her longtime husband, Christian Addams, corroborates her claims.
“Blood15Honey” is a fan page on instagram that went inactive when Evan Rachel Wood first made her allegations. The host stated that they’d been receiving messages about things of this nature for “a long time”.
Love Bailey described having a “glock” held to her head and told “I Don’t Like Faggots” by Marilyn Manson, after she tried to help an unnamed actress who was “drugged” and “incoherent” rolling around on “sex-stained sheets” and struggling to walk, in a “boudoir” with a “lock on it”, where someone had been trying to open a “demonic portal”.
Singer Cecilia Victoria Della Peruti, best known by her stage name Gothic Tropic, was close friends with Wood while she was dating Warner and said she was there at the height of the alleged abuse.
While she didn’t wish to divulge what she witnessed during that time period, saying she’d let Wood’s statement speak for itself, she pointed the finger at the music industry as a whole for letting Warner operate unchecked for years due to his star power.
“He employs psychological abuse to avoid accountability, and also financial abuse,” she said in a text message to The Daily Beast. “Lots of folks around him were no doubt morally conflicted, but he was threatening and wielded his power and influence.”
“So many major entities have glazed over decades of accusations against him and are only now withdrawing support; an empty and performative gesture. It’s clear the issue is in the systematic enabling that happens in entertainment. Throw the whole thing out,” she added.
Alleged drug dealer and fashion designer recruiting “models” for Manson:
In the wake of Johnny Depp’s successful defamation case against Amber Heard- A case that, regardless of Depp’s innocence or lack thereof, is an unfortunate precedent for survivors of domestic abuse who try to speak out- It’s quite clear that Marilyn Manson’s defamation lawsuit against his alleged victims/accusers is going to be quite different. For one, “defamation” seems to work in favor of abusers, despite evidence of abuse being present, and a person can’t even say that they’re a “survivor of domestic abuse” without being sued, no matter how many partners they may have had in the past, even without being specific.
Regardless of how many “crazy stalkers” who are “out for recognition” or fame or revenge, or what-have-you, any level-headed human being can recognize patterned behavior, not to mention the likeliness that all of them are lying is pretty small. While some of the recent lawsuits against Manson are being shot down due to statute of limitations, and while Manson’s defamation case against some of his accusers doesn’t address a lot of the abuse allegations specifically, if the defense is able to refer to any of these alleged survivors of Manson’s abuse, or so many incriminating segments of Manson’s interviews, social media posts, or performances as character evidence, it’s hard to imagine a jury believing that this is one big conspiracy against a poor innocent, misunderstood rock star.
This isn’t qualified legal advice, just an honest assessment from a fan and long-term onlooker of the scenario so far. It seems like it will all depend on the defense’s ability to get witnesses to testify on the stand, which may be even more difficult than it looks. This is just the tip of the iceberg. In terms of “the court of public opinion”, it gets harder and harder to imagine that this wormhole of allegations that seem stranger than fiction, would be a patchwork of whimsical, empty-headed claims and half-baked conspiracies.
The more one looks into it, the more it seems that there’s no way Manson is 100% innocent of all these claims, and yet, the more one looks into it, the more it seems that the law has more important things to do, like macing protestors and standing outside of school shootings for lengthy periods of time without intervening. Hopefully, the pure truth will prevail for the greatest good of all concerned.
*Special thanks to Laura and StatementsAgainstManson on Instagram for their invaluable assistance.