Charles Manson's interpretation of the album
Charles Manson was a Beatles fan (in the truest sense of the word - a fanatic), and played their music frequently. He used songs from the White Album as prophecies, fuelling his fantasies of murder, revolution, white domination and escape from the coming race Armageddon. He saw the album's title as a personal warning of the forthcoming war, and used many of the songs as prophetic references or justification of his actions.
In "Rocky Raccoon", the lyrics
Rocky Racoon checked into his room
Only to find Gideon's bible.
Rocky had come equipped with a gun
To shoot off the legs of his rival.
almost speak for themselves - he felt the whole song supported his
racist behaviour, and even the song title (
raccoons being in part black and white) had meaning for him.
"Blackbird" was another racial reference for him as well as a sign that Black people were planning a revolution of their own, while "Helter-Skelter" was Armageddon. He saw "Revolution 9" as a clear reference to Revelation 9, the apocalyptic vision from the Bible, and "Happiness is a Warm Gun" was to be applied quite literally. Finally, "Piggies" may have been the inspiration behind the Tate murders - one Manson Family member said "We got five piggies" the following day.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rauk/charlie.htm