Robert Trujillo , bassist for Metallica, told the surprising story of when he had to hide from the Manson family after the criminals attempted to rob a gun store in 1971.
The musician, who was six years old at the time, was at his grandmother's house with his family, and they all hid in the shower when they heard the exchange of gunfire between the cult members and the police.
He recounted the event during his appearance on the podcast Time To Relax With The Offspring ( via Metal Injection ) : “The gun shop, the army surplus store on the corner of Hawthorne Boulevard, was robbed. And basically, the Manson family had this grand plan. You can check it out on the internet. They were going to rob the gun shop and get ammunition and everything, and they were going to go to LAX (Los Angeles airport), and the plan was to hijack a 747 and demand that Charlie be sent to them, and they were going to take that plane to God knows where.”
“That’s what they were thinking. Obviously, the plan didn’t work. Police showed up. There was a shootout. We were hearing gunshots, everything. Suddenly, police patrol planes appear, and they’re flying around. They’re talking through their kind of intercom, (about) whatever’s going on up there: ‘Everybody, take cover,’ that sort of thing. And then my dad turns off all the lights. We’re hiding in the shower. And it was really scary. It was kind of like that scene in Close Encounters , where you see the light coming in through the windows,” Trujillo explained.
The Manson Family
The Manson Family was a cult led by Charles Manson that, in the late 1960s, committed a series of brutal murders that marked the history of the United States. Among the victims was actress Sharon Tate , who was pregnant.
Manson died in prison in 2017, at the age of 83.
