Emily McGovern and Golnar Beikzadeh

Dennis Wilson was a famous American musician, who co-founded the Beach Boys with his brothers Brian and Carl along with their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. Dennis, the second child, was born on December 4, 1944, in Inglewood, California to his parents Audree and Murry Wilson. Unfortunately, as children Dennis and his brothers experienced a great deal of abuse at the hands of their father. Dennis often described himself as the black sheep of the family and because of this he was subject to more abuse than his brothers. The Wilson family often had singalong sessions where they would gather and sing; although Dennis often refused to participate, these activities helped develop his love for music.

The Beach Boys were created in the 1960s. If it hadn’t been for Dennis’s mom forcing Brian to add Dennis to the band, he would have never joined. Dennis had a great deal of influence over the music. Most of their earlier songs were about surfing, even though he was the only surfer in the band at the time. The Beach Boys’ first single “Surfin’” released in 1961. Their first album is titled Surfin’ Safari.

In the late 1960s Brian struggled with drug abuse and psychological issues, which led him to withdraw from the group. Even when Dennis wasn’t in the band he was still writing music. Wilson also worked on non-Beach Boy projects. With Billy Preston, he co-wrote the popular song “You Are So Beautiful.” He released his own album in 1977 called Pacific Ocean Blue. It is a beautiful album with twelve songs. The run time is about 37 minutes long.

Dennis Wilson was married five times to three different women. He married his first wife, Carole Freedmen, in 1965. Together they had Jennifer, and Dennis also adopted Carole’s son, Scott. After just three short years of marriage, Dennis and Carole filed for divorce. Dennis started dating his next wife, Barbara Charren, a few months after divorcing Carole. After only one year together Dennis and Barbara decided to tie the knot on August 4^th, 1970. Together Dennis and Barbara had two sons, whom they named Michael and Carl Wilson. It is thought some songs written by Dennis, such as “Sweet and Bitter” and “Out In the Country,” are about her. Just like his first, Dennis’s second marriage ended in divorce. On August 6, 1974, just over four years since their wedding, they separated.

For three years after his second marriage Dennis was a bachelor. The next woman legally bound to Dennis via holy matrimony was a lovely lady by the name of Karen Lamm. She and Dennis actually got married twice, the first wedding was on May 21^st, 1976: this marriage lasted just over a year and ended on September 19^th, 1977. Lamm and Wilson were separated for less than a year before getting remarried. Their second wedding date was July 28^th, 1978 but unfortunately yet again, another one of Wilson’s marriages ended in divorce in June of 1980. Despite being married twice, Karen and Dennis did not have children together. The last person who ever married Wilson was Shawn Marie Love. Shawn Marie Love is the daughter of Mike Love, Dennis’s bandmate and cousin. When Dennis married Shawn he married his second cousin. If marrying a woman who was his bandmate’s daughter and his cousin wasn’t bad enough, she was also only seventeen at the time. There was a twenty-two year age difference between them. This marriage also caused tensions to rise greatly within the band. As you can imagine, Mike was not at all pleased with Dennis’s relationship with his daughter. Undeterred by the controversy sparked by their love, Dennis took Shawn as his wife on July 28^th, 1983, the fifth anniversary of his second marriage with Lamm. Shawn and Dennis only got to spend exactly 5 months as husband and wife. On December 28^th 1983, Dennis Wilson tragically drowned, leaving Shawn, his bride and cousin, as a widow.

One strange and little known controversy surrounding The Beach Boys is their connection with the cult leader and serial killer Charles Manson. The link between the two is Dennis Wilson. For a rather brief period of time in the summer of 1968, Charles Manson and Dennis Wilson were good friends. It all started on one summer afternoon as Dennis was driving down the streets of Hollywood. As he was cruising down the road he noticed two young ladies hitchhiking. He decided to pull over and give them a ride. Little did he know these two ladies were a part of the Manson “family” cult. On their car ride together, the females started up a conversation about their leader, which peaked Wilson’s interest. Dennis was so intrigued by what they were saying he decided to meet Manson. Dianne Lake, who was a member of Manson’s cult, writes about Dennis’s first encounter with Manson:

Dennis and Charlie hit it off right away, which is not surprising, given Charlie’s skills at ingratiating himself with strangers. Dennis, in no rush to leave, hung out for a while, smoked some pot with Charlie, and listened a bit to Charlie’s songs. It was obvious from the start that Dennis liked the girls and admired Charlie’s harem. We sat at Charlie’s feet and looked at him lovingly as he sang and played guitar. We made sure Dennis saw how much we idolized Charlie — we knew that was our job, without Charlie even having to tell us.

Dennis took such a liking to the “family” he even let them move into his house for a few weeks during that summer. At this point in his life, right after Dennis’s divorce, he needed a change, which was provided by the carefree lifestyle of the “family.” Dennis even brought Charlie, an aspiring musician, to the studio a few times. An early version of The Beach Boys song “Never Learn Not to Love” was written by Charles Manson. The original title was “Cease to Exist.” When the song was put on the Beach Boys album, the name was changed and credited only to Dennis; Manson was absolutely infuriated. He left a bullet on Dennis’s bed to scare him, and it worked. This put an end to the their friendship. Later in his life it is clear Dennis was not proud of having been friends with Manson. When Rolling Stone asked him about it in 1979, he said, “As long as I live, I’ll never talk about that.”

On that dreadful day of December 28, 1983, Dennis Wilson’s life came to a tragic end. Dennis for many decades had been abusing drugs and was an alcoholic. On the night of December 28, Wilson decided to go diving in the marina; after his jump into the water, nobody could find him. His friends tried to find his location but couldn’t succeed. They needed some professional help, so they raised the alarm. His body was found around 5:45am following that night. Tests discovered a very high level of alcohol in his dead body along with some dosage of cocaine. He was only 39 when he passed away. His body was cremated and scattered into the Pacific Ocean, one of the few non-naval officers to be awarded such a burial at sea.