Report: Marilyn Manson Locked Women in Solitary Confinement “Bad Girls Room”
New allegations about Marilyn Manson’s past behavior have come to light from an in-depth report by Rolling Stone that includes accusations of regular use of racist language, an obsession with Nazi memorabilia, and more physically and emotionally abusive behavior towards his ex-girlfriends.
A flood of charges against Manson began in February, when Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood alleged that Manson “horrifically abused me for years.” She elaborated on those accusations a week later, at which point she also said that Manson’s wife, Lindsay Usich, and someone named Leslee Lane were “conspiring to release photos of me when I was UNDERAGE, after being given large amounts of drugs and alcohol, after Brian performed on Halloween in Las Vegas, to ‘ruin my career’ and ‘shut me up.’”
A deluge of similar accusations from other women followed Wood’s, including Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco, model/actress Ashley Morgan Smithline and a Jane Doe, all of whom sued Manson. Manson called the accusations against him “horrible distortions of reality,” but the singer was dropped by his label, Loma Vista, his agency, CAA, and his manager of 25 years, Tony Ciulla. He was also fired from television roles on the programs American Gods and Creepshow.
The Rolling Stone report, which includes accounts from several women, details a similar pattern in his relationships that begins with love-bombing, a tactic abusers often use to woo victims into their good graces. Smithline shared, “[He’d say], ‘I’m the only one who understands you.” Another accuser, model Sarah McNeilly, said, “He wanted me to start picking out wedding dresses. He wanted to have a baby. I’ve never experienced a relationship like this — because it was fucking fake.”
Several victims described a vocal booth in Manson’s West Hollywood apartment that he referred to as the “Bad Girls Room,” as he openly did in a 2012 interview, detailing how he’d utilize it as a solitary confinement cell to punish bad behavior. Smithline describes the space as about the size of a department store dressing room and claims she was trapped inside of it for hours at a time. “At first, he made it sound cool,” Smithline says. “Then, he made it sound very punitive. Even if I was screaming, no one would hear me. First you fight, and he enjoys the struggle. I learned to not fight it, because that was giving him what he wanted. I just went somewhere else in my head.”
Other details in the report echo or provide more detail about Manson that were previously revealed, including that the temperature in his homes was always kept very cold to make his victims uncomfortable, that they were decorated with copious amounts of nazi memorabilia, and that woman were physically attacked and verbally berated regularly, with Bianco recounting a story of being chased around with an ax while Manson smashed holes in the wall. Manson reportedly used the N-word often and “almost reveled in being able to say it in front of Black people.”
You can read the full Rolling Stone report here.
In July, a lawyer for Manson continued to deny the claims, asserting that Bianco and others were co-conspirators “trying to conflate the imagery and artistry of Warner’s ‘shock rock’ stage persona … with fabricated accounts of abuse.”
In August, Manson made his first public appearance since his the deluge of allegations against him began, joining Kanye West on stage at an event promoting the rapper’s new album, Donda. Manson reportedly also lent his voice to that record and is now ostensibly pursuing a conversion to Christianity with Kanye’s lead.
