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Marilyn Manson Unmasked: exploring the allegations that rocked the controversial shock rock star

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January 15, 2025

Marilyn Manson Unmasked: exploring the allegations that rocked the controversial shock rock star

A brand new documentary collection — airing at 10pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on Channel 4 — is ready to look at the quite a few sexual assault allegations made in opposition to singer Marilyn Manson.

Break up into three elements, Marilyn Manson: Unmasked, particulars the accounts of three girls who allege that Manson sexually assaulted them. It consists of interviews with former followers, buddies and Manson’s entourage to color an image of the allegations, how they impacted his profession and whether or not his controversial persona and public picture enabled him to allegedly abuse girls.

Greater than a dozen girls have since accused Manson, whose actual title is Brian Hugh Warner, of abuse.

Here’s a timeline of how the allegations in opposition to Mason unfurled.

February 2018: First allegation and Evan Rachel Wooden testimonies

Additionally in 2018, Manson’s ex-girlfriend actress Evan Rachel Wooden — who seems within the documentary — testified earlier than US Congress in an try to cross a invoice for survivors of sexual assault throughout the US. In her testimony, Wooden detailed her experiences of sexual assault and home abuse in a previous relationship with an unnamed man.

“My expertise with home violence was this. The poisonous psychological, bodily and sexual abuse which began sluggish however escalated over time, together with the threats in opposition to my life, extreme gaslighting and brainwashing, waking as much as the person that claimed to like me, raping what he believed to be my unconscious physique,” she stated. Over a 12 months later, Wooden testified as soon as once more earlier than a Californian panel, nonetheless refusing to establish her abuser.

“The worry of being judged by society is debilitating and the worry of retaliation from my abuser is paralysing,” she stated.

Could 2018: Police report filed in opposition to Manson amid #MeToo motion

Amid the #MeToo motion, the Los Angeles District Legal professional’s workplace obtained a police report in opposition to Mason, detailing intercourse crimes which reportedly occurred in 2011. Nevertheless, three months later, a press release was launched the place the workplace declined to pursue the case on account of “lack of corroborating proof”.

Mason’s lawyer Howard E. King informed The Hollywood Reporter on the time that the allegations “are both utterly delusional or a part of a calculated try to generate publicity… Any declare of sexual impropriety or imprisonment at that, or every other, time is fake.”

Marilyn Manson has turn into notorious for mixing industrial rock with darkish, theatrical components, usually addressing themes like social criticism, riot, and controversy

Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

February 1, 2021: Wooden names Manson as her abuser

“The title of my abuser is Brian Warner, additionally identified to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Wooden wrote on Instagram. “He began grooming me once I was a youngster and horrifically abused me for years… I’m right here to reveal this harmful man and name out the various industries which have enabled him, earlier than he ruins any extra lives.”

In solidarity with Wooden, 4 different girls shared their related allegations in opposition to Manson — which included psychological, sexual and bodily abuse, coercion and intimidation.

As detailed in a Self-importance Honest article, Ashley Lindsay Morgan, Karin Ward (a pseudonym) and Sarah McNeilly allege to have suffered from post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD) and psychological well being issues as a result of abuse they obtained by the hands of Mason.

Quickly after the claims had been made, it was introduced that the singer had been dropped by his report label and expertise company and that he’d parted methods along with his supervisor. He’d additionally been faraway from episodes of TV reveals he was set to seem in.

February 2, 2021: Manson responds to allegations on Instagram

Taking to Instagram, the 56-year-old rebuffed the allegations: “Clearly, my artwork and my life have lengthy been magnets for controversy, however these latest claims about me are horrible distortions of actuality. My intimate relationships have all the time been solely consensual with like-minded companions.”

February 3-11, 2021: Extra allegations in opposition to Manson floor

Within the days after Wooden’s bombshell Instagram publish, a number of others got here ahead with their accounts of Manson’s alleged abuse and behavior. Boygenius singer Phoebe Bridger claimed that, when visiting Manson’s residence as a teenage fan of his, he described one room as “the rape room”.

Eighties teen idol Corey Feldman claimed that Manson had been “obsessive about him” for over 20 years, accusing the singer of “decades-long psychological and emotional abuse”.

Recognized for her function as Ros in Sport of Thrones, actress Esmé Bianco informed The Lower that she lived with Manson for a interval, which she likened to being a “prisoner”. “I got here and went at his pleasure. Who I spoke to was utterly managed by him,” she alleged. She additionally claimed that Manson left her lined in cuts and bruises, chased her with an axe and performed her intercourse scenes on the hit TV present in entrance of friends to embarrass her.

Marilyn Manson was born on January 5, 1969, in Canton, Ohio, United States

February 19, 2021: Home violence investigation begins

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division confirmed it was investigating Manson as a result of allegations made in opposition to him regarding home violence.

April 30, 2021: Quite a few lawsuits filed

Bianco filed a lawsuit in opposition to Manson, claiming that he violated human trafficking legal guidelines by making her journey to the US from the UK to seem in music movies of his that by no means materialised. She joined different girls — mannequin Ashley Morgan Smithline, Ashley Walters and two nameless girls — in submitting related lawsuits. These detailed varied accusations, from “degrading acts of sexual exploitation” and rape to the singer threatening to kill his victims and, in Smithline’s case, carving his initials into her thigh.

Within the paperwork filed by Bianco, she claimed the singer disadvantaged her of meals and sleep, whipped and electrical shocked her and threatened to rape her.

Manson’s actual title is Brian Hugh Warner

REUTERS

July 29, 2021: Manson responds to lawsuits

Manson’s authorized workforce responded to the varied lawsuits in opposition to him, describing them as “unfaithful” and “meritless”. They claimed that the ladies “spent months plotting, workshopping, and fine-tuning their tales to show what had been consensual friendships and relationships with Warner from greater than a decade in the past, into twisted tales that bear no resemblance to actuality”.

November 14, 2021: Rolling Stone investigation

An investigation led by Rolling Stone concerned greater than 50 individuals who had relationships with Manson over the a long time. The publication reported that his residence was “adorned with blood, swastikas, and clipped photographs from porno mags”.

Mannequin Sarah McNeilly, who beforehand spoke out about her alleged incidents with Manson when Wooden named him as her abuser, informed the publication that the alleged abuse she suffered from him was “terrifying”. She stated: “The bodily violence was virtually a aid. Like, the psychological sh*t that he places you thru, that he infects your mind with, that he brainwashes you, you simply need it to cease.”

January 23, 2022: New allegations by Wooden

Manson’s ex-fiancée accused him of “primarily [raping her] on digital camera” throughout the filming for considered one of his music movies in 2007. She claimed to have been given absinthe on the set of the music video and stated she agreed to a simulated intercourse scene. Nevertheless, when the cameras began rolling, “he began penetrating me for actual”, describing the incident as “full chaos”.

When the couple broke up for a quick interval, Manson claimed in 2009 that his track I Need To Kill You Like They Do Within the Films was about Wooden. “The track… is about my fantasies,” he informed Spin. “I’ve fantasies every single day about smashing her cranium in with a sledgehammer.” Years later, in 2020, the singer’s workforce stated that the feedback had been “clearly a theatrical rock star interview selling a brand new report, and never a factual account”.

On Wooden’s music video allegations, Manson’s lawyer informed The Unbiased that “her imaginative retelling of the making of the ‘Coronary heart-Formed Glasses’ music video 15 years in the past is probably the most brazen and best to disprove,” of her allegations, “as a result of there have been a number of witnesses.”

Manson’s ex-girlfriend, actress Evan Rachel Wooden, seems within the documentary

Getty Pictures

January 4-30, 2023: Smithline lawsuit withdrawn, new lawsuit filed by Jane Doe

Smithline’s lawsuit was dismissed by a choose after her lawyer withdrew her case. A month later, Smithline retracted her allegations in opposition to Manson, claiming that Wooden and Manson’s different accusors “manipulated” her into talking out in opposition to him.

On January 29, Bianco agreed to settle her lawsuit in opposition to Manson “to maneuver on along with her life and profession,” her lawyer stated.

January 30 noticed one other lawsuit filed in opposition to Manson, the place an nameless plaintiff alleged that Manson groomed and sexually assaulted her within the Nineties when she was underage.

The girl claimed that Manson invited her and one other youngster onto his tour bus, the place he requested their ages, residence addresses and phone numbers. Manson then, allegedly, “carried out varied acts of prison sexual conduct upon Plaintiff, who was a virgin on the time”, leaving her “in ache, scared, upset, humiliated and confused”. The paperwork allege that Manson then threatened her, telling her that if she informed anybody about what occurred, he would kill her household. Manson’s lawyer denied the allegations.

September 28, 2023: Settlement reached with Jane Doe

Only one week earlier than the trial was to start, a settlement was reached between Manson and considered one of his nameless accusers, who claimed to be considered one of his ex-girlfriends.

Chatting with Rolling Stone, the Jane Doe accuser stated that she “by no means in 1,000,000 years” thought she would settle. Nevertheless, she claimed that since submitting the lawsuit, she’d “silently endured threats, bullying, harassment and varied types of intimidation” that had intensified because the trial loomed.

November 26, 2024: Manson drops Woods defamation lawsuit

In 2022, Manson sued Wooden and artist Ilma Gore for defamation, claiming that they conspired to forged him as “a raper and abuser” which finally derailed his “profitable music, TV and movie profession”. Nevertheless, in November, Manson dropped the defamation go well with and agreed to pay Wooden’s authorized charges, which totalled over $320,000 (£262,641).

In a press release given to Rolling Stone, Wooden’s representatives referred to as Manson’s lawsuit “a publicity stunt to attempt to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering profession”.