For thirty years, goth rock singer Marilyn Manson (Marilyn Manson) has reveled in his image as the ultimate pop culture villain.

In the U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, British-born actor Esmé Bianco is engaged in a legal action to prove that Manson's threatening role is too real.

The federal lawsuit filed by Bianco on April 30 alleging sexual assault, sexual assault, and human trafficking began in February 2009, when Manson took her to Los Angeles to write his song "I want to kill you like them in the movie." "Taking a video.

The video was never realized. Instead, the 39-year-old said that for four days, Manson locked her in a room, beat her with a whip, and electrocuted her in his cold home in Los Angeles.

Although the two established a sexual relationship later that year, the "Game of Thrones" star claimed in her lawsuit that after Manson offered to help obtain a U.S. work visa, she tolerated many abuses, including coercion. Labor, sleep deprivation and rape, when she does not meet his demands, then threatens to obstruct the process.

Manson's legal name is Brian Hugh Warner (Brian Hugh Warner), and he said these claims are "terrible distortions of reality." His lawyer John Snow requested the dismissal of the case at a hearing in August, arguing that Bianco's claim had expired under California's domestic violence and sexual assault statutes.

In 2018, California's civil statute of limitations was extended to 10 years from 3 years after the last sexual assault occurred. The new law allows victims to file a claim within three years after "the plaintiff [discovered] the injury or illness caused by the act". Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha allowed the case to proceed, saying that the alleged misconduct may be statute of limitations.

Aenlle-Rocha ruled in October: "A reasonable jury may find that the effects of Warner’s alleged unreasonable conduct, including threats to the plaintiff’s safety, immigration status, and career, persist after her last contact with Warner. for many years."

Bianco's lawsuit is the longest of the four pending civil lawsuits against Manson and may take several years to resolve. But it has changed the world's perception of artists.

"People think of it as'oh, he's weird' or'what is she expecting?'" Bianco told The Times. "It would be great if it was just a stage role. He is much worse than his character."

Since February, many women, including Manson’s former fiancée and actress Evan Rachel Wood, have accused the notorious rock singer of misbehaving. His record company Loma Vista and agency CAA have abandoned him.

Manson's lawyer Howard King said in a statement: "Mr. Warner strongly denies any and all claims of sexual assault or abuse of anyone. These sensational allegations against my client have three things in common-they are all false. , Which allegedly happened more than ten years ago, was part of a coordinated attack by Mr. Warner’s former partners and accomplices, who weaponized the otherwise mundane details of his personal life and their voluntary relationship into a fabricated horror story ."

Court records and emails reviewed by The Times and nearly two dozen accounts of former partners and colleagues portray Manson as a man who used his reputation as an out-of-bounds artist to abuse and isolate him attracted by music that broke boundaries. female.

Some people who know Manson and work closely with him describe him as a "romantic" and sensitive person whose art may be misunderstood and say that they have never witnessed his abuse. However, others interviewed by The New York Times believed that the revolving door of band members, employees, and executives ignored or failed to stop his improper behavior.

The allegations against other well-known music figures such as Manson and Russell Simmons have prompted people to examine the music industry and its tolerance for artists who pursue young fans. Simmons denied the allegations of women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

Long before he became one of America's most notorious rock musicians, Manson was Brian Warner, a clumsy metal madman from Ohio who dreamed of revenge on the tormentors on campus. He merged two names-Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe and white supremacist cult leader Charles Manson-into a role suitable for horror movies.

In the 1994 single "Lunch Box," Manson recalled brandishing an aluminum Kiss Army lunch box to fend off bullies. "I want to be a big rock star... so no one wants to be with me," he sang. At the time, 25-year-old Manson signed with Nothing Records, an Interscope brand under the helm of the nine-inch nailed Trent Reznor.

In platinum albums including "Antichrist Superstar" and "Mechanical Animals", Manson created a character-part Alice Cooper, part androgynous monster-to fight religious rights and delight teenagers Crazy. During his career, Manson has owned 10 top 10 LPs and performed in music festivals around the world. Conservative groups regard him as the chief culprit in the Columbine High School massacre. His shows are often picked up, and he has received death threats.

But his fans were ostracized by their peers because they were too weird, too poor or too weird, and they felt understood by this terrifying, disillusioned outsider.

Alison asked not to use her surname. She told The Times that she was about 16 years old when she met Marilyn Manson in Madison Square Garden in the mid-1990s. She and her friend Jeanette Polard were so fascinated by Manson that they used a blade to carve his name on their chests before the show.

"I heard Manson asked that night,'Are those girls really crazy, or just as crazy as we are?'" she said.

The two became part of Manson's portrait as a "killer" or "slicing girl", appearing in photos and documentaries about him.

"He was always the smartest and smoothest person in the room," Alison said of Manson at the time. "It was a good time in my life, but now it is really tainted. I have to redefine him in my mind."

Warning signs appeared early in Manson's career.

In the 1998 memoir "The Long and Tough Road Out of Hell" co-authored with Neil Strauss, Manson claimed that he had beaten, suffocated and spit in his youth, which caused controversy. Describes a conspiracy to murder a woman named Nancy; and recalls putting meat on a deaf and mute man in the recording studio and peeing on her. "It's more like a living flesh sculpture," he wrote.

In November 1998, the music editor of The New York Times, Craig Marks, filed charges of assault and harassment against Manson, but they were later dropped.

He said that when Max was Spin's executive editor, after a concert in New York, the artist's bodyguard choked him because Manson was angry about not appearing on the cover of an upcoming magazine.

According to Max’s lawsuit against the musician, before the attack, Manson told Max that he could kill him, his family and "everyone you know." The lawsuit was resolved.

In 2007, former Manson keyboard player Stephen Gregory Bill (a.k.a. Madonna Wayne Gacy) sued Manson, accusing Manson of embezzling band funds to purchase Nazi equipment, human skin masks and a child skeleton. Show in his home. The lawsuit has been settled out of court.

Manson's stars rose and fell in the 2000s. Exhausted during his commercial music career, he wrote and began directing a film called "The Illusion: The Illusion of Lewis Carroll", but was later abandoned. But his career has rebounded in recent years; he signed with the critically acclaimed independent record label Loma Vista and has played roles in TV shows such as "Sons of Anarchy", "The New Pope" and "American Gods".

Manson had previously had high-profile relationships with celebrities, including movie star Rose McGowan, followed by comic icon Dita Fontis, who married at the end of 2005. Fontis filed for divorce "due to infidelity and drug use" a year later. Both women denied any abuse by Manson. Last year, he married Lindsay Usich, his girlfriend and photographer who has been in contact for many years.

In February, Wood, who intermittently dated Manson from 2007 to 2010, for the first time accused him of abuse, shocking the music industry. (She had previously proved that she had survived domestic violence, but did not identify the alleged perpetrator.)

The 34-year-old star of the HBO TV series "Western World" wrote in an Instagram post: "He began to beautify me when I was a teenager, and has treated me terribly for years."

Manson met Wood at a party in 2005 and tried to make her appear in "The Mirage." The two disclosed their relationship shortly after Manson's divorce in 2007, when he was 38 years old and Wood was 19 years old. She starred in his 2007 music video "Heart-shaped Glasses (Be careful to guide your hands)", which is a brazen nod to Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita) and accompanied Man Mori touring. “I met someone who promised freedom and expression without judgment,” she told Rolling Stone Magazine in 2016.

But behind the scenes, Wood said in February, "I was brainwashed and manipulated to give in."

A representative of Manson said: "Mr. Warner has never isolated Ms. Wood from family and friends."

In an interview in 2009, Manson told Spin that during the separation, he called Wood 158 times and cut himself with a blade every time he called. "I dream about smashing her skull with a sledgehammer every day," he said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that it is investigating allegations of domestic violence involving the musician between 2009 and 2011. Investigators did not specify who made the charges against Manson, but the date is consistent with his relationship with Wood and Bianco.

Manson also faces two misdemeanor charges for an incident that occurred at a concert in New Hampshire in 2019. The case is ongoing; Manson has pleaded not guilty.

Wood declined to comment on this story.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in June, model Ashley Morgan Smithline claimed that Manson assaulted her. She said that when she was a model in Thailand in 2010, Manson asked her to star in a movie he planned to make. In November of that year, he took her to Los Angeles.

"He asked me to bring him Nazi souvenirs," Smithlin wrote on Instagram. "It feels very wrong, because I am Jewish."

Smithlyn said that one night, she "woke up from a coma with her ankles and wrists tied behind her back. Mr. Warner sexually assaulted her."

The lawsuit alleges that on another occasion, Manson forced Smithlyn to lie in bed, covered her face with a pillow, and began to cut her shoulders, inner arms and abdomen; she also claimed that Manson "carved his stage name initials." On Ms. Smithlyn’s thigh, the letters'MM' can still be seen today."

Manson disputed Smithlin's statement, saying that his relationship with her lasted less than a week in 2010. "There are too many lies in her statement, and we don't know where to start to answer," he said in a June statement.

Another unidentified woman stated in a lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in May that Manson raped her in 2011 at his home in Los Angeles where there was a power outage. According to the lawsuit, Manson "bragged that if [he] murdered her, he would be'punishable'."

The plaintiff said that when Manson forced her to watch the short film "Groupie", which had never been shown, she was worried about her life. In it, Manson reportedly pointed a gun at a young woman, whipped her and forced her to drink urine in front of the camera.

Manson's ex-girlfriend Pola Weiss appeared in the 1997 "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" video. She said that she played the woman in "Groupie" when she was 19 years old. Two former employees support the claim that "Groupie" is a staged collaboration between Manson, Weiss, and film producer Joseph Cultice.

Cultice did not respond to a request for comment.

A representative of Manson said: "This is not a home video. Weiss is not only a voluntary participant in this film, but also its creative collaborator."

The representative said that Manson denied attacking the unidentified plaintiff or anyone else, saying it was part of a coordinated “attack, with the goal of turning insignificant details about Mr. Warner’s art and private life into ruining his life and career. The indirect sticks".

Multiple sources, including the unnamed plaintiff, stated that Manson deliberately intimidated women by playing "chaser". She declined to be interviewed by The Times and said through her lawyer, “She has reason to worry that Manson’s fans will retaliate against them for malicious attacks on his victims on social media.”

In a lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in May, Ashley Walters, Manson's former personal assistant, described a hostile work environment.

Manson first contacted photographer Walters on social media in March 2010, seeking artistic cooperation. In August, he hired her as his personal assistant. In her lawsuit, she claimed that she was forced to transport drugs overseas, "treated as property", and provided sexual services to his famous friends.

37-year-old Walters told The Times that Manson often tried to use Nazi imagery in his works, forcing her to participate in anti-Semitism and misogynistic artistic collaborations. This includes asking her to "take off all her clothes except her underwear and a Nazi jacket" and apply her lipstick, because he likes to dress women as "like they were just raped," she said.

"People are afraid of [speaking] because he got your collateral," Walters said. "There is an illusion of creative freedom. He would say,'There is no racism here. You can say N words,'If you don't say it, then you are censoring."

Walters stated in her lawsuit that Manson "threw a prop skull at Wood, so hard that it left a large raised welt on her belly." Walters and the band were together. Multiple sources on the tour stated that women were bullied because of their weight and used cocaine instead of food.

In emails dated May 13 and May 15, 2011, obtained by The Times, Manson sent Walters a photo of Bianco's torso wound with the subject: "Look what happens? "

Manson "will control it like this,'Oh, you are my sister. We are a family,'" Walters said in an interview. "He manipulated the whole thing just to make people feel scared and isolated."

In 2011, stylist Love Bailey said that photographer Lionel Deluy asked her to shoot in Manson's home studio in Bailey, Los Angeles. At the age of 21, she “seized this opportunity from the beginning,” she told the New York Times.

But in Manson's studio, "He pointed a gun at me and said, "I don't like f-s," said the transgender woman Bailey, using anti-LGBTQ slander. "I thought,'He is too famous to kill me', but then he laughed and pulled the trigger. My life flashed before my eyes."

The gun did not fire and Bailey fled the house.

A former model agent and old friend of Bailey confirmed that Bailey told her and other colleagues about the incident immediately afterwards.

Drew did not respond to a request for comment. A representative of Manson said that the musician "does not remember witnessing any of the events described by Bailey."

Artists like Manson have a tightly integrated team—managers, band members, record company executives—to meet his needs and improve his reputation. Some people in Manson's inner circle want them to speak up earlier, or wonder why so few people do.

Tony Ciulla, who has been Manson's manager since 1998, resigned this year. Several people who worked with Manson said that Chula was aware of the singer's alleged misconduct.

In Bianco's previous version of the lawsuit, Chula was designated as the defendant. Bianco’s lawyer said: “After the matter was resolved, the lawsuit was later amended to remove Tony Chula from office.” Chula declined to comment.

Tom Wiley, the head of Manson's former label Loma Vista Recordings (former Interscope president) said:

"In light of the disturbing accusations that Evan Rachel Wood and other women referred to Marilyn Manson as an abuser, Loma Vista stopped promoting his latest album on February 1, 2021. Loma Vista also Decided not to cooperate with Marilyn Manson on any future projects. Loma Vista takes these allegations very seriously. However, we do not know the circumstances that led to these claims."

Manson described Rezno in his memoirs as joining the attack on drunken fans. He said he severed contact with Manson nearly 25 years ago. Rezno said in a statement: "The passage in Manson's memoir is completely fabricated. When it came out, I was angry and offended, and it remains the same today."

Dan Cleary, Manson's former personal assistant, claimed that Manson had beaten him on the head with a fool during a show in South Korea and abused Wood during the 2007 and 2008 tours.

A representative of Manson said, "The background is that this allegedly happened on the stage of a rock concert."

In an interview, Cleary expressed regret for not speaking out earlier; he said that after Manson bought him a ticket for his stepmother's funeral in 2007, he remained silent. He returned to work in Manson from 2014 to 2015.

"If you show someone a little love and a lot of violence or mental pain, many people will choose to pay attention to that little love," Cleary told The Times. "People like me turn a blind eye."

Others said that the fear of retaliation, coupled with Manson’s occasional benevolent behavior, prevented them from expressing their discomfort.

"You smile and look in the other direction because you are afraid of losing your job or incurring his anger," said a man who toured with Manson in the 2000s. "Sometimes it's exciting; it's sex, drugs, and rock music. But then it becomes extremely dark s—."

Some former colleagues said they lived in fear of Manson. Several people, including Bianco, cited the 2017 music video "We Know Where You Live", which saw Manson and a group of nuns approaching a family with automatic weapons and then sexually assaulted their parents in front of their daughters. "They won't even recognize your body," Manson sang.

Others, such as Paula Baby, Manson's former personal assistant, refuted these claims. "He is a very kind and sensitive person," she said in an interview, even if "interdependent."

Paula, now an actor and model — baby is a stage name — met Manson for the first time as a 17-year-old fan during the gallery he opened in Hollywood in 2002. ("I cried," she said.) In October 2005, he offered her a job managing the house he shared with Von Teese in Chatsworth.

Paula rarely saw Feng Tis before his divorce in 2007. Around this time, Manson's mother began to show symptoms of dementia, Paula said, "He didn't live well alone."

Paula stopped working for Manson at the end of 2009. She said that Manson had never been violent in front of her, and she came back to help him from 2012 to 2016.

"I think he associates [binding, dominance, sadism, and masochism] more as an artistic aspect or what it represents," Paula said. She recalled the "Violet Wand", an electric shock device mentioned in multiple accusations, a low-voltage antique he locked in an antique cabinet-and a relic from the Second World War. "I find it hard to believe that he will suffer the physical abuse described by [lawsuit]."

Even before the civil lawsuit was filed, Manson’s accusers helped California push for new domestic violence legislation.

Wood testified before the U.S. House of Representatives in support of the 2018 State Act of Survivor's Rights Act.

"It started slowly, but gradually escalated over time, including threats to my life, severe gas lamps and brainwashing, [and] after waking up to find that the person who claimed to love me raped a body that he believed to be my unconscious ," Wood said in her testimony.

Wood said she tried to take legal action against Manson, but was hindered by the statute of limitations.

Like Bianco, she advocated California’s Phoenix Act, which extended the California State’s criminal statute of limitations for domestic violence crimes from one year to five years.

Bianco claimed to have had a terrible experience with Manson before the Public Safety Committee of the California Assembly-without anonymity at the time. Bianco met Manson in 2005 when he was an actor in London.

"He knows that I can easily become a prey," Bianco told the committee in 2019. "I have neither power nor control over my life."

The law was promulgated that year.

Professor of Law at Stanford University, "Models of Violence: How the Law Classifies Crimes and Their Significance to Justice." "

California Senator Susan Rubio, author of the Phoenix Act, also enacted legislation to add "mandatory control" as a violation of California family law and allow abuse victims to report and testify remotely.

"Forcibly control the isolation of victims, manipulate them and monitor them... but it is not often considered abuse," Rubio said. "Now we understand its psychological trauma and how long it takes to report."

Rubio said that she also formally submitted a request for an investigation into Manson's behavior to the FBI.

Jay Ellwanger, a lawyer for Bianco and Smithline, said: “All of my clients have told law enforcement about their transactions with Mr. Warner, and the investigation is still ongoing.” “But when my client mentioned it. In civil litigation, they know the situation themselves instead of letting others seek justice."

In light of these allegations, Manson later called on a new group of people for salvation, even though he had been shocked for a long time: Christians.

The night before Manson’s August hearing, Kanye West invited Manson and rapper Dabbabi, who was criticized for his homophobic remarks, to attend the Chicago listening of West’s album "Donda" Party.

"Guess who will go to jail tonight? God will bail my bail tonight," their track on West "Jail Pt. 2."

On October 31st, Manson in a white robe returned to West, this time with the guest Justin Bieber to participate in the "Sunday Service" concert with the gospel theme.

Even if Manson is welcomed back to the music industry, his accusers still hope that their story will lead to lasting change.

"He received professional support from the entire industry and the'Road Code'," Bianco said. "There are too many men like him. For some reason, the liquidation has not yet arrived."

Time researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.

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August Brown reports on popular music, the music industry, and nightlife policy in the Los Angeles Times.

Suzy Exposito is a music reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She has served as a pioneer in the Latin music department of the Rolling Stones and has written for NPR, Pitchfork, and Revolver.

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