Hollywood actress Evan Rachel Wood on Monday took to social media to level serious allegations of sexual abuse over the years on rockstar Marilyn Manson. Wood and Manson started dating in 2007. They got engaged in 2010 and broke up after few months. In the past, Wood had said that she is a rape and domestic abuse survivor but did not take any name. However, on February 1, Wood decided to tell the name of the abuser for the first time via an Instagram post.
‘My abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson’
Wood started by naming her abuser as Brian Warner, popularly known by the name Marilyn Manson. She said, “The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson.” Wood claimed that Manson started grooming her when she was a teenager and abused her for years. “I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives,” she added.
Showing solidarity with other victims of Manson, she said, “I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.” Her post brought a storm of similar allegations on the social media platforms, and several others joined in narrating their allegedly horrific experiences with the American singer-songwriter Manson.
‘Many nights, I feared for my safety’ – Ashley Walters
Soon after Woods, other women also came up and spoke up against alleged sexual abuse on hands of Manson. Ashley Walters, who worked for Manson full-time as a personal assistant, alleged that he was violent and often threw heavy objects and glass plates.
She said Manson reached out to her in 2010 for a photoshoot. After about six months, he asked her to join him full time. “He was very skilled at gaslighting his inner circle,” she alleged. Walters further said that Manson was extremely interested in mind control and spy devices to gather information and manipulation.
“Many nights, I feared for my safety or the safety of others. Sometimes I was too scared to tell management everything. Sometimes I was told it was my fault because I wasn’t setting enough boundaries,” she added. Walters ended her professional relationship with Manson a year later, after which she alleged that he continued to harass her and smear her reputation for a long time.
‘I was emotionally abused, terrorized and scarred.’ – Sarah McNeilly
Model Sarah McNeilly alleged that Manson lured her with ‘love bombing.’ She said as he was wooing her, she came to know that he had tortured others.
“I was emotionally abused, terrorized and scarred. I was locked in rooms when I was ‘bad,’ sometimes forced to listen to him entertaining other women,” she added. McNeilly further added that she was not allowed to have male friends.
“I was thrown up against a wall, and he threatened to bash my face in with a baseball bat he was holding for trying to get him to pick out a pair of pants prior to a music video,” she said. She further added that she suffered from mental health issues and PTSD that have affected her personal and professional life.
‘I was tied and raped repeatedly’ – Gabriella
Artist Gabriella who is known as SourGirrrl on Instagram, alleged that Manson repeatedly tied and raped her. She said she met Manson in 2015 when she was 22 and he was 46.
“The first thing that he ever said to me was that he was ‘going to bite me.’ He immediately love-bombed me telling me that he felt like he’d known me for years and I felt similarly.” He invited her to his tour bus in which he offered her cocaine. Then he asked her to take off her clothes and take a shower in front of him, she alleged.
She further said that when she met him the second time, he broke a wine glass and demanded to make a blood pact. “Things went 0 to 100 at full speed. In the beginning stages of a relationship, he worked a kind of magic on me.” Later he invited her to a tour where he would repeatedly tie her and raped her, she alleged. “I sobbed for hours on the floor in the hotel room and when I looked at him, he was smiling,” she added.
‘I have night terrors, PTSD, anxiety, and mostly crippling OCD’ – Ashley Lindsay Morgan
Model Ashley Lindsay Morgan said that she was contacted by Manson while she was modelling overseas in Bangkok in 2009-10.
“He seemed intelligent, authentic and caring. After a long time of talking and texting, he flew me out of Los Angeles to be a part of a film and photo series,” she said. Morgan said that he was like many musicians she had met but with cocaine and absinthe. She went from the Roosevelt Hotel to living with him, after which things went south quickly.
Morgan said she was given rules, and she got “in trouble” for any behaviour he did not approve of. “There was abuse, sexual violence, physical violence and coercion. I still feel the affects every day. I have night terrors, PTSD, anxiety, and mostly crippling OCD,” she said. She further added that there is much more that had happened, and she does not want him to do it to anyone else.
‘He would go from charming to complete monster behaviour’ – Scarlett Kapella
Stripper model and photographer Scarlett Kapella said that Manson pursued her in 2011 in Mexico City.
“He would go from charming & loving to complete monster behaviour, subjecting me to emotional, physical and sexual abuse,” she said. Kapella further alleged that Manson would control when she was allowed to speak and what outfits and colour lipstick she could wear.
‘A mentally & physically abusive drug addict’ – Dan Cleary
Dan Cleary, guitarist and radio co-host, wrote a long thread on Twitter in September 2020 in which he narrated what had happened with Wood when he had worked for Manson in 2007-08. He alleged that Manson turned Wood into a different person in just one year. In 2014-15 he saw how Manson abused his-then girlfriend, Lindsey. “He would threaten to kill her, cut her up, bury her, embarrass her to the world. Making her cry & fear him made him feel good,” Cleary wrote.
He is a brilliant musician, an incredibly smart & funny man. But he’s also a mentally & physically abusive drug addict that has the ability to be super kind & emotional. It’s hard to wrap your head around. I’m not asking for him to be “canceled”, fuck ALL that cancel stuff.
— DanCleary (@DanCleary79) September 13, 2020
Cleary further said that Manson is a brilliant musician, an incredibly smart & funny man.
He would threaten to kill her, cut her up, bury her, embarrass her to the world. Making her cry & fear him made him feel good. He would remind her that she’d be homeless without him and make fun of her learning disabled family member.
— DanCleary (@DanCleary79) September 13, 2020
“But he’s also a mentally & physically abusive drug addict that has the ability to be super kind & emotional. It’s hard to wrap your head around,” he added.
Marilyn Manson fantasized about smashing Wood’s head with a sledgehammer
Though Manson’s representatives have not replied to any of the allegations made against Manson, they had previously said that there are numerous articles in which Evan Rachel Wood had spoken very positively about her relationship with Manson. They said, “Unfortunately, we live in a time where people believe what they read on the internet, and feel free to say what they want with no actual evidence. The effects can be catastrophic and promoting non-fact-based information is wholly irresponsible.”
In 2019, when Wood’s Phoenix Act was passed and came into effect in January 2020, she testified to Congress that her abuser had hidden drug and alcohol addiction from her. She alleged that his addiction resulted in wrecking her home, cornering her in a room and threatening her. At that time, Manson’s representative denied replying to the allegations stating it would be “inappropriate to comment” on personal testimony.
In a 2009 interview with Spin, when Manson was asked about his relationship with Wood, he said that he had fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer. Mentioning his song “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in The Movies,” Manson had said that the song was about his fantasies. He added, “I have fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer.”
Following the allegations, Manson has been officially dropped from his record label and wo television appearances. Denying the allegations, he claimed that they are ‘horrible distortion of reality’.
