Evan Rachel Wood seemingly opened the floodgates when she recently came forward to name ex-partner Brian Warner, a.k.a., “Marilyn Manson,” as her alleged abuser, who she accused of terrorizing her during their relationship, which apparently began in 2007 (when she was 18 and he was 36) and ended in 2010. In doing so, Wood accused Manson of both “grooming” and “horrifically” abusing her, but this wasn’t the beginning of the allegations against Manson. Yes, it’s true that the accusations are now intensifying, yet this wasn’t Manson’s first alleged (horrible) rodeo. Let’s run down the timeline of allegations against the disgraced singer, who’s now experiencing a career freefall.
February 1998: Manson’s The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell memoir revealed a lot more claims than mere run-of-the-mill backstage antics. At the time, Jim Derogatis of the Chicago Reader criticized the book for revealing Manson “generally mistreating one or more women per page.” In a chapter called “Meating the Fans / Meat and Greet,” an especially egregious account detailed how Manson and his bandmates covered a young woman in raw meat and urinated upon her. In describing the incident, Manson wrote, “I think she, too, found it to be art and was having a good time.”
Within the memoir, Manson also described an alleged incident in which he and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor (during a joint tour in the 1990s) sexually assaulted an intoxicated woman. Reznor previously denied the allegations, and on February 3, 2010, Reznor condemned Manson with the following statement to Pitchfork:
“I have been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago. As I said at the time, the passage from Manson’s memoir is a complete fabrication. I was infuriated and offended back when it came out and remain so today.”
November 1998: A lawsuit from Craig Marks (at the time, Spin‘s executive editor) alleged that Manson threatened fatal violence over his unhappiness with a cover feature. That lawsuit settled and never went to court, but while discussing the incident in 2017 with Rolling Stone, Manson claimed to have been “arrested for putting a gun in the mouth of an editor of SPIN,” although Manson was never arrested for the incident.
December 2001: Manson was, however, arrested for assaulting a security guard during a show in Clarkson, Michigan when he allegedly rubbed his crotch (covered in a G-string) on the guard’s head and spitting upon the man. He paid a $4,000 fine and pleaded no contest on disorderly conduct after a warrant was issued over felony fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and misdemeanor assault and battery allegations.
April 2002: The mother of actress Jennifer Syme (an ex-girlfriend of Keanu Reeves) brought a wrongful death lawsuit against Manson for allegedly giving Syme drugs during a gathering at his home and encouraging her to get into her Jeep and drive home. Syme fatally crashed her Jeep; however, Manson denied the accusations against him as “completely false.” At the time, Blabbermouth quoted Manson as threatening a countersuit for slander and harassment and explaining the alleged incident as follows:
“This lawsuit, which is completely without merit, will not bring back Jennifer’s life. It serves only to reopen the wounds and the pain felt by all who loved Jennifer. It is a pity that St. John sullies her own daughter’s reputation by filing this baseless claim… After Manson and his five guests finished an evening at the movies followed by a quiet get-together at his home, he made sure Syme received a safe ride home from a designated driver and went to sleep.”
2007: Manson and Evan Rachel Wood went public with their relationship. As mentioned above, she was 18 at the time, and he was 36 years old. They endured a breakup and an engagement and split for good in 2010.
June 2009: Manson discussed his initial 2007 breakup with Wood to Spin, to which he admitted self-harming, including cutting himself and sending photos of his injuries to Wood. He also spoke of how he fantasized “every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer” while claiming this as the inspiration for his song, “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies.” His representatives (and as recently as November 2020) dismissed Manson’s comments as “obviously a theatrical rock star interview promoting a new record, and not a factual account.” That statement pointed towards Evan and Manson’s subsequent engagement as indicative “that no one took this story literally.”
July 2009: Manson threatened to murder journalists, and according to NME, he wrote this rant on his website: “I am far different than the soon-to-be-murdered-in-their-home press has decided to fabricate. If one more ‘journalist’ makes a cavalier statement about me and my band, I will personally or with my fans’ help, greet them at their home and discover just how much they believe in their freedom of speech.”
November 2016: Evan Rachel Wood spoke with Rolling Stone to promote the first Westworld season. In doing so, she revealed herself to be a sexual assault survivor, although she did not name her alleged abuser.
October 2017: Sexual and psychological abuse allegations against longtime bassist Jeordie White, a.k.a., Twiggy Ramirez, surfaced from his ex-girlfriend, Jessicka Addams, who claimed that White raped her during their 1990s relationship. Manson stated that he wasn’t aware of the accusations until recently, and he declared, “I am saddened by Jessicka’s obvious distress.” The singer subsequently tweeted, “I have decided to part ways with Jeordie White as a member of Marilyn Manson. He will be replaced for the upcoming tour. I wish him well.” For his part, Ramirez denied the allegations and stated that he’d “only recently been made aware of these allegations from over 20 years ago.” He added, “I do not condone non-consensual sex of any kind.”
February 2018: Evan Rachel Wood’s advocacy for domestic abuse survivors led her to U.S. congressional testimony to support the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act. While speaking to the House Judiciary Committee, she declared of the abuse, “It started slow but escalated over time, including threats against my life, severe gaslighting and brainwashing, [and] waking up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body.”
August 2018: Amid the #MeToo movement, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office declared that they would not pursue charges against Manson after an accuser filed a report against him for unspecified sex crimes. Given that the alleged crimes occurred in 2011, the statute of limitations had already run, and the DA declared that there was an “absence of corroboration.” Manson’s representatives issued the following statement:
“The allegations made to the police were and are categorically denied by Mr. Warner and are either completely delusional or part of a calculated attempt to generate publicity for the claimant’s business of selling Manson memorabilia. The police report that spurred the investigation was accompanied by the woman’s press release and other attempts to generate publicity that fraudulently claimed she was held captive by Mr. Warner for 48 hours in 2011. Any claim of sexual impropriety or imprisonment at that, or any other, time is false.”
April 2019: Evan Rachel Wood testified in front of the California Senate Public Safety Committee in support of the Phoenix Bill (to expand the rights of domestic abuse survivors). During a detailed account of the abuse she had suffered, Wood declared that her unnamed abuser “beat me and shocked sensitive parts of my body with a torture device called a violet wand.” She continued: “The pain was excruciating. It felt like I left my body and a part of me died that day.”
February 2021: Evan Rachel Wood named Manson as her alleged abuser. In doing so, she accused him of “grooming” and “horrifically” abusing her over the course of their relationship. She issued the following statement:
“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson. He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me 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. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
In response to Wood’s Instagram post, several women (as discussed by Vanity Fair) immediately came forward against Manson with allegations of abuse against him. Prior to her post, Wood seemed to suggest that she was preparing a statement of some sort while referencing the 1986 Jim Henson film, Labyrinth. In doing so, she quoted the words of Jennifer Connelly’s teen character while she took back her power from David Bowie’s Goblin King: “Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle, beyond the goblin city, to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours… And my kingdom is as great…”
February 2021: Manson’s professional woes began to accumulate. His record label, Loma Vista Recordings, removed him from their roster, and his agency, CAA, dropped him as well. Additionally, his longtime manager, Tony Ciulla, parted ways with him. Two TV shows (AMC’s Creepshow anthology series and Starz’s ongoing American Gods) that filmed appearances by Manson also removed him from upcoming episodes.
February 2021: Manson describes the allegations against him as “horrible distortions of reality.” He issued this statement in full:
“Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality. My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how – and why – others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.”
February 2021: California State Senator Susan Rubio called upon the FBI to investigate “alleged cases” against Manson, which Rubio did not detail:
“Since some of the alleged cases against Mr. Warner are from California, I am especially alarmed. Individuals who engage in this kind of abuse are often serial offenders. If these allegations are true, and no investigation is undertaken, we will be failing the victims and allowing a possible perpetrator to continue abusing unsuspecting victims. That must not be allowed to happen.”
February 2021: Phoebe Bridgers told a sickening story about Manson, who she accused of showing off a “rape room” in his home when she visited with friends as a teenager. “I thought it was just his horrible frat boy sense of humor,” Bridgers wrote. “I stopped being a fan. I stand with everyone who came forward.” She added that “the label knew, management knew, the band knew” and slammed Manson’s associates for “pretending to be shocked and horrified… [it] is f*cking pathetic.”
February 2021: Wood revealed that she decided to publicly identify Manson when she filed a police report because “I was alerted to threats made by @leslee_lane and @lindsayusichofficial (Brian’s wife) for 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.’” Wood also accused Manson of anti-Semitic behavior. “I was called a jew in a derogatory manner,” she wrote. “He would draw swastikas over my bedside table when he was mad at me. I heard the ‘n’ word over and over.”
February 2021: Corey Feldman comes forward to accuse the “obsessed” Manson of “decades of mental and emotional abuse. Feldman’s claims include grooming and being kissed without consent, and he makes reference to passages that Manson wrote about him in his 1998 memoir, The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, as evidence that Manson is “obsessed” with Feldman:
“Manson has been obsessed w me 4 over 2 decades! Dont #BELIEVE me? Just LOOK @ THE PUBLISHED FACTS! He 1st wrote several passages about me in his book #LONGROADOUTOFHELL as we had met a few months prior 2 that @ a Premier 4 #HOWARDSTERNSPRIVATEPARTS IN NY where the #GROOMING process began. He grabbed my face in front of the crowd and kissed me w his Black Lip Stick that I couldn’t rub off all night. He proceeded 2 gush over me telling me what a ‘Huge fan’ of mine he was.”
February 2021: Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell accused Manson of pointing a camera up her skirt during a music festival. She expressed solidarity with Evan Rachel Wood and other survivors while adding, “It’s sad to see people defending him, just because he put his depravity in plain sight doesn’t give him a free pass to abuse women?!” Rowell added, “There were no repercussions for his behaviour… he does this kind of thing all the time.’”
February 2021: Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco came forward to reveal that her 2011 relationship with Manson “almost destroyed” her. During an interview with New York Magazine, Bianco provided photos to the publication and gave her harrowing account of physical abuse by Manson, who she claims terrorized her (with both emotional and physical abuse that included whipping, cutting, and bruising her) during the two months that she lived with him. Her claims were corroborated to New York by Manson’s former assistant, Jessica Walters, who went on record with the publication. A former member of Manson’s inner circle also spoke up (under the pseudonym of Alex) to reveal that he’d spotted bruises on Bianco’s back and arms, but he was too afraid to speak up out of fear of retaliation. Bianco accused Manson of playing her Game of Thrones sex scenes in front of friends while berating and humiliating her, and here’s a bleak summary of what she says gave her PTSD:
Bianco spent roughly two months living with Manson, drinking heavily to cope. She was often in a dissociative state, “hovering above life like I was looking at it through a net curtain,” she says, raising her hands in front of her face. Once, she remembers, he repeatedly cut her torso with a knife. “I just remember laying there, and I didn’t fight it,” she says. “It was kind of this final-straw moment where I had lost all sense of hope and safety.” He sent a photo of her cuts to Walters and one of his bandmates at the time, with the subject line “See what happens?”
As of this writing, Manson hasn’t commented upon Bianco’s accusations. He’s currently without a record label and has gone radio silent, although TMZ reports that police recently performed a wellness check at Manson’s home after a friend grew concerned when he was unable to reach the singer by phone.