When news arrived that a Marilyn Manson abuse hoax came up in a lawsuit the rocker named Brian Warner filed against actress Evan Rachel Wood and Ashley Illma Gore, the media didn’t seem to care. The nature of having multiple accusers lent credibility to the stories of the women who spoke out against him because where there’s smoke there’s fire. Right?
And yet there’s denying his complaint is a juicy read!
Receipts of a fake FBI letter drafted by the women as well as allegations of hacking, impersonation online, creating a fictitious email in his name to distribute illicit material of minors without his knowledge or consent, circulating false claims that he produced child pornography in the 90s and more.
We’ve all been there before watching someone else cry a “conspiracy” or “hoax” is in the works with raised eyebrows. But when you start digging into the parties involved within all the Manson cases, a circle does form that connects all of the accusers years prior to making public allegations as well as a mysterious connection to HBO’s two-part Phoenix Rising documentary.
So buckle up! Because we’re going diving through this circle now — with receipts.
INTRODUCTION TO THE MARILYN MANSON ABUSE HOAX CONSPIRACY
Don’t know who the women photographed above are? No worries! We’re going to walk through all of them and how they connect to one another as well as an alleged Marilyn Manson abuse hoax, below.
To start, we’re going to go with the accuser you may have heard the least about!
MEET ASHLEY WALTERS
Ashley Walters was employed as Marilyn Manson’s personal assistant from August 2010 – October 2011. He alleges she is the source personal information of his that was used to bring multiple past lovers together for nefarious reasons within the Marilyn Manson abuse hoax conspiracy. While it’s early — court evidence authenticated by a forensics expert points in that direction.
Ashley was terminated for various reasons as she didn’t exhibit the most responsible behavior as an employee. She even took Manson’s car out for on a drunken, unauthorized joyride where she crashed and totaled the car getting a DUI — with Esme Bianco riding shotgun.
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MEET ESME BIANCO
Esme Bianco is a former lingerie model and actress — most known for a minor Game of Thrones role in the show’s early days named Ros. Bianco initially met Manson through his then long-term partner and wife, Dita Von Teese, and he’d go onto later cast Bianco in an unreleased music video for his song I Want to Kill You Like They Did In the Movies.
Bianco and Manson went onto briefly date in 2011 — while Ashley Walters was employed as an assistant of Manson’s.
BESTIES
Beyond their drunken July 2011 joyride, Esme Bianco and Ashley Walters could be described as “besties.”
The two travel together. They party. They celebrate Halloween and visit Disneyland. They attend concerts.
MARILYN MANSON CONCERTS
In February 2013, Esme Bianco and Ashley Walters took a road trip to Las Vegas where they attended a Marilyn Manson concert.
In addition to attending Manson concerts and social gatherings with him present, Walters would also go onto work on Marilyn Manson tour in 2015 and attend future concerts as recent as at least 2018.
MEET ASHLEY SMITHLINE
Ashley Smithline shared an attorney with Esme Bianco named Jay Ellwanger – who Smithline has gone onto describe as a “fruit bat” and a #MeToo lawyer who doesn’t understand how to take the word no.
Smithline voluntarily dropped her case in late 2022, fully recanted her allegations and filed written testimony for Marilyn Manson in Feb. 2023 that Esme Bianco, Evan Rachel Wood and Wood’s then employee and girlfriend Ashley Illma Gore coerced her into believing she’d repressed memories of abuse that did not happen. Read her testimony, here.
Ashley Smithline and Esme Bianco were represented by attorney Jay Ellwanger in two civil lawsuits were they claimed they were victims of international human trafficking – among other abuse claims.
These claims (among others) were extensively investigated by law enforcement with no criminal charges filed against Manson, to date.
Upon filing her lawsuit in June 2021, Ashley Morgan Smithline and her then attorney Jay Ellwanger appeared on The View to promote her newly filed lawsuit.
Their attorney-client relationship would later dissolve in dramatic fashion with Ellwanger misleading Manson’s lead attorney Howard E. King when trying to delay Smithline’s Aug. 2022 deposition within the Esme Bianco case. Smithline set the record straight that she’d dismissed Ellwanger as her attorney many weeks prior.
In 2023, Smithline filed sworn testimony that her participation in Phoenix Rising, statement on Instagram and People magazine cover story was built on a lie. She wrote that Bianco, Gore and Wood manipulated her into believing she’d repressed memories of abuse that did not take place. Smithline was also identified to testify on behalf of Manson in a Jane Doe case in LA.
Ashley Walters, Esme Bianco and Ashley Morgan Smithline all appeared on camera in HBO’s Phoenix Rising that centers around Evan Rachel Wood’s fantastical abuse allegations against Marilyn Manson.
The “documentary” does not offer direct evidence of any abuse nor does it include any licensed mental health or trauma specialist — not even at a staged ‘survivor’ meeting presented as a support group that was filmed on Oct. 21, 2020.
SILENT ESME
While she physically appears on camera in HBO’s Phoenix Rising special directed by Amy Berg, all of Esme Bianco’s speaking parts as well as her name were scrubbed by the project by the time it hit the airwaves on HBO in March 2022.
Sources close to the matter allege this is due to financial requests of Bianco being denied.
EVAN RACHEL WOOD ON CENTER STAGE
Of course the true star and primary focus of Amy Berg and HBO’s joint “Phoenix Rising” project was Evan Rachel Wood. Both her parents and her brother also appeared in the project to discuss her upbringing. The project does lightly touch on a bill Evan advocated for in the State of California but primarily focuses extensively on abuse allegations against Marilyn Manson.
No corroborating evidence for her allegations was presented nor, again, any licensed expert weighing in on her statements or the seriousness of the topics discussed.
NOTE: In Spring 2022, Wood filed the project in court to defend herself as “evidence” in the case Manson filed against her and Gore for conspiracy and fraud. LA Superior Court Judge Teresa Beaudet dismissed it as prejudicial hearsay – not fact – in May 2023.
MEET ASHLEY ILLMA GORE
Watching the alleged survivor ‘support group’ meeting in Phoenix Rising, you’ll spot a dark figure loitering in the background. Her name is Ashley Illma Gore and she was both an employee and girlfriend of Wood’s at the time of filming.
Gore has never met Manson but that has not stopped her from engaging in an array of activities that growing evidence indicates she was helping to organize a Marilyn Manson abuse hoax behind-the-scenes.
ILLMA GORE OUTREACH
While she loiters out of focus on camera during the group meeting, viewers will notice Ashley Illma Gore does spend quite a bit of time on her phone. This could be for any reason — but she was sending timely communications that are certainly interesting.
Gore was on a continued outreach mission to former contacts of Manson from the 2010-2011 era when he employed Ashley Walters a decade prior. Among those? Greta Aurora, a young woman who spent a few days romantically with Manson in Vienna, Austria while Walters was traveling with him as he promoted an art exhibition in January 2011 and a book with film director David Lynch (Eraserhead, Lost Highway, Twin Peaks).
Greta was later stunned to see intimate details about her time with Manson mischaracterized within the Ashley Walters civil case without her knowledge or consent. She turned over the emails to Manson’s legal team along with testimony that her intimate experiences with Manson were non-abusive nor traumatizing.
Greta has testified about being contacted by Ashley Illma Gore when filming for “Phoenix Rising” and a few months later right before the ladies made their allegations public on Feb. 1, 2021.@StevieJRaw has a wonderful interview you should watch in full:https://t.co/nSFXZaN3up pic.twitter.com/bwUrBtyYRe
— Justice for Marilyn Manson 🌹 (@standwithmanson) October 19, 2023
THE FAKE FBI LETTER
Not sure if she was Communications Director or what, but Ashley Illma Gore also played a key role in forging the fake FBI letter Evan Rachel Wood went on to file in court that named her as a “key” witness in a major “criminal” investigation.
As hard as is it to believe — we’re going to skip over the fake FBI letter for today. You can read more on that here — but for now?
We’ll be discussing the iPad Gore was using to draft this document.
BRYTON GORE — THE WITNESS AND THE iPAD
In April 2021, Ashley Illma Gore was visiting her twin sister – Bryton Gore.
Bryton testifies for Manson’s case that she observed a stressed phone call between Illma Gore and Evan Rachel Wood discussing an issue with an “FBI” letter and Illma doctoring the letter. When Illma left to head to Florida, she gave the iPad device to Bryton for use by her two nieces.
Later in Fall 2021, Bryton managed to power up the iPad and she uncovered a number of highly suspicious files.
READ BRYTON’S FULL SWORN STATEMENT
Note: Since, Ashley Illma Gore has not disputed the contents of the iPad or that it was hers. She has also unsuccessfully fought to have her twin sister’s testimony dismissed by an LA County Superior Court Judge overruled those attempts.
Other contents of the iPad included the fake FBI letter, outreach messages to former Marilyn Manson contacts and a checklist of various abuse claims. Manson’s legal team alleges the checklist was circulated to help women craft their messaging when naming him as an abuser.
Marilyn Manson’s attorneys enlisted a forensics expert to analyze this broken iPad — obtaining texts, iMessages, photos, files and other multimedia files.
KNEE-JERK REACTION
In an act of genius (?), upon receiving word that Marilyn Manson named her and Evan Rachel Wood in a lawsuit on conspiracy and fraud — Ashley Illma Gore was triggered and sent tweets that took ownership of the images within the lawsuit and the discarded iPad from where they were found.
She also acknowledged this was about Manson in Oct. 2022 at a deposition.
ASHLEY ILLMA GORE & ASHLEY WALTERS EXCHANGING INFO
To date, only a small number of the files on Illma Gore’s discarded iPad have been made public but among them is evidence demonstrating Ashley Walters was disclosing private information of Manson’s that she’d hoarded for many years since she stopped working for him.
SURVEILLANCE ON MANSON’S HOME
Contents of the iPad show that Ashley Illma Gore – an employee of Evan Rachel Wood — was keeping tabs on Manson’s private residence.
In Feb. 2021, despite never having met him — Gore swatted Manson by calling the FBI with a story that she was a close and concerned friend. The media was also tipped off and what was captured was a spectacle that included multiple squad cars, paparazzi and even a helicopter looming and searching the windows of Manson’s private home.
He and his wife have since been forced to move.
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WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ILLMA?
There’s of course a lot more to be said about Ms. Ashley Illma Gore. Learn more about her in this podcast episode:
Jane Doe Converses with Evan Rachel Wood et Al
In February 2021, a pop artist came forward alongside Evan Rachel Wood and Ashley Walters on social media to accuse Marilyn Manson of abuse. She had met Manson at a pre-Grammys party in 2011 and the two briefly dated before parting ways.
She alleged that she “repressed” all memory of abuse for a decade until she recalled those events a decade later when Wood publicly named Manson as an abuser.
This Indie pop artist did lodge accusations against Manson by name on her social media accounts, however – she elected to file her lawsuit against him a few months later in Los Angeles, California as a Jane Doe. Within the case, it was revealed that Doe was in direct contact with all the aforementioned women — including Evan Rachel Wood as early as at least Sept. 2020.
This directly contradicts her sworn written testimony.
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Jane Doe Spooks Out Ahead of Trial
The pop singer came forward by name but sued as Jane Doe. Out of respect for that, we won’t dig into how her public actions directly dispute her claims. But she settled last minute after trying to block Manson as well as multiple fact witnesses from take the stand against her.
Possibly factoring into her decision to fold and settle right before the case went to trial?
Despite having his hands tied behind his back by the LA District Attorney’s office, Manson prepared a much stronger defense. He was prepared to present 83 court exhibits, 6 fact witnesses and 3 expert witnesses to a jury. Jane prepared a more modest cases — with 18 exhibits, 3 fact witnesses and 1 expert.
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JANE DOE?
Tune into a two-part podcast discussion with YouTuber Claire View and attorney and podcaster Legally Dirty Blonde:
ASHLEY SMITHLINE PREPARED TO TESTIFY
While Jane Doe settled her case at the last moment, Ashley Smithline was prepared to take the stand against her at trial as a witness for Marilyn Manson’s defense.
Smithline as well as Bryton Gore continue to stand by their sworn testimony that they witnessed Ashley Illma Gore and Evan Rachel Wood enacting a scheme against Marilyn Manson that included the falsifying of evidence and coercion.
REMEMBER ESME BIANCO?
Esme Bianco has consistently been close friends with Manson’s ex assistant Ashley Walters — who was of course sharing confidential information she’d held onto for a decade with Evan Rachel Wood’s employee Ashley Illma Gore.
In addition to her social media profile extensively detailing her long friendship with Walters, Esme also leaves behind a digital paper trail via her Twitter. She’s been in talks with Illma since at least 2019 and Evan Rachel Wood since at least 2013.
Does Marilyn Manson Have a Point?
Despite how the media likes to misrepresent the circumstances surrounding Manson’s lawsuit, his legal team has prepared a case centered around a Marilyn Manson abuse hoax.
Do you think they are onto something?
Or are the connections between these women merely coincidental?
Last Updated: Nov 5, 2023