[4] Davis was editor of his high school yearbook and attended the University of Tennessee for three years, dropping out due to poor grades.
[7] In The Family, Ed Sanders claimed Davis met Charles Manson and his associates Mary Brunner, Lynette Fromme, and Patricia Krenwinkel in Oregon in 1967,[8] but Davis himself said in a February 2023 interview that he met Manson in Topanga in 1968, shortly after having been arrested in front of a Malibu, California liquor store for drug possession.
In late August, Davis did participate in the murder of Spahn's Ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea.
[17] Davis was present when, on November 5, 1969, John Philip Haught aka "Zero", allegedly killed himself playing Russian roulette.
[19] He stated that the gun was a "Sears Roebuck High Standard .22 automatic",[20] a semi-automatic firearm cannot be used to play Russian roulette.
Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote in Helter Skelter that the gun police found was a .22 caliber Iver Johnson revolver.