You won’t hear about it but a lot of shit has come up that calls into question everything he said. His book, Helter Skelter is supposed to be the definitive story of the case but now there are a lot of holes in it, including your theory which said that Charlie never intended anyone to get killed and Tex had him and the girls murder to challenge his leadership of the family. Charlie never told anyone to kill people during the Tate murders and Tex went off script. Then Tex ran away to Texas before the rest of the family were arrested, so there was some shit going on we’ll probably never know about.
Pence is worried about his future. Trump has fuck you money and knows this is just a lark for a while. For Pence it’s his life. Not defending him, both VPs are garbage, but that’s why he sold out his base.