Meet The Family
Ruth Ann Moorehouse
Ruth Ann Moorehouse, also known as Ouisch, is a former member of the Manson family. She met Charles Manson for the first time when her father, Deane Moorehouse, a former minister, picked up three hitchhikers, Charles Manson, Lynette Fromme and Mary Brunner and brought them home.
Sandra Good
Sandra Collins Good is a long-time member of the Manson Family and a close friend of Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme. Good’s Manson Family nickname is “Blue”, which was given to her by Charles Manson to represent clean air and water.
Susan Atkins
On March 29, 1971, Atkins was sentenced to death for her part in the Manson murders, later the sentence was reduced to life in prison. Atkins died on September 24, 2009 at age 61. At the time of her death, Atkins was California’s longest-serving female inmate.
Leslie Van Houten
Van Houten, a one-time homecoming princess, participated in the killings of Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary a day after other Manson family members murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others.
Catherine Gillies
Catherine Gillies was a member of the Manson Family. Gillies joined the family sometime in 1968. In the summer of ’69 she volunteered to go with the Tate/LaBianca killers on both nights, but Manson ordered Gillies to stay at Spahn Ranch.
Patricia Krenwinkel
Patricia Krenwinkel is a former member of the Manson Family. Krenwinkel was a participant in the infamous murders on August 9, 1969 at 10050 Cielo Drive, home of actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski.
Lynette Fromme
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a member of the infamous Manson family, is best known for attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination attempt and released on parole on August 14, 2009, after serving 34 years.
Mary Brunner
Mary Brunner is a former member of the Manson Family. Brunner met Charles Manson shortly after moving to California, at age 21 in ’67. Brunner has become known as the first member of what would become the Manson family.
Linda Kasabian
Linda Kasabian was part of the Manson Family, then she became the star witness against them. She was the key witness in District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi’s prosecution of Manson and his followers for the Tate-LaBianca murders.
Bruce Davis
Bruce Davis was a member of the Manson Family. Davis was involved in the murders of Donald Shea and Gary Hinman. In April 1970, Davis was implicated in the death of Gary Hinman by Family member Mary Brunner. Davis went into hiding, ultimately turning himself in on December 2, 1970.
Robert Beausoleil
Beausoleil is a former member of the Manson Family who was given the death sentence for killing Manson Family associate Gary Hinman. His death sentence was commuted to Life when California briefly outlawed the death penalty in 1972.
Danny Decarlo
Danny Decarlo met Manson through the motorcycle gang “The Straight Satans”. DeCarlo enjoyed the Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll at Spahn’s Ranch so he became a regular fixture.
Nancy Pitman
Nancy Pitman is a former member of the Manson Family. Nancy first met the Manson family trough her friend Deirdre Lansbury, the daughter of actress Angela Lansbury.
Steve Grogan
Steve Grogan is a former member of the Manson Family. Grogan dropped out of high school and ended up at Spahn’s ranch. When Manson and the Family moved in to the ranch Grogan joined the Family. Not the smartest of the bunch, Grogan was nicknamed Scramblehead.
Ella Jo Bailey
Ella Jo Bailey and Patricia Krenwinkel were hitchhiking in Malibu when they were picked up by Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. This encounter eventually led to the murder of Sharon Tate.
Dianne Lake
While the country was still reeling from the news of a two-day murder spree across Los Angeles that left seven people dead, a then-16-year-old girl named Dianne Lake was learning first-hand details about the 1969 slayings that would change her life forever.
Kathryn Lutesinger
Kathryn Lutesinger is a former member of the Manson Family. Kathryn, also know as Kitty, was introduced to the family in ’69 by boyfriend Bobby Beausoleil. Manson treated Lutesinger badly because Manson felt Kathryn was trying to lure Beausoleil away from the family.
Sherry Ann Cooper
Sherry Ann Cooper, nicknamed Simi Valley Sherri,was the girlfriend of Straight Satan and Manson Family member Danny Decarlo. In 1969 an unidentified body with 150 stab wounds was found at Mulholland Drive. It was rumored that this was possibly the body of Sherry Ann Cooper.
Catherine Share
Catherine Share is a former member of the Manson Family. Of all the members of the Manson Family, Catherine Share had the most unconventional background. She was born in France during World War II. Her parents were members of the French resistance. Both of her parents committed suicide while she was very young.
Charles Manson
Charles Manson led a commune what became known as the Manson Family, that arose in California in the late 1960s. Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969.
Barbara Hoyt
Barbara Hoyt is a former member of the Manson Family. Hoyt was a witness in District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi’s prosecution of Manson and his followers for the Tate-LaBianca murders, one of the highest-profile murder trials in history.
Tex Watson
Charles Denton Watson, also known as Tex Watson, was a member of the Manson family. On August 9, 1969, Watson and other Manson followers murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people at a house in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles.
Thomas Walleman
Thomas Walleman aka TJ the Terrible was a Manson Family associate. TJ was attracted by the easy hippie life-style and lived at Spahn Ranch for a couple of years. TJ was with Manson the night Manson shot Bernard “Lotsapoppa” Crowe.
Paul Watkins
Paul Alan Watkins aka Little Paul was a member of the Manson Family. According to his own words, he was Manson’s second in command. Watkins testified against The Family during the Tate/LaBianca trial. Watkins died in 1990, of leukemia.
John Haught
John Haught was an associate of the Manson family. On Wednesday November 5th, 1969 the Venice Police Department responded to a call at 28 Clubhouse Avenue. At the scene police discovered the body of John Haught.
Manson’s Children
Most relationships in the Manson Family were polygamous. Because most children were born with no physician or midwife present it is hard to know how many children Manson fathered. Read more and learn about his known children.
10050 Cielo Drive
In 1994 the house at Cielo Drive was demolished. But the memory of what happened there in the early morning hours of August 9, 1969, endures. Actress Sharon Tate and four others were brutally murdered by members of the Manson Family.