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Former Manson Girls Describe Aftermath of Murders at Spahn Ranch: “Put 2 and 2 Together"
"When we ran to the desert, I knew. I knew we were on the run," said former Manson Family member Catherine Share on the new Peacock series Making Manson.
A series of high-profile and celebrity murders terrorized the Los Angeles area in the late 1960s, which disturbed even two women who had an idea of who was behind the crimes.
Dianne Lake and Catherine Share were both living with the Manson Family at Spahn Ranch when actress Sharon Tate, grocer Leno LaBianca, and five others were brutally slayed in August 1969.
“People in Hollywood were terrified. They didn’t know what was going on,” Ivor Davis, journalist and author, said on Making Manson, a three-part docuseries streaming now on Peacock. “They thought there was a rampage of murders happening in celebrity homes and they were scared beyond belief. It wasn’t until four to five months after the murders that they pinned the crime on Manson and his family.”
Making Manson takes a new look at the Charles Manson case with never-before-heard audio interviews with Manson himself from prison. It also includes interviews with other key members in the true crime saga, including two of Manson’s followers, who opened up about the aftermath of the murders while living at Spahn Ranch.
Dianne Lake and Catherine Share describe life with the Manson Family following the murders
Dianne Lake, known as “Snake” in the Manson family, claimed she had no idea anything was wrong at first.
“So Leslie [van Houten] comes in one morning, starts burning a purse or robe and credit cards and a bag of coin,” Lake said on Making Manson. “Little did I know that she had just come from the LaBianca murders.”
Manson Family member Catherine Share, known as “Gypsy,” admitted she started noticing odd behavior.
“Patricia [Krenwinkel] and Leslie were just all to themselves and Patricia was just freaked out,” Share said on Making Manson. “Hunched over just staring at nothing. She looks like death to me. And I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And she said, ‘Gypsy, I promise you, you don’t want to know.’”
But eventually, Share said she pieced what happened together.
“No one told me, ‘I’m one of those people that did those murders.’ No one actually told me,” she said. “But I put two and two and two and two together.”
Soon after, Share and Lake said Susan Atkins, who was later convicted in the murders, began talking to other members of the Family about what happened.
“Then all the girls told me what they did. It’s very upsetting to me to think that they could have done that,” Lake said. “It was just this horrible murdering spree.”
Charles “Tex” Watson, who was later convicted in the murders, also began confessing to the murders to members of the Family.
“Tex is like frantic, and he’s got newspapers,” Lake said. “He shows me the headlines. He slaps it and says, ‘I did this. Charlie told me to.’ And that was the first that I had heard of these murders. It was like the rug had been pulled out from under me. After that he disappeared.”
How did Charles Manson react after the murders?
The former members of the Manson Family claimed Manson moved the Family from Spahn Ranch to Barker Ranch in Death Valley in late August 1969 in order to keep them away from the police investigation into the Tate and LaBianca murders.
“It was just like, ‘It’s time to go,’” Share said. “He says, ‘We need to be somewhere away from it all. And Spahn Ranch is too close’… when we ran to the desert, I knew. I knew we were on the run.”
Lake claimed that was when she determined she couldn’t escape from the Family.
“I wasn’t running from the law, I was just running with them, but I can’t run away now,” she said. “They’re gonna kill me. ‘Cause now I know.”
The girls said Manson also began forcing them to take steps to cover their tracks from police.
“At night we would go out with the dune buggies and then we would take the willow branches and we would wipe away the tracks,” Lake said. “I mean, there was no doubt about it that we were hiding.”
The women claimed Manson began getting more paranoid and projected that fear onto them.
“I remember Charlie saying, ‘Helter Skelter had started,’” Lake said.
Share added Manson gave all the members of the Family knives to “protect” themselves.
“A whole lot of people in the Family had no idea about the murders,” Share said. “They thought they weren’t safe in the cities anymore, and everything he had talked about was coming to fruition.”
The Family members claimed Manson’s mood dramatically turned after the move.
“Charlie totally turned absolutely dark,” Share said. “And electrified. And menacing.”
Manson then turned to threats to keep the Family members in line, they recalled.
“In a group circle around a campfire, Charlie threatened to hang me upside down and skin me alive,” Lake said. “And I had no reason to disbelieve him.”
“He realized that it was just a matter of time before someone runs their mouth or something. It wasn’t the Charlie that I ever knew," Share added.
Lake claimed that despite his threats, two girls ran away from the Family during this time.
“They had only been there a very short time,” Share said. “And they ran for their lives.”
But Manson took extreme steps to find the members of the Family that left.
“It probably takes, I don’t know, five or six hours to get to the main road,” Lake said. “And Charlie had us on a manhunt. Beating the bushes for them. It’s not like I had a choice to not look for these girls. If we did in fact find these two girls, they would have been killed.”
In October 1969, police finally conducted a long-planned raid on the Manson Family that wasn't connected to the murders.
“I was there in the Barker Ranch house washing my hair when suddenly the door blows open,” Lake said. “And, you know, ‘Put your hands up you’re all under arrest.’ So I looked around. Charlie’s gone.”
Manson was later found hiding under the kitchen sink.
Dianne Lake and Catherine Share continued to follow Manson after his arrest
Dianne Lake described the fear put into her by Charles Manson, and the pressure she felt by the Family after the raid.
“We were being pulled in one by one and questioned,” Lake said. “Everyone was admonishing me, ‘Don’t say anything about anything.’ Knowing that they’d murdered these people, it was really hard. I was torn between keeping it a secret and telling, and then what would the consequences be.”
But police got an unexpected break after arresting some of Manson’s followers. Family member Susan Atkins ended up talking to her cellmate and claimed she’d killed for Manson.
“The cops never really solved the Manson case,” Davis said. “What happened was it was a pure accident.”
But the women said Manson’s threats and intimidation continued even when he was behind bars.
“We went to visit him, then he turned to Clem [Steve Grogan] and he said, ‘If Gypsy tries to leave, I want you to tie her to a car and drag her back to the ranch very slowly. Don’t kill her. But make her wish she was dead,’” Share claimed.
Share said she felt she had no choice but to stand in solidarity for Manson outside the courthouse during the trials with other members of the Family.
“So even though this was nagging at me, I smiled at the cameras,” Share said. “I sat on the corner and professed my love for him, ‘cause I couldn’t walk away.”
Lake, who was just 14 years old when she joined the Manson family, was questioned by police.
“I was worried, because anybody that was out, would they come and kill me?” Lake said. “So, I didn’t tell the truth about anything that I thought would lead them to Charlie and the girls committing these murders.”
Over time, and after Charles Manson and four members of the Family were convicted in the Tate and LaBianca murders, both Share and Lake stopped following Manson.
“A lot of my shame comes from being so out of touch with my heart and my soul,” Share said. “I definitely loved Charlie with everything that I had.”
Lake went on to college after leaving the Family, but said making the break was very difficult for her.
“I was now living a normal life. I wasn’t taking drugs. But I still had like, feelings for Charlie and for being in the Family,” Lake said. “I had been brainwashed or whatever into that allegiance. And that was hard to break. Because I think it had been so instilled in me. I mean, I was traumatized. So, I was just kind of in my own head. Not until I got out of it and was able to look back on it.”
Watch Making Manson streaming now on Peacock.
