More Charles Manson Victims ?
Mar 18, 2008 21:36:36 GMT -5
Post by majorbludd on Mar 18, 2008 21:36:36 GMT -5
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - Bone-white stretches of salt, leached up from the soil, lie like a shroud over the desert where a paranoid Charles Manson holed up after an orgy of murder nearly four decades ago.
Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness. But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were leading forensic investigators searching for new evidence of death -- clues pointing to possible decades-old clandestine graves.
And the results of just-completed tests suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground. The test findings -- described in detail to The Associated Press, which had accompanied the site search -- conclude there are two likely grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.
Next step, the ad hoc investigators urge: Dig.
For years, rumors have swirled about other possible Manson family victims -- hitchhikers who visited them at the ranch and were not seen again, runaways who drifted into the camp then fell out of favor.
The same jailhouse confessions that helped investigators initially connect the band of misfits living in the Panamint Mountains to the gruesome killings that terrorized Los Angeles hinted at other deaths.
Manson follower Susan Atkins boasted to her cellmate in 1969 that there were "three people out in the desert that they done in." Other stories surfaced. Without bodies, they were forgotten.
"We prosecuted Manson and the family for all the murders we could prove," said Steve Kay, a former deputy district attorney. "But could he have killed someone else? Possibly. Could another member of the family have killed someone? Sure."
Last month, equipped with cutting-edge forensic technology, the investigators assembled in the ghost town of Ballarat for a 20-mile ride to the ranch.
The team included two national lab researchers carrying instruments to detect chemical markers of human decomposition, a police investigator with a cadaver-seeking dog and an anthropologist armed with a magnetic resonance reader.
Also in the group were a woman whose life was forever marked by the cult's brutal murder of her pregnant sister, and a gold prospector who was once Manson's closest neighbor and remains intimate with the sharp creases of the Panamints.
Prospector Emmett Harder guided the expedition.
He had a claim on Manley peak, one of the jagged points looming over Barker Ranch, while the Manson family camped out there in the late 1960s. He shared dinner with the band at times, and he gave the men work.
During one of these visits he heard Manson say, "We're not hippies; we're here to get away from the troubles of the world."
Barker Ranch was one of several hideouts used by Manson and his followers.
The likelihood of a new prosecution appears slim. The Manson family members currently in prison are already serving life sentences -- the maximum penalty allowed at the time the crimes were committed.
Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness. But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were leading forensic investigators searching for new evidence of death -- clues pointing to possible decades-old clandestine graves.
And the results of just-completed tests suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground. The test findings -- described in detail to The Associated Press, which had accompanied the site search -- conclude there are two likely grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.
Next step, the ad hoc investigators urge: Dig.
For years, rumors have swirled about other possible Manson family victims -- hitchhikers who visited them at the ranch and were not seen again, runaways who drifted into the camp then fell out of favor.
The same jailhouse confessions that helped investigators initially connect the band of misfits living in the Panamint Mountains to the gruesome killings that terrorized Los Angeles hinted at other deaths.
Manson follower Susan Atkins boasted to her cellmate in 1969 that there were "three people out in the desert that they done in." Other stories surfaced. Without bodies, they were forgotten.
"We prosecuted Manson and the family for all the murders we could prove," said Steve Kay, a former deputy district attorney. "But could he have killed someone else? Possibly. Could another member of the family have killed someone? Sure."
Last month, equipped with cutting-edge forensic technology, the investigators assembled in the ghost town of Ballarat for a 20-mile ride to the ranch.
The team included two national lab researchers carrying instruments to detect chemical markers of human decomposition, a police investigator with a cadaver-seeking dog and an anthropologist armed with a magnetic resonance reader.
Also in the group were a woman whose life was forever marked by the cult's brutal murder of her pregnant sister, and a gold prospector who was once Manson's closest neighbor and remains intimate with the sharp creases of the Panamints.
Prospector Emmett Harder guided the expedition.
He had a claim on Manley peak, one of the jagged points looming over Barker Ranch, while the Manson family camped out there in the late 1960s. He shared dinner with the band at times, and he gave the men work.
During one of these visits he heard Manson say, "We're not hippies; we're here to get away from the troubles of the world."
Barker Ranch was one of several hideouts used by Manson and his followers.
The likelihood of a new prosecution appears slim. The Manson family members currently in prison are already serving life sentences -- the maximum penalty allowed at the time the crimes were committed.
