Manson family flashback: Graves at Barker Ranch?

Almost 40 years after the murder of Sharon Tate and six others provided a crashing, violent climax to the 1960s, researchers believe they may provide a coda to the saga of the Manson Family. At their Death Valley hideout, forensic investigators think they have found unmarked gravesites which could hold the remains of hitchhikers and transients unfortunate enough to cross their path. As Manson’s murderers continue to seek parole, the latest discoveries could seriously damage their prospects, if proven true:

[T]he results of just-completed followup 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 clandestine 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 cell mate on November 1, 1969, that there were “three people out in the desert that they done in.” Other stories surfaced. In the absence of bodies, they were forgotten.

The stories got forgotten for a couple of reasons. First, without bodies and/or more specific confessions or admissions, prosecutors couldn’t build a case against any of the Manson Family. They had a difficult time prosecuting them for the death of Shorty Shea, for which they had both testimony and forensic evidence, even though no body at the time. Mostly, though, the stories faded away because so many young people simply appeared and disappeared without a trace. They mostly re-emerged with new identities or returned to their original ones, but a few slipped through the cracks of that turbulent time.

If they do find bodies at Barker Ranch, prosecutors will still have a difficult time getting justice. Almost 40 years have gone by, and they’re not likely to identify any remains. Even if they can do that — and that would at least bring some measure of closure to family members — they would still have to figure out who killed whom, and when, and how. Given the passage of time, that’s very unlikely, even if the currently incarcerated Family members start talking.

Of course, to do that, they would have to admit that they kept the information on the additional murders secret across four decades. How will that go over with parole boards? Charles Manson treats his hearings like a joke, but the other four — Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie Van Houten, and Tex Watson — claim to have been completely rehabilitated during their prison stays and want freedom. If more bodies get found at Barker, where Watson especially assisted Manson in his efforts, how can they explain their silence if those bodies came from murders committed by the Family? Wouldn’t a truly rehabilitated person have thought to mention the murders over the last 40 years?

Addendum: For the best review of the murders and an in-depth look at the Manson Family, Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders remains required reading after more than thirty years.