The Truth About Charles Manson's Girlfriends

For half a century, the name Charles Manson has been synonymous with murder and mayhem. Born Nov. 12, 1934, Manson entered the world with no name and no future. An unwanted child, his alcoholic mother once attempted to trade him for a pitcher of beer. Abused and neglected, Manson was in trouble at an early age. Sent to a reformatory at age 12 for truancy and theft, Manson graduated to more serious crimes. By 1967, Manson, then 32, had spent most of his life in state custody for crimes ranging from auto theft to pimping.

Paroled after a seven year prison sentence for check forgery and transporting women across state lines for illegal sex work, reports Rolling Stone, Manson found the world had dramatically changed during his incarceration. It was Summer of Love of 1967. A new, youth-driven counterculture based on peace and love was sweeping the nation. Charismatic and conniving, Manson would exploit the freewheeling zeitgeist of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury to satiate his lusts for sex, power, and murder.

A self-styled spiritual leader, Manson attracted a group of disaffected young people looking for a way of life different from that of their parents' generation. Composed largely of young women with traditional middle-class backgrounds, Manson's "Family" appeared to be just another hippie commune. Yet, behind the peace and love facade, Manson was weaponizing these all American girls-next-door into bloodthirsty murderers. These are the shocking true stories of the women who fell under Charles Manson's spell.

Mary Brunner, a 23-year-old librarian employed at the University of California, was the first of Charles Manson's recruits. A native of Eau Claire, Wisc., Brunner had graduated from the University of Wisconsin before migrating west to take a position as a library assistant at the UC Berkeley campus.

Brunner met the recently paroled Manson playing guitar outside the university's gates. In Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, the late Los Angeles district attorney relates the story of Brunner's first meeting with the 33-year-old cult leader as told to him by Manson associate Danny DeCarlo. "She was out walking her dog," DeCarlo said. "High button blouse. Nose stuck up in the air, walking her little poodle. And Charlie's fresh out of the joint and along he comes talking his bullsh**."

Soon after, Manson moved into Brunner's apartment. Manson would move other young women into Brunner's home, including Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme. At first reluctant to share her home with Manson's other lovers, Brunner relented, quit her job, and began roaming Southern California with the newly christened Family.

Implicated in the Family's murder of music teacher Gary Hinman, Brunner was given immunity from prosecution for her testimony. In 1971, Brunner was arrested along with other members of the Family for the armed robbery of a Western Surplus Store in Hawthorne, Calif., that ended in a shoot-out with police. Sentenced to 20 years to life, Brunner was paroled in 1977 and disappeared from the public eye.

Leslie Van Houten was raised in a conservative, middle-class family in Southern California. Another typical, girl-next-door, Van Houten, according to Ed Sanders, author of The Family, had served as freshman class treasurer at Monrovia High School. Like Susan Atkins, Van Houten had also been active in her church's choir. As documented by Biography, she was a popular and outgoing teen. Attractive and athletic, Van Houten was even elected homecoming princess by her high school class. Yet, all was not well in the Van Houten home. According to court records, her parents divorced when she was 14. Around the same time, she started experimenting with psychedelic drugs, such as mescaline and LSD.

After graduating high school, Van Houten attended Sawyer College and earned a legal secretary certificate. However, she grew dissatisfied with the prospects of a typical, suburban existence. Seeking spiritual enlightenment, she dropped out, took up yoga, and became involved with the Self Realization Fellowship. Her quest would eventually lead her to Charles Manson.

"(I heard) that he was like Christ and he had the answers," Van Houten told ABC's Diane Sawyer in 1993. "... I felt that I had met someone that by being around him, would have a positive change." However, after her conviction for her involvement in the Family's murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, Van Houten grew to see Manson as a master manipulator who used drugs and sex to coerce impressionable young people to do his bidding.

Linda Kasabian, 20, had been at the Manson Family's enclave at the Spahn movie ranch for just over a month when Charles Manson ordered her to drive Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel to 10050 Cielo Drive on the night of Aug. 8, 1969. Manson's choice of Kasabian was purely utilitarian — she was the only member of the Family with a valid driver's license, and a traffic violation was a legal hassle they couldn't afford. She would again take the wheel of the 1959 Ford Galaxie belonging to ranch hand Johnny Swartz to ferry Manson and group to the LaBiancas' home the following night.

As documented by CieloDrive.com, Kasabian, born Linda Drouin in Biddeford, Maine, in 1949, left high school and married at age 16. The union was short-lived and ended in divorce. She later married Robert Kasabian. Self-professed hippies, the couple traveled the country living in various communes. When Linda's relationship with Robert Kasabian soured, she left for Spahn Ranch at the invitation of Catherine Share, where she fell in with Manson's group.

Linda witnessed the murders of Steven Parent and Wojciech Frykowski at Cielo Drive and likely prevented the death of actor Saladin Nader the night the LaBiancas were murdered by directing Manson to the wrong address. Kasabian testified against Manson in exchange for immunity from prosecution and was instrumental in convicting the cult leader. According to a 2009 interview with CNN's Larry King, Linda Kasabian now lives under an assumed identity.

Ruth Ann Moorehouse, known in the Family as "Ouisch," was just 16 years old when she ran off with Charles Manson. Ironically, it was Moorehouse's own father, Dean Moorehouse, who introduced her to the cult leader. In 1967, Dean Moorehouse picked up Manson, Mary Brunner, and Lynette Fromme hitchhiking and brought them to his home for a meal. A former minister, Moorehouse took the opportunity to preach the gospel to his young, hippie guests. Manson had little interest in the impromptu sermon. He was too busy eying young Ruth Ann. With little prompting, Manson convinced her to leave with him and his followers. None too pleased with the wild-eyed drifter's designs on his minor daughter, Dean Moorehouse tracked Manson down and planned to kill him. Yet, according to Vincent Bugliosi, the potentially violent encounter ended with Dean on his knees worshipping Manson.

Although Ruth Ann was not involved with the Tate-LaBianca murders, she bragged of her knowledge of the crimes, stating that she knew of at least ten other killings.

In 1970, she lured former Family member Barbara Hoyt to Honolulu, Hawaii. In a bizarre attempt to keep Hoyt from testifying against Manson, Ruth Ann fed her a hamburger laced with ten tabs of LSD. Hoyt recovered after a brief hospitalization and eventually took the stand against Manson.

According to CieloDrive.com, Ruth Ann moved on to a quiet, anonymous life with her husband and children somewhere in the Midwestern United States.

A loyal follower of Charles Manson's to this very day, Sandra Good maintains that the late cult leader was in no way involved in the Tate-LaBianca murders. Best remembered for brandishing a rifle and advocating violence in the 1973 documentary, Manson, Good is the most outspoken of Manson's remaining disciples. Taking on the name Blue as an adherent of Manson's self-styled religious sect The Order of the Rainbow, Good has spent much of her life as a militant defender of the environment. With fellow Family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (rechristened "Red"), Good founded the International People's Court of Retribution, a proposed "terrorist group" intent on killing the CEOs of companies that pollute the earth.

As reported by the Sacramento Bee, Good and her associate Susan Murphy were sentenced to 15 years in prison for sending threatening letters through the mail and making threatening phone calls. Released after serving ten years, Good continues to champion Manson's nature-based philosophy of Air, Trees, Water, Animals (ATWA).

The last young woman to fall under Charles Manson's spell was Afton Burton. Renamed "Star" by the imprisoned cult leader, Burton nearly married Manson in 2014. Burton, 26 at the time of her engagement to the 80-year-old Manson, became infatuated with the notorious criminal at age 17. Fascinated by Manson's pro-ecology philosophy of Air, Trees, Water, Animals/All The Way Alive (ATWA), Burton began writing letters to the cult leader. According to Time, Burton saved her earnings from working in a retirement home kitchen to move from Illinois to Corcoran, Calif., to be closer to Manson and would spend hours visiting with him in jail.

Although a marriage license was issued for the couple in November 2014, the relationship ended when Manson was placed in solitary confinement. However, some sources maintain that Manson declined to marry Burton when he learned that she planned to profit from displaying his corpse.