Topic: There May Still Be Bodies In Panamint At Barker Ranch

[Rocksurfer]

Every year we trek to the Panamint Mountains to attend a Cal4Wheel event Panamint Valley Days. It is the home to dozens of mines and some great wheeling but it has an interesting past that doesn't have anything to do with either. It was also the hideout of Charles Manson and his followers, it is also rumoured that those that fell out of favor were murdered there but there was never any real proof. It is always an interesting trip up Goler Wash to the Barker Ranch, just sitting there is a throwback and to think what went on there a one time is overwhelming and as you stand there you can just picture the things that went on there. Back then you could drive just about anything up the wash but over the years it has become a 4x4 only trail. You can run the entire trail from Panamint Valley through the Panamint Mountains and into Death Valley it isn't a very difficult trail for the most part but there are a few sections to entertain and keep you on your toes. This is a must do trail when visiting the area because not only is it a fun trail but its history with the Manson Family living there is a part of history. Could you imagine you are wheeling this trail alone and run right into these people?

This is a long article but it is good reading, it does re-hash the whole Manson thing and I skimmed over that but the fact that there may still be bodies buried there is weird when you've been there several times and thought about what went on there.


http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i2FUy9tY0oHckSy2LtDd-i_aq06gD8VE1EI00
The Associated Press: Forensic Experts at Manson Site: Dig

[Shoyrtt]

Great article. 8) So if they find a body and can tie the killing to Chuck, can he be executed under the modern death penalty laws, or does it revert back to the 70s when the death penalty was abolished in CA?

[Stocker]

Interesting question...  I also wonder.  Seems like if it was a 'new' victim, therefore a 'new' crime that nobody has yet been charged with, the death penalty might apply.    My gut tells me the worthless murdering dirtbag probably wouldn't even face additional charges or new trials, but will continue to rot in prison. 

[NorCalToy]

whoa, that really sucks. but whos the manson family? ive never even heard of this, but i still read the article and found it interesting.

[jimbo74]

there is no statue of limitations on murder, so i think they can charge them with today's punishment if taken to trial in today's governing


you have never heard of charles manson?

[NorCalToy]

nope.

[jimbo74]

nope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson

Charles Milles Manson (b. November 12, 1934) is a convict who led the "Manson Family," a quasi-commune that arose in the U.S. state of California in the later 1960s.[1][2][3] He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate-LaBianca murders, which members of the group carried out at his instruction. Through the joint-responsibility rule of conspiracy,[4] he was convicted of the murders themselves.

Manson is forever associated with "Helter Skelter", the term he took from the Beatles song of that name and construed as a race-based conflict that the crimes were intended to precipitate. This unusual connection with rock music linked him, from the beginning of his notoriety, with pop culture, in which he became an emblem of transgression, rebellion, evil, ghoulishness, bloody violence, homicidal psychosis, and the macabre. Ultimately, the term was used as the title of the book that prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote about the Manson murders.

At the time the Family began to form, Manson was an unemployed ex-convict, who had spent half his life in correctional institutions for a variety of offenses. In the period before the murders, he was a distant fringe member of the Los Angeles music industry, chiefly via a chance association with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. After Manson was charged with the crimes, recordings of songs written and performed by him were released commercially; a number of artists have covered his songs in the decades since.

Manson's death sentence was automatically reduced to life imprisonment when a decision by the Supreme Court of California temporarily eliminated the state's death penalty.[5] California's eventual reestablishment of capital punishment did not affect Manson, who is an inmate at Corcoran State Prison.

[Stocker]

Manson is forever associated with "Helter Skelter", the term he took from the Beatles song of that name and construed as a race-based conflict that the crimes were intended to precipitate.

Yup, and as I recall from Bugliosi's book and news articles of the time, Manson foresaw himself emerging from the conflict in some sort of leadership role.   

[kneedownnate]

nope.

Whaaaaat?!  I guess that makes sense, they don't pay near as much attention to him anymore.

[NorCalToy]

idk. i have never heard aobut him at all.  it was a little before my time, and i havent really had a good history class in my life.

[Plekto]

nope.

Oh wow. 

*I'mnotold... I'mnotold... I'mnotold...*

[NorCalToy]

haha!!

but seriuosly i never have...