Mary Brunner

Brunner was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin to George and Elsie Brunner. She moved to California upon graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965 and took a job as library assistant at University of California, Berkeley. She met 33-year-old career criminal Charles Manson who had been released from Terminal Island prison several weeks earlier. She let him stay at her apartment and the two became lovers after several weeks. She was thus the first person whom Manson recruited into his "Family". She quit her job and the two began to drift around California in a van meeting other young women.

Brunner became pregnant by Manson during the summer of 1967 and she gave birth to a son on April 15, 1968, whom she named Valentine Michael, nicknamed "Pooh Bear".[2] They were living in a condemned house in Topanga Canyon, and she was assisted during the birth by several of the young women from the Family. She acquired a number of aliases and nicknames, including "Marioche", "Och", "Mother Mary", "Mary Manson", "Linda Dee Manson", and "Christine Marie Euchts".[3]

Brunner and Manson met 18-year-old Lynette Fromme in Venice, California, and the three began living together in a rented house at 636 Cole Street in San Francisco. Over the course of the following two years, the Family enlarged to include between 20 and 30 individuals living communally; some became ardent followers of Manson, such as Brunner and Fromme, while other young people drifted in and out of the group.

The Manson group traveled along the California coast and made excursions to Washington state, Oregon, and Nevada. The ever-growing number of young women and men eventually settled down at the Spahn Ranch, an occasional film set and location operated by George Spahn near the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth.

Manson ostensibly based his commune on principles of freedom and love, but he exerted dictatorial control, ordering the women to have sex with Spahn and others. Manson sent his female followers to the city on criminal activities, such as theft and fraud. He also had illegal firearms and played host to a motorcycle gang.[4]

On April 21, 1968, Brunner and Family members Manson, Susan Atkins, Ella Jo Bailey, Dianne Elizabeth Lake, Nancy Laura Pitman, Bruce Van Hall, Marcus John Arneson and Suzanne Scott were arrested near Little Sycamore Canyon, in southern Ventura County, California. They were found sprawled nude around a campfire beside a 1952 bus "stuck in a deep ditch", that had been reported stolen in San Francisco on April 12. Manson was remanded into custody under the suspicion of grand theft auto and possession of two driver's licenses.[5][6]

Scott, Atkins, Lake and Van Hall were charged with possessing fictitious and fraudulent driver's licenses. Pitman, Arneson and Bailey were jailed on charges of disorderly conduct and not possessing proper identification. Five other Family members were released without being charged. Brunner was booked on endangering the life and health of a child, after her one-week-old son, Valentine, was found by deputies improperly dressed and shivering. The baby was placed in the care of the Ventura County General Hospital.[5][7]

Charges against Brunner were later reduced to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and she was given two years' probation and a 15-day suspended jail sentence. She subsequently told authorities she planned to return to her parents' home in Wisconsin and Valentine was returned to her.

Just a few months later, in June 1968, Brunner along with other members of the Manson Family were arrested in Mendocino County, California for supplying narcotics to minors.[8]

Bobby Beausoleil left Spahn Ranch on July 25, 1969, accompanied by Brunner and Susan Atkins to visit Gary Allen Hinman in Topanga Canyon. Hinman had been friendly with the Family and had often allowed members to stay at his home. Both Beausoleil and Brunner had previously lived with him for short periods of time and Brunner was close friends with him. Beausoleil had a knife and a 9 mm Radom pistol that he had borrowed from Family member Bruce Davis.[9]

After two friends of Hinman contacted the police, Hinman was found by Malibu deputy Paul Piet murdered in his home on July 31, 1969. His face had been deeply slashed on the left side and he had two stab wounds in his chest. His house had been ransacked, and "Political Piggy" and a paw print (intended to be symbolic of the Black Panther Party) were drawn on the wall in his blood. His Volkswagen van and Fiat station wagon were missing. The California Highway Patrol found Beausoleil asleep in the back of Hinman's Fiat on August 5 near San Luis Obispo, California. He had a sheath knife attached to his belt.[10] Beausoleil was arrested and charged with the murder of Gary Allen Hinman.

Brunner and Family member Sandra Good were arrested in San Fernando, California on August 8 at a Sears store for purchasing items with a stolen credit card. Brunner had signed for her purchases with the alias "Mary Vitasek" and the two women fled the store when a cashier became suspicious. The store manager followed them, and the police found them in possession of numerous stolen credit cards and fake identification cards. They were charged with violating Section 459 (burglary)[11] and 484e (grand theft by fraudulent use of credit card)[12] of the California Penal Code and booked into the Sybil Brand Institute Reception Center later that evening.[13]

On the night of August 9, Family members Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel went to 10050 Cielo Drive and murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and her guests Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring, and Abigail Folger, as well as 18-year-old Steven Parent who was visiting William Garretson, who was house-sitting in the guesthouse normally occupied by Tate's landlord.

Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins were subsequently charged along with Bobby Beausoleil for the murder of Gary Hinman. Brunner later received immunity from prosecution to testify against both Beausoleil and Atkins.[17] His first trial, which began in November 1969 ended in a hung jury, with Beausoleil claiming that Manson alone had murdered Hinman.

However, during Beausoleil's March 1970 trial, Brunner recanted her testimony that Beausoleil murdered Hinman and Beausoleil produced an affidavit signed by Brunner stating that he did not stab Hinman. Called to the stand to testify, Brunner eventually repudiated her previous testimony and insisted that she had said Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to death in her attempt to absolve Charles Manson of any participation in the crime.[18] Various former Family members such as Ella Jo Bailey contradicted this testimony and testified that Manson confessed to them that he in fact was present at the Hinman house and that he fully participated in the murder.[19]

Beausoleil was sentenced to death, later commuted to life (See California v. Anderson); Atkins pleaded guilty for her participation in Hinman's death and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Bruce Davis was charged in the murder after it was learned Beausoleil had called Davis at Spahn Ranch and asked him to come over and pick up Hinman's Volkswagen van. Separate trials were held for the murders of Gary Hinman and Spahn Ranch worker Donald "Shorty" Shea, for Family members Davis, Charles Manson, and Steve "Clem" Grogan.[20]

Brunner subsequently returned to the remaining members of the Family and rallied support for those incarcerated for the Tate–LaBianca murders. Her son was sent to live with her parents.[21]

Brunner drove a white van to a Hawthorne, California Western Surplus Store on August 21, 1971, accompanied by Family members Catherine "Gypsy" Share, Dennis Rice, Charles Lovett, Larry Bailey, and Kenneth Como. The group brandished guns and ordered patrons and clerks to lie on the ground. They then took 143 rifles, loading them into their van, while a store clerk tripped the silent alarm. According to police officers, the group then debated whether to kill all of those in the store.[22]

Police alleged that the group's plan was to hijack a Boeing 747 and threaten to kill one passenger every hour until Manson and fellow Family members were released from prison.[22] A police squad car arrived, and Share opened fire on the vehicle, shattering the windshield. As more squad cars arrived, they blocked the van from fleeing, hitting it with more than 50 bullets; the Family members fired nearly 20 rounds at the officers. Police gained control and apprehended the group; Brunner, Share, and Bailey were injured.[17][22]

Brunner received a sentence of 20 years to life. She was sent to the California Institution for Women where Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel were serving their sentences for their participation in the Tate-LaBianca murders. Brunner disappeared from the public eye after being paroled in 1977.[17]

• Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry. New York, 1974, W.W. Norton and Co.; ISBN 0-553-57435-3.
• The Family by Ed Sanders (Thunder's Mouth Press rev update edition), 2002; ISBN 1-56025-396-7

• Journalist Ann Louise Bardach Oui magazine interview with Bobby Beausoleil. 1981 Archived November 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
• The Manson Myth by Denise Noe http://crimemagazine.com