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Stragglers in the Manson Family
The last members to join, after the murders and arrests
You would think that learning about a commune/cult who were implicated in the most notorious killing spree of the late 1960s would be a turn-off to other young people, but believe it or not there are people who actually joined the Manson Family after they were indicted for murder!
Some were convinced that the Family were innocent, and being persecuted as part of the counter-culture. Others just thought that most of the Family were cool and the uncool (violent) ones got locked up. Some actually thought the Family were the perfect anti-heros for that era. And some came into their association with the Family through a special deal brokered by Charles Manson with the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist movement based in prison. Charlie wanted protection in jail after he was found guilty of the Tate/LaBianca murders and agreed to ‘loan’ his women out to the AB as ‘comfort aides.’
Some of those who joined the Family are pictured in photographs taken for LIFE magazine at Spahn Ranch. Some wound up committing crimes on behalf of the Family, such as the 1971 shootout in Hawthorne, California of an Army Surplus Store. Others, including those affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood, committed murder during their association with the Family.
Here are a list of some of the members of the Manson Family who joined long after Charlie got arrested and charged with murder:
Jennifer Sue Leghorn aka ‘Ginny Gentry’: Joined the Family in early 1970. Featured in the film Manson (the woman with long strawberry-blonde hair), she was arrested in February 1970, trying to pass LSD to Family member (and later convicted killer) Bruce Davis in court. Ginny once called in to the Larry King Live show in 1990, when Family member Paul Watkins was being interviewed. Her whereabouts today are unknown.
