Manson's Missing Victims
The Interviews
Meet the folks interviewed for Manson's Missing Victims.
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Sgt. Paul Dostie
Paul Dostie is a police officer with the Mammoth Lakes Police Department. He first became interested in the Manson family in the late 1990s after hearing rumors that Manson had killed and buried additional victims near his Death Valley hideout, the Barker Ranch. A few years later, Dostie began training his black Lab, Buster, to become a certified cadaver dog. When Dostie took Buster to investigate the Barker Ranch, Buster alerted on several sites, indicating the possibility of human decomposition at the remote location. Following Buster’s alerts, a series of sophisticated forensic tests provided enough evidence for the Inyo County sheriff to order a dig at several Barker locations. The two-day dig, however, failed to reveal any buried bodies. Dostie has conducted an enormous amount of research on the Manson family and has met many of the key players in the case. Despite the nay-sayers and the recent uneventful dig at Barker, he, and others, firmly believe there are still bodies left to be uncovered there.
Ret. Sgt. Bill Gleason
Bill Gleason is a retired Sergeant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office (LASO). In 1969, he became involved in the Manson case when he began investigating reports of stolen vehicles at the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth. Following the initial raid at Spahn, Gleason learned of a missing ranch hand, Donald "Shorty" Shea. Through the course of his investigation into Shea's disappearance, foul play was suspected. Although no body was discovered, Gleason and investigators were able to gather enough evidence to convict Manson, Bruce Davis and Steve "Clem" Grogan of Shea's murder. Eight years after his conviction, Grogan contacted Gleason and LASO saying he was interested in working out a deal in exchange for showing them the location of Shea's body. LASO agreed, and a few days later Grogan pinpointed the location where Shea's remains were recovered. Though the grave site area is now totally covered in brush, it is less than 1/4-mile from the Manson family's former home -- the Spahn Ranch.
Barbara Hoyt
Barbara is a former Manson family member. She first met Manson and his family in the spring of 1969, when she was only 17-years old. At first she enjoyed the communal lifestyle, but when the family relocated to Barker Ranch and the vibe grew tense and violent, Barbara decided she wanted out. Fearing for her life, she and another girl fled the ranch and walked 27 miles through the desert to safety. Barbara testified for the prosecution in the Shea murder case, but not before a last-ditch attempt by members of the family to silence her once and for all.
Stephen Kay
Steve was the assistant District Attorney for the city of Los Angeles during the time of the Manson case and together with District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, prosecuted the Tate-La Bianca murders, as well as the murders of Shorty Shea and musician Gary Hinman. His successful prosecution of multiple suspects in multiple Manson family homicide cases has made him an expert on numerous family characters, their backgrounds and crime time lines. Following the trials, Kay has appeared at parole board hearings (60 to date), where he argues to keep family members incarcerated for life.
Debra Tate
Debra's sister, Sharon Tate, was perhaps the most recognizable of Manson's victims. Married to successful movie director, Roman Polanski, Sharon was 8 1/2 months pregnant with their first child when she, along with four friends, was brutally massacred in her home. Only 17-years-old at the time of her sister's death, Debra's life was changed forever. As a direct result of the impact Sharon's death had on her family, Debra became a victim's advocate. She has devoted her time and energy to ensuring that no convicted Manson family members are ever released into society by testifying against them at multiple parole hearings.
Marc Wise
Marc Wise, Ph.D. is a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He, along with Dr. Arpad Vass, took the soil and vegetation samples from Barker Ranch. The results from those samples subsequently led to the dig in May 2008. Wise also analyzed the first set of soil samples that our team retrieved from the Spahn Ranch.
Dr. Arpad Vass
In his search for additional buried victims at Barker Ranch, Sgt. Dostie enlisted the assistance of several scientists from Oak Ridge National Lab, one of whom was Dr. Arpad Vass. After several visits to Barker Ranch, and several positive test results, Dr. Vass agreed that all signs pointed to the possibility of buried bodies.
Dr. Arpad Vass has been a research scientist in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Life Sciences Division and its predecessors since 1992. For the past two years, he has also been an instructor in the National Forensic Academy, a program of the University of Tennessee's Law Enforcement Innovation Center in Knoxville. He had previous affiliations with the Forensic Anthropology Center in UT's Department of Anthropology beginning in 1988.
His current research interests include developing technology to determine the post-mortem interval, locating clandestine graves and evaluating chemical markers associated with human decomposition.
Tom O'Neill
Tom O'Neill is an author and journalist. For the past several years, he's been traveling the country researching a comprehensive book on the history of the Manson family. His book is due to be released by Penguin in 2009.
Catherine Share
Catherine Share is a former Manson family member who was known as "Gypsy" when she was living with the Family. Catherine met Manson when she was in her early 20's and they bonded over music and his freethinking philosophy. A self-proclaimed flower child, she says she never suspected the family was involved in violence or murder until they fled Spahn Ranch for Barker Ranch in the Fall of 1969. While others say Share knows far more than she now reveals, Share claims she only "acted" like a member of Manson's inner circle, out of fear of what might happen if she tried to leave. Share has also written a book about her experiences with the family, release date is not yet confirmed.
Dr. Stephen Diamond
Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist in Los Angeles. In addition to specializing in adult psychopathology and psychotherapy, Dr. Diamond is a member of the Approved Panel of Psychiatrists and Psychologists for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County (Criminal Division). Dr. Diamond is presently on the clinical faculty in the Departments of Graduate Psychology at both Argosy University (Santa Monica) and Ryokan College (Los Angeles), has taught at the C.G. Jung Institute-Zurich (Switzerland), John F. Kennedy University, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (Palo Alto, CA). He is the author of
Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity.
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