Manson ranch dig called off with no remains found
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — A dig for clandestine graves at Charles Manson's last hideout ended Wednesday, yielding no bodies and leaving scientists puzzled over the clues that enticed them to go this far.
The dig had been scheduled to last three days, ending Thursday. But the work went faster than scheduled, with the crew of 20 digging until dusk, then camping out at night beside the ranch house Manson and his followers had used.
"There have been no human remains found," Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze said after the four sites with greatest probability of holding human remains were dug up. "We're finishing up this site and that'll be it for the day — nothing."
Manson and his followers hid out at the ranch following their killing spree in Los Angeles. For years, rumors have swirled about other possible Manson victims, including hitchhikers and runaways who visited the site and were never heard from again.
Scientists who conducted a preliminary probe of the rugged, remote site in February said they identified several spots that could be graves, leading Lutze to conduct the exploratory excavation.
By Wednesday afternoon, the four most promising sites had been excavated and the dirt sifted. With the work done, the teams packed up and went home for good.
The search revealed little more than a .38-caliber shell casing — found on the surface on the first day and promptly dismissed by law enforcement personnel as being recent — and a pack rat's underground nest.
One site revealed fragments of animal bones, an ash pit and some stones used to make arrowheads. Rangers determined it was of archaeological interest, so digging stopped and the site was turned over to the National Park Service.
The researchers and law enforcers involved said the unusual physical environment made it harder to determine what was underground. Plants that exude unusual chemicals and rocks with magnetic properties were throwing off their equipment, they said.
"I haven't been this frustrated in a very long time," said Arpad Vass, a senior researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Vass said the excavation is a learning process.
"We're trying to improve the science. It's in its infancy," he said. "Every exercise we do like this will further the science so that one day we can say, 'Yes there is a body here.'"
Manson's clan was ultimately prosecuted for nine murders that took place in the summer of 1969. He is serving a life sentence at Corcoran State Prison.
14 comments:
This looks like it can now be filed under non event of the year.
Wouldnt bet against some private individuals thinking they could do better and digging up half of Barker in the future.
Perhaps now would be a good time, as she considers her impending demise, for Susan Atkins to come clean about those three bodies in the dessert.
I think any attention this case gets is good for our cause of discovering the truth, so it was fun while it lasted. Perhaps Susan's death might stir up a things as well.
Why can't I spell desert for chrissakes? Three bodies in the dessert would be very disconcerting, to say the least.
Sorry.
Hey everyone!
Much ado about zilch. Wonder how much THAT fiasco cost the taxpayers of Inyo County and the State of California? I think they should take it out of the Tate Foundation's coffers. Cali residents, why don't you clamour for an accounting of expenditures?
But the damage has been done.
With the alarming degree of sensationalistic yellow journalism involved, it has been firmly implanted in the minds of the Amerikan public that graves WERE indeed found, that Charles Manson WAS involved with killings in the desert, that the dogs actually DID find bodies. This wasn't even subliminal messaging, folks; this was overt mind control of the worst order. It's been on the news for DAYS, with the most lurid descriptions, and the most wild speculations broadcast as hard news. See how the commercial establishment manipulates your little brains? Even NPR jumped on the bandwagon.
The retraction will prolly be much shorter, broadcast for much less duration. One can only imagine what the media did to the original trial. See how that works, boys and girls?
P.S. If your name is Brian Davis, you owe Charles FIFTY BUCKS, so please e-mail me for how to put money on his account!
Why isn't that piece of filth melton locked in a cell somewhere?
He's not fit to live in a free society, not even the hole he probably crawls into every night.
whoops forgot to say Thank You Col for all the good posts over the years.
The scientists and technologists seemed to be surprised by conditions at Barker... weird magnetic fields, strange plant odors and stuff. I don't know what they were expecting... Barker is in "Death Valley" and the place was inhabited by "miners", you'd have to figure it would be a lot different than the lab or the field in Tennessee. I used to work for a company that developed the electronic store tags you see in grocery stores, and we had a saying "Things go wrong in the store". Well, I guess for these guys, it's "Things go wrong in the desert".
Now, AC, all of the media hype works AGAINST the diggers. If this were done under some non-Mansonian pretext ("looking for some German tourists from the eighties/ancient burial grounds, etc.") they might have been able to go back to the lab, fix their problems and have another go. Since what we now have is on the order of Al Capone's vault, I don't think there will be any further attempts in our lifetimes. Even worse for them, I think they will have a much harder time with the post-dig analysis of what went wrong since they probably won't be allowed to return to the site to test any changes they make.
Two silver linings to this roiling stormcloud:
Silver lining number one: Credibility is undeniably blown for all eternity for Debra Tate, Barbara Hoyt, Larry Melton, Emmett Harder, and the individual who turned state's and went wit-sec... you KNOW who you ARE!!! Perhaps this incredulity will spill over to other venues... say, parole hearings, maybe?
Silver lining number two: As Blipcrotch mentioned, the police and scientists are not likely to re-examine the site within our lifetimes. Perhaps they'll devote their attention to a *real* issue, such as inner-city gang violence? One can only hope.
Blipcrotch wrote: "The scientists and technologists seemed to be surprised by conditions at Barker... weird magnetic fields, strange plant odors and stuff."
We were chortling in glee about the rocks emitting magnetic energy, and plants producing strange chemicals, and the crushing heat index: Mother Earth herself has rejected this invasive investigation. All of nature stood united against them. And just WHO remains on the side of the Gods?
Gloating just a little bit!
I haven't been paying as close enough attention to this as I could have been, but I don't see credibility blown for anyone who didn't claim without a doubt that there ARE bodies there and that those bodies are Manson victims. I don't recall hearing Tate, Hoyt, or Harder making concrete claims. They only said it is something to be looked into and that they heard things passed along from person to person, etc. No specific claims that I can recall. Melton on the other hand - did he have any credibility to begin with?
Forgive me for not quite getting it, AC, but I'm not really grasping how this is such a "triumph" in your eyes. This doesn't make Manson any less guilty or any less condemned to remain locked up until his last days. Same with the other defendants. The 1969 victims we know about are still dead, too.
But, whatever. It was slightly entertaining for a bit, I guess, in a peripheral sort of way. The media had their fun, too. Back to same old. Manson and company might as well fluff the pillows in their cells because this doesn't change anything for them.
you know what, AC? I should have let you have your moment. I didn't mean to sound like a brat. Ok, maybe I did a little bit, but I suppose I just don't get where you are coming from.
Carry on and happy memorial day weekend.
Quoth Agnostic Monk: "I suppose I just don't get where you are coming from."
1.) The death penalty is taken off the table once again (long satisfying exhale -- whew!)
2.) Next time Debra Tate makes any statement in any parole hearing anywhere, her credibility is compromised. We're all going to cough and whisper "Geraldo's Vault!"
3.) Yet another opportunity for White Rabbitt to look stupid. The ludicrous lagomorph goes down in the anals of history as a blowhard (wow, three sexual innuendos in just one sentence! Impressed?)
4.) The next time Emmett Harder claims there were human sacrifices in the hardpan, the police are just gonna nod and smile and shine him on.
5.) (I'm not s'posed to say anything negative about Susan Atkins any longer; alas, delicacy is difficult): Um, her dream vision of three additional victims, likely inspired by consciousness altering substances, turned out to be not quite prophetic. (Wow, do I get extra credit points for diplomacy here, or what?)
6.) The feds have the opportunity to calibrate their equipment to a desert environment, the next time they have to do a REAL investigation of a REAL crime. Um, about those missing German tourists???
7.) It's nice to know that SOMEbody always tells me the truth. Very affirming.
well AC, I can't say that I don't now get where you are coming from, I think. The more I read about this, the more I have to wonder why it was called off so quickly. There's a lot of land out there and they seemed to dig a few holes and then call it a day. Maybe we aren't getting the whole story?
The other thing I find humorous is how often Susan Atkins has been quoted as one of the sources if not THE source for the three bodies story. Duh! Hello! Susan Atkins was saying almost anything and everything that would get her some attention back then.
That said, would anyone really be surprised if they HAD found something out there? It isn't like these people weren't willing to kill. They were and they did, no?
p.s. this isn't going to stop Debra Tate, not by a long shot. I don't know her and I am somewhat indifferent to her campaign, but she is nothing if not determined. I doubt she cares one iota what anyone says about her on the internet and I doubt the failure to turn up more bodies will have any effect on how she conducts herself with respect to parole hearings. Nor will said failure have any effect on parole board decisions. I know if it were me and it was my family in question, I wouldn't give a shit what was being said about me. She is operating on "grieving family member mode," which is a force not to be fucked with. everything else is mere speculation.
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