Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction New religious movements Messianic / communal movement Chatsworth, Los Angeles County, California, USA · 1971

United States: the Manson Family's killing of Spahn Ranch hand 'Shorty' Shea on suspicion of informing

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Charles Manson, who directed the killing, Bruce Davis and Steve Grogan, members who carried it out

Organization

the Manson Family (Spahn Ranch)

Spiritual nexus

Shea was connected to the group rather than a stranger, and was killed for the perceived offence of informing — the group's internal discipline turned outward onto a man in its orbit. The sentencing judge's own words about Grogan's incapacity to 'decide anything on his own' are a judicial statement about the domination this cluster documents.

  • Institutional obedience or isolation
  • Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 1971-01-01 · convictions

    Los Angeles Superior Court; California Court of Appeal (People v. Manson, 71 Cal.App.3d 1). Donald 'Shorty' Shea, a ranch hand at Spahn Ranch connected to the group, was killed in 1969 on suspicion of informing to police. Manson, Bruce Davis and Steve Grogan were convicted of his murder. Grogan's death sentence was commuted to life by the trial judge in December 1971, who stated on the record that Grogan 'was too stupid and too hopped up on drugs to decide anything on his own'; he became the first Family killer paroled, in 1985, after leading authorities to Shea's remains. Davis, convicted of both the Hinman and Shea murders, has been recommended for parole seven times, with reversals by three successive governors.

Appellate history

  1. 1977 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • a ranch hand connected to the group killed on suspicion of informing to police
  • members acting on the leader's direction

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment People v. Manson, 71 Cal.App.3d 1 (Cal. Ct. App. 1977).

The appellate opinion covering the Shea convictions.

Related record

Related cases · New religious movements

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