Manson Family: Where Are They Now?
Their terror brought a halt to the peace and love of the 1960s, but many members of the most infamous cult in American history live on
Mary Brunner
Mary Brunner was Manson's first follower, a relatively age-appropriate Wisconsin native who had moved west for a job at the UC Berkeley library. (Born in 1943, she was only nine years younger than the cult leader.) Brunner met Manson in 1967, and took him in. Soon she quit her job and they hit the road in a VW bus, going out to pick up the girls who would become the "family." She gave birth to their son, Valentine "Pooh Bear" Manson in April 1968 – according to legend, Charlie cut the umbilical chord with his teeth. That summer, the family moved into the Spahn Ranch, where Brunner continued to be a mothering figure for the entire group. But she managed to miss the massacres – Brunner was in jail for credit card fraud in early August, when the Tate and La Bianca murders took place – but she had been present for Gary Hinman's July killing, smothering him with a pillow after he was fatally stabbed by Charles "Tex" Watson. She testified against the family in exchange for immunity, but she soon felt badly about turning on them, and in 1971 was part of the group's plan to hijack a plane in order to free Manson and the other incarcerated members – a plan that was thwarted when police caught them stealing guns from a sporting goods store. Brunner spent six years in prison, and moved to the midwest after her 1977 release, where she changed her name and settled into obscurity.