◆ SpookStack

The _g t, son of a grocer in nearby Copeville, Tex., was de- scri by sheriff Montgomery as clean-shaven and wearing his hair short when arrested. Miss Krenwinkel, also known as Mary Scott, Marnie Reeves and "Katie," and charged under the name Kernwinkel, was arrested in Mobile, Ala. Miss Kasabian, still at liberty, is believed to have sought sanctuary in a convent in New Mexico. No charges were filed in connec- tion with the slayings of wealthy grocery executive Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary in their Silver Lake home the day after the Benedict Canyon massacre. Formal charges in either case have yet to he filed against Manson, who is an ex-convict with a record dating back 18 vears, or the third female suspect, Susan Denise Atkins, 21. However, Manson is in custody, charged with arson and receiving stolen property, in the town of Independence, county seat of Inyo County, site of the "family's” most recent encampment. Miss Atkins, also known as Sadie Glutz, is in custody here. accused of a murder related to both the Tate carnage and the La Bianca murders. Very Strange Cult Police believe that, at the outside, the family numbers no more than 35, but investigators suspect that knowledge of the murders was widespread among members, all held in the thrall of their leader by a strange "spell." The cult to which the suspects belong is an anomaly even in the off-beat hippie world, and beyond its members' proclivity for violence. The men wear long hair, but the women crop theirs short, and they identify with no one but their own close group. Those who have observed them, especially the young women, say their mien is almost ethereal, as if they were listening to voices they alone can hear. When Miss Krenwinkel, an attrac- tive brunette dressed in hippie garb —floppy hat, blue denims and a man's checked shirt two sizes too big—was arrested in Mobile she was riding in a car with a teen-age boy. He was not held. When she saw police, officers said, she pulled the hat over her face. Mise Kranwinkle had lived in and around Mobile most of her earlv life. according to police. Her mother lives in nearby Theodore, Ala., said Mobile officers, but her daughter was not living with her. It is believed police have some, but not all, of the physical evidence to support circumstantial evidence ob- tained from informants. In search of it, six homicide detectives and Dep. Dist. Atty. Bugliosi—armed with the young woman informant's tips—sped to the abandoned encampment near Death Valley the night of Nov. 19 with a search warrant. Their objective was a converted school bus which the clan used as a mobile headquarters during their meanderings. The searchers reportedly found no weapons, but confiscated clothing and other articles which they hope mav yield evidence. Most of the tribe, officers discov- ered. had been seized in mid-October at their encampment in barren Goler Wash, 20 miles northeast of Trona, in the Death Valley area, and hooked as suspects in a ring specia- lizing in the theft of dune buggies and expensive automobiles. Many of the same hippies had been arrested two months earlier, or just a week after the Tate killings, for similar thefts during a raid on an isolated Chatsworth ranch, known as the Spahn Ranch, where they were living in an abandoned movie set. It was from the Chatsworth ranch that police believe the suspects made murderous sorties into popu- lated areas when the deities. to which they paid homage so or- dained. Connection With Religion Asked if the clan was "any kind of religious organization," Chief Davis replied Monday: “It perhaps could have some religious connotation connected with it, depending on your frame of references." Those familiar with the nomads say they practiced "a kind of witchcraft," and that part -of their rites was associated with drug usage —marijuana and LSD, but not the "hard stuff," heroin and cocaine, used by some of the Tate-Polanski intimates. After the Chatsworth raid, rem- nants of the tribe drifted to the Death Valley commune and were soon joined by others who had been freed on bail or had their charges dismissed. po aeoey At the time of the October raid on the Death Valley commupe_in.the Panamint Range, officers found about 20 persons—men,, young wo- men and even a few small children —living in two primitive miners’ cabins. Deputies also found fortified ob- servation posts, equipped with tele- scopes and walkie talkies. Manson reportedly was manning one of the lookout stations when officers arrived. The area, about 125 miles south- east of Independence, is virtually inaccessible except by four wheel drive vehicles. Most of the young women arrested in October were nude or clad only in bikini bottoms at the time ofthe raid. Some of them, and the men, wore sheaths holding knives. Officers confiscated guns there, as well as at the Chatsworth ranch. Complaints From Miners Deputies said Death Valley miners had complained of being driven away from the encampment earlier by young people armed with knives. Manson, slight and fierce-eyed, with shoulder length hair, was in jail as a result of the Death Valley raid at the time he came under suspicion in the Tate case. Miss Atkins also was arrested in the Death Valley raid, then brought to Los Angeles County when evidence linked her to a Malibu area torture murder. Gary Hinman, 34, a musician, was slain last July in his Topanga Canyon home. He had been stabbed numerous times. "Political Piggy" was scrawled in blood on one wall of his home. "Pig" was found written in blood at the Tate home when the murders were discovered there. "Death to Pigs" was smeared in blood on the door of the refrigerator in the La Bianca home. There has been speculation that the gruesome legends were an attempt to throw investigators off scent, to make it appear the slayings may have been the work of black militants, whom the Manson family is known to despise. ; Death Valley residents said they had heard the Manson clan had retreated to the remote communes ey feared a black take- over in Angeles,