Yearbook pictures present Charles Mansion’s followers earlier than they joined his killing cult

The Manson Family was a cult of around one hundred disaffected young people led by Charles Manson, who encouraged his followers to murder the rich and famous in Los Angeles in 1969.

The notorious group was convicted for nine murders after embarking on the killing spree that terrorized the California city over fifty years ago. 

Manson’s followers, including Mary Brunner, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Bobby Beausoleil, stabbed, beat and shot young actress Sharon Tate – who was heavily pregnant – to death at her Hollywood Hills home on August 8, 1969.

They also killed her friends, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski, and teenager Steven Parent, who had been visiting an acquaintance at the estate’s guesthouse.

The following night, Manson and some of his followers struck again, this time, murdering wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, at their home. 

They also killed musician Gary Hinman and Hollywood stuntman Donald ‘Shorty’ Shea.

However, once upon a time, Manson’s followers were ordinary teenagers, studying at high school just like everyone else.

Here, FEMAIL takes a look back at the yearbook photos of some of the Manson Family in their younger years – and uncovers what ended up happening to his dedicated followers.

Mary Brunner 

Brunner, born in December 1943, was the first person whom Manson recruited into his ‘family’ after he met her in 1965.

Before graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison that year, Brunner had attended Regis High School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and was pictured for the yearbook in her senior year in 1961.

Six years after posing for her school picture, Brunner became pregnant by convicted criminal Manson, and their son, Valentine Michael Manson, was born in April 1968.

Brunner was famously present during the 1969 murder of Hinman, who was a California musician and Ph.D. candidate.

She was arrested for numerous offenses, including credit card theft and armed robbery, and served a prison sentence at the California Institution for Women before being paroled in 1977. 

In July 2019, Manson and Brunner’s son, then 51, defended his notorious father and said he was ‘not the monster that has been described by the mass media.’ 

Patricia Krenwinkel

Krenwinkel, born December 1947, attended University High School and then Westchester High School, both in the Los Angeles area, as a teen.

It was said that she was often bullied at school by other students and was frequently teased for being overweight and for an excessive growth of body hair caused by an endocrine condition.

Krenwinkel first met Manson in Manhattan Beach in 1967, and later claimed that they had sex that night.

She was a participant in the murders at Tate’s home on August 9, 1969.

After stabbing Folger, Krenwinkel went back inside and summoned Tex Watson, who also stabbed Folger. 

She wasn’t arrested until December 1969 and at the end of a nine-month trial, Krenwinkel was convicted of all counts and sentenced to death on March 29, 1971. 

The death sentence imposed on Krenwinkel was automatically commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court’s People v. Anderson decision invalidated all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972.

To this day, she remains incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino, California.

Lynette Fromme 

Lynette Alice Fromme, born October 1948, attended Redondo Union High School in California.

Her grades suffered when she started using drugs and alcohol, but she graduated in 1966.

Fromme dropped out of college at the age of 19, and met Manson after her father kicked her out of the family home.

Fromme became the second member of what would become the Manson Family and lived with the group at Spahn Ranch where they worked for their keep.

When Manson and some of his followers were arrested for the Tate and LaBianca murders in 1969, Fromme and the remaining members of the Manson Family camped outside the courthouse during the trial.

Fromme was not charged with involvement in the murders but she was convicted of attempting to prevent Manson’s imprisoned followers from testifying, and she was also convicted of contempt of court when she refused to testify.

She was sentenced to serve short jail terms for both offences. 

But she was later sentenced to life in prison when she was eventually convicted of the attempted assassination of President Ford under a 1965 law that made attempted presidential assassinations a federal crime. 

Fromme was released on parole from the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, on August 14, 2009.

Sandra Good

Sandra Collins Good, born February 1944, attended Point Loma High School, where she posed for her yearbook photo in 1961.

Good joined the Manson Family in April 1968, and a few months later, went off with them when they moved to a new home at Spahn Ranch.

She was in jail with Brunner for attempting to use stolen credit cards when the Tate/LaBianca murders took place, but was back at the ranch in time to get arrested during the August 16 raid. 

In December 1975, Good and another Manson devotee, Susan Murphy, were indicted for ‘conspiracy to send threatening letters through the mail’ by a Federal Grand Jury in Sacramento in connection with death threats against more than 170 corporate executives who Good believed were polluting the earth.

She was found guilty on March 16, 1976, and was sentenced to a 15-year prison term.

Good was paroled in early December 1985, and moved to Hanford, California, near Corcoran State Prison to be closer to Manson, although as a convicted felon she was not permitted to visit him. 

In a 2019 interview, Good still professed total allegiance to Manson and said of the Manson family: ‘They really saved my health, my brain, my emotional health, my mental health, my physical health. I’m thankful to them all.’

Leslie Van Houten

Leslie Louise Van Houten, born August 1949, graduated from Monrovia High School in California in 1967.

After becoming a hippie and moving to a commune, Van Houten met Catherine Share and Bobby Beausoleil and moved in with them and another woman during the summer of 1968. 

The four broke up following a string of jealous arguments, and Share left to join Manson’s commune. Van Houten, then aged 19, followed Share.

Van Houten and another woman held down Rosemary as Watson stabbed Leno during the August 1969 murders.

After stabbing Rosemary, Watson gave Van Houten a knife, and she stabbed the woman at least 14 more times. 

She testified in 1971: ‘I took one of the knives, and Patricia [Krenwinkel] had one – a knife – and we started stabbing and cutting up the lady.’

On March 29, 1971, Van Houten was convicted of murder along with the other defendants. 

She was sentenced to be executed; and was the youngest woman ever condemned to death in California.

No death row for female prisoners existed, and a special unit was built, but the death sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court’s People v. Anderson decision resulted in the invalidation of all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972. 

Van Houten was released on parole on July 11, 2023, after serving over 52 years in prison.

Kitty Lutesinger

Kathryn ‘Kitty’ Lutesinger, born August 1952, met Manson though her boyfriend Bobby Beausoleil.

Lutesinger, who seemed to appear and then reappear often throughout the Manson saga, was pivotal in most investigations of the crimes committed by the Family. 

Despite all of her assistance, Lutesinger was arrested during the Spahn Ranch raid just one day after returning there.

In February 1970, the same month she gave birth to her and Beausoleil’s child, he stood trial for his involvement in the Hinman murder.

The case concluded with his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment; Lutesinger was present in the courtroom and she is said to have immediately burst into tears as the sentence was read.

Lutesinger herself was arrested a total of three times in her life; the first was in August 1969 during the Spahn Ranch Raid.

The second arrest was in November 1971 for her part in helping Kenneth Como break out of jail, but charges were later dismissed for lack of evidence.

And the third time was in June 1978, in Santa Cruz, where she was charged for conspiracy to commit fraud.

Lutesinger went on to teach middle school science and became a principle in a Los Angeles County school district. Today, she is retired and lives a private, peaceful life.

Bobby Beausoleil

Beausoleil, born November 1947, attended Santa Barbara High School, where he posed for his sophomore year photo in 1963.

When he was 15, Beausoleil was sent to Los Prietos Boys Camp for 10 months for running away from home and a series of juvenile pranks.

In 1968, Beausoleil was living with Hinman in Topanga Canyon when he met Manson and became associated with the ‘family.’

Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to death in July 1969 at the order of Manson and drove away from the scene of the crime in Hinman’s car.

He was arrested on August 6, 1969, after falling asleep in the vehicle and in April 1970, a Superior Court jury in Los Angeles found the then-22-year-old Beausoleil guilty of first-degree murder of Hinman and sentenced him to death.

In 1972, Beausoleil’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and his initial parole suitability hearing was held on August 15, 1978.

Prior to 2019, he had a total of 18 suitability hearings; and each time the parole board rejected his bid for parole.

Charles ‘Tex’ Watson

Watson, born December 1945, grew up attending church locally, and was an honor student.

Not only was he editor on the school paper and captain of the football team, Watson also set a record for the high hurdles at Farmersville High School.

In January 1967, Watson began working at Braniff International as a baggage handler. 

Using free airline tickets to travel, he visited a fraternity brother in Los Angeles; there, he became interested in the psychedelic and music lifestyle of the late 1960s.

While driving one day, Watson picked up a hitchhiker, Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, and drove him to his house, which is where he was first introduced to the Manson Family.

On August 9, 1969, Watson led the group who murdered all four people inside Tate’s home.

He was also present and involved in the LaBianca murders the following evening. 

On October 12, 1971, Watson was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. 

Watson’s minimum eligible parole date was November 26, 1976; he has been denied parole 18 times since then, including two stipulations.

He was most recently given a five-year denial of parole at a board hearing in October 2021 and remains incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California.

Dianne Lake 

Dianne Lake was raised by hippie parents and at the age of 14, she was granted permission to leave them to become one of ‘Charlie’s girls.’

Lake has claimed that over the course of two years, she endured manipulation, psychological control, and physical abuse at the hands of Manson.

She never participated in any of the group’s gruesome crimes, but was arrested with the rest of the Manson Family.

Known in the group as ‘Snake,’ she went on to serve as a star witness for the prosecution and helped put Manson, Watson, and Manson’s female followers Susan Atkins, Krenwinkle, and Van Houten behind bars for the heinous murders.

With the help of good Samaritans, including the cop who first arrested her and later adopted her, Lake found redemption and grew up to lead an ordinary life.

Paul Watkins

Paul Alan Watkins, born January 1950, dropped out of Thousand Oaks High School in California during his senior year.

On March 16, 1968, several months after his departure from high school, Watkins met Manson in Los Angeles County’s Topanga Canyon, at a house where Manson and several family members were squatting. 

Watkins eventually became Manson’s chief lieutenant, but was never involved in the actual murders – and later testified against Manson in October 1970.

Watkins went on to become the founder and first president of the Death Valley Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he lectured on cult psychology and effects of substance abuse.

Watkins died in 1990 at the age of 40, of leukemia. He was the unofficial mayor of Tecopa, a small Death Valley town, where he lived with his second wife and their two daughters, one of whom is writer Claire Vaye Watkins.