A Different View of the Manson 'Family'

(Aug. 9) -- Emmett Harder never imagined that the friendly group of folks he met out in California's Death Valley in the summer of 1969 were capable of such horrors.

The former gold miner, now 77, tells stories of pretty young women inviting him over for pancakes and splashing around naked in a pool.

They were part of Charles Manson's "family" -- the same group that, exactly 40 years ago, shot, stabbed and bludgeoned seven people in Los Angeles over two nights. Among the victims was actress Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, who was eight months pregnant.

"I thought they were interesting, lovely women -- girls at the time," Harder told AOL News from his California home on Saturday. "Those girls didn't need to become involved in those horrible crimes. They were very young, having their first experiences with drugs, their first experiences with sex. Charles Manson led them astray and ruined their lives, in addition to the lives of those who were killed."

On the morning of Aug. 9, 1969, a housekeeper discovered the gruesome scene of five bloody bodies scattered around the Tate-Polanski home. In addition to Sharon Tate, the victims included coffee heiress Abigail Folger, 25; hair stylist Jay Sebring, 35; Polish film director Voyteck Frykowski, 32; and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of the home's caretaker.

The next night, grocery store owner Leno LaBianca, 44, and his wife, Rosemary, 38, were stabbed to death in their home several miles away in Los Feliz, Calif.

Manson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for ordering his followers to carry out the slayings. Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten also were sentenced to death. The sentences later were commuted to life in prison when the courts overturned the death penalty.

Harder met the group while he was mining for gold near Barker Ranch, the family's remote hideaway located in Death Valley. He recalled the girls of the group being carefree and sweet, relishing in the freedom and unconventional lifestyle that the desert life offered.

"One time I stopped by the ranch and saw this girl swinging in a tire swing. I said to her it was like a scene out of 'God's Little Acre'," said Harder, referring to the 1933 novel by Erskine Caldwell, which was made into a film of the same name in 1958. "She laughed and asked if I wanted to see their new washing machine. She led me around the house, and here were these girls, laughing and splashing as they washed their clothes."

He remembered another time when the young women gleefully described how they had delivered a baby at the ranch. "They were a happy bunch of people," he said.

Harder was less interested in the group's leader.

"I wasn't really impressed with Charlie at all," he said. "I wasn't socially involved with him because I was fascinated with gold. I vaguely knew that he was running things, but it didn't impress me much. He wasn't empowered unless you were terrified of him."

Harder recalled a time when Manson, Watson and other members of the group visited him at his home. He said Manson enthused about how Terry Melcher, the music-producing son of actress Doris Day, was going to help him become a music star.

Before the Polanskis moved into the Benedict Canyon home where the grisly murders took place, Melcher had lived in the house with his girlfriend, actress Candice Bergen. Some believe Manson targeted the home because it represented Melcher's ultimate rejection of him as a musician.

"It was really a vengeance thing," Harder said."He was counting on Doris Day's boy to make him a big star, and he was upset when that didn't happen. He used those poor souls to try to get revenge."

Some said Manson had a much more elaborate scheme. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi argued in court that Manson wanted to use the murders to start a race war, in what the cult leader referred to as "Helter Skelter," after the Beatles song of the same name. Others insist the killings were senseless.

In the days after the murders, Harder said the group members acted paranoid. He also claimed that he heard stories that Manson killed at least five drifters and hippies in the desert. The allegations were among the reasons why Harder chose to lead an expedition last year to search for more bodies near Barker Ranch. Forensic investigators later said tests on the grounds showed the likely existence of two more decades-old graves, but the investigation is now at a standstill because of what Harder describes as a reluctance by county officials to fund it.

Regardless of possible new evidence of Manson's evil reign, the Tate-LaBianca murders still resonate for their pure heinousness. Prosecutor Steven Kay has a theory about why. "It all started with a Life magazine cover in 1969, showing Charles Manson looking like the embodiment of evil," Kay told AOL News on Friday. "People in the United States like to be scared. They like horror stories and this was a real-life horror story."

Parole hearings of the group's imprisoned members have also kept the story in the news over the decades. Susan Atkins, who admitted to stabbing Tate to death, has been bidding for a "compassionate release" because she suffers from brain cancer. She is due to make a new plea in September. And last week, officials said that onetime group member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who was convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford, would be paroled as early as Aug. 14.

Kay said he's disturbed by Fromme's impeding release, saying she she's still a threat. He claimed Fromme once approached him in a parking lot during the murder trial and threatened to kill him. "I'm not looking forward to seeing her free," he said. "It defies belief that someone who tried to kill the President of the United States could be paroled."

Harder was more sympathetic when it comes to the possibility of the female members of the Manson family winning freedom, but asserts that Manson should remain locked away.

"The girls that were drawn into this evil vortex, I think they've paid enough," he said. "I think they were coerced into these horrible deeds. They were outcasts and runaways just trying to find their way.

"Had they been given a different chance, their lives would have been much better."