• Manson Gang Held Following Gunfight

Manson Gang Held Following Gunfight

HAWTHORNE, Calif., Aug. 23 – A gang of Charles Manson family members was in custody Sunday following a 25-minute gunbattle between police and a group of male and female hippies raiding a gun shop for a small arsenal of weapons.

Three suspects – including two women – were wounded in the gunfight Saturday night, police said. They were among five persons arrested, four of them Manson family members. One suspect escaped, police said.

Police said five members of the group burst into the Western Surplus Store near closing time and held two customers and three clerks at gunpoint while they began cleaning out the store’s stock of guns.

Authorities said the group had stacked more than l00 weapons inside a waiting van and were gathering up about 40 more when a patrol car arrived, alerted by a silent burglar alarm.

Lt. Jim Covis said his car sealed off one end of a narrow alley behind the store. The raiders opened fire on his car with semi-automatic weapons, riddling it with bullets, Covis said.

Covis radioed for help and police cars carrying men armed with shotguns arrived from Redondo Beach, Lennox, and El Segundo to join the battle.

The wounded suspects were identified as Catherine “Gypsy” Share, 28; Mary Brunner, 26; and Lawrence Edward Bailey, 22

Miss Share and Miss Brunner are members of the Manson family, as are two others arrested – Kenneth Como, 31 and Dennis Rice, 29.

Rice and Miss Share served jail terms for feeding a hamburger spiked with LSD to a prosecution witness against Manson in his first trial, in an attempt apparently calculated at destroying the witness ability to give coherent testimony.

Miss Brunner was jailed for contempt of court for testifying against family members and then recanting her testimony. She has a son named “Michael Manson.” She was wanted on a warrant for failure to appear as a witness against Manson at his latest murder trial.

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