Jan. 13 – Part one of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Homicide Bureau interview of Straight Satans motorcycle club member Danny DeCarlo, regarding the murder of Gary Hinman. This interview was conducted at the Hall of Justice on November 19, 1969.
DANNY DeCARLO: (Unintelligible)
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Just be honest. Danny, all, all we’re asking from you, is just be honest with us.
Don’t uh – If – if you’re honest with us – I, I, promise you that I can’t be any different than Gutierrez. We’re gonna be just as honest with you. And – In fact, we’ve already started being honest with you.
(Unintelligible)
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok
(Unintelligible), Sergeant Paul Whiteley and Sergeant (Unintelligible).
Well, let’s first of all make sure we’ve got your right name.
Ok, you’re Daniel T. DeCarlo, is that right?
DANNY DeCARLO: That’s correct.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok, and your address is 8335?
DANNY DeCARLO: (Unintelligible)
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: a-o-l-e-g-i-o, drive
DANNY DeCARLO: drive, L.A. 45
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Do you have a phone there, Danny?
DANNY DeCARLO: Yes sir, I do. 641-1691.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: 1691.
What’s your father’s first name?
DANNY DeCARLO: Thomas.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Mother’s name?
And your mother?
DANNY DeCARLO: Gloria. Gloria Marie, DeCarlo.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok, Will you tell us – first of all – what you know, about — Ah, I turned it up. I thought it was doing. Something to tell it, all these god damn
(Unintelligible; too many people talking at one time)
Uh, let’s start out with all you know about Bobby Beausoleil.
DANNY DeCARLO: Alright. Ok, Bobby now — from what I first heard about Bobby, he was a musician; he knew music. And I understand also, that he was one of the best guitar players, that are around.
Now Bobby, used to live at that ranch at one time, but he left (unintelligible), everybodys come back. Well, approximately, two weeks before Gary Hinman got it, maybe not even that, maybe a week and a half.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Two weeks is the following week.
DANNY DeCARLO: Gary shows back — I mean Bobby shows back up at the ranch
(background noises)
Now, he said he was hung up on this little girl up there. He said, that’s one of the reasons why, because he was trying to get her, to leave the ranch with him. But, Charlie was his god. Whatever Charlie did, he did. Whatever Charlie think, he’d think. It was this tight, you know.
So, and you just want about Beausoleil. Well, that’s about all I know, that’s first how I met him. Just prior to what happened to Hinman. And uh, he bought the three wheeler and he wanted me to rebuild the three wheeler for him. (unintelligible) but I never got around to it (unintelligible)
That’s uh – that’s about as far as I know, thats he’s a musician, a friend of Charlie’s, uh, the time he (unintelligible) the ranch, I saw a three wheeler out with him, that he was building. The first contact I had with him was about parts. He called up the ranch and he wanted to trade parts. He had this motorcycle, he had that motorcycle.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Were you living at the ranch at that time Danny?
DANNY DeCARLO: Yeah.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok.
DANNY DeCARLO: Now —
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Did you have a conversation with him, right after or just before, the Hinman deal went down, with Gary. Did you know Gary Hinman?
DANNY DeCARLO: No, never seen him before in my life, I didn’t know who he was.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: You’re sure you didn’t.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Pardon me
(Unintelligible; too many people talking at one time)
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok, you didn’t know Gary?
DANNY DeCARLO: I’ve never seen the man in my life.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok. Tell us, tell me what happened then. Just about the time about the Gary Hinman deal. What was the next contact you had with Bobby?
DANNY DeCARLO: The next contact – well, Bobby was right there where I was living.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: He was living there same time you were.
DANNY DeCARLO: Same time I was.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok.
DANNY DeCARLO: Ok, the first thing I ever heard about Hinman, was that he had 20 grand.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Who told you this?
DANNY DeCARLO: Charlie, he told me this.
He had $20,000 and they were going to go out there and get the money off him. Now they, this is, they were talking about this for probably weeks – the Gary Hinman’s money. According —
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: (Unintelligible) they, both knew Hinman?
DANNY DeCARLO: They both knew Gary, from prior contact with Gary. Alright, he had 20 grand. Where he got this money, I don’t know? If he had 20 grand, I don’t know? They just said it was $20,000 that they were gonna get.
So they have to, talk somebody out of it. So they’re gonna talk it out of Gary Hinman.
So, they sent Bobby, they sent Sadie, and they sent Mary.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Sadie is who?
DANNY DeCARLO: Sadie Glutz.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Sadie Glutz.
DANNY DeCARLO: Right.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Mary is, Mary who?
DANNY DeCARLO: Brunner.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok.
Sent them up to Gary’s house?
DANNY DeCARLO: Right.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Do you know where Gary’s house is?
DANNY DeCARLO: Not the slightest idea.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok.
DANNY DeCARLO: Ok, now I’m telling you, what he told me, when he came back, I’ll run it on down to you.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: He?
DANNY DeCARLO: He is Bobby Beausoleil.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok.
DANNY DeCARLO: Right from the horse’s mouth. Now this is when he came back. And a little bit, what Charlie told me, from when they got there. Now when they left, I don’t know. When they came back, I don’t know. What they left in, I don’t know. I’m only telling you what he told me when he came back. And that’s where I’m going to start, when he came back. Ok, I was in the end bunkhouse, on the ranch. Right, he came back, and uh, I says — he was telling me about uh, he had stabbed Gary Hinman. He says, ‘and I got the motherfucker, I said, I killed him.’ He says, “it’s pretty weird, I never killed anyone before in my life.” And he had a little knife, that he carried with him. A little a, like a bowie knife – a mexican, bowie knife. A Mexican, a bowie with a blade that comes up like this and down like this and under, fancy handle, fancy engraving on the handle. You people have it.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: How do you know that?
DANNY DeCARLO: Cus, he carried it constantly on his hip —
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Mmm hmm.
DANNY DeCARLO: — on a sheath. When he got busted up there in San Luis Obispo in that little Toyota, he had that knife on him. He was supposed to take that Toyota out of town —
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Let me ask you something.
DANNY DeCARLO: Ok
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: How do you know he had the knife on him?
DANNY DeCARLO: Cause he (Unintelligible), he never parted with it.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok.
DANNY DeCARLO: When he did it, Bobby — Charlie told him to get rid of the knife, he never did. He didn’t want to get rid of the knife, because he loved it. That’s why he kept it with him. So when he got arrested up in San Luis Obispo, he had the knife with him, right? He had that knife? Didn’t your crime lab check that knife and it came back clean? Well that was the knife that did it. I almost choked, when I heard that.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Well now, not that our crime lab came back clean, but we have, we did test the knife.
DANNY DeCARLO: Yeah, well he, he called the ranch while he was in jail and said, yeah the crime lab came back, and he said the knife, wasn’t the knife that did it.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: That’s not true.
DANNY DeCARLO: Well, that’s what he said.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok, anyway. Let’s go down, specifically – first of all – I take it you’re gonna tell me a conversation you got from Beausoleil, some that you got from Manson, and you pieced the whole thing together, of what happened.
DANNY DeCARLO: Now, the conversation I had with Manson, is that, that Gary had 20 grand.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok.
DANNY DeCARLO: And uh, he was gonna get the 20 grand off Gary – force him out of it. Not only the 20 grand, but he was gonna get him to sign over his house, sign over his car, and that Volkswagen bus. Now all-of-a-sudden my name got next to that Volkswagen bus, it was at the ranch when I was up there. But believe me, I had nothing to —
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: The guy we, we arrested in the car said you were one of the guys who sold it.
DANNY DeCARLO: He’s a lying motherfucker and go up against a lie detector test.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok, we’re not making any accusations —
DANNY DeCARLO: Well, I’m not —
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: — I’m just told you how you’re name got into the deal.
DANNY DeCARLO: Well.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok. well anyway, let’s go – first things first. Ok, first, let’s go, so it’s clear in our minds. First of all, why don’t you tell us, uh Danny, what Robert Beausoleil told you, just what he told you.
DANNY DeCARLO: Ok, this is, what I’m telling you is after he did it.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Ok.
DANNY DeCARLO: He came back and we got to talking about Gary. And he ran down the whole trip, of, what he, what he did when he was up there.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Tell me what he told you.
DANNY DeCARLO: Him, Sadie, Mary, went up to see Gary. Bobby, sitting there bullshiting with him.
“Hey Gary, what’s happening, how’s it going?”
“Pretty Good”
“Yeah, good to hear that”
“How you doing?”
“Yeah, good”
“Glad to hear that”
“Yeah, that good to hear.”
This went on for a couple of hours. Then Bobby said, “Gary, I want everything you got” and pulls out a gun, that 9mm Radom. That’s the pistol, that, they had bought. Cus I was with them, it was the same day I bought that Signat .45 for Charles, under Richard Smith. That people are telling me I have to go turn myself in for. I bought that gun the same day they bought that Radom, .9mm polish Radom. I should’ve let them buy both, but I didn’t. But anyway, he pulled the gun on him.
“So look here Gary, I want your money.”
“I want everything you got.”
“Crazy motherfucker, got outta my house, you piece of shit. Get the hell outta my house.”
Bobby pistol whipped him, bam! And the first time he hit him, he cracked, the pistol grip on him; the pistol grip handle, was, if you know – if you’re familiar with a .9mm Radom, second world war, polish, that gun was shot. Shot it once and it chipped. And the pistol grip was very brittle. He dropped the pistol and it broke, the pistol grip shattered, because it was really brittle plastic. When we brought the pistol back, the uh, the pistol grip was broken in half, on one side, it was broken in half. Cus I remember, “Who the fuck did this?” I said. Bobby said, “I broke that on Gary’s head.”
Ok, so he pulled the gun out on him, and uh, Gary wasn’t going for it.
“Man, get the hell outta my fucking house, man. Get the hell out of here.”
So Bobby pistol whipped him, you see. He threw them out (unintelligible) “put two fuckers in him if you don’t. I want you to know I’m not fucking around. Look here Gary, I don’t want no trouble with you. I don’t want to hurt you. I want your $20,000, where’s it at?”
Gary, “I don’t have no money, I don’t have nothing.”
Bobby wouldn’t believe him. So, he gave the gun to Sadie, “Sadie watch him”
Gary was sitting behind his desk (unintelligible) So Bobby went and searched the house. And Bobby said, he’s in the other room and heard Sadie say, “Now sit down Gary. Now Gary sit down, don’t make me shoot you, now Gary.” Now so Bobby said, he ran back in there, just about the time that Gary got to Sadie with the gun. All three of them met at the same time. They’re hassling with the gun and it went off. The bullet, Bobby says, traveled, right into a drain pipe, right through that, ricocheted, it went through the wall; up into the house, (unintelligible) in the back. He said, if the police go back there, do you think they can find the bullet? I said, yes they could. And that’s why – that’s when they got rid of the pistol. After that, they didn’t want the pistol traced back. So they got rid of the pistol and gave it to this other guy, who I already told Sergeant Gutierrez who it was. And uh, so anyway, they wrestled the gun away from Gary. And he gave him (unintelligible) help him up for Gary to settle down. So about that time, Bobby called up Charlie. So, Charlie said alright, I’ll come up there. You know Bruce went up there.
SGT. PAUL WHITELEY: Were you there when Bobby called?
DANNY DeCARLO: No.
I wasn’t there but he called the ranch and he asked to go down to a pay phone. Gary said – Charlie said, pay phone.
wow, this is really exciting. very much looking forward to it! thanks!
This should be priceless. Thanks in advance.
It is great to hear the first half of the recording. great stuff.
Thanx for the post. All of these audio archives are quite remarkable.
I don’t how you do it, but thanks again.