George Christian Spahn

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George Christian Spahn ( February 11, 1889 in Philadelphia - September 22, 1974 in Van Nuys , California ) was an American horse breeder and owner of the Spahn Movie Ranch , which served as the backdrop for various western films and series and later became the residence of the Manson for some time Family was.

Life

Spahn grew up in the Philadelphia area . His father was killed in an industrial accident when he was only two years old. At times there was a very tense relationship with his later, sometimes violent stepfather. Spahn left school after the third grade and started working as a milkman. Later at the age of 16 he began training as a carpenter, but then did not work long in this profession, but began to set up a dairy business in Willow Grove . He owned five wagons and seven horses for delivering milk, and his stepfather was one of his employees at the time. Before he was 30, Spahn bought a 34.8 acre farm in LansdaleHe kept 35 cows and several horses there. He married Martha Virginia Greenholtz, with whom he had ten children. He also had a stepdaughter from his wife's previous marriage.

At the beginning of the 1930s during the Great Depression came Spahn Ranch Spahn in trouble and decided to start a new life in California. He sold his farm and moved to Los Angeles with his family and horses . There he quickly gave up the dairy industry and instead ran a horse breeding facility and a riding stable. In the late 1940s he separated from his wife and in 1953 bought the ranch that was later named after him. There he continued to breed horses, offered riding excursions and rented the buildings erected as film sets to film and television productions. He had already met the 30-year-old former circus artist and dog trainer Ruby Pearl, who later ran the ranch for him. Due to the falling demand for westerns, Spahn finally went bankrupt in 1966, after which many buildings on the ranch slowly began to crumble. Spahn continued to live on the ranch and was now almost completely blind and therefore dependent on help.

During 1968, the Manson Family began living on the farm with Spahn's consent. In return, she took over the work on the ranch, took care of his horses and the riding trips that were still taking place. There was an almost friendly relationship with Charles Manson , who often visited him at his house and talked to him. Some of the female members of the Manson Family cooked and cleaned for Spahn, who is now 80, and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme in particular spent a lot of time with him.

Spahn had no idea about the crimes of the Manson Family and was amazed when the police began to search his ranch and the press questioned him about Charles Manson. Some members of the family stayed on the farm even after Manson was arrested in 1969 and lived with Spahn until the farm was destroyed by a bush fire in September 1970.

Representations in film and television

Spahn himself can be seen as an old man in the documentary Manson (1973). In several films that address the Manson Family and their murders, Spahn appears as a marginal figure. He is played in the television film Helter Skelter - Night of the Long Knives (1976) by Ray Middleton . In the films Charlie Says (2018) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) he is played by John Gowans and Bruce Dern .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3367 (accessed May 25, 2020)
  2. ↑ a b c d Gay Talese: Charlie Manson's Home on the Range . Esquire, March 1, 1970
  3. ↑ Tina Rausch: Cowboys and Ghosts . South German, July 30, 2012
  4. ↑ Hadley Hall Meares: The Story of the Abandoned Movie Ranch Where the Manson Family Launched Helter Skelter . Curbed, October 22, 2014 ( additional online copy )
  5. ↑ Douglas Robinson: A Few Members of Manson's 'Family' Still Stay at Movie Ranch, Awaiting His Return . New York Times, July 5, 1970
  6. ↑ Kristan Lawson, Anneli Rufus: California Babylon: A Guide to Site of Scandal, Mayhem and Celluloid in the Golden State . St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2013, ISBN 9781466854147 , chapter Spahn Ranch
personal data
SURNAME Spahn, George Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spahn, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American horse breeder and ranch owner
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1974
Place of death Van Nuys , California