Mary Brunner

Maria Theresa "Mary" Brunner (* 17th December 1943 in Eau Claire , Wisconsin ) is a former member of the of Charles Manson cited Manson Family , which made headlines worldwide after some of its members in the summer of 1969, Tate - LaBianca committed murders had.

Life

Mary Brunner earned a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Wisconsin in the early 1960s and started a position as a librarian at UC Berkeley in 1965. Here she met Charles Manson, who had just been paroled in 1967 . Brunner fell in love with Manson and he soon moved in with her. Brunner's life changed drastically when Manson became a part of it.

She began to take hallucinogenic drugs and was also convinced by Manson that his polygamous sexuality also corresponded to her desire for a partnership.

She gave up her secure permanent position in the summer of 1967 and from then on traveled with Manson in a VW bus across California. She was instrumental in recruiting young people - mostly red-haired young women. The VW bus soon became too small for the fast-growing family , so a black-painted school bus was purchased. Like most family members, Brunner adopted a number of aliases and nicknames , including "Marioche", "Och", "Mother Mary", "Mary Manson", "Linda Dee Manson" and "Marie Christine Euchts".

On April 1, 1968, at the age of 24, Mary Brunner gave birth to Manson's third son: Valentine Michael Manson. Their first child was named after a character in Robert Heinlein's book Stranger in a Strange Land , Manson's favorite book, which was extremely slow to read and could hardly write.

Criminal background

Mary Brunner first came into conflict with the law on April 21, 1968. She was arrested for indecent breastfeeding of a child in public. The Los Angeles Herald Eximer even devoted an article to this incident on page 2 with the title Naked Hippies in the Forest .

Her second arrest took place in June 1968. Brunner had gone to Mendocino with several family members, including Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel , to look for accommodation. The mostly red-haired girls and young women quickly received the nickname "The Witches of Mendocino". On June 21, they administered too high a dose of LSD to a seventeen-year-old boy whose mother then reported it . On September 6, 1968, Brunner was sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment, including pre-trial detention, without parole.

At the end of July 1969, Brunner was present when the musician and family friend Gary Hinman was stabbed to death by Bobby Beausoleil . Both Beausoleil and Brunner had previously lived with Hinman for some time. Hinman had been tortured for two days prior to his murder ; It has not been proven whether Brunner was involved. Manson and Atkins have been shown to have participated in this torture. Brunner was later arrested for her involvement in this murder , but she offered herself as a key witness (against Beausoleil and Atkins) and was therefore not prosecuted for her involvement in this crime. As part of her testimony, she also incriminated Bruce Davis , who, accompanied by Manson, had been present at the Hinman house at least for a while.

On August 8, 1969, she was with Sandra Good caught and with a credit card fraud in prison taken. Several stolen credit cards were found on her. Although the bail was said to have not been high ($ 500), the nursing mother remained in detention for weeks. Mary Brunner was only released on parole in late September . The deposit was never paid. A involvement of Brunner in the Tate - La Bianca murders was therefore ruled out.

When Manson himself was arrested in October 1969 and shortly thereafter charged with his involvement in the Tate-LaBianca murders, Brunner was loyal to him. She protested regularly in court with other loyal followers and successfully used the hype to get a Manson record ( LIE ) released.

On August 21, 1971, shortly after Manson, Krenwinkel, Atkins and Leslie Van Houten were sentenced to death for the murders, Brunner participated in a robbery at the Western Surplus Store , an arms store . Together with family member Catherine Share and three male members of the Aryan Brotherhood , she stormed into the shop armed and threatened employees and customers. They stole a total of 143 rifles, which they loaded into the white van that they used to drive to the crime scene .

This was followed by a lengthy discussion among the robbers about whether the employees and customers lying on the ground should be shot or allowed to stay alive. This discussion was only ended with the arrival of several police cars . The robbers immediately opened fire. Both Brunner and Share were incapacitated.

The interrogations that followed the arrest revealed that the gun robbery was to be followed by a terrorist attack . The plan was to hijack a Boeing 747 , including an hourly hostage shooting marathon . This terror was to continue until Manson was released.

Mary Brunner then served a six-year prison sentence for this robbery.

Rehabilitation

After her release from prison in 1977, Mary Brunner distanced herself from Manson and the family and regained custody of her son Michael. She changed her name and currently lives in the American Midwest. She has not reappeared criminally.

Web link

• Mary Brunner on charlesmanson.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Mary Brunner. on: crime.about.com (English)
2. ^ Robert Heinlein: Stranger in a strange land. Bastei-Lübbe, 1996, ISBN 3-404-24214-9 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ed Sanders: The Family. The story of Charles Manson. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-499-19644-1 . (1st edition 1972)
4. ^ E. Sanders: The Family . P. 316: According to Danny de Carlo, Brunner's bail set on August 12, 1969 was $ 850; Sandy Good was acquitted (p. 319.)
5. ^ E. Sanders: The Family , p. 320.