Steve Dennis Grogan

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Steve Dennis Grogan (around 1970)

Steve Dennis Grogan (born May 24, 1952 ) is an American murderer. He was a member of the racist Manson Family and was also called "Clem".

Life

Steve Dennis Grogan, who has musical talent, left high school early and began a career as a petty criminal. Living near the Spahn Movie Ranch , he quickly joined the Manson Family based there. Like Charles Manson , he was friends with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys . In his circle of acquaintances he was regarded as "lagging behind". Al Springer of the rock gang "Straight Satans" described "Clem" during his police interrogation on November 12, 1969 as an "idiot who parroted everything Manson said".

In the spring of 1969 he was admitted to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for 90 days of observation after showing his genitals to a group of school children. Two days later, however, after a successful escape, he reappeared at the ranch.

Grogan's involvement in family crimes

On the night of August 10, 1969, the day after the Tate murders , Charles Watson , Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten were sent by Charles Manson to Leno and Rosemary LaBianca's mansion and committed the double homicide of the couple.

Meanwhile, Manson drove to Venice Beach , near Malibu, with Susan Atkins , Linda Kasabian and Grogan . Here Manson ordered Grogan, Atkins and Kasabian into a house to kill the Indian actor Saladin Nader, whom Kasabian had met a few days earlier on the beach.

Kasabian, who had seen the gruesome murders of Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski in the garden of the Tate Villa the night before , wanted to prevent further murders and, according to his own statement later, deliberately rang the wrong doorbell. As a result, this murder plan was not carried out. A few days later, seventeen-year-old Steve Grogan, along with Manson, Watson and Bruce Davis, killed an employee of the Spahn Ranch, the stuntman Donald Shea .

Murder Trial and Rehabilitation

Although Shea's body had not yet been found, several members of the Manson Family, including Grogan, were charged with murder. Prosecutors requested life sentences for Manson and Davis, but lead perpetrator Steve Dennis Grogan should be sentenced to death.

On December 23, 1971, Judge James Kolts stated in the grounds of the judgment that Grogan was far too stupid and had used too many drugs at the time of the crime to be able to decide independently. In reality, it was Manson who decided who could live or die. He therefore converted the requested death penalty into a life sentence.

Grogan later supported the investigative authorities as part of his rehabilitation efforts and in 1977 showed the investigators on a map the place where Shea's body had been buried. The prison director then accepted him into a rehabilitation program for juvenile delinquents. Grogan was consistently kept away from Manson, who was incarcerated in the same institution.

In 1985 he was released from prison. This makes him the only family member who has been convicted of murder and pardoned (as of January 2018). Grogan has not reappeared as a criminal and works as a painter and varnisher near San Francisco.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rise - Death to the Pigs! In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1974 ( online ).
  2. ^ Ed Sanders: The Family. The story of Charles Manson . Rowohlt, 1995, ISBN 3-499-19644-1 , pp. 297, last section (English: The Family . 1st edition 1972).
  3. ^ Ed Sanders: The Family. The story of Charles Manson . Rowohlt, 1995, ISBN 3-499-19644-1 (English: The Family . 1st edition 1972).
  4. ↑ Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders . 25th Anniversary ed. WW Norton & Company, 1994, ISBN 978-0-393-08700-0 , pp. 466 .
  5. ↑ Manson Family - Special Report Part 4 Steve Grogan parole youtube.com
  6. ^ Pictures of the Manson Family - Steve Grogan. The New York Times Company, accessed August 23, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Grogan, Steve Dennis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clem (nickname); Grogan, Steve (short form)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American murderer and former member of the Manson Family
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1952