Monday, July 15, 2019

Some Spahn Ranch Photos

Some pics sent by Surfbat, who grew up in the area. Can anyone ID any of the people?














Added for comparison-



Another for comparison-


50 comments:

  1. Interesting pics. I'm really digging on the Ford station wagon.

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  2. Looks like the guy with the child on lap might be the same person who identifies himself as "ranch foreman" in one of the films from the 1970 fire. The woman might be his girlfriend. I believe they lived in that trailer...

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  3. Hello,
    Good evening to all, hope you're well. Hi Matt,
    that sixth photo is very good:
    it's exactly as I saw it, for the first time, in the summer of 2017, as it was getting dark. Of course the 'town' was gone, but I keep getting reminded of that hill, on occasion, when I look up and around when I'm in the mountains of Colorado, or in certain places in Mew Mexico.
    I don't what it really is, but every time Spahn's Ranch is mentioned, that hill is the first image that comes to my goofy mind.
    If I may relate, something about that day that a friend in the L.A. area, a girl I was with and knew there, before she agreed to drive to let me see first hand the the Ranch site, well,
    she kindly, with some persuasion, drove us to where we thought the Cielo Drive house was, in the afternoon. We went to the Chatsworth area and Spahn's Ranch after that.
    On one of the streets we drove and there was a road and as we did, on a bit of an incline and some winding, her car stalled. As it stalled, she maneuvered it to the right where it stopped.
    I got out of the car and walked to lift the hood, though I wouldn't know what to do anyway. As I stood there for a moment, I decided that I would call a number for a tow. I told my friend, she nodded, than all of a sudden, a guy, appearing to be in his fifties is walking toward me and yelling. I said, "what?" The guy, obviously a jackass, said, "get out of here, move the car." I looked at him and said, well our car is stuck, I don't see us blocking anything.
    Get out, get out of here just move the car. I said I guess you live here, huh? He said yes and yelled again. I stood there, we were about ten yards apart and I wanted to punch the freak, but that is something I generally avoid. Suddenly, I heard a noise, the engine had turned. I turned and my friend was looking up at me through the windshield, smiling and motioning for me to get in. I felt good, so, I looked at the creep, my fists at me side and said, "you don't own the fu****G street you son of a bitch...you threaten me, a**hole..." I turned, walked to the car, opened the door, turned my butt and was I in the seat. My girl (on this and another visit and in Colorado) for a while, turned this way and that and we were driving back down and outta there. I was disappointed, but after a garage fixed a simple problem under the hood, we drove and we were parked, soon, and staring at Spahn's Ranch.
    That was eerie and strange, but it was a pleasant sort of sight for my eyes and in my mind, a twilight and easy darkness of the day.

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  4. Doug, that's what I was thinking, too. The guy's name was Mike Armstrong.

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    1. Thanks for his name Deb - it would've bugged me all night and, messed up my sleep. Pretty sure it's him cuz when I Googled "Spahn Ranch fire 1970" a screen shot photo from the time around the fire was totally the same guy.

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  5. Sorry, that was in 2007 that I went to the Cielo Drive area and to Spahn's Ranch, not 2017.
    Thank You

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  6. Do we know what year these were taken?

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  7. Matthew, I think they are Life magazine photos and probably taken December 1969. I was able to find the last picture of those posted at Getty Images. The link says the image was created October 1 1969 but I have trouble believing that. There would have been no reason to to photograph Spahn Ranch Oct. 1. More likely it was taken December 1, 1969.

    https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/interior-view-of-the-kitchen-at-the-spahn-movie-ranch-where-news-photo/50821881?adppopup=true

    Mike Armstrong is pictured in a couple of newspaper articles dated December 2, 1969 so he would have been at the ranch as early as Dec. 1969, perhaps earlier.

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  8. Getty does a really bad job dating "their" photographs because they are a really shitty company on many different levels. But they date these photographs from Oct 69 to Jan 70. There's zero chance these were taken before December 2, 1969 though. zero

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  9. Wasn't it Mike Armstrong that claimed that he had seen Sharon Tate at Spahn? Said she knew Watson and Manson?

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    1. Lol yeah I'm sure she was out there all the time

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  10. To my eyes, the guy with the kid on his lap definitely resembles a guy named "Pat", who was in a 1970 picture with Hugh Rocky Todd rounding up Appaloosa horses. If you look at pictures of Armstrong, he has a severely receding hairline, while this guy doesn't. Also, the girl climbing out of the trailer resembles a later Family hanger-on named Jennifer Gentry.

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    1. If you Google "Hugh Rocky Todd March 1971" the photo of "Pat" and Rocky with the horses will pop up. Maybe it can also be added for comparison.

      March '71! Still remnants around!!

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  11. I guess Spahn Ranch is a better home than Terminal Island was... but compare that shithole with Dennis Wilson’s crib and wow... a serious downgrade in accommodations!

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  12. Two children in the top photo.

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  13. Looks like the "environmentalists" did such a stellar job keeping the place clean & junk-free! The orchards & rows of home grown vegetable plants must've been missed in the photos, I see!

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  14. Ann, the soil at Spahn wouldn't be so hot for tomatoes. It's decomposed sandstone.

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  15. I'm bad at recognizing faces so, please help me here. Mike Armstrong and Randy Star are two different people, right?

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  16. Yes, Orwhut, they are two different people. You can see a couple of pix of Randy here-

    https://www.mansonblog.com/2018/02/randy-starr-and-creeping-terror.html

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  17. Deb,
    Thank you. People don't have to look very much alike to confuse me.
    Whut

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  18. OT
    Poo Bear was on one of the entertainment magazine shows tonight. I think it was either Inside Edition or Entertainment Tonight.

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    1. Probably INSIDE EDITION

      I just found a print link dated 1 day ago

      https://www.insideedition.com/charles-mansons-son-says-he-wishes-hed-gotten-know-him-his-death-54566

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  19. There is a piece in the LA Times with link to video.

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  20. LETS remember it was SPAHNS RANCH and NOT manson's ....spahn did NOT CARE about the environment so the place looked liked shit...MANSON just cant come in and say where cleaning up this place..its not mansons place to say that ....the family did care about the earth (ATWA) AND still does..but the ranch wasnt there place to change. they were just squatters...thats why you dont see flower beds and flowers and the trash gone..because thats the way George wanted it ....

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  21. SVH, where is there any evidence that the group did or even said anything let alone did anything that was environmently friendly ? I don't count
    killing a a large number of the population as a sound policy. Show me where they did anything until much past the trials when Sandy sent death threats to companies that polute and LF pointed a gun at Ford to save the red would trees. If I had a nickel for everyone who professes their love for things and does not one thing to actually prove it with actions I'd be rich. No offense meant it's just that I've seen nothing that backs up environmentilism.many were highly educated, would have been lobbyist.

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  22. OFF TOPIC

    1967 Debut Season of MANNIX...Show about a young girl being pulled into a commune/cult...pretty nutty that the band in this episode is Topanga's hot new (circa '67) group.



    Holy screamin' feedback Batman!
    I can see why Stills thought this recorded performance was so good!

    Also...kinda interesting that Topanga's hottest new buzz band at the time of filming here, is in an episode about a young girl ending up in a "hippie" commune/cult...seeing how the Manson Family were not long for residing in Topanga also, AND - Manson Family member Ella Jo Bailey was a Buffalo Springfield groupie prior to joining with the MF.

    Interesting, if irrelevant. Six Degrees of Separation

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    1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF9bhAfl0rI

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    2. Bluebird above (scorching hot version)

      For What It's Worth below

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G_JMvgl1DB4

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    3. Im a huge Mannix fan despite being born in 71 thanks to re runs and I remember seeing that episode, season 1 was my least favorite because in that season he was working for the big investigation agency Initech with all the big mainframe computers punching out assignments, the show became a classic when he got his own office and took on Gail Fischer as his secretary

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    4. Agreed. Too obscure a premise for the masses

      His kustom cars were always cool too. In this 1st year he had quite the landshark!

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    5. Yes always great cars and almost always great story lines and writing, Conners was the original PI with that type of sarcasm, after a couple of years Garner came along and totally knocked it out of the park as Jim Rockford with his cynicism and sarcasm but the directors and writers on Mannix weren't afraid to make him look human and flawed and not always come out the winner

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  23. Doug said...
    "Manson Family member Ella Jo Bailey was a Buffalo Springfield groupie prior to joining with the MF."

    I though Catharine "Cappy" Gillies was the Buffalo Springfield fan?

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  24. Charlie has said in a couple of jalhouse interviews that he was a Buffalo Springfield fan, Moody Blues as well

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  25. starviego typed:

    Doug said...
    "Manson Family member Ella Jo Bailey was a Buffalo Springfield groupie prior to joining with the MF."

    I though Catharine "Cappy" Gillies was the Buffalo Springfield fan?


    You are correct, starviego....Gillies was the Springfield groupie, not Ella Jo....

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    1. Brain dead
      Thanks for correcting me gentleman

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  26. What did I do today you ask? I had to spend an hour and a half with the Los Angeles FBI field agent doing a full report and work up on David Mirza of Missouri, aka Mon Durphy, a guy who not only has been a scumbag drunk driver but also a burglar. They were real interested in his cyberstalking and threats via interstate communications and I suspect will monitor him and pay him a visit. Kinda sucks to be him the next few weeks.

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  27. The Family's environmentalism was just the replacing of one doomsday scenario with another. Every religion has to have one to justify the actions of the participants.

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  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  29. From the definitions I've found of groupies, they range from those who follow the concerts, to those who sleep with roadies, to a few who become girlfriends of the performers. Does anyone know how far up the scale Cappy made it? Did any of the members of Buffalo Springsteen know she existed prior to the murders?

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  30. orwhut said...
    "Did any of the members of Buffalo Springsteen know she existed prior to the murders?"

    None that I have been able to find out.

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  31. Mike Armstrong, who I and some of the others here think might be pictured in these photos' has a film credit in "Hard on the Trail" along with Randy Starr.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067181/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

    The filming Location is listed as Bell Ranch, Santa Susana CA but I think some of it was filmed at Spahn, too.

    I've wondered where Armstrong came from and this might be a clue!

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  32. OFF TOPIC

    Paul Krassner has died. Peripheral Manson figure, I believe he wrote about almost getting it on with Lynette and Sandy.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/obituaries/paul-krassner-dies-at-87.html

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-mystery-behind-the-ma_b_255394

    Ineteresting guy.

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  33. I learned this morning upon reading the online edition of Boonville's Anderson Valley Advertiser that Krassner was in hospice care.

    "I GOT A DREADFUL UPDATE last night on the health of our pal Paul Krassner from Michael Simmons. Paul is very ill and has been moved to hospice care. I just talked with Paul a few days ago. He was bitching at me in his customary way (and with reason) about when his latest story was going to appear in CounterPunch magazine–we’re a little behind. But he was otherwise jovial and didn’t at all let slip just how sick he is. Krassner made life in this country a lot more bearable for people like me…and you too probably, whether you realize it or not. More personally, Paul helped free me to say & write exactly what I thought without giving a damn about those who might take offense.

    — Jeffrey St. Clair"

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  34. Starviego,
    Thank you for responding about Cappy. I thought the Buffalo Springsteen connection was first mentioned in Helter Skelter. Can't find it there.

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  35. Buffalo SPRINGSTEEN
    Stupid spell check
    At least it keeps it interesting
    Lol

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  36. This is just my two cents, but these guys don't look much like what I would think a ranch foreman would look like. Barefoot and raggedy doesn't sync up with ranch hand.

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  37. Paul Krassner was quite a character besides him humor he was a conspiracist of the Mae Brussell school.

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