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Mar 16, 2008 11:09 am US/Mountain
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New Manson Grave Site Explored
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) ―
Rumors have swirled about possible Charles Manson family victims buried over the California high desert. Now tests suggest there's reason to dig.
Just-completed follow up tests by leading forensic investigators suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground.
The test findings conclude there are two likely clandestine grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.
Mason was denied parole last year, the 11th time since 1978 that the cult leader was ordered to continue serving life sentences for a murderous rampage in 1969.
Prosecutors said Manson and his followers, known as the "Manson Family," were trying to incite a race war that he believed was prophesied in the Beatles song "Helter Skelter."
At the time the group lived together in a quasi commune, Manson was an unemployed ex-convict and occasional musician. After he was convicted of the murders, recordings of his songs were released commercially and a number of artists have covered the songs in the decades since.
Manson was originally going to be executed, but the death sentence was dropped to life imprisonment when a decision by the Supreme Court of California temporarily eliminated the state's death penalty. California eventually reestablished the death penalty but this did not affect Manson.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)