Catherine Share
Encyclopedia
Catherine Louise "Gypsy" Share (born December 10, 1942 in Paris, France) is a former member of Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...

's "Family".

Early life

She was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to a Hungarian violinist father and a German mother. Her parents were both members of the French underground
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...

 movement during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and both committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 when their daughter was two. Share's maternal grandmother died in a ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...

 in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

 and both of Share's paternal grandparents died in concentration camps. Before her parents' suicides, her father made arrangements with a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 lawyer who was secretly helping the underground to plan his daughter's escape.

Through her father's arrangements, Share was adopted by a French woman who later married an American psychologist
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 and they relocated to Hollywood, California. Share graduated from Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School is a Los Angeles Unified School District high school located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.-History:...

 in 1961. Share's childhood in America was, according to Share, a relatively happy one until her adoptive mother was diagnosed with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 and committed suicide when Share was 16. Share then lived with her blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

 adoptive father. After her adoptive father remarried, Share dropped out of college and began wandering California, immersed in the 1960s counterculture.
In 1966 Catherine Share cut a single for the Autumn label in San Francisco who were already riding high with the Beau Brummels. The recording, under the name of Charity Shane, was issued in the UK in the 2000s as a track on the Ace/Big Beat CD "Someone to Love".

Involvement with the Manson Family

In early 1967, Share met Bobby Beausoleil
Bobby Beausoleil
Robert Kenneth "Bobby" Beausoleil is a convicted American murderer and associate of the Charles Manson "Family" who is serving a life sentence. He killed music teacher and fellow associate Gary Hinman on July 27, 1969, and has been imprisoned since his arrest for that crime...

 on the set of a softcore porn movie entitled Ramrodder. She eventually began an affair with the aspiring musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 and, after meeting Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...

 through Beausoleil, moved to the "Family"'s location on Spahn's Ranch, where the other Family members nicknamed her "Gypsy". She was not directly involved in the Tate-LaBianca murders but would testify at the 1970 trial that Family member Linda Kasabian
Linda Kasabian
Linda Kasabian is a former member of Charles Manson's "family". She was the key witness in District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi's prosecution of Manson and his followers for the Tate-LaBianca murders, one of the highest-profile murder trials in American history.-Early life:Born as Linda Darlene...

 was the mastermind behind the murders in an effort to absolve Manson of any involvement in the crimes.

In 1971, Share, along with four other Manson followers: Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme
Lynette Fromme
Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme is an American member of the Manson Family. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975...

, Dennis Rice, Steve "Clem" Grogan
Steve "Clem" Grogan
Steve Dennis "Clem" Grogan , is an American murderer, former member of The Manson Family.Grogan, a musician, dropped out of high school and was involved in minor crimes before joining the Manson family at the Spahn Ranch. Like Charles Manson, he was friends with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys...

 and Ruth Ann "Ouisch" Moorehouse were charged with attempted murder after they devised a plot to murder former fellow Manson Family member Barbara Hoyt to prevent her from testifying for the prosecution against Manson, Susan Atkins
Susan Atkins
Susan Denise Atkins was a convicted American murderer who was a member of the "Manson family", led by Charles Manson. Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in California, over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969...

, Leslie van Houten
Leslie Van Houten
Leslie Louise Van Houten is a former member of Charles Manson's "Family" who was convicted of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.-Life with Manson:...

 and Patricia Krenwinkel
Patricia Krenwinkel
Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel is an American convicted killer and a former member of Charles Manson's murderous commune, known as "the Family". During her time with Manson's group, she was known by various aliases such as "Big Patty", "Yellow", and "Mary Ann Scott", but to The Family she was most...

 during the Tate/LaBianca murder trial. Moorehouse was to lure Hoyt to Honolulu, Hawaii so that she would be unable to testify. If Hoyt could not be convinced in Hawaii to not testify, Moorehouse was to kill her. On September 9, 1971, as Hoyt was preparing to board her flight back to California, Moorehouse bought Hoyt a hamburger and laced it with a multi-dose of LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

 then left her and flew back to California. Hoyt survived the attempt on her life and Share and the others were initally charged with attempted murder
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...

. The charge was later reduced to conspiracy to dissuade a witness from testifying. Share, Fromme, Rice and Grogan served 90 day sentences at the Los Angeles County Jail. Moorehouse never served her sentence, as she failed to appear at the sentencing hearing.

While incarcerated Share gave birth to a son, Phoenix Son on January 5, 1971. The baby was taken from Share and placed into foster care. For years Share refused to confirm the paternity of her son, although refuting that Manson was the father. After her release from prison, she was reunited with her son and confirmed that Steve "Clem" Grogan was the father.

On August 21, 1971, Share, accompanied by her then-husband Kenneth Como and Family member Mary Brunner
Mary Brunner
Mary Theresa Brunner is a former member of the Manson Family who was present during the 1969 murder of Gary Allen Hinman, a California musician and UCLA Ph.D. candidate in sociology...

 and Family associates Dennis Rice, Charles Lovett, and Larry Bailey drove a white van to a Hawthorne, California
Hawthorne, California
Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. The city at the 2010 census had a population of 84,293, up from 84,112 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...

 Western Surplus Store. Once inside the store, the group brandished guns and ordered the store patrons and clerks to lie on the ground. They then went about taking 143 rifles from the premises, loading them into their van, while a store clerk managed to trip the silent alarm. According to police officers, the group then began debating whether or not to kill all of those who were in the store.

The group's plan was to hijack a Boeing 747
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...

 and threaten to kill one passenger every hour until Manson and fellow Family members were released from prison. When a police squad car arrived, Share opened fire on the vehicle, shattering the windshield. As more squad cars arrived, they were able to block the van from fleeing from the scene by opening fire on the Family. When police finally gained control of the scene and apprehended the group; Brunner, Share and Bailey were injured.

Brunner and Share were convicted of the crime and incarcerated at the California Institution for Women
California Institution for Women
California Institution for Women is a female-only state prison located in the city of Chino, San Bernardino County, California.-Facilities:...

 where Leslie Van Houten
Leslie Van Houten
Leslie Louise Van Houten is a former member of Charles Manson's "Family" who was convicted of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.-Life with Manson:...

, Susan Atkins
Susan Atkins
Susan Denise Atkins was a convicted American murderer who was a member of the "Manson family", led by Charles Manson. Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in California, over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969...

 and Patricia Krenwinkel
Patricia Krenwinkel
Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel is an American convicted killer and a former member of Charles Manson's murderous commune, known as "the Family". During her time with Manson's group, she was known by various aliases such as "Big Patty", "Yellow", and "Mary Ann Scott", but to The Family she was most...

 were serving their sentences for their participation in the Tate/LaBianca murders. During her prison sentence, Share served five years for her participation in the Hawthorne shootout and was released in 1975. Following her release from prison, Share disassociated herself from the "Family" and sought surgical treatment to remove the "X" she had previously carved into her forehead as a sign of solidarity with other Manson acolytes.

After the Manson Family

In 1979, Share was convicted in absentia in the state of California on six counts of mail fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property as well as fraudulent use of a credit card. Share had initially fled to Canada, then returned to the United States to serve out her sentence.

In July 2006, Share returned to the remnants of Spahn Ranch
Spahn Ranch
Spahn Ranch, also known as the Spahn Movie Ranch, was a movie ranch used for filming generally Western-themed movies and television programs. With mountainous terrain, boulder-strewn scenery, and an 'old Western town' set, Spahn Ranch was a versatile filming site for many scripts...

 to be interviewed about her role in the Manson Family for the series Our Generation on The History Channel
The History Channel
History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...

.

In 2007, Share was interviewed about her involvement with the Manson Family by forensic psychologist
Forensic psychology
Forensic psychology is the intersection between psychology and the criminal justice system. It involves understanding criminal law in the relevant jurisdictions in order to be able to interact appropriately with judges, attorneys and other legal professionals...

 Dr. Michael Stone for the American television series Most Evil
Most Evil
Most Evil is an American forensics television program on Investigation Discovery presented by forensic psychiatrist Michael Stone of Columbia University. On the show, Stone rates murderers on a scale of evil that he has developed...

on the Investigation Discovery network. Today, Share is a self-proclaimed Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 who has a close relationship with her son and speaks out against cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

s.

External links

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