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Her parents were active in the French underground and committed suicide during the war. She was adopted and brought to the US by an American family where she attended Hollywood High school and some college. She was a talented pianist and singer. Eventually, she fell in with Charles Manson and his "Family." Although not charged with any of the Family murders, she was a strong supporter of Charles Manson during his 1970-71 trial. She got ten years to life in prison for her involvement in a shootout with the police in Hawthorne CA in August 1971.
Of all members of what became known as the Manson Family, Catherine Share
Her parents were active in the French underground and committed suicide during the war. She was adopted and brought to the US by an American family where she attended Hollywood High school and some college. She was a talented pianist and singer. Eventually, she fell in with Charles Manson and his "Family." Although not charged with any of the Family murders, she was a strong supporter of Charles Manson during his 1970-71 trial. She got ten years to life in prison for her involvement in a shootout with the police in Hawthorne CA in August 1971.
Of all members of what became known as the Manson Family, Catherine Share had the most unconventional background, and among the most tragic. She was born in France during World War II of a Hungarian father and a French mother, who were members of the French resistance against the Nazi occupiers and the Vichy French collaborators. Both of her parents committed suicide while she was very young and she was placed in an orphanage. At the age of 8, she was adopted and taken to Los Angeles by an American couple, where she had to learn English. Her adoptive father was a psychiatrist and her mother a homemaker. They were affluent and did their best to provide young Catherine with a stable home life. However, her father was legally blind and her mother suffered from health problems. Catherine quickly showed great musical ability. She had a beautiful singing voice and by high school was an accomplished violinist. However, she disliked high school as a whole and before she graduated, her mother contracted cancer and committed suicide shortly after. She stayed with her father until he remarried, but she was direction-less and alienated and remained traumatized by her various past tragedies. She dropped out of college and roamed California. She got a role in the adult film The Ramrodder (1969) and soon became involved with the star of the film, a handsome and talented musician named Bobby Beausoleil. She moved in with Bobby and his wife Gail, who had an open marriage. During that time, Bobby spoke admiringly of a former band mate who had a following among some young people, an ex convict named Charles Manson. It wasn't long before Boussoleil introduced them and Share soon became completely enamored with Manson, who lived on a former movie set known as Spahn Ranch. She soon afterwords moved with Manson and his followers, which became known as The Family, and became one of his most dedicated followers. She became known as Gypsy as a result of her dark, mildly exotic beauty. Being slightly older than the other female Family Members and became something like a den mother to them. She used her combination of age and hipness to recruit other girls to Manson. In 1969, she met a homeless teenage mother who had been abandoned by her husband named Linda Kasabian. Manson had ambitions to be a rock star and Share often did background vocals for his songs. Things changed on the night of August 10, 1969, when Manson went Kasabian and Charles 'Tex' Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel to the home of Roman Polanski (who was out of the country) and Sharon Tate with instructions to kill everyone in the house. The following night, he sent them and Steve Grogan and Leslie Van Houten to commit more murders. The grisly killings made lurid headlines around the world. She thought it was over when they were arrested in a police raid on August 16, but they were charged with auto theft and the charges were soon dropped. Not long after, Manson had ordered the murder of Shorty Shea, whom he suspected of being a police informant, and Share ditched Shea's car to help cover up the crime. Shortly afterwords, Manson moved his followers out of Los Angeles into the northern Mojave Desert, but police soon learned of their real crimes and arrested them again. During the infamous Tate/LaBianca murder trial, Share was a visible supporter. During the trial, she testified that Kasabian (who had turned state's evidence) had masterminded the murders. Her testimony was not believed. After the conviction, Share became romantically involved with a Manson associate named Kenneth Como. On August 21, 1971, Share, Como, Mary Brunner and two other associates of Manson robbed a Los Angeles gun store, stealing some 150 firearms, but they set off a police alarm. After a shootout with the police, they were arrested, and Share herself had three bullet wounds. She revealed in her confession that they had planned to to hijack a 747 airplane and take the passengers hostage in order to secure the release of Manson and other Family members. She was sentenced to five years in prison. She and Como were married for a while, but she was arrested again for participating in a credit card scam. She was imprisoned again for a few years. Afterwards, she cleaned up her life and has kept a low profile. She remarried and became a born again Christian. She has contemplated writing a biography on her years with Manson.
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