Edwin Colin grew up at Corriganville movie ranch where his father was Crash Corrigan's foreman. Ed met many people, some famous western stars and many, many stuntmen who were the stars of Corriganville's weekend shows. One such stuntman who stood out to Ed was Shorty Shea. Shorty became a close friend of the Colin family, frequently coming over for family dinners and being an older "big brother" to Ed. Shorty was the one to pick out Ed's first horse and teach him a thing or two about working on a ranch.
To honor his friend, Ed has written a touching memoir along with attempting to find the truths behind Shorty's murder. Ed has plenty to say about Shorty but when it came to the particulars about Charles Manson and the Family his knowledge was a little sketchy. He found there were so many conflicting versions about what actually happened that he sought someone to help him through the Manson maze.
That is how I became to be the "with" author on this book. It wasn't a project I wished to take on, writing a book takes an enormous amount of time, but Ed convinced me that my help would greatly enrich his book and it was clear to me that Ed truly wanted to do this project as correctly as possible.
The book is self published, we don't have a website but we do have a Facebook page where you can contact Ed to purchase a book.
https://www.facebook.com/Charles-Manson-and-the-Killing-of-Shorty-Shea-673701689797293/?ref=bookmarks
Ed did an interview about the book with his local newspaper. You can read the article here-
https://mailtribune.com/news/top-stories/family-secrets-book-sheds-light-on-murder-by-manson?fbclid=IwAR1S0EQOjf54CC18NMPftyTOfgwA1ndsTK1cZBMQIQBU2Ao7NcxNlzZwPlw
25 comments:
Is the cover pic from last year's tour?
Yes, it is. It's a picture that I took, I had to crop my feet out of it and Ed had someone take Matilda West's name off the headstone because we didn't know how her family, whoever they are, might feel having it on the cover of a book.
https://mailtribune.com/news/top-stories/family-secrets-book-sheds-light-on-murder-by-manson
Manson focused his wrath on Shea — spreading a rumor that he was a snitch who had triggered the raid.
Colin said another person was the actual informant.
Does Colin give the name of the informant in his book?
Star, that info for the book was obtained from the Spahn Ranch raid warrant. The informant is not named in the warrant. The book is intended as a memoir and has information and stories about Shorty that few have heard. There is not really anything in the book that we don't already know regarding Manson, most of those who read the blog are light years ahead of the general public on the subject.
Ed wanted to write the book for a broad audience, one like himself, that had only smattering of knowledge about the case.
Mon, the book does mention a few movies that Shorty was in but Shorty hadn't earned a SAG card so was not in any credits for the movies.
For instance, we know that Shorty was in Deadwood 76 because it came out in the trial. There's a link to the movie in a post titled Shorty's Guns.
Come on EVERYONE- The Col has sent his $23 and the rest of you can have less eclairs and order this book to support the best researcher on this blog. Just fucking but it now. People like Mon can ask Saint to do a book on tape or something. DO IT NOW. I haaven't got my yet but can safely say it is better than Tom O'Neill's, which I have read.
Hi DebS.
Did Edwin Colin and/or Lance Victor mention to you anything about bikers & "biker groups" being up at SPAHN RANCH when The Charles Manson Family was there?
Thanks
Mario George Nitrini 111
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The OJ Simpson Case
No, MGNIII, nothing specific about biker groups.
Ok, thanks Ms DebS.
Mario George Nitrini 111
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The OJ Simpson Case
Deb I've never heard a final say legally as to whether Bill Vance and Larry Bailey were there and participated, obviously they were never charged or prosecuted for it but what is your opinion, do you think they were there?
What part (if any) did Manson actually play in the killing of Shorty ? I ask this because for years now, I have been listening to that old chestnut " Charlie never murdered anyone " . Am I wrong, but I argue that Manson was charged and found guilty of the murder of Shorty Shea . I'm sure the answer is probably in this book, but I obviously haven't read it yet.
Mon, Vance and Bailey were either there or they knew enough about the murder to have been charged with something. I think that Manson, Grogan and Davis were charged because of what they said to several people after the murder. Apparently Vance and Bailey did not verbalize about Shorty's murder and perhaps Tex could be included in that thought, too, since the the DA said they didn't have enough evidence to charge him.
Bill Vance pretty much evaporated early on so that in itself says something. We will have something on Vance in a coming post.
Looking forward to that, Bill has always been the mystery man of the group for me, I know he had done some long stretches of time and according to Charlie and others was a pretty tough customer, I think he had a big role in getting some of the girls stripping and dancing jobs around Chatsworth
Charlie Higgins, see above comment.
DebS - Was Bill Vance related to Jerry Vance (Cowboy/Stuntman/Trick Rider etc) at Corriganville? Seems there's MF/TLB crossover here too. According to this site posting b
(link below) Jerry doubled for Bruce Lee (as Kato) in his Green Hornet days.
Quite possibly when Jay and Sharon were taking lessons from Lee. Am I the only one who finds it odd that Bruce Lee had a stunt double?! And, a caucasian one at that?
http://movielocationsplus.com/corrigan/where.htm
(About 1/2 way down for Jerry Vance blurb)
Bill was from back east near where Manson was brought up, East Tennessee, east Kentucky, West Virginia, there's a telephone recording from Charlie talking about Bill serving 9 years in Brushy Mountain prison in eastern Tennessee
Also like Charlie said Bill Vance wasn't even his real name, said he was going by a different alias everytime he saw him, my guess is that "Bill" was either an escaped con or a parole jumper on the run, probably why he kept a fairly low profile at the ranch
Doug, no Bill Vance was not related to Jerry Vance. As Mon said, Bill Vance was not his true name.
However Bill Vance, under that name, did appear in "Linda and Abilene" which was filmed at Spahn.
https://www.cielodrive.com/updates/linda-and-abilene-lost-films-of-herschell-gordon-lewis/
Lol that movie is not what I expected when I checked that link, what was with all the softcore porn being filmed out there in the late 60s? Funny thing is even to this day I think the Chatsworth/Canoga Park area is known as a big porn producing area
As someone who has always been intrigued by the unfortunate Shorty's saga, I am very, very interested in this book, but I need to know one thing before I purchase it - is Lee Saunooke AKA Windee Buckley used as one of the sources of information? If she is, that could be a deal killer for me.
Gorodish, no she is not. She did testify at Grogan's trial and that is mentioned but we also say that some of the tales she has told since can't be verified.
DebS-thanks! Just purchased the book; looking forward to reading it.
Deb did you look into Ruby Pearl saying she remembered seeing Charlie, Tex, Bruce and Clem surrounding Shorty on the boardwalk area around the time she left the ranch in the evening? Has it even been determined when they pulled of the killing, night or day?
Gorodish. Thank You!
Mon, yes, we discuss Ruby Pearl and her seeing Shorty surrounded. Buy the book!
Ordered via Prime. I appreciate the work you and the others put into this blog.
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