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| Grogan and Todd courtesy of lapl.org |
Inyo County District Attorney Frank Fowles had an
agenda. I expect that he was a bit miffed that Los Angeles County had swooped
up most of the people arrested in the Barker Ranch Raids. His county had spent
a lot of time, manpower and money on the Manson Family and Los Angeles was
getting all of the press. Few, if any, of the people arrested in Inyo County
were convicted of anything in that county. They had either been released for
lack of evidence or transferred to LA to face more serious charges.
By December 3, 1969 only 11 of those arrested remained in the Inyo County jail and the announcement had just been made that Charles Manson and a few of his Family members were responsible for the Tate and LaBianca murders.
One person that Fowles set his sights on was
Steve Grogan. This letter sounds like he wanted Grogan in the worst way. By
this time Grogan had been transferred to Los Angeles to answer for the stolen
truck charges and the wanted charge for the escape from a mental hospital in
Ventura County. Grogan settled both of those charges and had been frequenting
the Los Angeles County Court House with other Family members.
August 3, 1970
Sergeant Paul Whitely
Homicide Bureau
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
Hall of Justice
Los Angeles, California
Dear Paul:
Re: Randy J
Morglea
The last time you were up here I mentioned that
there was a Randy Morglea who was apprehended with Tufts during one of the
California Highway Patrol raids which occurred on October 10, 1969. Enclosed is a California Highway Patrol
report concerning the particular raid, and on page 3, in the last paragraph,
you will see Morglea's name mentioned.
Morglea was charged with possession of a sawed-off shotgun and when it
appeared he was 15 years old he was certified as a juvenile. Subsequently, he was sent to Patton State
Hospital along with Dianne Lake under a conservatorship. His treatment was terminated at Patton and he
was released by our court into the custody of his mother.
I have received a request from Vincent Bugliosi
to recharge Tufts, aka Steve Grogan, with the possession of the sawed-off
shotgun. The only possible defense would
be that the shotgun was actually possessed by Morglea instead of Tufts. A statement from Morglea would be very
interesting and even an admission that the shotgun was possessed by Tufts would
give me perhaps all I need to put Tufts away following a conviction when I
re-file.
Sgt. Paul Whitely
Page 2
August 3, 1970
You indicated that you had never talked to Morglea,
who also was known by the name Scott Bell Davis and Todd. He was with the Family for quite a while and
might have some interesting information for you. In any case, when you question him, I would
appreciate it if you slip in a question or two about who possessed the
shotgun. This would be very helpful to
me and any statement in that regard would be valuable as the least I could do
is use it as a prior inconsistent statement when he called as a witness.
His mother is a member of the "Fountain of
the World" religious sect. She
appears to me to be a very nice lady although rather strange. She is totally against Manson and I am sure
she would help us any way she can.
Morglea is supposed to be with Mrs. Todd at this point. Her address is as follows.
Mrs. Todd
Route 5 Box 523
Box Canyon Road
Canoga Park, California
Her phone number at her employment is Area Code
213-348-5161. She also has a friend
where she may be reached and her address is as follows:
Harriet Irving
27 Box Canyon Road
Canoga Park, California
Phone: (213) 347-9281
I am also including a psychiatric report on this
boy for background information for you. If you have any luck and can help me
out let me know. We are all anxious to
see Tufts put away.
Very truly yours,
Frank H. Fowles
District Attorney
*The psychiatric report on Morglea was not with the documents I received.
Apparently Frank Fowles did get his wish. Grogan
was to appear in court, in Inyo County, for possession of the sawed-off shotgun
November 11, 1970.
Fowles victory was short lived because on
December 18, 1970 Grogan was released from the Inyo County jail to Los Angeles
County to be charged and prosecuted for the murder of Shorty Shea.
By the time Grogan was paroled in 1985 the
statute of limitations for the sawed-off shotgun charge had long since run out.
While I knew that Dianne Lake aka Diane Bluestein
had been sent to Patton State Hospital, I did not know that Hugh Rocky Todd aka
Randy Morglea had also been sent there. The first article in this post is dated
December 3, 1969 stating that all 11 with charges pending were still in Inyo
County’s custody, it was quite some time before they were sent to the state
hospital apparently.
A previous post about the Fountain of the World quotes a December 11, 1969 article where Rocky Todd’s mother says that she has not seen or heard from her son since around October 1, 1969. That’s a long time for a juvenile not to have been identified and reunited with a parent. Rocky did not look particularly old for his age, he was only 15 years old.
