Editing Manson Family (section)

==== Breakthrough ====
Still working separately from the Tate team, the LaBianca team checked with the sheriff's office in mid-October about possible similar crimes. They learned of the Hinman case. They also learned that the Hinman detectives had spoken with Beausoleil's girlfriend, Kitty Lutesinger. She had been arrested a few days earlier with members of "the Manson Family".<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}}

The arrests, for car thefts, had taken place at the desert ranches to which the Family had moved. Unknown to authorities, its members had been searching [[Death Valley]] for a hole in the ground, what they believed was access to the Bottomless Pit.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|228–233}}<ref name="watkins4"/><ref name="watson12"/> A joint force of [[National Park Service Ranger]]s and officers from the [[California Highway Patrol]] and the [[Inyo County, California|Inyo County]] Sheriff's Office: federal, state, and county personnel, had raided both the Myers and Barker ranches after following evidence left when Family members had burned an [[Heavy equipment|earthmover]] owned by [[Death Valley National Park|Death Valley National Monument]].<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|125–127}}<ref name="Sanders"/>{{rp|282–283}}<ref name="watkins4"/> The raiders had found stolen dune buggies and other vehicles, and had arrested two dozen people, including Manson. A Highway Patrol officer found Manson hiding in a cabinet beneath Barker's bathroom sink. The officers had no idea that the people they were arresting were involved with the murders in Los Angeles.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77, 125–127}}

Following up leads a month after they had spoken with Lutesinger, LaBianca detectives contacted members of a motorcycle gang Manson tried to recruit as bodyguards while the Family was at Spahn Ranch.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}} While the gang members were providing information that suggested a link between Manson and the Tate/LaBianca murders,<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|84–90, 99–113}} a dormitory mate of [[Susan Atkins]] informed LAPD of the Family's involvement in the crimes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|99–113}} Atkins was booked for the Hinman murder after she told sheriff's detectives that she had been involved in it.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}}<ref>Report on questioning of Katherine Lutesinger and Susan Atkins October 13, 1969, by Los Angeles Sheriff's officers Paul Whiteley and Charles Guenther.</ref> Transferred to [[Sybil Brand Institute]], a detention center in [[Monterey Park, California]], she had begun talking to bunkmates Ronnie Howard and Virginia Graham, to whom she gave accounts of the events in which she had been involved.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|91–96}}