Barbara Hoyt (December 27, 1951 – December 3, 2017) was a member of the "
Manson Family", led by
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
.
Hoyt was a
witness
In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...
in District Attorney
Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent T. Bugliosi Jr. (; August 18, 1934 – June 6, 2015) was an American prosecutor and author who served as Deputy District Attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office between 1964 and 1972.
He became best known for s ...
's prosecution of Manson and his followers for the
Tate-LaBianca murders, one of the highest-profile murder trials in history.
Life
Hoyt lived with the
Manson Family at Spahn Ranch.
In 1971, five Manson followers —
Catherine Share,
Lynette Fromme, Dennis Rice,
Steve Grogan and
Ruth Ann Moorehouse
Ruth (or its variants) may refer to:
Places
France
* Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France
Switzerland
* Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny
United States
* Ruth, Alabama
* Ruth, Ar ...
— were charged with attempted murder after they plotted to murder Hoyt to prevent her testifying for the prosecution during the Tate/LaBianca murder trial.
Moorehouse was to lure Hoyt to
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the isla ...
, Hawaii, so that she would be unable to testify. Once in Hawaii, if Hoyt could not be convinced not to testify, Moorehouse was to kill her. On September 9, 1970, as Moorehouse was preparing to board her flight back to California, it was alleged that Moorehouse bought Hoyt a hamburger and laced it with a multi-dose of
LSD, then left her and flew back to California. Hoyt survived the attempt on her life.
Share and the others were initially charged with
attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions.
Canada
Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seven y ...
; the charge was later reduced to conspiracy to dissuade a witness from testifying.
Share, Fromme, Rice, and Grogan served 90-day sentences in the Los Angeles County Jail. Moorehouse never served her sentence, as she failed to appear at the sentencing hearing.
After Hoyt had pursued a career in nursing, she had become friends with
Sharon Tate's sister, Debra.
Death
Hoyt died of
natural causes
In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distin ...
on December 3, 2017 at the age of 65
References
External links
Barbara Hoyt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoyt, Barbara
1951 births
2017 deaths
Deaths from kidney failure
Manson Family
People from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho