Bruce Davis Parole Hearing Will a Manson "family" member go free? Charles Manson disciple Bruce Davis (aka Bruce McMillan) has tried 17 times to gain parole since he was convicted in March 1972 for murdering Donald "Shorty" Shea and Gary Hinman. On September 24, he'll make his 18th attempt. Davis, who was Charles Manson's chief lieutenant, committed the murders as part of a month-long killing spree by the Manson Family in the summer of 1969 in southern California. (These were not related to the Sharon Tate and Rosemary LaBianca murders of Aug. 9 and 10, 1969.) Hinman was killed before, and Shea was killed after, the Tate/LaBianca murders. [Charles Manson's parole hearings] Hinman was a rock musician who Manson met at the home of Beach Boys member Dennis Wilson. Believing that Hinman was wealthy, Manson was eager to have the musician join the Family. When Hinman refused, Manson, Davis and Family member Bobby Beausoleil tortured and murdered him on July, 25, 1969. Donald "Shorty" Shea was 36 years old when he was brutally tortured and killed by Davis, Manson and other Family members. Shea was a hired ranch hand at Spahn Ranch, where the Family lived. He was not a Family member. Shea was believed to be a target for three reasons: he was trying to get the Family off the ranch, he was married to a black woman, and he may have known about the Tate/LaBianca murders. Shea "disappeared" in late August 1969, but his corpse went undiscovered until 1979, when another Family member, Steve "Clem" Grogan, seeking parole for the murder of Shea, agreed to tell authorities where the body was. Shea's remains were found and Grogan was paroled in 1986. To date, Grogan is the only Manson Family member convicted of murder to have been paroled. According to one of the prosecutors, the murder of Shorty Shea was only the third "no body" murder case to be prosecuted in the United States. Davis' trial ran from November 1971 to March 1972. When the trial began, California had a death penalty and Davis' jury was qualified to put him to death. In February, 1972, California's Supreme Court declared the state's death penalty statute cruel and unusual and, thus, unconstitutional under the state's constitution. As a result, more than 100 individuals on death row -- including Manson Family members Charles Manson, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkle -- had their sentences commuted to life. There was no sentence of life without parole at the time. Parole eligibility was in 7 years and for the Manson family members, that meant they first visited the parole board in 1978. [Leslie Van Houten's parole hearings] Davis is now 55 years old and has served more than 25 years for the murders of Hinman and Shea. He is currently housed in the California Men's Colony (CMC) in San Luis Obispo, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles. CMC is a state prison for minimum- and medium-security inmates. At one point, Tex Watson was also housed at CMC. According to prosecutor Stephen Kay, Watson was the head of the Protestant chapel at CMC and Davis was his assistant. In the early 1990s, Kay objected to these particular activities given the history of the Manson family and Watson was transferred. Two of the original attorneys will attend the parole hearing, Los Angeles prosecutor Anthony Manzella and defense attorney George Denny. Davis went before the panel just one year ago, which may be a good sign for him: by law, he is only entitled to a parole hearing every 3 years. --Kathryn Rubenstein Reported by Court TV's Beth Karas. top of page