Flint War Council gun. There was also a giant papier-mâché gun, with bullets attached to pictures of President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro Agnew, California Governor Ronald Reagan, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, and Sharon Tate, who had recently been murdered by Charles Manson and his cult followers. Two important decisions were made during the War Council. The first of these decisions was to go underground, which stemmed from the fact that law enforcement was increasing pressure on the WUO and similar groups (as evidenced by the killing of Fred Hampton), as well as the belief that going underground was the best way to
Manson Family Charles Watson soon joined the group at Spahn's ranch. Watson, a small-town Texan who had quit college and moved to California, met Manson at Dennis Wilson's house. Watson gave Wilson a ride while Wilson was hitchhiking after his car was wrecked. Spahn nicknamed Watson "Tex" because of his pronounced Texan drawl. In the first days of November 1968, Manson established the Family at alternative headquarters in Death Valley's environs, where they occupied two unused or little-used ranches, Myers and Barker. The former, to which the group had initially headed, was owned by the grandmother of a new woman (Catherine Gillies)