By Christmas time, Watkins had told the Los Angeles District Attorney's office what he knew of the Family's activities. He related a Manson admission, made to him shortly after the Family had moved to the desert, of participation in the killing of Spahn ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea, murdered not long after the Tate–LaBianca crimes. Even so, the tie between Watkins and the Family was unbroken. Watkins visited Manson at the Los Angeles County jail and moved in with Family members at a house in Van Nuys. He continued to visit Manson and acted as messenger between Manson and Manson’s female co-defendants. Moreover, he assumed quasi-leadership of the Family's remnant.