What ever happened to Joe Dorgan?

One of my pet theories about the entire Manson saga would likely have required Joe Dorgan to have made himself a stranger.

It would just figure Dorgan into the alleged Hinman drug burn. But it would only play out IF Dorgan did, in fact, have a connection to the Straight Satans. However, IF it really did play all the way out, it could explain Hinman, Tate and LaBianca in one fairly tidy package. With Dorgan and Danny DeCarlo at the center of it all.

IF Frykowski was trying to splash his way into the L.A. drug market, he might have been offering some Grand Opening specials, which may have been more attractive than the prices the Satans were getting through the Hinman/Manson connection. What if the Satans had spent all their money with Hinman/Manson and suddenly they learn Frykowski has quality stuff at discount prices. It's not too much of a stretch to see that whole deal could have been a burn, but instead of Hinman selling bad drugs, the Satans might have been pushing to get their money back by claiming the drugs were low-rent.

IF Dorgan had a connection to the Straight Satans, there is likelihood he and DeCarlo might have had conversation. And it's not hard to imagine the "fearful" DeCarlo would have fallen from grace at Spahn Ranch, since his club was certainly creating a lot of hard feelings about Hinman's drugs. So there is also likelihood Dorgan and DeCarlo would have talked about that particular problem. What if Dorgan had admitted to DeCarlo that he knew what had really happened, that Hinman's drugs were not really poor quality, they were just over-priced and that the Satans had demanded a refund so they could go buy drugs from Frykowski? Suddenly, we would have a reason for Frykowski & Co. to have been so savagely murdered.

What if Dorgan had told the Satans they were spending far too much money on the Hinman/Manson connection and that he could take them to a man who could sell them product at better prices? And what if Dorgan was believing all the rumors of the day about Rosemary LaBianca having a lot of money? And since Dorgan was hooked up with Rosemary's little girl, what if Dorgan wanted the LaBiancas removed, so his girlfriend would suddenly inherit a lot of money? So Dorgan brokers Frykowski's name to the Satans, in exchange for their promise to take out the LaBiancas.

Cut back to the "frightened" DeCarlo, who realizes he's got the path back to Manson's good graces, if he spills all of this into Manson's lap. "Sorry, Charlie, but Hinman's drugs were really OK, it's just this guy living up on Cielo Drive has better prices. And a buddy of mine turned the club onto this guy, if they would agree to kill his old lady's parents. I really didn't know about any of this until today, but I wanted to tell you about it, right away. Because you and I are tight, right Charlie?"

Manson (or more likely Watson, since he seemed to be the real Spahn Ranch candy man) goes off. Frykowski ends up butchered on the Cielo lawn, we never find out what happened to all the drugs Frykowski was allegedly meant to have and the LaBiancas die the very next night. Manson shows the Satans he's the one they need to be dealing with, because he took down Frykowski and he also took care of the sticky in-law mess on Waverly Drive. The Manson bunch explain to DeCarlo that he could end up just as dead as everyone at Cielo and Waverly, if he ever withholds information from them ever again.

DeCarlo was walking a very fine line, as it was. And the line might be a lot finer than any of us realized. He had drug charges hanging over his head. He had stolen motorcycle charges hanging over his head. He admitted to that harmless little conversation with Manson about using lye to get rid of a corpse. (Of course him being the saint he is, we "know" he really didn't know what corpse Manson was wanting to conceal.) DeCarlo was a member of the club who allegedly owned the sword that carved up Hinman, so it's not hard to imagine DeCarlo being the one who brought the sword to Spahn in the first place. DeCarlo was the one who brought a lot of the firearms to the ranch. DeCarlo admitted involvement in the procurement of the rope that was used at Cielo. Have you ever stopped to wonder what DeCarlo neglected to tell anyone, about his role at Spahn Ranch? Is there any further question as to why DeCarlo disappeared, immediately after giving his testimony? He had played his club against the Manson bunch and both sides knew they had DeCarlo stuck in the middle.

And if Dorgan was involved along these lines, he would not have been real popular, either. Which could explain why he suddenly disappeared.

Please note, there are a lot of "ifs", "mights" and "maybes" in the above. I didn't say any of it was gospel, I said it was a pet theory.

He is alive.

I think the DeCarlo connection is one we're never going to learn any more about. DeCarlo is making it pretty clear he wants to maintain his privacy and that's fair to me.

If we acccept what the party line has to stay, the Straight Satans were pissed that DeCarlo was spending time at Spahn Ranch and overlooking his club responsibilities. But if they were so pissed, why they didn't ride into the ranch and kick DeCarlo's backside all the way back to Venice is a mystery.

I'm not naming names, but there are members of this site who have a better-than-average understanding of how the typical biker club operates. And when you try to reconcile that with the actions of DeCarlo and the Straight Satans, nothing adds up.

Most clubs have at least one meeting a week. The Straight Satans (according to Al Springer) met on Friday nights. If you're in another country, in jail or in a coffin, your absence will generally be excused. In all aspects, the club always comes first. DeCarlo was pretty cavalier about it all. Most clubs (and their members) develop an image they work hard to protect. You show no fear to anyone, you never back down from anyone and if someone is a problem, you beat them to the ground. If you cannot handle business on your own, then your club brothers step in, to make sure everyone understands who runs things. Yet DeCarlo (according to Bugliosi) was playing scared? The generally accepted story is the Straight Satans went to Spahn Ranch to take DeCarlo back to Venice, but they sure seemed to have rolled over to play dead, once they got there. Springer says they went to the ranch to kick Manson's ass, but they backed down when Springer learned some guns were missing from the gun room. But you know, had they stormed in there and put a gun of their own against Manson's skull, they would have owned the night. Instead, Manson lays his BS line out for them and they ride back to Venice, leaving Robert Reinhard to brin DeCarlo home the next day. See what I mean, when I say you cannot reconcile their actions?

DeCarlo is a huge question mark. I've seen people ask if he was perhaps a police informant. He could have been, he had a lot of legal problems of his own, and try as you might, it's pretty tough to find he ever spent time in prison. Maybe he was doing some "community service", to avoid spending time locked down. Cats has communicated with a DeCarlo family member who suggests DeCarlo got huckled crossing the Canadian border and possibly on information provided by Sherry Cooper. But when you listen to he and Cooper brag about their credit card scams in Canada, it's hard to believe he didn't get nailed by the Mounties. And mind that TV interview was a CBC production, so it's not as if the Canucks didn't know where to find them.

Running drugs out of Mexico, stealing motorcycles, abuse of a woman who may or may not have been his wife, illegal firearms, the credit card spree in Canada, yet DeCarlo fails to turn up in any prison records. And since he was in the wind without collecting his cut of the reward for bringing Manson to trial, it's pretty clear he was trying to get away from someone. Was it some kids with Buck knives, was it his former club members, was it the law, or??? He was clearly running, but we don't know from whom.

Actually, Watson and Struthers/LaBerge didn't live in the same building, but they did occupy homes within 100 yards of one another. According to Goober maps, Watson's Dracena Drive address was 203 feet away from Struthers/LaBerge's Greenwood Place address. I do not have any evidence to state whether or not they were both occupying those homes at the same time, so that is a question mark for me.