David Hannum - CharlesManson.com

David Hannum

David Hannum (aka David Hanum, David B. Hanum)

David Brian Hannum was arrested during the Spahn Ranch raid with three other ranch hands

David Hannum was born on January 8, 1949 in Burbank, California. He was a ranch hand at Spahn Ranch arriving there on August 11, 1969, the day after the Tate-Labianca murders took place. David was arrested during the Spahn Ranch raid with three other ranch hands in the early morning hours of Saturday, August 16, 1969. According to arrest records from that day David had blond hair, blue eyes and weighed approximately 170lbs. At the time of David’s arrest he was listed as living in Venice, California.

David Hannum’s parents owned a ranch in Olancha, Inyo County, which was about three hours northwest from Barker Ranch off highway 190. It is believed that David helped the family greatly with their departure from Los Angeles to Death Valley while his aunt and uncle, Joy and Roy Hunter occupied the ranch for a period of time. It is believed that David with the permission of his mother who owned the properly, allowed the Family to park vehicles there and use the Hannum’s ranch as a staging area to run supplies to Barker Ranch. In 1969,

It is also known that Tex Watson confessed the Tate-Labianca killings to Diane Lake while they were hiding out at Hannum ranch.

David came into play in another incident when Linda Kasabian eventually escaped from Spahn Ranch by borrowing Hannum’s car in her getaway; Manson had instructed her to go to the prison where two of the girls were being held and to tell them to “keep quite” and that “everything was fine” but she was not able to get into the prison as her identification was not accepted. Manson told her to try again the next day and when she did she fled in Hannun’s vehicle, however it broke down just outside of Albuquerque. When Linda tried to have the vehicle repaired using a credit card Bruce Davis had previously given her for gas she found out that the credit card was no longer any good and decided to write Hanum a letter letting him know where the vehicle was and she left the keys in the truck. Hannum, obviously then angered, went to retrieve the vehicle after receiving the letter from Susan Atkins.

Hannum testified that after he had killed a rattlesnake, Manson, who was nearby, had threatened him.