Johnny Swartz - CharlesManson.com

Johnny Swartz

Johnny Schwartz (aka Johnny Schwartz, Johnny Bar None Ranch)

John Harold Swartz was a friend of Windy Bucklee, the wife of ranch hand Randy Starr who worked off and on at Spahn Ranch.

Johnny Swartz was born on September 29, 1942 in Colorado. He was a Manson Family member who at the time of his arrest at Spahn Ranch was using an address in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles called Reseda. Johnny was about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 135 lbs., with blond hair and blue eyes, according to his arrest report.

In the book “Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders” written by Greg King, it is mentioned that a day after the Gary Hinman murder, Johnny Schwartz was arrested at the Spahn Ranch when his 1959 Ford was found to have invalid registration. At the time the police where there poking around, Charles Manson, amazingly, had suggested to the officers, in a threatening manner, that he had armed troops hidden in the hills above the ranch. Believe it or not, this was somewhat effective and the police left arresting only Johnny over the vehicle registration issue.

Johnny Swartz was also a friend of Windy Bucklee, the wife of ranch hand Randy Starr who worked off and on at Spahn Ranch. Windy was beaten badly by Manson for her refusal to loan her truck to Manson and Bill Vance for robberies. The incident caused Windy’s friend and Manson victim Donald “Shorty” Shea to go after Vance and Manson for the assault once he found out and he gave both of them a beating. This was likely a contributing factor to Shea’s death as well; retaliation by Manson.

For a period of time during the Tate Labianca trials, Swartz was hiding out at Windy’s home along with Larry Bailey and Juan Flynn. Windy, Juan and Johnny were scheduled to testify at the trial and while Bailey was there pretending to also be afraid of the Family, Manson attempted to use Bailey as a spy in Windy’s home. There it was mentioned that Johnny sat in front of the TV most evenings watching western movies and TV shows.

Eventually the group figured out that Larry was there for another purpose and when somehow discovered, Juan, Johnny and Windy took Larry to a spot near Spahn Ranch, stripped him naked and tied him to a tree. It is unknown how long he was left there.