Marcus Arneson

Marcus Arneson (aka Mark Bloodworth Damion, Mark Arneson, Mark Damion, Mark AAronson, Thomas Scott Barnett, Jerry Lee Parker, Marc, Damian)

Marcus John Arneson was born in Los Angeles on June 24, 1946.

Marcus Arneson was a member of the Manson family and is most notable by his unknowing involvement with the Gary Hinman murder by being the person who sold Hinman’s 1958 Volkswagen van. The purchaser, Louis Puttek was pulled over and arrested driving Hinman’s small bus-like vehicle with license plate PGE 388.

Officers advised Puttek of his Constitutional rights and took him into custody. During questioning, Puttek stated that he met a Mark Bloodworth (a.k.a. MARK AARONSON) in the middle of August, 1969 and paid him $350.00 in cash for the vehicle and received a pink slip signed and dated by a Gary Hinman. Puttek described Arneson as having his front teeth missing, wavy brown hair, about 125-130 pounds, 29 years of age, with an approximate three inch tattoo on his forearm.

It is believed that Charles Manson was angered at Arneson for leaving the Family in May of 1969; Arneson later returned in July and Manson offered him two of Hinman’s vehicle free of charge. This surprised Arneson as he had assumed Charlie would be unhappy with him for leaving. According to trial testimony Marcus Arneson stated:

“Charlie was happy to see me, which is kind of strange, because I left the family”.

Some suspect that Charlie was trying to ensure that Arneson would be stopped in one of the vehicles and catch the blame for the Hinman murder, knowing that the vehicle would be tied to the murder scene; like an old jailhouse trick, stab the enemy with a knife, then toss the knife in the enemies cell so he gets the blame. Turned out that on August 5th, the California Highway Patrol found Bobby Beausoleil napping in the rear of Hinman’s other vehicle, his Fiat station wagon, near San Luis Obispo.

Louis Puttek was later interviewed in the office of the District Attorney of Los Angeles on January 20, 1970 and stated he had originally met Marcus Arneson through another friend named Mark Ross who lived in a beach house in Venice, California where the family would often hang out, so it is a reasonable assumption that Arneson also knew Mark Ross and his then live in girlfriend Mary Rommich.

In another notable event, Arneson was arrested on April 21, 1968 with Manson, Mary Brunner, Susan Atkins, Ella Jo Bailey, Dianne Lake, Nancy Pitman, Bruce Davis, and Suzanne Scott in southern Ventura County, California. They were found sprawled nude around a campfire beside a 1952 bus that had been stranded in a ditch at the location and was reported stolen in San Francisco on April 12. Manson was remanded into custody under the suspicion of grand theft auto and possession of two driver licenses.

Marc Arneson was married in Las Vegas in 1977 to a woman named Patricia Ruth Sheehy. The couple had 3 children, Jason, Nicole, and Marcus and by the 1980’s were living in Loveland, Colorado. In September of 1992, Marcus was found dead in a car from a heart attack.