William Van Sickle

(aka Bill Vance, William Rex Cole, Duane, Buck, Chuck, William Joseph; David Lee Hamic; Billy Schwarm)

William Rex Cole, most often known as Bill Vance

Bill Vance (April 17, 1933-February 14, 2001), whose real name was William Van Sickle, was one of Charles Manson’s jail house buddies and was responsible for securing not only the Gresham Street House (The Yellow Submarine) for the Family, but he also helped some of the girl’s, one of which was Susan Atkins, get jobs at local strip clubs in Los Angeles.

Vance also taught the girls how to ‘creepy crawl’ and break into homes in the middle of night undetected as well as properly remove window screens to gain entry. He is referenced often as a shifty fellow and is believed to have disappeared sometime after the raid on Barker Ranch.

Vance was responsible for multiple robberies tied to the family and would use a ranch hands borrowed vehicle. The woman, named Windy Bucklee, was one day pulled over by police and questioned about her whereabouts since her license plate matched the one reported to be leaving the scene of one of the burglaries.

Although questioned, Windy was able to prove that she was working at the time and remained quiet about allowing Vance to use the truck on multiple occasions but subsequently put two and two together and knew it must have been Vance while he was borrowing her truck as she often left the keys with him and he would use it whenever he wanted.

Windy Bucklee later approached Vance about her being questioned by police and demanded her keys back, which when Charles Manson found out about it, was very unhappy. Manson immediately went to confront Windy at her home and wound up assaulting her badly and she was hospitalized for two days.

Bill Vance and the death of Shorty Shea

When her friend and fellow ranch hand Donald Shorty Shea found out about the incident, he immediately went after Vance and Manson, located them at Vance’s home, and beat both of them to a pulp. Manson was severely embarrassed which is likely one of several factors which led to the killing of Shea.

Although Vance was a participant in the murder of Shorty he was never even charged for the crime. He was wanted for questioning in the murder, but police never caught up with him. In a 2010 parole hearing,, Bruce Davis claimed that Vance was also involved in the killing of Shorty Shea.

“I look around and there’s Bill Vance [William Rex Cole], [Tex] Watson, [Steve] Grogan, with bloody knives and they’d been through this.” – Bruce Davis

Bill Vance and the death of Christopher Zero

Vance was also present at 28 Clubhouse Avenue in Venice when Christopher Zero died. Vance had ended up crashing there at the pad of Mark Ross AKA Aesop Aquarian, along with Family members Claudia Smith, Madeline Cottage, Country Sue Bartell, and Bruce Davis.

1970 Onward

After Zero’s death, Vance fled to northern Missouri with Smith and Cottage where they ventured into organic farming. They lived undetected for a year or so until word got to them that LASO Detectives Guenther and Whiteley were flying in to question them. Vance and Smith hightailed it. Cottage had disappeared months earlier and there was suspected foul play at the time.

Vance is also said to have been in the possession of audio tapes the Family recorded after the Tate/LaBianca murders. The tapes contained unreleased music the Family recorded and possibly a group recording of the Family re-enacting Gary Hinman’s murder.

Vance was also an extra in the movie “Linda & Abilene” filmed at Spahn Ranch.

Bill Vance died in 2001 in Arizona.