FORT COLLINS, Co., Jan. 12 – The murder of a Fort Collins High School graduate in isolated Topanga Canyon, Calif., last July 25 or 26 led police to the Charles Manson “family”, the accused killers of actress Sharon Tate and six others.

According to a Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) article, which appeared in the Rocky Mountain News Sunday, it was the death of Gary Hinman, 34, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hinman of 1311 South College Avenue which led to the arrest of Robert Beausoleil, Susan Atkins, alias Sadie Mae Glutz, and the rest of the Manson “family.”

Police believe Hinman may have been tortured for a day and a half before being killed. His body was found by police July 30, according to the author of the article, who uses the pseudonym “Dallas Crabstreet,” to protect himself from members of the Manson “family” who are still free.

The Coloradoan has confirmed that Hinman’s body was shipped to the Farnum Funeral Home in Glenwood Springs from the Los Angeles Funeral Service in Los Angeles, Calif. Hinman’s obituary appeared in the Coloradoan on Aug. 3.

That article said Hinman “recently became a member of the Buddhist bagpipe and drum corps in Los Angeles.”

The NEA article said Hinman was a member of the Bag Pipers of the Nicherin Shosu, part of the American Buddhist movement.

According to the article, friends of the man who was known to be an “ex-hippie, an ex-drug-taker, a piano teacher, a musician, a student…” attempted to contact him by phone on July 27, at least one day after a coroner’s report said he was dead.

The call on Sunday, July 27, “…was answered by a girl’s voice with a heavy English accent. She told the caller that Gary had been called back to Colorado, where he came from originally, because his parents had been in an automobile crash,” the article said.

If the coroner’s report on the date of death is correct then who was the lady with the English accent, the article asks. Hinman was dead on the living room floor.

Hinman’s two cars, a Volkswagen bus and a Fiat were reported missing.

On Aug. 7, the article said, the Fiat was spotted near San Luis Obispo, Calif. Police closed in and the driver, Beausoleil, was arrested.

“He had blood stains on his trousers. In the tire well of the car was a knife, with dried blood on the blade,” the article said.

Through the arrest of Beausoleil police arrested Susan Denise Atkins, “…who often affected an English accent.”

Hinman’s friends, who were members of the American Buddhist movement, “…grabbed at every detail we could find,” the article said. “We were especially curious about the writing in blood, ‘politically piggy,’ on the wall above Hinman’s head.”

Two days following the arrest of Beausoleil the bodies of Sharon Tate and her friends were found.

“But what shocked our group into action was the fact that the word “Pig” was on the front door of Sharon Tate’s home, and the words “Death To Pigs” in the LaBianca house written in blood,” the article said.

The connection between the Manson “family” and the Hinman killing made the murder of Hinman important the article said.

It was after the arrest of Miss Atkins, 21, a busty, ex-topless dancer, that the facts of the Tate killings were revealed.

Susan Atkins told a cellmate the details of the Tate killings while she was being held in a Santa Monica. Calif., jail.

Life magazine described the girl’s home life as “disorganized.” She apparently met Manson while a dancer in San Francisco, Calif. Manson then renamed her “Sadie Mae Glutz.”

According to the NEA article, “Police theorize Hinman had known Charles Manson and several members of his “family.” (notably Beausoleil and Misa Atkins).

“They had come to hate him. They hated him, first because he had adjusted to the Establishment. They hated him for his Buddhist philosophy. And they hated him because they thought he had money,” the article said.

The article west on, “He didn’t. All he had with him when he was attacked was #3. But this killers thought he was lying.”

The Coloradoan has been unable to contact Gory Hiaman’s parents at their home on South College Avenue.

Apparently the family also owns a home at Basalt, near Glenwood Springs, but the telephone there is not in service.

The first trial of Robert Beausoleil ended in a hung jury. He is scheduled to be tried again in Los Angeles. Miss Atkins is scheduled to go on trial for the Hinman murder in February.