Ruth Ann Moorehouse, known within the Manson Family as Ouish (or Ouisch), was an early member of Charles Manson’s group. She met Manson in 1967 at age 15, when he was beginning to form what would become the Manson Family.
This article is a companion to Five Down on Cielo Drive, which examines the events surrounding the Tate–LaBianca murders. It provides background on Ruth and her father, Dean Moorehouse, who had a close association with Charles Watson. Through this connection, Watson later went to live with the Manson Family at Spahn Ranch and became involved in the Tate–LaBianca murders.
Biographical Details
Birth Name: Ruth Ann Moorehouse.
Date of Birth: May 19, 1952 (see marriage record below).
Place of Birth: North Dakota (see marriage record below).
Parents: Dean Allen Moorehouse and Audrey Lucille Sirpless.
Siblings: Kathleen Adair, Deane Thomas, and Sharon Lee.
Children: Logan, Brody, Ladieh, and Amber (deceased).
Date and Place of Birth
For quite some time, there has been discussion about Ruth’s date of birth. The widely used disputed date of birth originated from her 1969 Spahn Ranch raid mugshot, in which she gave a false date of birth, which resulted in her being recorded as an adult at the time of arrest. In 2024, her original 1968 marriage record was uncovered, in which her correct date of birth is listed.
At the time of the marriage application, she was required to provide identifying information, including her full legal name, date of birth, and place of birth. Her marriage record lists her date of birth as May 19, 1952, and her place of birth as North Dakota, consistent with the family’s reported residence during that period.
This means she was 15 when she met Manson (as reported in trial testimony, the literature, and contemporary newspaper articles) and 17 at the time of the Tate–LaBianca murders and the Spahn Ranch raid on August 16, 1969.
For context, Dianne Lake was the youngest member of the Manson Family; she joined the group at age 14. (Dianne Lake, Member of the Family, 2017)
1968 Marriage Certificate
Recruitment
Ruth was introduced to Charles Manson by her father, Dean Moorehouse. While popular lore suggests Dean picked up Manson while hitchhiking, Lynette Fromme later stated it was actually Dean’s friend Don who first encountered Manson and made the introduction.
Dean, a former minister who had preached the Bible for twenty years, soon became convinced that Manson was “Man’s Son, Jesus Christ returned.”
Both Ruth and her father ultimately joined the Manson Family. Dean remained with the group until his January 1969 imprisonment for selling LSD, while Ruth Ann remained associated with the Family through the Tate–LaBianca trial.
Notable Incidents & Anecdotes
- The Cat in the Fire: During a heavy LSD trip known as “The Freak Out,” Ruth picked up a skittish cat and tossed it onto the embers of a fire. She immediately plucked it out and dusted it off. The cat was unhurt but “totally changed,” becoming people-friendly but never growing larger than a kitten.
- The Dog Fight: She broke up a street fight between Bobby Beausoleil’s dog and a neighbor’s dog, receiving painful puncture bites on her stomach.
- Free Car: She once asked a stranger in town for his car; when he refused to give her his new car, she convinced him to give her his old 1949 Studebaker (with the pink slip), which she drove back to the ranch.
- Sharpening: She was the first to master the art of sharpening knives. She would sit with whetstones and oil, honing her Buck knife until she could demonstrate its sharpness by shaving the tiny hairs off her forearm.
- Marriage: To avoid juvenile authorities, she entered a “marriage of convenience” on May 20, 1968, to a bus driver named Edward Heuvelhorst. She left him one day later to permanently join the Manson Family.
- Birth: Ruth was present when Susan Atkins’ son was born and assisted with the birth, while Dianne Lake cut the umbilical cord with her teeth.
- Truck: According to trial testimony, Charles ‘Tex’ Watson—who became the Manson Family’s chief executioner—gave his truck to Manson, who in turn gave it to Ruth.
Something Witchy: The Cat in the Fire
“A small skittish cat, nearly a kitten, walked by. It usually stayed outside
because it was afraid of people. In a routine manner, Ruth picked it up by
the scruff and tossed it onto the embers of a low burning fire. A moment
later, she plucked it out, dusted it off and set it on the floor. The cat Ruth had tossed in the fire was unhurt but totally changed. Overnight it became people-friendly, and it never grew.” (Lynette Fromme, Reflexion, 2018).
Leslie Van Houten Was Her Best Friend
A newspaper article reported that during her testimony, Ruth said that Leslie Van Houten was her best friend.
“Her best friend at the communal Spahn Ranch was defendant Leslie Van Houten, she said, and they often got high on LSD together. ‘Once you’re high, you’re high all the time. You can be high forever.’ She was asked if she ever saw Leslie become violent and replied, ‘I never judged her. We aren’t angels. Or we are, or whatever.’”
Trouble at the Cabin
In July 1967, Dean Moorehouse, his wife Audrey, and their daughter Ruth rented a cabin in Leggett. On the night of July 26th, Dean and Audrey got into a heated argument. The next morning, Audrey left for their home in San Jose. Dean followed shortly after, leaving fifteen-year-old Ruth Ann Moorehouse alone with Charles Manson, Lynette Fromme, and Mary Brunner, who had been staying with the family.
Concerned, Audrey called the police and reported that her underage daughter had been left alone with an ex-convict. She asked officers to bring Ruth home to San Jose. The police took the report seriously and began searching for her.
Officers eventually located Ruth and Manson back at the cabin. They informed her that she had been reported missing and that they would be taking her home. Manson tried to dissuade them, insisting they would have to use force to remove her. Police called for backup, and Manson was arrested for interfering with the questioning of a suspected runaway juvenile before being booked into Mendocino County Jail. For additional details and related legal documents, see Dean Moorehouse: From Minister to Manson Follower.
Dianne Lake Slept with Dean Moorehouse
Dianne ‘Snake’ Lake, the youngest member of the Manson Family, revealed in her memoir that she had slept with Ruth’s father, who was by then in his late forties.
“Fun and down-to-earth, Ruth Ann fit in well and made for great company. Since she was close to my age, she still showed signs of being a kid. We had a lot of fun pretending and dressing up in the costumes that we had all accumulated. We got our chores done, but we also spent time exploring the ranch and relaxing together. It didn’t even feel weird that I had slept with her father because she almost didn’t seem related to him.” (Dianne Lake, Member of the Family, 2017)
Spahn and Barker Ranch Arrests
A week after the Tate murders, Ruth was rounded up with the rest of the Family during the Spahn Ranch raid on August 16, 1969. She was taken to the police station and had her mugshot taken. Several months later, while the Family stayed in Death Valley, Ruth learned about the Tate murders from Susan Atkins.
She was apprehended again alongside other Family members during the Barker Ranch raid on October 10, 1969. After her release from prison, Ruth briefly relocated to her mother’s home in Minnesota. She later returned to the Family during the trial of Manson and other members, carving an X into her forehead to demonstrate her loyalty and becoming a regular presence at the Hall of Justice.
Sweetest Little Thing
Ruth Ann Moorehouse was one of Danny DeCarlo’s favorite girls. He called her one of his sweeties, the other being Sherry Cooper.
“She (Ruth) used to be one of my favorite sweeties. You know, that little girl there is so sweet. What really made me sick to my stomach is when she came up one night, when I was up there in the desert, and she said, ‘I can hardly wait to get my first pig.’ “Little seventeen-year-old! I looked on her like she was my daughter, just the sweetest little thing you would ever want to meet in your life. She was so beautiful and so sweet. And Charlie fucked her thinking around so much it turned your guts.”
The Laced Hamburger
During the Tate-LaBianca trial, Ruth Ann Moorehouse attempted to poison fellow Family member Barbara Hoyt, who had agreed to testify against Charles Manson but was still uncertain about her decision. Several members of the Family devised a plan to dissuade Hoyt from testifying: first, they offered her an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii; if that failed, they would resort to poisoning her.
On the afternoon of September 5, 1970, some of the girls contacted Hoyt and proposed that she accept a free vacation in Hawaii in exchange for not testifying. Reluctantly, Hoyt agreed.
The following day, Steve Grogan drove Hoyt and Moorehouse to a Family hideout in North Hollywood, rented by newer member Dennis Rice. Rice accompanied them to the airport, purchased tickets, and provided fifty dollars in cash and some credit cards.
Traveling under fake names they flew to Honolulu, where they rented a penthouse suite at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel.
Every morning, Moorehouse made long-distance calls from a pay phone three blocks from the North Hollywood residence. On September 9, she informed Hoyt that she had to return to California but that Hoyt was to remain in Hawaii. Moorehouse booked a 1:15 PM flight to Los Angeles that afternoon.
While waiting for the airplane, the two stopped at a nearby restaurant. Hoyt ordered a hamburger, but Moorehouse abruptly picked it up and walked outside, telling Hoyt to pay for it. Once outside, Moorehouse handed Hoyt the hamburger. As Hoyt ate it, Moorehouse boarded her flight, making a chilling remark: “Imagine what it would be like if that hamburger had ten tabs of acid in it.”
Soon after, Hoyt began experiencing sensations of being high. She boarded a bus to the beach but disembarked when she felt sick. Panicked, she ran until collapsing and was rushed to a nearby emergency room, where she was diagnosed with acute drug-induced psychosis.
Moorehouse had indeed put ten tabs of acid in the hamburger. Hoyt’s parents were contacted, and the next day her father flew to Hawaii and brought her back to Los Angeles. By then, Hoyt was determined to testify against the Family.
In 1971, five Family members involved in the poisoning were sentenced to 90 days in jail. Ruth, almost nine months pregnant from a fling with a Vietnam veteran, failed to appear at the sentencing hearing and fled to her sister’s home in Carson City, Nevada, to avoid giving birth in jail. Four days later, she gave birth to a daughter.
While in Nevada, Ruth met a construction worker named Harold. They married in 1972, and she later gave birth to a second daughter, Amber, who died at age seven. In 1975, the FBI located Ruth in Sacramento. Though they did not arrest her, local authorities picked her up on the long-standing warrant.
On November 4, 1975, Ruth again appeared in court to be sentenced. The judge, noting that she had been abandoned by her father and “thrown willy-nilly into the Manson cult,” gave her no jail time, ruling that she could go free with time served.
Ruth Ann Moorehouse Today
In 1979, Ruth and her second husband, Harold, divorced. She later married a man named Dale, with whom she had two sons. After divorcing Dale, Ruth chose to keep his surname. Her mother, Audrey, passed away in 2002, and her father, Dean, died in 2010. Ruth’s first husband, Edward Heuvelhorst, passed away in 2012.
Today, Ruth Ann Moorehouse is a mother and grandmother. She lives a quiet life with her cats somewhere in the Midwest and, according to her Facebook page, is a fervent supporter of Donald Trump.
Fun fact: In 1989, Ruth’s daughter, who attended Apple Valley High School, won a $6,000 scholarship to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design.
Quotes
- “This is musk. It’s deer cum — did you know it?”
- “We aren’t angels. Or we are, or whatever.”
- “Howdy George, it bees Ouish.”
Trial Testimony
Files
Sources
The Ruth Ann Moorehouse profile above is based on primary-source memoirs written by former Manson Family members, as well as multiple contemporary newspaper reports from the period.
- 1970s: Contemporary newspaper reports
- 1978: Will You Die For Me by Tex Watson
- 1979: My Life with Charles Manson by Paul Watkins
- 2017: Member of the Family by Dianne Lake
- 2018: Reflexion by Lynette Fromme