Please help find the main idea of this A week after the murders, police raided Spahn Ranch, but not because of those heinous crimes. Manson and most of the family were arrested instead for stealing cars. But they were released on a technicality and fled to Death Valley. There, they were arrested again in multiple waves of police raids between Oct. 10 and 12, 1969. In addition to a series of thefts and generally terrorizing the locals, Manson had set fire to some heavy