1 dead, 1 critical
Two Shot; Manson Family Links Noted
Both men Found In Car Trunk

Sacramento Bee
Thursday, November 16, 1978

   Two Sacramento area men with connections to the Charles Manson family were found shot and stuffed into the trunk of a burning car early Wednesday morning on the Garden Highway. One is dead, the other is in critical condition.

   Slain was Edward A. Barabas, 27, a parolee from Folsom Prison, who had been shot and burned.

   James Terrill Craig, 38, was in critical condition at University Medical center, part of his jaw blown away by at least one shotgun blast.

   "This appears to have been planned as a double execution," said homicide Lt. Hal Taylor of the city police.

   A police investigator indicated the shootings may have stemmed from a prison gang conflict. Craig in 1972 told Stockton police he was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a prison based gang that he said included former female followers of Charles Manson.

   Barabas' father, William Barabas of Sepulveda, said Wednesday his son was living in Sacramento with Priscilla Cooper. Ms. Copper was a Manson follower whose forehead was carved with a cross similar to the one Manson carved on his own forehead during his trial for the killing of actress Sharon Tate and others.

   Ms. Copper and Craig served prison terms on charges stemming from two 1972 Stockton area murders.

   A private security guard on duty at a nearby construction site and police Lt. John Carey, patrolling nearby, first reached the burning 1967 Dodge in which the men were found at 4am. It was parked off the asphalt of the Garden Highway just west of Truxel Road, police said. Both heard moaning from the trunk of the car.

   Firefighters extinguished the flames and opened the trunk to find Craig semiconscious and delirious, with his hands and feet bound. In addition to the jaw wound, shotgun pellets struck Craig above the eye and in the neck, investigators said.

   Barabas, who was closest to the backseat, was burned and shot twice in the head with a medium caliber handgun, police said.

   Also in the trunk was a dismantled 12-guage shotgun believed to have been used on Craig, police said. The car was last registered to a woman in Hood, police said.

   Police believe the men were shot elsewhere and dumped into the trunk. Officers later found Craig's car parked at 17th and Q Streets.

   Barabas, the youngest of eight brothers, was also known as Ekron Chad Skeens. He was paroled from Folsom Prison March 7 after serving nearly three years there and at San Quentin, Vacaville and Soledad for robbing Allen's Precious Metals in Carmichael, Department Of Corrections spokesman Phil Gutherie said.

   Soledad officials put Barabas in protective custody when he was thought to be threatened by black and Mexican gangs, Gutherie said. In Vacaville, he was suspected of being involved in an assault on an inmate, Gutherie said.

   Barabas was released on parole from Folsom just 10 days before Craig's parole from the same prison. Craig, who had been in and out of Folsom since 1963, was finally discharged from parole in July, Gutherie said.

   He first went to Folsom on a Los Angeles County robbery charge. In 1973, however, he went back to prison after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact in the murder of James And Lauren Willett, who had lived with Craig and ex-convict Michael Lee Montfort. Craig, Montfort, and three women followers of Charles Manson - Ms. Copper, Nancy Laura Pitman and Lynette "Squeeky" Fromme - were arrested for the Willett murders. All but Ms. Fromme served prison terms for the slayings.

   Mrs. Willett's body was found under the Manson women's house in Stockton, and Willett, a former Marine, was found decapitated and buried near Guerneville.

   Ms. Fromme was later convicted for her 1975 assassination attempt on the President Ford in Sacramento.

Men in Burning Car
Manson gang link to execution here

Sacramento Union
November 16, 1978
By Veda Federighi

   James Terrill Craig, 39, once convicted of helping Manson followers in the murder of a Stockton woman, was found Wednesday morning shot in the face inside the trunk of a car burning on the Garden Highway.

   As he was being taken to University Medical Center where he was reported in very critical condition Wednesday night - he repeatedly moaned, "She's dangerous she's dangerous."

   Police say they have not determined who "she" was.

   Found squeezed in next to him inside the car's trunk was the bound and shot body of Edward Barabas, 27, of Sacramento. Barabas had been sentenced to a five-years-to-life term in 1974 after pleading guilty of the $43,000 robbery of a Carmichael metals company.

   Both men had been paroled from Folsom prison in March within 10 days of each other.

   According to Sacramento Police Capt. Tom Stark, the burning 1967 copper-colored Dodge was found by Lt. John Carey, north area commander, on patrol near Discovery park. In the 4 am darkness, the burning car stood out, Stark said, and Carey radioed for the fire department.

   When firemen arrived at the scene on the Garden Highway near Truxel Road at 4:01am, the car was engulfed in flames, which were quickly extinguished.

   Officers and firefighters then heard moans coming from the trunk, which was opened, revealing the two men inside.

   Barabas' severely burned body, shirtless, wearing jeans, was lying in front of Craig. His hands were bound behind his back and he was shot twice - above the eye and in the neck - with a small caliber handgun, Stark said.

   Craig, also bound a severely burned, had been shot in the face and neck at close range with a shotgun.

   Stark said the murder "does appear by any reasonable kind of observation an execution-style killing," but said a motive had not been determined.

   Barabas' apparently abandoned car was found by Police Wednesday afternoon at 17th and P streets.

   Barabas, also known as Ekron Chad Skeens, was convicted of the June 27, 1974, robbery of Allen Precious Metals Co. He and a female companion tied up the store owner, his wife and two customers before escaping with $43,000 in cash, gold, silver and rare coins. He was captured a few days later in Los Angeles when police discovered some of the loot.

   Craig was first sent to state prison in 1963, from Los Angeles County, after an armed robbery conviction, and has been in and out of prison on various charges ever since, according to state records.

   In November 1972, he was arrested with Michael Montfort, William M. Goucher and three young women from the Manson family - Nancy Pitman, Priscilla Cooper and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, later to be convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

   Craig, described at the time of his arrest as a member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, and his five companions were charged with the killings of an ex-Marine and his wife.

   Investigators said they murdered James T. Willett, 26, to keep him from talking about their robbery activities and then buried his headless body in a shallow grave near Guerneville. His body was not found for several months.

   A few days after it was discovered, the body of his wife Lauren, 19, was found in the basement of her Stockton home. She had traveled with the group for a time, and it was theorized that she was murdered to keep her from going to the authorities about her husband's killing.

   Craig, Montfort and two of the Manson girls, Pittman and Cooper, pleaded guilty to Mrs. Willett's slaying, Montfort telling probation officers that the shooting was accidental. They received various sentences to state prison.

   Craig, convicted of being an accessory to a felony, was sent to prison July 6, 1973. He was paroled and returned to state prison on other felony charges March 1, 1974, and was paroled again last March 17.