Troubled Life Of Cult Leader
Revenge Claimed
Grudge Against Doris Day Son Linked To Slayings In Tate Case
Deaths Were Ordered, Suspect Says
December 3, 1969
Los Angeles Times
By Charles Hillinger And Dial Torgerson
Times Staff Writer
Sharon Tate and four others died because of a hippie "leaders grievance
against Terry Melcher, Doris Day's son, according to a member of the occultist
band.
Melcher, 27, was a former tenant at the Benedict Canyon home were five
persons were murdered early August 9, but he had moved from the home six months
before.
Nevertheless, said Susan Denise Atkins, 21, the leader of the hippie
"family," Charles Miles Manson, ordered the slaughter of all in the home anyway,
as a "symbol of protest."
'We Belong To Him'
Ms. Atkins said of Manson:
"We belong to him, not to ourselves. "
Her attorney said Miss Atkins, who was charged with murder, acted under
Manson's hypnotic spell.
The Manson family has been linked to the murders at the Tate home, the
killing a day later every grocery chain owner and his wife, in the slaying of a
Topanga Canyon musician in July. Authorities say they may have been involved in
three other deaths.
Richard Cabellero, Attorney for Miss Atkins, said that Manson sent Miss
Atkins and others to the Tate home but may not have gone himself. Cabellero told
newsmen:
"Manson knew that Melcher no longer lived in the house, but he sent his
people there because the home represented a symbol of rejection to him."
Was Refused Aid
He said Manson, a musician and songwriter, had held a grudge because Melcher
had refused to help him make a recording. It was learned that Manson learned of
the location of the secluded estate when he went there with Melcher and Dennis
Wilson, a member of the Beach Boys musical group.
Manson is now in custody in Inyo County. Two women and a man wanted by the
district attorney's office are in custody in eastern states. The grand jury may
indict others after an inquiry, which begins Friday.
Newest Developments
Among the latest developments in the complex investigation:
A preliminary hearing is to be held today in Inyo County Courthouse for
Manson. He is 35, slight, short, bearded, with shoulder length hair and dark,
piercing eyes. He is charged with vehicle theft and receiving stolen property.
At Concord, New Hampshire, Linda Ruiz Kasabian, 20, was arrested Tuesday by
state police, arraigned as a fugitive from Justice, and said that she would
waive extradition procedures to return to Los Angeles. This Kassabian, who is
pregnant, arranged to meet officers who arrested her. She is charged with
murder in the Tate case.
At McKinney, Texas, Charles D. Watson, also under indictment for murder,
celebrated his 24th birthday in a jail cell. His attorney said it might be
"days, even weeks" before a decision is made on whether Watson will return to
California voluntarily.
In Mobile, Alabama, were Patricia Krenwinkel, 21, was held on a similar
charge, her attorneys described her as a "nervous, frightened and confused
young woman." And said they would fight extradition. She was arrested by local
officers at the nearby home of an aunt.
At the Hall of Justice in the Civic Center the district attorney's office
began extradition procedures against the trio. The criminal complaints committee
of the county grand jury announced, meanwhile, that the Tate case would go to
the jury on Friday.
At Santa Monica Superior Court, Ms. Atkins held the wicked rail, looked down,
acknowledged her name, and pleaded innocent to murder in another case.
Cabellero said that she probably would testify voluntarily before the grand
jury. He said police have evidence placing in her at the scene of the Tate
murders. But, he said, she told him she went there under an insane, almost
hypnotic influence from Manson.
"I was told to go," Cabellero said she told him, "and I went."
She is now a well-groomed young woman with long, dark brown hair, and an air
almost of serenity. She went to court wearing a miniskirted white polka dot
dress. She was asked not to talk of the case but, asked about Manson, she said:
"He is a very beautiful man."
Cabellero said she had given this story of Manson's family and its spree of
crime:
Once Manson told his followers-most of whom were women-to do something, they
did it, even if that was murder. "If Charlie said it was right, it was right."
He selected the Los Feliz District of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca-who were
slain August 10 in a copy of the Tate killings- "at random." It could have been
anyone's, she said.
"Furthermore," said Cabellero, "he had other houses picked, as well."
Disliked Affluent People
Other sources have said that this slayer's disliked affluent people. The
LaBianca home was less elegant than the estate rented by Sharon Tate and her
husband, Roman Polanski, but the family sometimes left their new Thunderbird and
a trailered speedboat parked in front of it.
It was for the murder about July 25 of musician Gary Hinman that Miss Atkins
was first arrested on a tip to police from an informant.
Miss Atkins was ordered held for trial January 14 on charges she murdered
Hinman.
She was one of 26 persons arrested with Manson in raids October 10 and 12 on
the Manson camp at a ranch in Death Valley, where National Park Service Rangers
said Manson's group cut stolen Volkswagens and Jeeps down into dune buggies for
resale.
All the members of the group were originally booked in connection with the
car theft ring. Then Miss Atkins was picked up as a suspect in the Hinman case
and nine others were picked up as witnesses or for questioning in the Tate and
LaBianca cases.
One of those arrested and later released was Christopher Jesus, 20, who, it
was disclosed Tuesday, died November 5, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot
wound.
Police denied a report that Miss Tate had visited a Chatsworth Ranch where
Manson's group lived before moving to Death Valley. Neither the Tate nor the
LaBianca victims had known the suspects prior to the murders, police said.
However, it was learned through Manson's extensive police and probation
records that he had lived with Hinman in the spring of 1968 at the home in
Topanga Canyon where Hinman was later found slain.
Deputy District Attorney Aaron Stovitz said Tuesday that Miss Atkins will be
asked to testify at Friday's grand jury session.
