Wild-Bearded Hippie Chief Key Figure In Tate Murders Probe
Followers Labeled Killers
Members of Cult Call Him 'God' and 'Satan'
December 4, 1969
INDEPENDENCE, CALIF. - Charles M. Manson, accused in mountain-desert area of
rustling four-wheel-drive vehicles, has emerged as a key figure in the
investigation of the killings of Sharon Tate and seven others in Los Angeles.
The bushy-haired, wild-bearded little man with piercing brown eyes has been
tabbed the leader of a hippie-type roving band whose members call him "God" and
"Satan" - and now two attorneys say clan members killed the actress and others.
Manson, 35, who with others is accused here of running a stolen car ring from
a commune near Death Valley, sat stolidly Wednesday through his preliminary
hearing. After witnesses said they saw him driving stolen cars, he was
held for trial.
There are no charges against Manson in Los Angeles. But two attorneys
there said Wednesday that a woman member of Manson's mostly female "family" told
them it was some of his followers who killed Miss Tate and four others after the
pregnant actress pleaded, "Let me have my baby."
The woman, Susan Denise Atkins, 21, is charged with murdering a man with whom
Manson once lived. If she waives immunity to self-incrimination, a deputy
district attorney says, she could become a key witness when the Los Angeles
County grand jury begins a murder investigation Friday.
Shot or stabbed with Miss Tate, 26, blonde actress wife of Polish director
Roman Polanski, at her $200,000 home in Bel Air last Aug. 9 were Hollywood hair
stylist Jay Sebring, 35; coffee heiress Abigail Folger, 26; Polish playboy Votyk
Frokowsky (sic), 37, and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of the caretaker.
Stabbed fatally the next day at their Hollywood home were Leno LaBianca, 44, and
his wife Rosemary, 38, wealthy market owners.
Miss Atkins' attorneys Paul Caruso and Richard Caballero, said she was among
those who dressed in black and invaded the two death homes. But they said
she was under Manson's "hypnotic spell" and "had nothing to do with the
murders."
Caruso said there were three women and two men. Cabellero said it was
four women and one man, and said Miss Atkins told him Manson was not among them.
Police say the makeup of the group was different each night.
Under arrest on murder warrants in the Tate case are Patricia Krenwinkel, 21,
in Mobile, Ala.; Charles D. Watson, 24, in McKinney, Tex., and Linda Louise
Kasabian, 19, brought here from Concord, N.H.
Police say they will seek murder indictments against the three and "five
others," unidentified, from the Los Angeles County grand jury. It is to
convene on the killings Friday and is expected to concluded its probe Monday.
Miss Atkins pleaded innocent Tuesday to a charge of murder in the killing of
a Malibu musician, Gary Hinman, last July. Police say Manson lived for a
time with Hinman.
A codefendant, Robert K. Beausoleil, 21, described as a Manson friend, was
tried previously but the jury could not agree and a new trial was ordered.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Evelle J. Younger, whose office will prosecute
the murder cases, expressed hope there will be no court-imposed "gag order" on
information.
He said such an order in the case of Sirhan B. Sirhan, convicted earlier this
year of murdering Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, prevented clarification of "absurd
rumors."
The Sirhan order forbid attorneys and public officials from discussing
evidence or details in the case. He said he has no indication there will
be such an order.
In Independence, Manson was charged with two counts of receiving stolen
property and one of operating a stolen vehicle. After the hearing, he was
ordered held for arraignment Dec. 12. Bond was fixed at $25,000.
His attorney argued: "There's no evidence that Mr. Manson knew that vehicles
were stolen. The simple act of driving a vehicle, even if it is stolen, is
not enough. There has to be intent."
Manson is no stranger to trouble. From followers and police came
sketches of a life of problems, imprisonment, menial jobs.
A Los Angeles Times account said that in his free time behind bars, Manson
became interested in the occult. Officials termed his intelligence
"superior."
He also took up the guitar, discovered he could sing and began writing music.
Then, on parole, he discovered the hippie-style life and a friend said "a
whole new world" opened for him. He went to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury
district and acquired a following of hippie-types - most of them girls.
They left Haight-Ashbury April 12, 1968, in an old school bus, converted into
living quarters for 14 young men and women - most of them women. The bus
broke down near Oxnard, Calif., and one rainy afternoon they ducked into a ranch
full of old movie sets. They were still living there when the slayings
occurred.
When deputies raided the place last August, shortly after the killings, and
made arrests on prostitution and drug allegations, Manson moved his "family"
into a canyon area populated by hippie-types near Death Valley.
With a combination of pronouncements - "Follow my orders or meet a horrible
death" - and captivating glances, Manson convinced some of his clan he owned
them. "We belong to him, not to ourselves," Miss Atkins' attorneys quoted
her as saying. "He is a very beautiful man. If Charles said it was
right, it was right."
"He was magnetic," another follower, Sandra Good Pugh, 26, told interviewers
in Independence.
On Oct. 12, a dozen sheriff's deputies and highway patrolmen hunting for a
band that was stealing cars and converting them to dune buggies, raided the
commune. They escorted seven persons out of Manson's cabin.
Patrolman James Purcell, who led the raid, said he returned to search the little
building and found Manson.
Said Purcell: "He was in a very tiny cupboard beneath the bathroom
sink... three feet high, 18 to 20 inches wide and 12 to 13 inches deep."
