Cult Leader Goes To Court With Hands In Chains
Room Jammed
December 4, 1969
By Charles T. Powers
Times Staff Writer
Independence, Calif. - Charles Miles Manson, the 35-year-old leader of the
band of youthful nomads accused in the Sharon Tate and other murder cases,
emerged from jail Wednesday to make his first public appearance since a break in
the Tate case was announced early this week.
Manson, hands cuffed to a chain around his waist, was led from the Inyo
County jail here across a wide lot to the County Court House for a preliminary
hearing on relatively minor charges of possessing stolen dune buggies.
The session began at 9:30 AM in a courtroom crowded with reporters and
schoolchildren dismissed for the day to watch the proceedings.
Bond Set At $25,000
When it ended at 4:30 PM justice Court Judge Theodore Gardener announced that
Manson would be bound over for Superior Court trial and set his bond at $25,000.
Inyo County District Attorney Fred Fowles, called a long succession of
witnesses to show that Manson had been in possession of at least three stolen
cars and that he had repainted one of them in an apparent attempt to camouflage
it.
Residents of this small Owens Valley town turned out in the morning to watch
the procession from the jail, knowing that Manson had been named by police as
leader of murderous forays-expeditions that may have resulted in as many as
eleven deaths.
Manson was led across the courtyard by his court-appointed attorney, Fred
Schaefer, and Inyo County sheriff's officers.
Earlier, Sheriff Merrill Curtis warned the dozens of newsmen present against
asking Manson questions.
The suspect, moving slowly against the crush of photographers and reporters,
smiled once at the newsmen as he entered the building but said nothing.
He is a short, small-boned man whose dark hair brushes against his shoulders.
His beard is full but well trimmed. He wore the standard blue denim coveralls
supplied prisoners.
On entering the courtroom he smiled, once again. That was when he recognized
two of his "followers," one of whom, Mrs. Sandra Good Pugh, 26, had an infant in
her arms. The girl returned his smile.
But after that he looked away, seeming almost to divorce himself from the
proceedings. He sat down and began doodling on a piece of yellow paper.
During the day, Manson spoke aloud only once, when he asked Judge Gardener:
"Your honor, May I questioned this man?"
"No," Judge Gardener replied quickly. "Not as long as you are represented by
an attorney."
Manson was referring to the testimony of Boyd Tailor, U. S. Commissioner of
the Eastern District of California, one of the day's witnesses called by Fowels
to establish that Manson had been seen driving stolen cars in the barren desert
region around Death Valley.
Tailor, as others, testified that he encountered Manson at 2:00 AM on a moon
lit night in mid-September near a desert camp in the Saline Valley, about 60
miles from the permanent headquarters of Manson's "Family" at the Barker Ranch
in the Panamint Valley.
Under questioning by Fowels and Schaffer, Taylor said that Manson, or "a man
who looked very much like him," was driving a dusty blue dune buggy. The dune
buggy, Fowels was attempting to establish, was stolen from the La Paz Buggy
Builders in Los Angeles September 11.
Tailor testified that a group traveling with Manson that night was driving a
red four-wheel-drive Toyota. Other witnesses testified that the Toyota was
stolen in late September from Dennis Dale Kemp, 7020 Loyal Trail, Hollywood.
Kemp, called as a witness, said his wallet was in the car when it was stolen.
"The wallet was found," Fowels said, "on the Barker Ranch," when officers raided
it, October 10 and 12.
Larry Gill, 24, a long-haired, bearded Inyo County residents, said Manson
told him he was interested in exploring the area and asked to be shown several
caves and springs nearby.
"What was Mr. Manson's relationship with the people at the ranch?" Fowels
asked.
"Very good," Gill replied.
"Did there seem to be anyone in charge?"
"No. Not specifically."
He said he saw Manson again, and agreed to meet him to show him the country.
Gill and Manson then came to his cabin with three women, "one older, two
younger," and went with them to Panamint Valley. He said they were joined by two
other couples, but he left the group after one days outing.
"Why?" Fowels asked again.
"There wasn't any type of ill feeling," Gill insisted. "But I just felt I
should leave."
Mrs. Pugh, however, denied reports that the Barker Ranch Group lived in
"squalor."
"It wasn't that way at all." She testified. "I lived in a clean room. We all
helped with the decoration and we've worked hard on the ranch, feeding and
taking care of animals and tending the property.
"We are desert lovers, that's all," she added.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Manson returned to the jail - again flanked
by his attorney and two Sheriff's deputies.
Again, he did not speak. He disappeared through the jail doorway without
looking back.
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