Charles Manson - Unauthorized

by John E. Derossett

  Autopsies were being performed on the bodies of Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring and Steven Parent, but the bodies from the LaBianca murders have not yet been discovered (their deaths would not happen until August 10). Police then discovered Steve Parent, the boy murdered in the car the night before, was a friend of William Garretson, who was the caretaker that lived in the back house on the property.

  Garretson was arrested almost immediately for suspicion of the murders at the Tate-Polanski house. This was based partly on the fact that he claimed that he heard nothing on the night before, and police believed that it was impossible for him not to have heard something due to the nature of the crimes and the violence involved. Especially considering that two of the bodies were found outside of the house. They insisted that he had to have heard something. He was held for a couple of days, but had to be released because when he was given a polygraph test, he passed it. As it turns out, Garretson would admit decades later in an interview, that he did in fact hear something, and actually witnessed part of the murders, but was afraid that he would be killed as well, so he returned to the caretaker’s house. One really cannot blame the man for being afraid, but he still should have called police after returning to the house. Instead, he did nothing at all.

  The bodies of Leno and Rosemary were discovered at about 10:30 p.m. on the night of August 10, 1969. Rosemary’s son, Frank Struthers who was 15-years old at the time, had returned from his camping trip with his friend. When he got home, he realized that it was highly unusual that all of the shades on the house were drawn. Manson had done this when he entered the house in the wee hours of the morning. He also realized that Leno’s boat had not been put away and was still sitting in the driveway. This was highly unusual for Leno and Frank sensed that there was something terribly wrong. He was now afraid and did not want to go into the house alone, so he called his sister and her boyfriend to come over. When they arrived, Joe Dorgan, Suzan’s boyfriend, entered the house with Frank. In the living room, they found Leno’s body lying on the floor. They then left the house immediately and called the police. When the police arrived, they entered the home and found Rosemary’s body in the bedroom.

  Despite the fact that there were many similarities in these murders to those of the Tate-Polanski murders and the Hinman crime scene, Lt. Robert Helder of the LAPD went on record with the media, insisting that the murder cases were unrelated. In his view, just because there was writing on the walls, in blood, of a similar nature meant nothing. What must this man have felt in his mind when it was actually determined that each of the murders were committed by the same people? Clues were literally slapping the police in the face, and the lead detective chose to look in other directions and absolutely refused to accept the fact that the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends were in fact, NOT drug related as he maintained that they were. Noticing similarities and connecting cases in this manner is purely common sense, and whether this happened in 1969 or not, they still should have realized that there were far too many similarities between the cases, now numbering three (Hinman, Tate-Polanski, and LaBianca), to simply say that they were not related.

  In defense of the officers investigating the LaBianca case, they were generally younger and less-seasoned than the detectives on the Tate murders. Police should have at least looked into the strongest of the similarities before making any determination. Especially since the sheriff’s department pointed some of these links out to them. It was not until after they had exhausted all of the leads that they had that they started looking at the similarities more closely. They also realized that the writing was also similar to songs on the newest Beatles album, “The White Album”.

  Still, by mid-October, the two teams of detectives on the Tate and LaBianca murders continued working the cases as if they were separate. The LaBianca team decided that they would contact the sheriff’s department to see if they had any crimes similar to their case. Up to this point, they knew very little about the Hinman case (the Tate team never said anything to them). That was when they learned that the sheriff’s department had already contacted the team working the Tate case. The sheriff’s department told them that the team working the Tate-Polanski said that the case was unrelated, but went on to say that the writing on the wall was similar in nature, and that it was done in blood as well. They also found out that sheriff’s investigators had spoken with Bobby Beausoleil’s girlfriend, Kitty Lutesinger, who had also been arrested with other members of the Manson Family. To the team working the LaBianca murders, this was a major break-through.

  The arrests had taken place at the ranches in the California desert. All of the pieces of the story had not yet been put together of course, but the Family was searching for the “bottomless pit” in Death Valley in preparation for the coming revolution. You will recall that this was previously mentioned and was supposedly the gateway to an underground city where the family would take refuge while “Helter Skelter” was going on.

  The arrest team consisted of a joint task force that consisted of Death Valley National Park Rangers, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol. The team had raided both the Myer’s and Barker Ranches, arresting family members on suspicion of running an auto theft ring. They had found the family by following clues left behind when the family set an earthmover owned by the park service on fire and destroying it. When they made the raid, officials found stolen dune buggies as well as other vehicles. In all, more than two dozen people were arrested during the raid, including Charles Manson. Police had found Manson hiding in a small cabinet in a room of one of the buildings on the ranch. Manson thought himself to be well-hidden but his hair was sticking out of the door of the cabinet. One of the police officers saw the hair sticking out and opened the door to see what was in the cabinet. What he found was Charles Manson. Up to this point, the police still did not realize that the Manson Family was the group responsible for the recent murders plaguing Los Angeles. Ironically, the Los Angeles Times newspaper ran a story about the Tate-Polanski murders, and right next to that story, was another that reported that police had arrested more than two dozen hippies suspected of running an auto theft ring in the desert.

  LAPD members working the LaBianca murders decided that they needed to speak with Kitty Lutesinger themselves. She gave them information that led them to a biker gang. She told police that Manson had tried to hire the gang as bodyguards while they were still living at Spahn Ranch.

  The police then began talking to members of the biker gang. Based on the information that the biker gang gave them, LAPD started developing information that Manson was perhaps somehow linked to the murders. Finally, police were beginning to ook in the proper direction. Additionally, a cellmate of Susan Atkins’ finally managed to get authorities to listen to her and a story that she had to tell them, as she heard it from Atkins.

  Atkins was one of the people arrested at Barker Ranch as one of the auto theft ring. Despite the release of other family members, Atkins was held because she readily admitted to participating in the murder of Gary Hinman. It seemed that to Atkins, participation in these heinous crimes was something that she felt she could be proud of. As it happens, the information that police were now developing was part of the information that police had gotten from Lutesinger. When police confronted Atkins about these things, she admitted her involvement with a smile on her face. She was then transferred to the Sybil Brand Institute for Women, and that was where she started boasting of the Tate-Polanksi/LaBianca murders and her involvement in the crimes. This was the information that cellmates Ronnie Howard and Virginia Graham had brought to authorities. W.hen it comes to the crimes that the Family committed, Atkins enjoyed nothing more than talking about all of it, and seemingly left nothing out in the way of details.

  Finally, on December 1, 1969, police obtained warrants for the arrest of Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian for the Tate-Polanski murders. The warrant also noted the involvement of the suspec
ts in the LaBianca murder case as well. Manson and Atkins were already in custody so there was no worry of having any problems picking them up. Up until now, police still were not aware of the involvement of Leslie Van Houten in the murders. Watson had already left California and went back to Texas, so he was picked up by the police McKinney, Texas. Patricia Krenwinkel had also left California and she was arrested in Mobile, Alabama.

  Linda Kasabian had also left California and returned home to New Hampshire. When she learned that there was a warrant for her arrest, she made arrangements with an attorney to surrender herself to authorities in Concord, New Hampshire. Her arrest came on December 2, 1969.

  It was not long before police began developing the physical evidence the needed against the family. This evidence included Krenwinkel’s and Watson’s fingerprints at the Tate-Polanski home on Cielo Drive. The citizens of Los Angeles also played a part in evidence gathering as well. This included the finding of the gun that was used to kill Jay Sebring, Steve Parent and Wojieck Frykowski by a young boy named Steven Weiss, who was 10-years old at the time. This gun was also the gun that Manson used to shoot Bernard Crowe.

  Weiss’ father had called the police to inform them of the find, but police actually seemed disinterested and initially stated that the gun WAS NOT used in any crimes. Weiss had to follow up on several different occasions, including one right after the LA Times had run an account of the crimes based on the story given by Susan Atkins. Police finally took notice and listened to him after more or less pushing his story aside a number of times. By this time, police had to track down the gun in their evidence locker in order to conduct ballistics tests. After the testing was complete, it was verified that the gun was used to shoot . Had this man not been persistent, the gun might have been lost for good.

  Up to this point, police were STILL missing a great deal of evidence. A local ABC Television news crew was also credited with finding important evidence for police pertaining specifically to the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends. They used the information that Atkins had given and estimated the approximate location of where Atkins said that they had thrown away the bloody clothes from the murders at the Tate-Polanski residence. When they arrived at the location that they believed was the right spot, they got out of the car and started looking over the hillside for anything that seemed to be out of place. Down over the hill, they spotted something. They had indeed located the clothing that she had said was thrown over the hill. They continued searching around the area for the murder weapons used during the crimes, but neither they nor the LAPD ever found the knives. One of the knives used in the Tate murders was found at the crime scene however, behind a sofa cushion in the Tate-Polanski living room. This would apparently be the knife that Susan Atkins had lost during the melee at the Tate-Polanski residence.

  Prosecutors had not yet spoken with Linda Kasabian, and Bugliosi knew that he would need someone to testify in court to back up his theory of the motive for the crimes. This was partly because police were unable to locate the knives used in the murders at the Tate-Polanski home. Bugliosi worried that without testimony from an eyewitness, some of the charges might not stick because frankly, the idea of “helter skelter” seemed a little outrageous. To this end, he reluctantly made a deal with Susan Atkins. In exchange for her testimony, she would be given immunity from prosecution. This left a bad taste in the mouth of himself and other investigators, but he really could not see any way around it. It made it especially hard for him because Atkins seemed to relish the thought of her participation in the crimes. Atkins did in fact testify before the grand jury, but at some point, recanted her story. This act by her placed the state’s case in jeopardy.

  By this time, Kasabian had been brought back to California. She had already made her mind up that, deal, or no deal, she was going to testify against the Family. She needed to free her mind of the information that she had. Her attorney approached the district attorney in order to work out a deal, and the result was more than Kasabian, or even her attorney could hope for. The prosecution pulled the deal out from under Susan Atkins, and made the offer to Kasabian, which she and her attorney, naturally, happily accepted. The deal made Bugliosi a much happier man as well because Kasabian never actually participated in the crimes. Kasabian then told prosecutors everything that they needed to know.

  The trial date was drawing near. All of the participants would stand for trial together except for Watson, who was still fighting extradition. Finally, June 15, 1970 and the trial started. The prosecution’s star witness, Linda Kasabian, as well as Charles Manson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel were each charged with seven counts of first-degree murder as well as one count of conspiracy. As was previously mentioned, she had been granted immunity in return for her testimony. There was some controversy over granting her immunity, but as Bugliosi pointed out, they needed her testimony and she was not an active participant in the crimes. Without her testimony in fact, the State’s case was pretty weak due in large part to missing evidence. As for Leslie Van Houten, it had finally come to light that she participated in some of the crimes as well, but she was only charged with two counts of murder and one of conspiracy because she was only involved in the LaBianca murders.

  After some debate, trial judge William Keene reluctantly allowed Manson to defend himself during the trial. Permission to act as his own attorney was quickly rescinded however. Reason that the judge rescinded this decision included Manson repeatedly violating the gag order that the judge placed on all parties during the trial, continuous submission of ridiculous and outrageous motions to the court and finally, because of Manson’s personal conduct in the courtroom. In retaliation for the judge rescinding his right to defend himself, Manson filed an Affidavit of Prejudice against Keene which resulted in the judge being replaced by Judge Charles H. Older.

  After more than a month, testimony finally began in the trial on July 24, 1970. On that day, Manson appeared in court with an X carved into his forehead. He made a statement that day saying that if he was incompetent and inadequate to speak on his own behalf, then he would X himself from the “establishments world”. On the following Monday, the female defendants in the case appeared with duplicate marks on their foreheads. Within a day or two of their appearing with the mark, remaining family members repeated the act. Manson eventually converted the X into a swastika.

  As Bugliosi proceeded with his case, he presented “Helter Skelter” as the primary motive in the crimes. He explained to the jury what “helter skelter” was, and what it meant to Manson and the Family. Speaking specifically of the Beatles’ “White Album”, he explained the crimes scenes and each of the terms that made references to the songs on the album, such as “pig”, “rise”, and of course “helter skelter” written in victims’ blood on the walls and other locations. He explained that this followed Manson’s predictions of the race wars that were imminent between the blacks and whites. Testimony in the trial that Manson had said "now is the time for Helter Skelter" was supplemented with Kasabian's testimony that, on the night of the LaBianca murders, Manson had considered discarding Rosemary LaBianca's wallet on the streets of a black neighborhood. Having stolen the wallet while he was in the LaBianca house, he "wanted a black person to pick it up and use the credit cards so that the people of “the establishment”, would think it was some sort of an organized group that killed these people."

  Following Manson’s orders out of fear, Kasabian said that she had hidden the wallet in the women's restroom of a gas station near a black neigborhood. "I want to show blackie how to do it," Manson had said as the Family members had driven away after leaving the LaBianca house.

  Throughout the duration of the trial, members of the Manson Family who were free loitered near entrances and corridors of the courthouse. In order to prevent them from actually entering the courtroom and causing disruption there, prosecutors subpoenaed every one of them as potential witnesses, which ultimately meant that they could not go into the courtroom because any t
estimony they might be able to give would possibly be influenced by others who were testifying.

  Bugliosi actually had no serious intention of calling any of the members to the stand however. He just wanted to make sure that they were not able to start any trouble inside of the courtroom. Those family members that had established their vigil out on the sidewalk were easily identifiable by the X marks on their foreheads. Some of them also wore hunting knives in sheathes that were in plain view. This was legal however, so they were not bothered by authorities. Some Family members also attempted to prevent witnesses from testifying in court. Some prosecution witnesses such as Paul Watkins and Juan Flynn were both threatened. Watkins was badly burned in a suspicious fire that was set in his van. Former Family member Barbara Hoyt, who had overheard Susan Atkins describing the Tate murders in detail to Family member Ruth Ann Moorehouse, agreed to accompany the latter on a trip to Hawaii. While they were there, Moorehouse allegedly gave Hoyt a hamburger that was spiked with several doses of “acid” or LSD. Hoyt was then taken to a hospital in Honolulu after she was found sprawled on a curb in a drugged semi-stupor. Hoyt did her best to identify herself as a witness in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial. Before this happened, Hoyt had been a reluctant witness. However, after the attempt to silence her, she testified willingly.