Despite the precautions that were taken by the court, Manson managed to flash a copy of the LA Times newspaper to jurors on August 4, 1970. The headlines of the paper read “Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares”. The newspaper article referenced a statement that President Richard M. Nixon had made on the day before, voicing his opinion on how the media was glamorizing Charles Manson and the crimes of the Family. He couldn’t know then, just as no one else could have known, that the country would be fascinated by the Manson Family and its crimes for more than 40 years and counting. When questioned by the judge, the jury maintained that the headlines would not influence them in their decision when the time came to render a decision in the trial. Based on their responses, the judge ordered that the trial could continue. On August 5, 1970, all of the female defendants in the case stood and declared in unison that in light of President Nixon’s remarks, there was no sense in going on with the trial and the judge could go straight to the sentencing.
On October 5, 1970, Manson requested permission from the court to question one of the prosecution’s witnesses that the defense attorney’s declined to cross-examine. After hearing the judge deny his request, Manson leapt over the table in an effort to attack the judge. The court bailiffs wrestled him to the ground, and then removed him from the courtroom. When the female defendants stood and began chanting in Latin, he had them removed from the courtroom as well.
The prosecution rested its case on November 16, 1970. The defense then presented the standard motions to the court requesting dismissal of the charges. Three days later, after they had submitted the standard motions, defense attorneys rested their case without having called a single witness. Upon the resting of the defense cases, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten protested and demanded the right to testify to the court on their own behalf.
The judge took the lawyers into his chambers to question them about this latest outburst from the women. It is the right of every defendant in a court case in any locality to testify on their own behalf. The courts do not take lightly a defendant not being able to present their own case. Most trial lawyers do not like their clients to testify because it opens the door for prosecutors to bring up information that is possibly damning to their clients.
It was the intention of the women to testify in court that they in fact were the ones who planned and carried out the crimes in an effort to exonerate Charles Manson. The lawyers attempted to stop them from doing this by resting their cases. Van Houten’s lawyer in particular, Ronald Hughes, vehemently declined to “push his client out the window” by allowing her to testify in this manner.
Ronald Hughes
Bugliosi offered his point of view that this was Manson’s way of trying to save himself from conviction. Bugliosi said that by getting the girls to testify in this manner, Manson likely hoped that the jury would not convict him. In 1987, a documentary was produced about the trial. While being interview for the show, Patricia Krenwinkel said that Manson had controlled and scripted the entire court proceeding, including the actions by Family members.
Manson testified the next day. In order to prevent anything that he might have said from tainting the trial of the women, the jury was removed from the courtroom by the trial judge. This was due to a California Supreme Court decision involving a case known as People v. Aranda.
Manson then spoke for more than an hour to the court. Among other things, he told the court that it was the music that was telling the children to rise up against the establishment and not him. He went on to say that he did not write the music, and that he did not recall ever telling anyone to take a change of clothes and a knife and do whatever Tex told them to do. As the trial was wrapping up and the closing arguments were getting close, Van Houten’s lawyer disappeared while taking a weekend trip. The trial could not continue without her lawyer so the court appointed Maxwell Keith to stand in Hughes’ place. This resulted in the trial being delayed for about two weeks so that Keith would have enough time to become familiar with the case.
The trial had barely resumed when Judge Older had to ban the defendants from the courtroom because they were constantly interrupting the prosecutions closing statements. Upon banning them from the courtroom, Older stated that it was becoming increasingly obvious to him that the defendants were acting in collusion with one another and were simply “putting on a performance”.
The jury returned from deliberations on January 25, 1971. They gave guilty verdicts in all 27 charges against the four defendants. It was early in the penalty phase of the trial that jurors had a chance to see the defense that Manson had planned on presenting. The three women, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten all testified that the murders had been conceived as copycat versions of the Gary Hinman murder. Atkins was taking credit for that murder herself. The killings, they said, were intended to draw suspicion away from Bobby Beausoleil, by resembling the crime for which he had been jailed.
This plan had supposedly been the work of, and carried out under the guidance of, not Manson, but someone allegedly in love with Beausoleil— Linda Kasabian. Among the weak points of this “defense”, was the inability of Atkins to explain why, as she was maintaining, she had written "political piggy" at the Hinman house in the first place.
About halfway through the penalty phase of the trial, Manson shaved his head and trimmed his beard to a fork; he told the press, "I am the Devil, and the Devil always has a bald head." In what the prosecution regarded as belated recognition on their part that imitation of Manson only proved his domination, the female defendants held off from shaving their heads until after the jurors were dismissed to consider the state's request for the death penalty.
This obvious effort to exonerate Manson with the copycat scenario failed. On March 29, 1971, the jury returned to the courtroom with their decision on the recommended penalty in the case. All four were recommended to be put to death by the jury and on April 19, 1971, Judge Older officially sentenced them to death. That same day, the body of Ronald Hughes was then found between two boulders in Ventura County. His body was badly decomposed and while rumors were rampant that the Family murdered him, it could never be proven. It is believed that this was in retaliation because he vehemently denied allowing Van Houten to take the stand to absolve Manson of the murders. Officials conceded however that there was the possibility that Hughes died in flooding. Family member Sandra Good would at some point claim however, that Hughes’ death was the first in a series of retaliatory deaths.
Tex Watson’s trial would not begin until August 1971 because of his fighting extradition from Texas back to California. By October 1971, he had been found guilty of seven murders, along with the others and he too, was sentenced to death. He approached his case in a different manner from the others however, and his defense was psychiatric in nature, claiming that he was insane at the time of the murders. Vincent Bugliosi overran those claims however and Watson was of course, convicted of his crimes.
After Manson’s trial was over for the Tate-Polanski and LaBianca murders, he was again in court for his part in the Gary Hinman murder case. Like the others, Manson was found guilty for ordering the murder of Hinman. He was given a life sentence in that case.
Manson’s next trial was for the murder of Donald “Shorty” Shea. Shea was a Ranch stuntman and horse wrangler at the Spahn Ranch. Manson suspected that Shea was involved in setting up the raid on the ranch in which the Family members were arrested. Manson also suspected that Shea was trying to get the Family run off from the ranch, so Manson killed him about 10 days after the raid.
Other witnesses had also said that Manson considered it a "sin" that Shea, who was white, was married to a black woman. Finally, there was the possibility that Shea knew something about the Tate/LaBianca murders and Manson wanted to make sure that he kept his mouth shut. In separate trials, Family members Bruce Davis and Steve "Clem" Grogan were also found guilty of Shea's murder. Life sentences were the result for each of those who stood trial in this case.
In February 1972, al
l those who stood for trial in the murder cases and had received the death penalty had their sentences commuted to life in prison when the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. Once he was returned to prison, Manson’s rhetoric was largely ignored. He was however, temporarily accepted by the Aryan Brotherhood. His role then was as a submissive to a member of the brotherhood who was sexually aggressive.
It would not be until 1977 that authorities would learn the exact location of the remains of Shorty Shea, so that they could be returned to Shea’s family for proper burial. It was Steve Grogan who told authorities where they could find Shea’s body.
Before the conclusion of Manson's Tate/LaBianca trial, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times tracked down Manson's mother, who had by that time remarried and living in the Pacific Northwest. The former Kathleen Maddox claimed that, in childhood, her son had suffered no neglect; he had even been "pampered by all the women who surrounded him, and he was loved by the members of his real family. It would seem at least that there was some sort of stability in his young life with the aunt and uncle that he had been living with, but just seemed to want to go his own way. Such is the way of the psychopath, who shows very little, if any, emotion in the way of love or empathy for anyone.
“My father is the jailhouse. My father is your system... I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you.”
- Charles Manson
other murders by the family
There have been a number of other crimes committed by the Family, other than those that had garnered a lot of publicity for them. These crimes include murders that happened after the initial group was incarcerated for the now infamous murders at the LaBianca and Tate-Polanski residences. Manson had nothing to do with these murders, however, it is possible that he had asked other family members to “keep things going” in his quest for Helter Skelter. As previously mentioned, Bugliosi has said that it is believed that the Family is responsible for somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 deaths. There are a few however that happened after the most infamous of the family members were incarcerated. Among them of course, is the aforementioned Ronald Hughes, attorney for Leslie Van Houten. There were also a couple of others as well.
On November 8, 1972, the body of a 26-year old man was found by a hiker close to Guerneville, California. The body was eventually identified to be that of a Vietnam veteran named James L.T. Willett, who had served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps.
Months prior to his body being found, he had been forced to dig his own grave and was subsequently shot and buried in the hole that he dug. His body was poorly buried, and one hand was protruding from the hole. His other hand and his head were missing from the body and authorities believe that this was because of scavenging animals. His car was found outside of a house in Stockton, California that happened to be the residence of several of Manson’s most loyal followers that were never convicted of any crimes. These followers included Priscilla Cooper, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Nancy Pittman. Police forced entry into the house and arrested several of the people living there including Lynette Fromme.
A search of the house turned up the body of Willett’s 19-year old wife, Lauren “Reni” Chavelle Olmstead Willett. Her body was found buried in the basement of the house and she had been shot in the head. It was determined that her death had been fairly recent according to the authorities. The Willett’s child was also in the house and unharmed. Family members claimed that the shooting of Mrs. Willett was an accident, however, later revelations would show that she was probably killed for fear of her revealing who had actually killed her husband. As it happened, the locating of his body had made prominent headlines in the news.
Family member Michael Monfort ultimately pled guilty to the murder of Reni Willett while Pricilla Cooper, James Craig and Nancy Pitman pled guilty as accessories after the fact. As for the murder of James Willett, Monfort and a man named William Goucher pled guilty to his murder and James Craig pled guilty as an accessory after the fact.
As it turned out, the group had been living with the Willetts while they were committing robberies at various places. Not long after murdering Willett, Monfort had used Willett’s identification to pose as Willett after he was arrested for an armed robbery at a liquor store. According to news reports at the time, it was believed that Willetts was not involved in the robberies, but instead wanted to move away from the area to get away from the Family. It is believed that he was murdered before he could move because the others feared that he would go to the police with the information that he knew of the robberies. Willett had become an ESL teacher for immigrant children after serving two tours of duty in Vietnam.
On September 5, 1975, the Family shot back into national headlines when Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme attempted to assassinate US President Gerald R. Ford while he was visiting Sacramento, California. Fromme and another Manson follower, Sandra Good had moved to Sacramento in order to be near Manson while he was incarcerated at the Folsom State Prison. A subsequent search of the apartment shared by Fromme, Good, and a Family recruit turned up evidence that, along with later actions on the part of Good, resulted in Good's conviction for conspiring to send threatening communications through the United States mail and transmitting death threats by way of interstate commerce. (The threats that were involved were against corporate executives and US government officials and had to do with supposed environmental dereliction on their part.)
Fromme was found guilty and given a sentenced of 15 years to life, becoming the first person sentenced under United States Code Title 18, chapter 84 (1965), which made it a Federal crime to attempt to assassinate the President of the United States.
Manson, over the next forty-plus years would give numerous interviews to members of the media. In his own words, he said granted the interviews in order that he could get out of his cell and “move around without being cuffed up” for awhile. In one infamous interview, he would tell the reporter that if he wanted anyone dead, all he had to do was give the word, but he wouldn’t do that because he was not a murderer. “In fact,” he said, “If I started killing anyone, there would be none of you left”.
While Manson maintains that he never killed anyone, and perhaps he never did physically, he is still guilty of the crimes whether or not he believes so. Most, if not all states have laws on the books that will charge others for a crime whether they actually committed them or not. The state then has the burden of proving that you knew about the crimes before, or after the fact, and you did nothing to prevent or report the crime.
In this case, Manson clearly told people what they needed to do, and they did it. Call it what you will, but he was clearly the leader of the Family, and as such, he is just as culpable as those who actually carried out the deed(s).
“I have no sympathy for you bitch!”
- Susan Atkins (to Sharon Tate)
EAGLE PUBLISHING COMPANY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
RESOURCES
While researching the content for this book, I used a number of different resources. I have listed the resources that I used below. If I have left anyone/anything out, please forgive me as it was unintentional.
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.trutv.com
Bugliosi, V., & Gentry, C. (1974). Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
NBC Television
CBS Television
ABC Television
The History Channel
The Biography Channel
Watch for John’s next book coming out: Serial Killers and Mass Murderers to be released in the summer of 2013 as well as other books he is working on about true crime.
For those readers who are fans of true crime books, and of the writing of John Derossett, please visit and bookmark his website at http://www.johnderossett.com, and be on the lookout for a new section on the site that is to be for members only. The members only section of the site will be a compani
on to the books that John writes in the true crime genre and will include video, images and special content related to each of the books that John publishes.
Also, members of John’s website will be entitled to free books, special offers and discounts, and content that no one but members can access.
Watch for this special section of the site to launch approximately April 1, 2013!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John has been writing since his high school years. He attended college briefly at Garrett Community College but eventually left. Later in life, he returned to school, opting to study online through the Ashford University Journalism and Mass Communications Bachelor Program. This is John’s fifth book, the others being shorts about topics like David Berkowitz, Bichon Frise dogs, and the others being how-to books.
Eagle Publishing Company
Baltimore, Maryland
http://www.eaglepublishing.org
Charles Manson - Unauthorized Page 6