Editing Manson Family (section)

== Investigation and trial ==
=== Investigation ===
The Tate murders became national news on August 9, 1969. The Polanskis' housekeeper, Winifred Chapman, had discovered the murder scene when she arrived for work that morning.<ref name="bugliosi"/>{{Rp|5–6, 11–15}} On August 10, detectives of the [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department]], which had jurisdiction in the Hinman case, informed [[Los Angeles Police Department]] (LAPD) detectives assigned to the Tate case of the bloody writing at the Hinman house. According to [[Vincent Bugliosi]], because detectives believed the Tate murders were a consequence of a drug transaction, the Tate team initially ignored this and other evidence of similarities between the crimes.<ref name="bugliosi"/>{{Rp|28–38}}<ref name="Sanders"/>{{rp|243–244}} The Tate autopsies were underway before the LaBianca bodies were discovered.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

During the Tate autopsies, detectives working on the Gary Hinman case noticed similarities in the weapons used, the stab wounds, and the writing in blood on the walls. They also thought the case had something to do with narcotics. They brought the information to detectives working on the Tate murders. According to Detective Charlie Guenther, "Vince [Bugliosi] didn't want anything to do with the Hinman case. Hinman was a nothing case. Vince didn't want to prosecute it."<ref name="O'Neill"/>{{rp|148–151}}

Steven Parent, who was fatally shot in the Tate/Polanski driveway, was found to have been an acquaintance of William Garretson, the caretaker who lived in the guest house. Garretson had been hired by Rudi Altobelli to take care of the property while Altobelli was away.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|28–38}} The killers encountered Parent when he was leaving after he had visited Garretson.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|28–38}}

Held briefly as a Tate suspect, Garretson told police he had neither seen nor heard anything on the murder night. He was released on August 11, 1969, after undergoing a [[polygraph]] examination that indicated he had not been involved in the crimes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|28–38, 42–48}}

The LaBianca crime scene was discovered at about 10:30&nbsp;p.m. on August 10, approximately 19 hours after the murders were committed. Fifteen-year-old Frank Struthers, Rosemary's son from a prior marriage and Leno's stepson, returned from a camping trip and was concerned to see all of the window shades of his home drawn and his stepfather's speedboat still attached to the family car, parked in the driveway. He called his older sister and her boyfriend. The boyfriend, Joe Dorgan, accompanied the younger Struthers into the house, where they discovered Leno's body. They called the police, who found Rosemary's body after officers arrived at the house.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|38}}

On August 12, 1969, the LAPD told the press it had ruled out any connection between the Tate and LaBianca homicides.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|42–48}} On August 16, the sheriff's office raided Spahn Ranch and arrested Manson and 25 others, as "suspects in a major auto theft ring" that had been stealing [[Volkswagen Beetle]]s and converting them into [[Dune buggy|dune buggies]]. Weapons were seized, but, because the search warrant had been misdated, the group was released a few days later.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|56}}

In a report at the end of August, the LaBianca detectives noted a possible connection between the bloody writings at the LaBianca house and "the singing group the Beatles' most recent album."<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|65}}

==== Breakthrough ====
Still working separately from the Tate team, the LaBianca team checked with the sheriff's office in mid-October about possible similar crimes. They learned of the Hinman case. They also learned that the Hinman detectives had spoken with Beausoleil's girlfriend, Kitty Lutesinger. She had been arrested a few days earlier with members of "the Manson Family".<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}}

The arrests, for car thefts, had taken place at the desert ranches to which the Family had moved. Unknown to authorities, its members had been searching [[Death Valley]] for a hole in the ground, what they believed was access to the Bottomless Pit.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|228–233}}<ref name="watkins4"/><ref name="watson12"/> A joint force of [[National Park Service Ranger]]s and officers from the [[California Highway Patrol]] and the [[Inyo County, California|Inyo County]] Sheriff's Office: federal, state, and county personnel, had raided both the Myers and Barker ranches after following evidence left when Family members had burned an [[Heavy equipment|earthmover]] owned by [[Death Valley National Park|Death Valley National Monument]].<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|125–127}}<ref name="Sanders"/>{{rp|282–283}}<ref name="watkins4"/> The raiders had found stolen dune buggies and other vehicles, and had arrested two dozen people, including Manson. A Highway Patrol officer found Manson hiding in a cabinet beneath Barker's bathroom sink. The officers had no idea that the people they were arresting were involved with the murders in Los Angeles.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77, 125–127}}

Following up leads a month after they had spoken with Lutesinger, LaBianca detectives contacted members of a motorcycle gang Manson tried to recruit as bodyguards while the Family was at Spahn Ranch.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}} While the gang members were providing information that suggested a link between Manson and the Tate/LaBianca murders,<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|84–90, 99–113}} a dormitory mate of [[Susan Atkins]] informed LAPD of the Family's involvement in the crimes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|99–113}} Atkins was booked for the Hinman murder after she told sheriff's detectives that she had been involved in it.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|75–77}}<ref>Report on questioning of Katherine Lutesinger and Susan Atkins October 13, 1969, by Los Angeles Sheriff's officers Paul Whiteley and Charles Guenther.</ref> Transferred to [[Sybil Brand Institute]], a detention center in [[Monterey Park, California]], she had begun talking to bunkmates Ronnie Howard and Virginia Graham, to whom she gave accounts of the events in which she had been involved.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|91–96}}

==== Apprehension ====
[[File:Charles-mansonbookingphoto.jpg|thumb|upright|County Sheriff mugshot of Manson August 16, 1969. He was arrested on suspicion of car theft. Those charges were later dropped on account of a misdated warrant.]]

On December 1, 1969, acting on the information from these sources, LAPD announced warrants for the arrest of Watson, Krenwinkel, and Kasabian in the Tate case; the suspects' involvement in the LaBianca murders was noted. Manson and Atkins, already in custody, were not mentioned; the connection between the LaBianca case and Van Houten, who was also among those arrested near Death Valley, had not yet been recognized.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|125–127, 155–161, 176–184}}

Watson and Krenwinkel were already under arrest, with authorities in [[McKinney, Texas|McKinney]], Texas and [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], Alabama having picked them up on notice from LAPD.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|155–161}} Informed that a warrant was out for her arrest, Kasabian voluntarily surrendered to authorities in [[Concord, New Hampshire]] on December 2.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|155–161}}

Before long, physical evidence such as Krenwinkel's and Watson's fingerprints, which had been collected by LAPD at Cielo Drive,<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|15, 156, 273, and photographs between 340–41}} was augmented by evidence recovered by the public. On September 1, 1969, the distinctive .22-caliber Hi Standard "Buntline Special" revolver Watson used on Parent, Sebring, and Frykowski had been found and given to the police by Steven Weiss, a 10-year-old who lived near the Tate residence.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|66}} In mid-December, when the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' published a crime account based on information Susan Atkins had given her attorney,<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|160,193}} Weiss's father made several phone calls which finally prompted LAPD to locate the gun in its evidence file and connect it with the murders via ballistics tests.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|198–199}}

Acting on that same newspaper account, a local [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] television crew quickly located and recovered the bloody clothing discarded by the Tate killers.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|197–198}} The knives discarded en route from the Tate residence were never recovered, despite a search by some of the same crewmen and months later by LAPD.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|198, 273}}  A knife found behind the cushion of a chair in the Tate living room was apparently that of Susan Atkins, who lost her knife in the course of the attack.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|17, 180, 262}}<ref name="atkins"/>{{rp|141}}

=== Trial ===
{{Infobox court case
| name = The People v. Charles Manson et al.
| court = [[Los Angeles County Superior Court]]
| image = Seal of the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.png
| imagesize = 
| imagelink = 
| imagealt = 
| full name = The People of the State of California vs. Charles Manson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins
| date decided = {{start date|1971|1|25|df=}}
| citations = 
| ECLI = 
| transcripts = 
| judges = Charles H. Older<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/crime-and-law-enforcement-biographies/charles-manson|title=Charles Manson facts, information, pictures – Encyclopedia.com articles about Charles Manson|website=Encyclopedia.com|access-date=May 19, 2018|archive-date=May 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520054055/https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/crime-and-law-enforcement-biographies/charles-manson|url-status=live}}</ref>
| number of judges = 1
| decision by = [[Trial by jury|Jury]]
| concurring = 
| dissenting = 
| concur/dissent = 
| prior actions = 
| appealed from = 
| appealed to = [[Supreme Court of California]]
| subsequent actions = 
| related actions = 
| opinions = Vogel, J., with Thompson, J., concurring. Separate concurring and dissenting opinion by Wood, P. J<ref name="justia.com">{{cite web|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/61/102.html|title=People v. Manson|website=Law.justia.com|access-date=May 19, 2018|archive-date=May 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520054853/https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/61/102.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
| keywords = <!-- {{hlist |}} -->
| italic title = no
}}

The trial began June 15, 1970.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|297–300}} The prosecution's main witness was Kasabian, who along with Manson, Atkins, and Krenwinkel had been charged with seven counts of murder and one of [[Conspiracy (criminal)|conspiracy]].<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|185–188}} Since Kasabian, by all accounts, had not participated in the killings, she was granted [[Qualified immunity|immunity]] in exchange for testimony that detailed the nights of the crimes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|214–219, 250–253, 330–332}} Originally, a deal had been made with Atkins in which the prosecution agreed not to seek the death penalty against her in exchange for her grand jury testimony on which the indictments were secured; once Atkins repudiated that testimony, the deal was withdrawn.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|169, 173–184, 188, 292}} Because Van Houten had participated only in the LaBianca killings, she was charged with two counts of murder and one of conspiracy.

Originally, Judge [[William B. Keene|William Keene]] had reluctantly granted Manson permission to [[Pro se legal representation in the United States|act as his own attorney]]. Because of Manson's conduct, including violations of a [[gag order]] and submission of "outlandish" and "nonsensical" [[motion (legal)|pretrial motions]], the permission was withdrawn before the trial's start.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|200–202, 265}} Manson filed an affidavit of prejudice against Keene, who was replaced by Judge [[Charles Older]].<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|290}} On Friday, July 24, the first day of testimony, Manson appeared in court with an X carved into his forehead. He issued a statement that he was "considered inadequate and incompetent to speak or defend [him]self"—and had "X'd [him]self from [the establishment's] world."<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|310}}<ref name="Sanders"/>{{rp|388}} Over the following weekend, the female defendants duplicated the mark on their own foreheads, as did most Family members within another day or so.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|316}}

The prosecution argued that triggering the [[Helter Skelter (scenario)|"Helter Skelter" scenario]] was Manson's main motive.<ref name="bugliosi"/> Present at the crime scene were the words "PIGS" and "HEALTER SKELTER" {{sic}}<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|176–184}} written in blood by [[Susan Atkins]], a reference to [[the Beatles]]' song "[[Helter Skelter (song)|Helter Skelter]]" from [[The Beatles (album)|their 1968 album]]. These messages correlated with testimony about Manson's predictions that Black people would murder white people and write similar warnings in blood at the outset of Helter Skelter.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|244–247, 450–457}} The defendants testified that the writing on the walls was to imitate the Hinman murder scene, not an apocalyptic race war.<ref name="bugliosi"/>{{rp|426–435}}

According to Bugliosi, Manson directed Kasabian to hide a wallet taken from the scene in the women's restroom of a service station near a Black neighborhood.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|176–184, 190–191, 258–269, 369–377}} However, as co-prosecutor Stephen Kay later pointed out the wallet was actually left about 20 miles away in a predominantly White neighborhood, [[Sylmar]].<ref>{{cite AV media|last=Day|first=Buddy|author-link=James Buddy Day|url=https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Manson-Final-Words/dp/B07YCDVCHX|title=Charles Manson: The Final Words|publisher=[[Pyramid Productions]]: via–[[Amazon Prime]]|date=December 3, 2017|access-date=August 9, 2021|time=1:14:00-1:15:00|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==== Ongoing disruptions ====
During the trial, Family members loitered near the entrances and corridors of the courthouse. To keep them out of the courtroom proper, the prosecution [[subpoena]]ed them as prospective witnesses, who would not be able to enter while others were testifying.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|309}} When the group established itself in vigil on the sidewalk, some members wore sheathed hunting knives{{citation needed|date=June 2011}} that, although in plain view, were carried legally. Each of them was also identifiable by the X on their forehead.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|339}}

Some Family members attempted to dissuade witnesses from testifying. Prosecution witnesses [[Paul Watkins (Manson Family)|Paul Watkins]] and Juan Flynn were both threatened;<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|280, 332–335}} Watkins was badly burned in a suspicious fire in his van.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|280}} Former Family member Barbara Hoyt, who had overheard [[Susan Atkins]] describing the Tate murders to Family member [[Ruth Ann Moorehouse]], agreed to accompany the latter to Hawaii. There, Moorehouse allegedly gave her a hamburger spiked with several doses of [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]]. Found sprawled on a [[Honolulu]] curb in a drugged semi-stupor, Hoyt was taken to the hospital, where she did her best to identify herself as a witness in the Tate–LaBianca murder trial. Before the incident, Hoyt had been a reluctant witness; after the attempt to silence her, her reticence disappeared.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|348–350, 361}}

On August 4, despite precautions taken by the court, Manson flashed the jury a ''Los Angeles Times'' front page whose headline was "Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares". This was a reference to a statement made the previous day when U.S. President [[Richard Nixon]] had decried what he saw as the media's glamorization of Manson. [[Voir dire]]d by Judge Charles Older, the jurors contended that the headline had not influenced them. The next day, the female defendants stood up and said in unison that, in light of Nixon's remark, there was no point in going on with the trial.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|323–238}}

On October 5, Manson was denied the court's permission to question a prosecution witness whom defense attorneys had declined to [[cross-examination|cross-examine]]. Leaping over the defense table, Manson attempted to attack the judge. Wrestled to the ground by bailiffs, he was removed from the courtroom with the female defendants, who had subsequently risen and begun chanting in Latin.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|369–377}} Thereafter, Older allegedly began wearing a revolver under his robes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|369–377}}

==== Defense rests ====
On November 16, the prosecution rested its case. Three days later, after arguing standard dismissal motions, the defense stunned the court by resting as well, without calling a single witness. Shouting their disapproval, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten demanded their right to testify.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|382–388}}

In chambers, the women's lawyers told the judge their clients wanted to testify that they had planned and committed the crimes and that Manson had not been involved.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|382–388}}  By resting their case, the defense lawyers had tried to stop this; Van Houten's attorney, [[Ronald Hughes]], vehemently stated that he would not "push a client out the window". In the prosecutor's view, it was Manson who was advising the women to testify in this way as a means of saving himself.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|382–388}} Speaking about the trial in a 1987 documentary, Krenwinkel said, "The entire proceedings were scripted—by Charlie."<ref>''[[Biography (TV series)|Biography]]''—"Charles Manson." [[A&E (TV channel)|A&E Network]].</ref>

The next day, Manson testified. The jury was removed from the courtroom. According to [[Vincent Bugliosi]] it was to make sure Manson's address did not violate the [[Supreme Court of California|California Supreme Court]]'s decision in ''People v. Aranda'' by making statements implicating his co-defendants.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|134}} However, Bugliosi argued Manson would use his hypnotic powers to unfairly influence the jury.<ref>{{cite AV media|last=Schreck|author-link=Nikolas Schreck|first=Nikolas|url=https://archive.org/details/Charles_Manson_SuperStar|title=Charles Manson: Superstar|time=46:00–47:00|date=1988|access-date=July 25, 2021}}</ref> Speaking for more than an hour, Manson said, among other things, that "the music is telling the youth to rise up against the establishment." He said, "Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music." "To be honest with you," Manson also stated, "I don't recall ever saying 'Get a knife and a change of clothes and go do what Tex says.{{'"}}<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|388–392}}

As the body of the trial concluded and with the closing arguments impending, defense attorney Hughes disappeared during a weekend trip.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|393–398}} When Maxwell Keith was appointed to represent Van Houten in Hughes' absence, a delay of more than two weeks was required to permit Keith to familiarize himself with the voluminous trial transcripts.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|393–398}} No sooner had the trial resumed, just before Christmas, than disruptions of the prosecution's closing argument by the defendants led Older to ban the four defendants from the courtroom for the remainder of the [[bifurcation (law)|guilt phase]]. This may have occurred because the defendants were acting in collusion with each other and were simply putting on a performance, which Older said was becoming obvious.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|399–407}}

==== Conviction and penalty phase ====
On January 25, 1971, the jury returned guilty verdicts against the four defendants on each of the 27 separate counts against them.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|411–419}} Not far into the trial's [[bifurcation (law)|penalty phase]], the jurors saw, at last, the defense that Manson—in the prosecution's view—had planned to present.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|455}}  Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten testified the murders had been conceived as "copycat" versions of the Hinman murder, for which Atkins now took credit. 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]].<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|424–433}} Among the narrative's weak points 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.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|424–433, 450–457}}

Midway through the penalty phase, 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."<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|439}} In what the prosecution regarded as belated recognition on their part that imitation of Manson only proved his domination, the female defendants refrained from shaving their heads until the jurors retired to weigh the state's request for the death penalty.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|439, 455}}

The effort to exonerate Manson via the "copycat" scenario failed. On March 29, 1971, the jury returned verdicts of death against all four defendants on all counts.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|450–457}} On April 19, 1971, Judge Older sentenced the four to death.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|458–459}}