Editing Manson Family (section)

=== 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}}