SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jun. 19 – Charles Manson, long-haired hippie guru who preached love and is accused of eight killings, had his say in public Thursday and flatly denied he is guilty of murder.

In his first extended give-and-take session with the press, both inside a courtroom here and outside the courthouse, the 35-year-old ex-convict also said he:

• Does not think much of the Tate-La Bianca trial because, “‘You’ve already tried the case.”

• Was not upset with former “family” member Linda Kasabian, the prosecution’s chief witness.

• Does not recognize any attorney or court.

• Feels a little “nervous” but has no guilt.

Manson denied his guilt as sheriff’s deputies led him from the three-story courthouse to a waiting van. A television reporter asked if he had killed anyone.

“I killed a chicken once,” he responded.

When the question was repeated, the slight, dark-eyed defendant, said flatly:
“No.”

Then, he added, as a second thought, “I’ll plead guilty to the Indians.”

Since Manson was returned in handcuffs from Death Valley last year, he has repeatedly asked the courts to be his own attorney, so he could exercise his “own voice.”

His chance came during a recess in the court of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Laurence R. Rittenband.

Members of the press had crowded near the rail dividing the spectator section from the bench when Manson, dressed in prison dungarees, entered and sat down at the attorney’s table. He and Susan Atkins, 22, were to enter pleas in the murder of musician Gary Hinman last July.

Swiveling in his chair in response to shouted questions, Manson faced reporters and television cameramen and said:

“You’ve already tried the case. You’re the jury. You’re the courts. You’re the whole thing. You stand for it, if you contribute to it, you’re part of it. It’s just as much your fault as anyone’s.”

“What whole thing?” someone asked.

“You have eyes. Open them,” he said.

Asked what he thought when he saw Mrs. Kasabian in court Wednesday when he stared smiling at her, Manson said he was thinking “how pretty she looked.”

Was he upset at the prospects of her testimony.

“Not at all,” he said. “That’s up to her.”

Manson said all his “feelings were good.”

“I don’t accept any attorney. I don’t accept any court. I know what I’ve done … I don’t have any guilt,” he said.

“What have you done, Charlie?” a newsman asked.

“I ate off the plant,” the dark-eyed cultist said. “I have stayed in the desert and found that you can live there…I want to go back there but you won’t let me, will you?”

Manson said he was the “other end of society,” a person who had spent 22 years of his life in prison “so you can walk the streets and ride your bicycles.”

“I feel no bad. I know no bad.”

Outside, Manson was asked again whether he was unhappy with Mrs. Kasabian. He replied:

“I’m not unhappy with anything. No one can hurt me. You can’t kill love.”

By JOHN KENDALL

Long-haired cultist Charles Manson sits in the courtroom before a hearing yesterday in Santa Monica, Calif., in the murder case of musician Gary Hinman. Manson’s trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders began this week – forcing postponement in the Hinman case.