LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28 – The Manson family was just “a lot of people having fun,” said Charles Manson, returning to the courthouse where he was convicted of nine murders as the guru-svengali of the hippie tribe.

He had no reason to be angry with Sharon Tate, he said under questioning.

It didn’t occur to him until after the murder spree had ended and he and many of his followers were in jail, that “a lot of people” did whatever he told them to, he said.

Manson, brought from prison where he is serving life sentences, was led into court Monday chained hand and foot. Now 38, he appeared sunken-eyed.

His hair, which once flowed over his shoulders, was cropped short. Barefoot, in faded prison denims, his wrists fastened to his sides by a chain around his waist and his ankles shackled together, Manson clanked through the hallways of the courthouse where his sensational trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders made headlines in 1970.

Manson was called to testify in the sanity portion of the trial of four followers. They were found guilty last week of trying to steal 143 firearms from a war surplus store, allegedly to mount a commando raid on the jail-courthouse building to free Manson.

Their defense attorneys hope to show they were so thoroughly under Manson’s power that they were not responsible for their actions.

Manson challenged the concept of the “Manson family,” calling his followers “just part of a group that the newspapers made up … and there was no motivating force other than a lot of people having fun.

“A lot of people were having a good time every day, but we were forced into a corner and had to play the cards we were dealt.”

He said society was responsible for the deeds of his group, because police and sheriff’s deputies kept harassing them in their commune on the Spahn movie ranch.

“They could never figure out what we were doing wrong, but after awhile it called up the thought to us to do something wrong.”

“Why do you think they acted that way?” a defense attorney asked Manson.

“Sex paranoia,” he replied. The prosecutor asked Manson why his followers obeyed him so completely.

“You know, I never really noticed it until we got arrested, but then I could see that lot of people accepted what I said,” Manson answered.

“Did Sharon Tate ever bother you?” the prosecutor asked.

“No, she never bothered me.”

“Did you have any reason to be mad at her?”

“No.”