• Manson Witness: He’s Guilty Too

Manson Witness: He’s Guilty Too

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25 — Charles Manson and his three women codefendants shouted angrily at star prosecution witness Linda Kasabian yesterday, when the pig-tailed blonde would not go along with their story that Manson is blameless in the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Mrs. Kasabian, 23, had been brought back from New Hampshire by Manson’s lawyer, Irving Kanarek, but she stuck calmly to her testimony six months ago that the hippie leader ordered both the Tate and LaBianca murders.

She was granted complete immunity in exchange for her testimony for the state. As she told the jury that the three women lied in their stories absolving Manson, Susan Atkins suddenly shouted:

“You only got off by putting it on Manson. Admit it!”

“Why don’t you tell your part?” called out Patricia Krenwinkel.

Mrs. Kasabian turned in the witness chair and looked at the defendants.

“I have,” she said. “Why don’t you tell your part?”

Then turning directly to Manson, she said: “Why don’t you tell your part?”

“Live with it — It’s on your face,” cried Manson.

“Yes, it’s heavy,” Mrs. Kasabian said. “The whole thing is insane.”

Kanarek asked her what she meant about its being insane.

“I’ve never been touched by anything like this before, and it’s hard to relate after being out for a while. To be here again is strange, like a dream.”

Judge Charles H. Older ordered the defendants to be silent or be removed immediately from the courtroom. A few minutes later, Mrs. Kasabian was dismissed permanently as a witness, and presumably she will return to her husband and two children at their home near Milford, N.H.

Mrs. Kasabian was followed to the witness stand by Deputy Dist. Atty, Aaron Stovitz. Stovitz testified that his office made an agreement with Susan Atkins’s lawyer that the state would not ask the death penalty for her if she told the truth about the killings before a grand jury.

Miss Atkins did testify before the jury, but she subsequently recanted her “confession” and then told an entirely different story at the trial last week.

The defense was expected later this week to call psychiatrists who will give their opinions about the effect of LSD on the sanity of the defendants.

All four already have been found guilty of first degree murder. The only question before the jury is whether they will get a life sentence or the death penalty.

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