Psychiatrist’s Report Denied by Manson Girl
Wednesday, March 3rd, 1971
LOS ANGELES, Mar. 3 – Patricia Krenwinkel, the girl who has admitted killing at least two of the seven Tate-LaBianca murder victims, took the witness stand Tuesday to deny a psychiatrist’s report that she killed on orders of Charles Manson and then fled in fear of the hippie leader.
Miss Krenwinkel nervously took the stand following a heated exchange with Manson in which he said: “You brought this on yourself, now you get out of it.”
The bearded hippie leader apparently was referring to Miss Krenwinkel’s statements to a psychiatrist in Mobile, Ala., four months after the killings. The report of the psychiatrist, Dr. Claude L. Brown, was introduced into the trial by Dr. Andre R. Tweed, a professor of psychiatry at Loma Linda University.
In the report from the Mobile doctor, the girl was quoted as saying that after the first year or so with Manson, her feelings for him changed and she became “intensely fearful of him because he became cruel … whereas at first he was a kind benefactor.
“Later, she says he (Manson) became the Devil, and threatened them with harm if they did not do what he requested,” the report said. “She says he ‘tricked many people by deluding them that he was Jesus Christ.’
“She gives the following story of the murders: She says she just came off an acid trip and was feeling bad when she was awakened by Charles, and that he told her to accompany Chuck (Charles Watson) and do what she was told. She, Chuck, Linda (Kasabian) and Susan (Atkins) then went to a house and she says Chuck killed the people there.
“Sometime later Charles told them, she says, to get in the car again with Chuck and do what he said, and again they went and killed two people. She says she worried about the people, saying: ‘it would’ be easier to have Charles kill me.’
“She says she was always fearful that they would be arrested for what they had done but Charles assured them that no one could ever apprehend them.
“She said she came to Mobile to live with her mother primarily because she was exceedingly afraid of Charles finding her and killing her.
“She says her flight to Alabama was motivated by this fear rather than by any fear of the police.”
Miss Krenwinkel on the stand, denied the entire psychiatric report, claiming she had told the story at the instigation of her attorney.
“My lawyer said to play crazy,” the girl said. “So I followed along with the story Sadie told.”
Following her testimony, Manson and Miss Krenwinkel chatted pleasantly at the counsel table.
A second psychiatrist took the stand today to tell of the dangers of LSD.
Dr. Keith Ditman, a psychiatrist specializing in alcohol and drug abuse, is the second medical man called by the defense in an attempt to save Charles Manson and his three girl followers from death in the gas chamber.
By MARY NEISWENDER
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