LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2 – The trial of Charles (Tex) Watson, 25, for the seven Tate-LaBianca murders begins today.

Jury selection will start at 9 a.m. in Superior Judge Adolph Alexander’s small, 46-seat courtroom at the Los Angeles County Courthouse.

The case follows the long, incredibly chaotic trial and sentencing to death of Charles Manson and three women followers for the same homicides.

And much of the same ground will be covered in respect to physical evidence and eyewitness testimony that delineated the murders. Committed, it seems, according to fuzzy testimony, against strangers, picked willy-nilly, to foment a black-white war that somehow would leave Manson in charge.

Watson has been identified as a member of the Manson “family.” Witnesses, as they did at the Manson trial, are expected to name him as the strongarm man — the actual murderer who shot, stabbed or slugged most of the victims.

But, unlike Manson and the other defendants, Watson to his innocent plea added the plea of innocent by reason of insanity. For him there will be a possible three trials.

The first will determine his guilt. The second, if he is found guilty, will rule on his sanity. And the third, if he is found sane, will assess his penalty — death or life imprisonment.

The trial will differ from the Manson case in many other ways as well.

It will certainly be shorter. Attorneys estimate it will take six to eight weeks. The Manson trial took 9 1/2 months.

There is no reason to believe that this case will see the frequent contemptuous disturbances by defendants and defense counsel that held up the Manson case for long periods.

But, most importantly, the trial will differ from the earlier one in the volume and critical importance of scientific testimony, mostly psychiatric.

Dep. Dist. Attys. Vincent T. Bugliosi and Stephen Kay, coprosecutors, and defense attorneys Sam Bubrick and Maxwell Keith may call as many as 10 psychiatrists to testify.

The defense, it appears, will depend largely on such expert testimony to provide an insight into Watson’s mental state at the time of the murders and also to measure the effect that chronic use of LSD might have had on his actions.

And, finally, in the way the two trials will differ, there are the two male defendants themselves. Manson grew up a drifter. Rootless, product of a broken home, he lived by his wits, contemptuous of society and its laws.

Watson, in contrast, has the ring of classic, admired All-America boy. High school hero, college man, white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Solid smalltown background. Solid parents (country store owners) in a God-fearing home. The kind of background, some say, that gives a young man an edge.

That was the Watson of only a few years ago. When he was scoring touchdowns for his high school football team and running the hurdles in record time. And making the honor roll. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall, a lithe 160 pounds.

Watson was not tried with the others because he was not available at the time. For more than eight months following his indictment Dec. 8, 1969, he successfully fought extradition from his native Texas.

He was returned here in September, 1970, when the trial of Manson and the girls had been under way, since mid-June. His physical deterioration followed soon and was swift.

In mid-October he was down to 110 pounds and described as follows by a court – appointed doctor: “He lay, lips pursed, list-less, flaccid, being fed through a tube in his nose … virtually vegetative … rapidly reverting to a fetal state.”

He was declared incompetent to stand trial and sent to Atascadero State Hospital. There he improved. In April he was “restored to legal capacity” and returned here for trial.

Today he has gained four pounds, weighing in at 114, but jailers say he eats little and then fussily. He eats no meat at all, which is part of jail fare.

Bubrick has reported that Watson was “very responsive” and probably would testify in his own behalf.

By ED MEAGHER