Video: 'Inside Charles Manson's crazed cult | 60 Minutes Australia'
(Monday, March 29, 1971, 4:37 p.m. PST) — The same Los Angeles jury that found Charles Manson and the three young women members of his hippie “family” guilty two months ago of the seven brutal August 9-10, 1969, home invasion Tate-LaBianca murders voted death in the gas chamber as their punishment today following 10 hours of deliberation.
None of the defendants were in the courtroom to hear the decision. The proceeding had hardly begun before Superior Court Judge Charles Older ordered Manson removed.
Manson began shouting at the court as soon as the jurors were brought in, provoking Judge Older to order his removal.
“I don’t see how you can get by with this without letting us put on a defense,” Manson said at the outset.
Judge Older replied: “If you don’t remain quiet I’ll have you removed.”
“Hey, boy,” the 36-year-old cult leader called back to the judge.
“That’s your final warning,” Judge Older said sharply, but Manson continued.
“You don’t have no authority over me,” he said. “You’re not as good as I am.”
Judge Older had asked Herman C. Tubick, an undertaker who was the jury foreman, if a verdict had been reached. Tubick indicated that it had and the verdict was passed to Judge Older when Manson continued to yell out.
Then, barely glancing away from the verdicts that he was reading, Judge Older told the bailiffs to “remove Mr. Manson.” The defendant jumped to his feet and started for the holding tank cell at the front of the courtroom. Deputies ushered him out.
As he was leaving, he muttered, “This is not the people’s courtroom.”
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When the judge passed the verdicts to the clerk of the court for reading, Manson’s co-defendants, the three women, began their disruptions, and one by one they were ordered out.
Susan Atkins, 22, jumped to her feet first.
“It’s going to come down hard,” she said. “Lock your doors. Protect your kids.”
While Miss Atkins was yelling and being led out, Patricia Krenwinkel, 23, joined in. Then 21-year-old Leslie Van Houten followed and all three continued to shout until they were out of the room.
A fifth defendant in the case, Charles “Tex” Watson, would be tried separately, convicted and also sentenced to death, but the state Supreme Court would rule the death penalty unconstitutional and those sentences were commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Five of the murders took place at the Benedict Canyon home of the actress Sharon Tate. The two other victims Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, were killed at their home in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles.
Tate, the 26-year-old wife of the filmmaker, Roman Polanski, and eight months pregnant, was stabbed 16 times.
The other victims at the Tate residence were: Abigail Folger, 26, a wealthy coffee heiress who was stabbed 28 times; Thomas John Sebring, 35, a Hollywood hair stylist, who was stabbed seven times and shot once: Voyteck Frykowski, 37, a friend of Polanski’s who was stabbed 51 times, shot twice and struck 13 times on the head, and Steven Parent, 18, a student who was shot four times and stabbed once.
At the LaBianca residence, Leno LaBianca, 44, a wealthy supermarket owner, was stabbed 26 times. His 38-year-old wife, Rosemary, was stabbed 41 times. According to a coroner’s report at least 13 of her wounds were inflicted after death.
Although the motive for the murders was disputed by Manson, the Los Angeles County district attorney believed that Manson intended to start a race war.
The prosecution contended that, while Manson never directly ordered or participated the murders, his ideology constituted an overt act of conspiracy.
