• Evidence Opened to Susan Atkins

Evidence Opened to Susan Atkins

LOS ANGELES, Apr. 3 – Access to all prosecution evidence was granted today for Susan Denise Atkins, the informant in the Tate-La Bianca murder cases, after a brief hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Daye Shinn, attorney for the 20-year-old member of the nomadic hippie tribe charged in the killings, was allowed to see all evidence against his client but was denied access to addresses of witnesses.

Prosecutors, following the brief courtroom appearance, said they felt the addresses would only lead to harassment of their witnesses by “family” members of Charles Manson, accused of being the mastermind in the slayings.

A possibility that the trial scheduled for April 20 may be postponed was indicated by prosecutor Aaron Stovitz, who told newsmen that the Texas Court of Appeals has granted an April 8 hearing for Charles Watson, now fighting extradition in Texas. Watson, Miss Atkins and four other members of the “family” are charged in the murders.

Stovitz said the appeals court could hear the case and rule on it by April 18, which would mean Watson could be in Los Angeles shortly thereafter.

A jury was finally selected Thursday in the murder trial of Robert Beausoleil, 21, a member of the “Manson family” accused of a cult slaying the month before the Sharon Tate killings.

Four days were required to pick the seven women and five men who will hear charges that Beausoleil fatally stabbed Gary Hinman, 34, a musician with whom Charles Manson and his followers lived for a time.

Three more alternate jurors were to be selected today in the Los Angeles trial. The state contends that Beausoleil and Susan Atkins killed Hinman because he would-not give the “family” money.

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