• Tate Slaying Trial Taking on Look Of 3-Ring Circus

Tate Slaying Trial Taking on Look Of 3-Ring Circus

LOS ANGELES, Jul. 6 – Opening its fourth week at the Hall of Justice, the Sharon Tate murder trial is taking on the colorful complexity of a three-ring circus, with all participants doing their own thing.

With a jury still being chosen, the trial isn’t a standing-room-only show yet. But, the handful of spectators who grab front-row seats have to stay alert to keep up with all the acts.

In one ring, the four long-haired, hippie-type defendants burst into an oft-repeated speech demanding that their lawyers be fired and they be allowed to defend themselves.

Decked out in gypsy-like costumes, the three shapely women defendants beside their leader, Charles Manson, form a colorful courtroom tableau.

Manson, 35, and the women, Susan Atkins, 21, Leslie Van Houten, 20, and Patricia Krenwinkel, 22, are charged with murder — conspiracy in the “ritualistic” slayings of the beautiful actress, Miss Tate, and six others last August. The three women were members of Manson’s roving tribe of young nomads.

The women have appeared in new getups each day. The three came to court Friday in blue satin Superman-style capes.

Spectators gasped the day the statuesque Miss Atkins strolled into court in green lounging pajamas which showed that she was braless. A defense attorney asked potential jurors if they would be biased against a braless defendant. Later, Miss Atkins began wearing a bra to court.

Crowding the second ring are lawyers, prosecutors and the judge — all bickering river legal matters, their tempers obviously shortened by the tedious drawn-out jury selection.

The four defense lawyers are pursuing four different courses.

On Friday only one lawyer — Ira Reiner representing Leslie Van Houten — would use peremptory challenges to remove potential jurors. The other three attorneys say they’ll accept any 12 jurors and won’t challenge. However, since it’s a joint trial, the lawyers have 20 joint peremptory challenges. Reiner has used up his own five, and says he’ll ask for more unless his colleagues yield. The prosecution has 40 challenges.

The prosecutors — Deputy Dist. Atty. Aaron Stovitz and Vincent Bugliosi — have demanded that Manson’s attorney — Irving Kanarek — be removed from the case. He and Bugliosi have had heated courtroom exchanges.

This dispute opened a third ring two floors below the courtroom last week as the county’s district attorney, Evelle Younger, stepped into ask the state supreme court to remove Kanarek. Prosecutors claim Kanarek is “a professional obstructionist” and “incompetent.”

The high court refused to hear the case, and Kanarek said Younger, a candidate for state attorney general, was seeking publicity.

“He’s afraid I’m going to win the case for Manson,” declared Kanarek. “That’s what he’s afraid of.”

Outside the courtroom, there’s usually an added sideshow. The ragged remnants of the Manson “family,” mostly gaunt young girls in tattered hippie type outfits, many toting babies, await admittance in the court and complain that sheriff’s deputies insist on searching them.

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