LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27 – Susan Atkins’ account of the seven Tate-LaBianca murders has earned about $100,000 the agent who marketed the story worldwide testified Friday.

Lawrence J. Schiller, a witness called by the defense in the penalty phase of the Tate-LaBianca trial, said $86,000 has been paid and another $12,000 to $17,000 is expected within six months.

The photographer-journalist said he received 25% of the gross for directing preparation of a book called, “The Killing of Sharon Tate,” and selling Miss Atkins’s account to other publications.

The remaining 75%, he said, was to be shared by Miss Atkins, Richard Caballero, her former court-appointed attorney, and his associate, Paul Caruso.

Schiller said he contacted Caruso on Dec. 4, 1969, explored the possibility of publishing her story and reached an agreement after insisting on Miss Atkins’ approval in writing.

The young woman appeared before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury the next day — Dec. 5 — and implicated herself and other “family” members, including Charles Manson, in the killings.

Miss Atkins’ present attorney, Daye Shinn, asked whether Caballero and Caruso seemed concerned over the effects of publication of her account.

Schiller said the lawyers were particularly interested in limiting publication overseas, but they believed her grand jury account would be leaked anyway — perhaps in different versions — and it would be better to publish her account as she told it.

The long-haired witness said he was responsible for writing the story from a tape recorded account of the murders and a jailhouse interview of Miss Atkins conducted by Jerry Cohen, a reporter for The Times.

Schiller said he asked Cohen to take a leave of absence to work on several transcripts, without telling him what particular story he had in mind.

Shinn asked who authorized Susan Atkins’ by-lined story of the murders, published Dec. 14, 1969, in The Times. Schiller said he didn’t know.

After publication of the story in The Times, Schiller said, Caruso called him, “screaming and hollering,” and Caballero accused him of releasing the account.

He said he contemplated a suit for a time, but nothing came of it.

Under questioning by defense attorney Paul Fitzgerald, Schiller recalled that he, Caballero, Cohen and a stenographic reporter went to Sybil Brand Institute for Women on Dec. 7, 1969.

While he waited outside, the witness said, the other three attended a 90-minute interview with Miss Atkins. The defendant testified earlier she spoke at the meeting about her life from childhood to her arrest in Inyo County in 1969.

When the three returned to the car, Schiller said, Caballero tore off some stenographic notes and threw them away. A prosecution objection blocked testimony about what the notes said.

But, Schiller said, outside the courtroom after trial, that Miss Atkins had said in that part of the notes that she had lied about Manson before the grand jury.

By JOHN KENDALL