Appeal Accusing Judge in Manson Case Is Denied
Wednesday, February 18th, 1970
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 18 – The State Court of Appeal denied without comment Tuesday a petition which accused the judge who will try Charles Manson for the Sharon Tate murders of viewing a skit called “One Manson’s Family.”
Marvin L. Part, the lawyer who wrote the skit for a Bar Association dinner, said earlier in the day he did not intend to make fun of Manson, charged with seven murders, but was lampooning publicity-seeking lawyers who wanted to associate themselves in the case.
Part served as the court-appointed lawyer for one of Manson’s codefendants, Leslie Van Houten, until last week when she obtained a private attorney.
The skit, subtitled “The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together,” was acted out by judges and lawyers Saturday after the installation dinner of the Los Angeles County Criminal Courts Bar Association.
According to movie producer Robert Levy, who filed a writ of habeas corpus Monday, in the audience of 1,000 was Superior Court Judge William B. Keene, who is assigned to preside at Manson’s trial March 30.
Keene said he would have no comment on the affair, except to note that he was there “and so were half, if not all, of the judges handling criminal matters in this county.”
Part who has written the shows for the installation dinners for the past several years, said he intended to satirize publicity-seeking lawyers and did not mean to make fun of Manson.
The skit contained two songs. In one, sung to the tune of “Officer Krupke” from “West Side Story,” three lawyers tried to represent Manson in return for two-thirds of the proceeds from the sale of his recordings and life story.
The other, to the tune of “Raindrops Fallin’ On My Head,” a man playing Manson sang of his troubles with court procedure and asks “Judge Keene” for aid.
Levy, who described himself as a “business associate and friend” of Manson, said he had been “informed and believed…that Judge Keene was fully appraised of the said Manson skits before their rendition.”
Meanwhile, two Los Angeles officers were scheduled to arrive in Mobile, Ala., today to return Patricia Krenwinkel to California to face trial in the Tate killings.
The prosecutor had notified California authorities that Miss Krenwinkel, 22, her family and attorneys had informed him they plan no further legal efforts to oppose her extradition.
Miss Krenwinkel had sent Booth a note last week saying she was ready to sign extradition papers and be sent to Los Angeles immediately.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals also ruled last week that the extradition request was valid.
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