Category Archives: Archived News

LOS ANGELES, Jul. 18 — Jurors in the murder retrial of former Charles Manson family member Leslie Van Houten have gone into a second week of deliberations after failing to reach a verdict over the weekend. Miss Van Houten is […]

LOS ANGELES, Jul. 14 — Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Sara Jane Moore — both serving life sentences for trying to kill former President Gerald Ford — were moved from California prisons this week to a West Virginia federal institution. The […]

ALDERSON, WV, Jul. 3 – Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the Manson cultist accused of trying to gun down former President Gerald Ford, is among a contingent of new inmates being shipped to the Federal Reformatory for Women. Warden Carson Markley says […]

When Leslie Van Houten began taking the witness stand in Los Angeles a few weeks ago to give her version of the 1969 LaBianca slayings, I realized how baffled I still was by the senseless “Helter Skelter” killings. Even her […]

LOS ANGELES, Jun. 28 – After more than two months of testimony that has almost always focused on Charles Manson, the jury in the retrial of Leslie Van Houten heard the voice of Manson himself Monday. What the jurors heard […]

LOS ANGELES, Jun. 24 – Ruling it found no evidence of “prejudicial error,” the State Court of Appeal yesterday upheld Charles Manson’s 1971 convictions for the murders of Gary Hinman and Donald (Shorty) Shea. The three-judge panel, in an unanimous […]

LOS ANGELES, Jun. 22 – A psychiatrist called by the prosecution testified Tuesday that Leslie Van Houten was not a “robot” under the domination of Charles Manson the night she took part in the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. […]

TRACY, Jun. 8 — Security remained tight and tension high at nearby Deuel Vocational Institution last night in the aftermath of a racial battle which required warning shots to stop. Eleven prisoners were injured, one seriously. The seriously injured inmate […]

LOS ANGELES, Jun. 7 – Leslie Van Houten’s lawyer lost a fight Monday for access to the medical and psychiatric records of mass murderer Charles Manson. Attorney Maxwell Keith, defending Miss Van Houten in her Los Angeles retrial for murder […]

LOS ANGELES, May 20 – A psychiatrist who specializes in “medicines of the mind” testified Thursday that Leslie Van Houten’s use of LSD so changed her values that she ended up “not caring for life, even her own.” That is […]

LOS ANGELES, May 19 – Leslie Van Houten’s mother fought back tears in Los Angeles Wednesday as she told a jury of her daughter’s journey back from Charles Manson’s cult of death. Jane Van Houten, of Monrovia, recalling her personal […]

LOS ANGELES, May 17 – Prosecutor Stephen Kay plans to wind up his case against Leslie Van Houten today in the retrial of the former Charles Manson follower for the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. On Monday, Kay completed […]

LOS ANGELES, May 13 – Former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten testified Thursday that she stabbed Rosemary LaBianca only after Mrs. LaBianca apparently was dead. Miss Van Houten said that after both Mrs. LaBianca and her husband, Leno, were […]

LOS ANGELES, May 6 – Former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten testified Thursday she took LSD during the Tate-LaBianca murder trial and said she gave false testimony in that trial on Manson’s orders. Taking the stand for the first […]

LOS ANGELES, Apr. 26 – Linda Kasabian completed her courtroom account Monday about a night in 1969 when she said Charles Manson and a carload of his followers roamed from the mountains to the sea searching for someone to kill. […]

COLUMBIA, Mo., Apr. 8 – Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor in the Charles Manson murder trial, smiled out at the large crowd assembled in the University’s Jesse Auditorium. “This is really a good crowd,” he said. “I think some of you thought […]

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27 – Producer-director Laurence Merrick, maker of the film “Manson,” was shot to death Wednesday at his Hollywood film school, police said. His unidentified slayer, described as a young man in his 20s, escaped after the noontime […]

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 20 – The retrial of former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten will stay in Los Angeles, a judge here ruled today after both defense and prosecution attorneys agreed that the entire state was “saturated” with publicity […]

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 18 — A member of the Charles Manson family was arrested Monday at her home in Petaluma on a charge of sending two threatening letters through the mail. Patricia Maureen Gillum, also known as Misty Hay, was […]

Nov. 14 – In stature and appearance (dark, wavy hair) there is a suggestion of television’s insouciant detective Columbo (Peter Falk, if you prefer). It would come as no surprise if he ambled up to the witness stand wearing a […]