Aug. 7 – Death has eliminated a prospective prosecution witness in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial — a movie stunt man who claimed ownership of the gun thought to have been used in the first night’s slaughter.

Goateed, one-armed Joseph Randall, 39; known professionally as Randy Starr, died Tuesday in Veterans Administration Hospital of an “undetermined illness,” a VA spokesman disclosed Thursday.

Prosecutors declined to say Thursday how critical the loss of Randall would be to their case, but it is believed his testimony would principally have involved the lifestyle of the Charles Manson “family” and corroborated that of other witnesses.

Starr was foreman at the Spahn Movie Ranch near Chatsworth where Manson’s hippie cult lived at the time the two-day murder spree was launched, exactly one year and one day ago.

After Manson and five of his followers, three of whom currently are on trial with him, were indicted, Starr told acquaintances tales about two pieces of evidence which could be vital to the prosecution.

He spoke of a .22-caliber longhorn revolver which he said was his. He also described a length of white nylon rope which he claimed Manson kept in the back of a dune buggy and guarded jealously.

The rope, Starr told friends, matched a piece shown him by investigators and which they said was found looped around the necks of actress Sharon Tate and hair stylist Jay Sebring.

Starr said investigators also showed him a revolver which they told him was believed to be the murder weapon.

The gun, which will be introduced as evidence at the current trial, was found about two miles from the actress’ Benedict Canyon estate, part of its handle missing. A piece which fits the broken handle was found at the murder scene.

Starr, after viewing the gun, told several persons it was the same revolver he had loaned Manson and other family members for target shooting at the ranch. Before the slayings, he said he gave it to a male family member, now missing.

Starr, an Illinois native, spent most of his adult life around rodeos and as a stunt man on movie sets. He claimed to have doubled in action scenes for stars in countless movies.

One of his favorite rodeo acts was to jump off a platform with a rope tied around his neck, “hanging” himself.

He became foreman of the movie ranch in the spring of 1967, and saw Manson and his family arrive there and depart last autumn, when they moved their commune to the Death Valley area.

Before he was stricken and hospitalized a few days ago, he was living with a friend not far from the ranch, from which he moved last fall.

Services are pending.

By JERRY COHEN