LOS ANGELES, Feb. 4 – Life with Charles Manson was an existence without rules, a timeless game of make-believe and love, a member of the Manson “family” testified Wednesday.

Diminutive red-haired Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, 22, was called by the defense in the penalty phase of the Tate-LaBianca trial in an apparent attempt to explain Manson and his clan to the seven-man, five-woman jury.

Miss Fromme said members of the family looked “to Charlie” as “father,” accepting his observations about the world along with physical punishment when he thought they needed it.

Manson was “always happy,” she said, making a game out of everything. She said he was a man of a thousand faces, and that he gave every living creature attention.

Did she love Manson?

“Charlie is in love with love, and I’m in love with love and so we are in love with each other,” the young woman said.

Does Manson have any power?

“He loves,” she said. “That’s the only power that doesn’t look like power. He’s the only person I ever knew who has real power. He sees things as they are…and does not judge.”

“Squeaky” was asked twice whether she thought Manson was Jesus Christ. She avoided a direct answer, replying instead that she thought “Jesus Christ is love.”

She explained that Manson’s philosophy “is right now looking at what’s in front of you.”

“This is all Charlie is,” she said, gesturing from one side to the other. “Look over there. See that? Look over here. See that? What does that mean to you?”

She said life is for living, without guilt, without shame, being able to take off your clothes and lie in the sun—like babies.

“When you don’t have any philosophy,” she said, “you don’t have any rules. You might call that an Alice in Wonderland world but it makes sense. You get what you put out.”

Prompted by defense attorney Paul Fitzgerald’s questions, Miss Fromme said Manson did not hate black people and was only predicting what was going to happen when he spoke of a black-white race war called Helter Skelter.

“People,” she said, addressing the court, “he’s trying to tell you. You set that time bomb a long time ago.”

She said Helter Skelter, one of the prosecution’s suggested motives for the seven Tate-La Bianca killings, only meant confusion and that “magical mystery tour” was only the family’s way of making the best of every single day.

Each member could be whatever he or she felt like being that day, a cowboy or a rich man riding in a Rolls-Royce, she explained.

Miss Fromme said the family moved from Spahn ranch to Death Valley in September, 1969, about three weeks after the seven Tate-LaBianca murders to escape continuing harassment by authorities at the ranch.

On cross-examination, prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi asked Miss Fromme why she had placed an “X” on her forehead, the scar of which was faintly visible.

She replied that she had cut, thee burned it, about four months ago to show that the family members were “clearly marked.”

“It is a fallen cross,” she said “It means the system as it now stands has fallen.

“Your children don’t want it anymore. They’re the foundation and they’re walking away.”

The young woman was jailed Dec. 18, 1970, on a Los Angeles County Grand Jury indictment charging her with conspiracy to murder a prosecution witness in the Tate-LaBianca case.

Another family member, Nancy Pitman, 19, also known as Brenda McCann, testified that Manson was not the leader but the follower of the others.

“Charlie’s not a leader,” she said. “His love leads Charlie. The only thoughts Charlie has arc the thoughts we give him.”

She attributed to Manson the power to read the thoughts of other family members and know what a person was reading in a book without looking.

Once, Miss Pitman said, Manson picked up a dead bird, breathed on it for a few minutes and it flew away.

When he sat by himself in the desert, she said wild animals would gather around Manson. Once, she said, he “reached down and petted a rattlesnake.”

Manson was not in court Wednesday. He was removed to a holding room to listen by loudspeaker last week after striking his attorney.

However, the 36-year-old convicted murderer did appear before Superior Judge Malcom M. Lucas Wednesday in a hearing for Manson, Steve Grogan, Bruce Davis and Susan Atkins in the Hinman-Shea murder case.

Lucas first assigned the case to Superior Judge George M. Dell, then to Judge William B. Keene, then Paul G. Breckenridge Jr., and finally to Judge Raymond Choate when the defense attorneys either challenged or indicated they would challenge the first three judges.

Lucas also rejected a motion by Manson’s present attorney, Irving A. Kanarek, urging his appointment by the court as Manson’s lawyer in the combined Hinman-Shea matter.

Lucas said that it was his observation that Kanarek’s “ability to obfuscate, confuse, and elongate court proceedings” was unprecedented in the experience of the judge.

Lucas ordered Manson’s removal from the courtroom at one point during the hearing because the bearded, long-haired defendant refused to remain quiet.

By JOHN KENDALL