• Fingerprints Told in Extradition Try

Fingerprints Told in Extradition Try

MOBILE, Ala., Jan. 5 – Documents sent to Alabama for use in extradition proceedings against Patricia Krenwinkel, indicted here on seven counts of murder in connection with the Sharon Tate slayings, reportedly disclosed that Miss Krenwinkel’s fingerprints were found at the murder scene.

It was reported Sunday that the extradition papers sent to Mobile, Ala., said a print found on the rear inside door of Miss Tate’s Benedict Canyon home matches a print of Miss Krenwinkel’s little finger, taken when she was arrested in Mobile last month.

In order to get Miss Krenwinkel extradited, Mobile County District Attorney Carl M. Booth, who is arguing the case for Los Angeles authorities, will have to prove that she is the person named in the Los Angeles indictment, that the crimes did occur and that she was in California at the time of the slayings.

Fingerprint evidence, not revealed previously, was expected to be the basis of the prosecution argument for extradition while Miss Krenwinkel’s attorney, M. A. Marsal, contends there is insufficient evidence to link her to the murders.

Miss Krenwinkel is one of six persons indicted in connection with the slayings of Miss Tate and four others last Aug. 9 and the ”copy-cat” murders the following night of supermarket chain owner Leno LaBianca and his wife.

Four of the suspects, including Charles M. Manson, leader of the hippie commune known as “The Manson Family” to which all the suspects belonged, are in custody here.

The sixth, Charles D. (Tex) Watson, is being held in Texas, where he also was to have an extradition hearing today in Austin.

Manson and one other suspect, Linda Kasabian, have not yet entered pleas in the case.

The other two in custody here, Leslie Van Houten, who is charged only with the LaBianca slayings, and Susan Denise Atkins who testified before the grand jury, both have pleaded innocent.

Watson’s extradition hearing in Austin is set for 10 a.m. today before Texas Secretary of State Martin Dies Jr.

Watson himself will not attend the hearing, but will remain in his cell in the Collin County jail in McKinney, Tex., according to his attorney, Bill Boyd of McKinney.

Dies will hear testimony on California Gov. Ronald Reagan’s request that Watson be extradited to Los Angeles to stand trial on the charges. Dies will then recommend to Gov. Preston Smith that the extradition request be granted or denied.

If extradition is granted, Boyd said Sunday, the issue could be taken to the courts. But he declined to say if he would indeed appeal the ruling, saying “we hope we won’t have to.”

The extradition hearing will be rather informal, with witnesses being sworn in and evidence being introduced.

Boyd declined to discuss the case, feeling he was ethically bound by a Los Angeles court order not to discuss it.

He said he would definitely introduce evidence in the hearing, but he did not know whether he would call any witnesses.

Watson, 29, a former football and track star at Farmersville, Tex., high School, was arrested on a warrant from California last month. He surrendered himself to Collin County Sheriff Tom Montgomery, his distant cousin.

Miss Atkins, testified Watson was the one who stabbed to death Miss Tate, who was eight mouths pregnant.

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