Rules Misspelled ‘Healter Skelter’ Inscription Found on Court Pad of Defendant and at Death Scene Lacks Value

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 6 – The prosecution tried but failed Thursday to introduce evidence that Patricia Krenwinkel printed the inscription “Healter Skelter” as she sat listening to the Tate-LaBianca murder trial.

Those words, a misspelled version of a Beatles song title “Helter Skelter,” were found written in blood on a refrigerator in the Los Feliz district home of slain Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Superior Judge Charles H. Older ruled that the inscription found in a legal-sized note pad bearing Miss Krenwinkel’s name on the front did not have enough probative value for introduction as evidence.

The pad also contained the notation, “Sgt. McKellar arrested me.”

Miss Krenwinkel was arrested in Mobile, Ala., on Dec. 1, 1969, by a detective named McKellar. A week later she was indicted on seven counts of murder and a charge of conspiracy to murder by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury.

The note pad containing the printing was discovered by female bailiffs.

The prosecution contends that Miss Krenwinkel was the one who printed “Healter Skelter” on the LaBianca’s refrigerator and “Death to Pigs” and “Rise” on the walls of the house.

Prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi pointed out Thursday that the word “Healter” found in the pad was misspelled in the same way as the bloody inscription at the LaBianca home.

Bugliosi earlier sought and got a court ruling ordering Miss Krenwinkel to print the writings but she refused.

It is expected the prosecution will argue before the jury that her refusal to comply with the court’s order shows a consciousness of guilt.

Miss Krenwinkel was connected with the killing of Sharon Tate and four others at the actress’ Benedict Canyon home in testimony Thursday by Dianne Lake, 17, a former member of the family.

The pretty, auburn-haired teenager repeated before the jury that Miss Krenwinkel once told her she had dragged Abigail Folger from the bedroom to the living room.

Miss Lake also testified that defendant Leslie Van Houten once said she had stabbed a person who also was dead and had then hitchhiked from the Griffith Park area to the Spahn ranch.

The young woman, a member of the Manson “family” from age 14, was called to tell her story to the jury after Judge Older denied motions to suppress her statement.

After hearings without jurors present, the defense claimed Miss Lake’s testimony could not be properly limited to apply only to Miss Krenwinkel and Miss Van Houten as required by law.

The attorneys argued that the prosecution had tampered with her statement and had acted illegally by threatening Miss Lake with the gas chamber.

Under direct questioning by Bugliosi, Miss Lake said Manson talked about killing people for at least a year before the seven Tate-LaBianca murders in August 1969.

“He (‘Manson) said we had to be willing to kill pigs to help the black people start the revolution – Helter Skelter,” she said.

“Did he say who the pigs were?” asked the prosecutor.

“Pigs were people with a lot of money and that belonged to the Establishment,” she said.

When Miss Krenwinkel’s attorney, Paul Fitzgerald, started to ask Miss Lake on cross-examination about her testimony to the County Grand Jury last year, an at-bench conference was called and the trial was delayed while a court-appointed attorney was named for the witness. He is George L. Vaughn.

It is reported that Miss Lake’s testimony before the grand jury varies greatly from what she told police officers and the prosecution before, during and after she was committed to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino from January to August this year.

By JOHN KENDALL