• Manson Called Symbolic Slayer

Manson Called Symbolic Slayer

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 22 – Charles Manson knew where Sharon Tate lived and sent his “robots” out to kill her and her guests because the actress’ home was an elegant symbol of the “Establishment,” the prosecution charged yesterday at the six-month-old murder trial.

Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi began the final state arguments after an uproarious courtroom scene in which one of the three female codefendants fought with bailiffs and all three finally had to be removed.

The young women were held in an anteroom when the jury finally came back to court after being absent since Nov. 20, but the 36-year-old Manson sat at the counsel table as Bugliosi began a
summation intended to send the hippie leader to the gas chamber.

Bugliosi began a review of the evidence and testimony by 84 witnesses in the trial, hitting immediately at the contention that Manson was the mastermind of a conspiracy to commit seven murders.

Manson and the actress saw each other when the would-be musician came to the home looking for its previous occupant, Terry Melcher, son of actress Doris Day, Bugliosi said.

“This beautiful honey-blonde Sharon Tate looked into the eyes of the man who four and one-half months later would order her violent death,” the prosecutor said.

“He sent his robots out on a mission of savage murder. All the victims had to be was white and members of the Establishment. But it might just as well be a residence he was familiar with and the elegant Tate residence was symbolic of the Establishment and its rejection of him.”

The wild scene in court got underway before the jury was brought into the chamber.

Maxwell Keith, the attorney appointed to represent, Leslie Van Houten after the disappearance Thanksgiving weekend of her lawyer, Ronald Hughes, started to make a motion for a mistrial for his 20-year-old client.

Before he could begin, Miss Van Houten was on her feet saying she wanted Keith removed and another lawyer appointed.

Superior Court Judge Charles H. Older pointed out that she already had been represented by five attorneys including Hughes.

“I didn’t have anything to do with Mr. Hughes disappearance,” Miss Van Houten said. “I’m wondering what did you do with him”

“Amen,” said Manson.

Judge Older ordered Miss Van Houten to sit down and when she refused, instructed bailiffs to seat her. A violent struggle ensued with the defendant slugging one woman bailiff in the shoulder with her fist and slapping the hand of a 200-pound male bailiff.

The other two women — Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel — also began a wrestling match with bailiffs trying to seat them and they were ordered from the court. Manson also was taken out when he began shouting at the judge, but he returned when the jury was brought into
court.

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