LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 – Charles Manson publicly denied Friday that he had killed anyone or ordered anyone’s death.

He took the witness stand in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial, out of the presence of the jury, and portrayed himself as a universal victim, one of society’s “garbage people.”

In a rambling discourse lasting more than an hour, the 36-year-old defendant talked about his philosophy, Vietnam, President Nixon, LSD, prosecution witnesses and items of physical evidence in the case.

His message was, “I accuse.”

It was an extraordinary appearance in an extraordinary case.

Manson, a defendant on seven counts of murder and a charge of conspiracy to murder, was given almost free rein to comment on anything that occurred to him.

His statements might have been articulate or provocative, but, legally, they were meaningless. The sequestered jurors never heard a word of his criticism of the Establishment and comments about the case.

As far as the jurors know, Manson never said anything and the defense rested without putting on a defense to charges of murdering seven persons.

In fact, Manson and his three “girls” declined an opportunity to take the stand before the jury.

“Testify before the jury?” Manson said after finishing his statement. “I have already relieved all the pressure I had.” And he reportedly told the girls they need not testify.

The trial was adjourned until Nov. 30 to give attorneys time to prepare instructions and final arguments.

Manson’s appearance on the stand grew out of a legal dilemma — an apparent conflict between a witness’ constitutional right to testify and his right to effective counsel.

The defense attorneys rested their cases Thursday, but the three women defendants had insisted they wanted to take the stand and confess.

The three — Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten — were prepared to testify Friday morning until Superior Judge Charles H. Older told them they first must tell their story out of the jury’s presence. A similar procedure was followed earlier in the trial so he could determine what testimony would be admissible before the jury.

Without the jury present, the young women refused to testify, but Manson indicated he would take the stand with or without the jury being present.

His attorney, Irving A. Kanarek, objected so vigorously that Older ordered a bailiff to seat the lawyer.

Manson was sworn in. As he was taking his seat in the box, he said, “Hello, God,” apparently referring to Judge Older.

He began on the note of Charles Manson, the victim.

“I never went to school, so I never growed up in the respect to learn to read and write too good, so I have stayed in jail and I have stayed stupid, and I have stayed a child while I have watched your world grow up and then I look at the things that you do and I don’t understand.”

He said he was content with himself and that going back to the penitentiary didn’t mean anything to him because his values are different.

“These children that come at you with knives, they are your children. You taught them. I didn’t teach them. I just tried to help them stand up.

“Most of the people at the ranch that you call the ‘family’ were ‘just people that you did not want, people that were alongside the road, that their parents had kicked them out or they did not want to go to juvenile hall. So I did the best I could and I took them up to my garbage dump. I told them this: That in love there is no wrong.”

He said people are only the reflection of what their parents told them to be, but that he is different.

“My father is the jailhouse,” he said. “My father is your system, and each one of you are just a reflection of each one of you…”

Manson talked without prompting and with only two brief interruptions by prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi at one point and an admonishment by Judge Older at another.

“I have ate out of your garbage cans to stay out of jail,” Manson said. “I have wore your second-hand clothes. I have give everything I have away, everything. I have accepted things and given them away the next second.

“I have done my best to get along in your world and now you want to kill me.

“I have killed no one and I have ordered no one to be killed. I may have implied that I may have been Jesus Christ.

“But I haven’t decided yet what I am and who I am.”

He said he had done seven years in prison for a $37 check and 12 years because he didn’t have any parents. Sometimes he said he thinks about jumping up and let “you shoot rne.” But he said:

“I don’t dislike you. I cannot dislike you, I am you. You are my blood. You are my brother. That is why I can’t fight you.

“If I could I would jerk this microphone off and beat your brains out with it because that is what you deserve. Every morning you eat that meat with your teeth. You are all killers. You kill things (that are) better than you…”

He described himself as a “little old scroungy nobody” who was not a “hippie cult leader” but a “dumb country boy who never grew up.”

He singled out Linda Kasabian, the state’s key witness:

“You set this woman up here to testify against me,” he said. “And she tell you a sad story, how she had only taken every narcotic that it is possible to take. She has only stolen, lied, cheated and done everything that you have got there in the book.

“But it is OK. She is telling the truth now. She is telling the truth now. She wouldn’t have an ulterior motive like immunity for seven counts of murder.”

He implied that all men are responsible for all of man’s acts.

“I know this,” Manson said. “That in your own hearts and your own souls, you are as much responsible for the Vietnam war as I am for killing these people.”

Older admonished the defendant that he must confine his discourse to relevant issues in the case.

The issues, Manson said, are:

— Younger (Dist. Atty. Evelle J. Younger), whom he described as a “good man” but who, Manson claimed, had put him in the witness chair.

— Bugliosi (prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi), ​​whom be described as a “hard-driving prosecutor, polished education…a genius” with everything a lawyer would want “except one thing: a case.”

— The gun, a long barreled .22-caliber revolver, identified as the weapon that killed Jay Sebring at the Tate house. Manson said it was available to 150 persons going through Spahn Ranch, the Manson family hangout in Chatsworth. “Anybody could have picked up that gun and done anything they wanted to do with it.”
— The rope, a three-strand nylon line presented by the prosecution. It was found wrapped around the necks of Sharon Tate and Sebring. Manson said he bought a rope because it was not uncommon to have rope around a ranch where there are 80 to 90 horses.

— Helter-Skelter, the prosecution’s suggested motive for mass murder; the contention that Manson wanted to start a black-white race war. Manson contended that, Helter-Skelter meant confusion. “It doesn’t mean any war with anyone.”

— Fingerprints, Miss Krenwinkel’s and Charles (Tex) Watson’s prints found inside the said house. Manson said sarcastically that police experts had found “just enough points” to identify the fingerprints.

Manson said he does not remember telling Linda Kasabian, as she testified, to get a knife and a change of clothes and go do what defendant Tex Watson said.

“I don’t recall saying to anyone: ‘Go get a knife and kill anyone or anything.’

“In fact, it makes me mad when someone kills snakes or dogs or cats or horses.

“I don’t even like to eat meat because that is how much I am against killing.”

Manson said if the public wants to think him guilty it is “all right with him.”

“You can jump up and scream ‘guilty,’ and you can say what a no-good guy I am and what a devil, fiend, ooky, sneaky, slimy devil I am. It is your reflection and your right…I am whatever you make me…

“Where does the garbage go, as we have tin cans and garbage alongside the road, and oil slicks in the water, so you have people, and I am one of your garbage people.”

As he walked past the women defendants, he reportedly was heard to say, “You don’t have to testify.”

By JOHN KENDALL