One Hinman Murder Indictment Against Atkins Will Be Dropped
Friday, April 24th, 1970
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 24 – Complicated murder-conspiracy charges against hippie cult leader Charles Manson and Manson family member Susan Atkins are due for still another switch, the district attorney’s office said Thursday.
Miss Atkins, 21, is charged in Santa Monica Superior Court with the murder of musician Gary Hinman. She and Manson, 35, were indicted together in Los Angeles last week for the same crime.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Aaron Stovitz said the Santa Monica indictment against Miss Atkins probably will be dismissed in favor of a joint trial for the pair along with a third defendant, Bruce Davis, named in the indictment but not in custody at this time.
However, Stovitz said, present plans of the district attorney’s office are to proceed with the case involving the Tate-LaBianca mass murders first.
The trial for four defendants charged with murdering actress Sharon Tate and six others is set for June 15.
Another member of Manson’s communal family, Linda Kasabian, has had her case severed from the others. And Charles Watson, charged with murder-conspiracy, is fighting extradition from Texas.
Still another member of Manson’s clan, Robert Beausoleil, 22, was convicted of first degree murder in the Hinman slaying, and a jury has recommended the death sentence. Hinman, 35, was found slain at his Topanga Canyon home last July, two weeks before the Tate murders.
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