LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6 – A composed young woman Friday reportedly described the roles she said were played by each suspect during the two-night murder orgy last August that claimed the lives of actress Sharon Tate and six others.

Susan Atkins, 21, demure in a rose-colored velveteen dress with puff sleeves and short skirt, was questioned for two-and-a-half hours before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury by Dep. Dist. Attys. Aaron Stovitz and Vincent T. Bugliosi.

Miss Atkins reportedly told substantially the same story she related previously through a variety of sources, a story that up to now has been kept secret because, it is understood, she was unaware that hers was the key evidence against some of the other suspects.

Among other things, she has said that the leader of a hippie band believed responsible for the slayings, Charles Manson, reproved his followers for the “messiness” of the Tate slaughter, at which he was not present.

Manson accompanied six other suspects in the killings to the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the next night to show them “how to do a clean job,” Miss Atkins has said.

Her reconstruction of the Aug. 9 and 10 killings has been along these lines:

She, Charles Watson, 24, Patricia Krenwinkel, 21, and Linda Kasabian, 20, went to the Tate estate late the night of Aug. 8, upon Manson’s instructions. She said – Manson ordered them to kill everyone in the house and steal what money they could find.

The four, all clad in black, climbed an iron-stake fence at the estate entrance after Watson cut telephone and electric lines leading to the mansion rented by Miss Tate and her director-husband Roman Polanski, Miss Atkins said.

The intruders encountered Steven Parent, 18, of El Monte, as he entered his car after visiting the estate’s young caretaker.

Miss Atkins said Watson shot and killed Parent with the only gun with which the foursome was armed, a .22-caliber pistol. The young women carried knives or bayonets.

Her story went on:
Watson climbed through a window and unlocked the front door, and Miss Krenwinkel and Miss Atkins entered the mansion. Mrs. Kasabian remained outside, and never did enter the residence.

Wojciech (Voityck) Frykowski, 37, asleep on a couch, awakened. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I’m the devil. I’m here to kill,” Watson replied. Frykowski was overpowered and bound.

Watson ordered the bedrooms examined. In one, Miss Tate was in bed and hair stylist Jay Sebring, 35, the actress’ former boyfriend, was sitting on the bed.

In another bedroom, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, 26, was reading in bed.

At knifepoint, Miss Atkins said, the three were forced from the bedrooms into the living room.

Sebring, Miss Tate and Miss Folger were tied together with a rope later found draped over a beam and around the actress’ and hair stylist’s heads when the murders were discovered.

Watson told all four victims they were going to die, Miss Atkins said, and, when Sebring screamed, Watson shot him. Sebring later was stabbed.

Upon Watson’s orders, Miss Atkins said, she slashed with a knife at Frykowski, who was loosening his bonds. Frykowski ran toward the front door, where Watson hit him on the head with the gun, then shot and stabbed him, Miss Atkins said. Frykowski’s body was found on the front lawn later.

Miss Folger also loosened her bonds, struggled with Miss Krenwinkel and was stabbed, according to Miss Atkins.

Watson told Miss Atkins to kill Miss Tate, but Miss Atkins refused, she said. She did, however, hold the actress while Watson stabbed her, Miss Atkins admitted.

Watson, Miss Krenwinkel and Miss Atkins ran out the front door. Watson stabbed Miss Folger, who had staggered onto the lawn, and then he kicked Frykowski already dead or dying, in the head, Miss Atkins said.

Watson ordered her, she added, to write an insulting message in blood on the front door with a towel on which the raiders had wiped their hands.

She chose “Pig” — a variation of a legend left behind at the scene of an earlier Topanga Canyon murder also attributed to the Manson “Family.”

The three rejoined Mrs. Kasabian and returned to the hippie cult’s encampment at the time, the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth, taking with them a small amount of cash from the mansion.

Manson, Miss Atkins said, admonished them for their sloppiness, and agreed to accompany them the next night on a murderous foray designed to prevent the band from losing its “nerve.”

Seven left the Spahn Ranch in a single car for Los Angeles: Manson, who refers to himself variously as “Jesus,” “God” and “Satan”; Watson, Miss Atkins, Miss Krenwinkel, Mrs. Kasabian, Miss Leslie Sankston, about 20, and Steve Grogan, 23.

Grogan, also known as Clem, Garth or Gary Tufts, was arrested in October, sleeping alongside a sawed-off shotgun, when Manson and his clan were seized on auto theft charges at their Death Valley commune.

Miss Sankston, one of the many other young women under Manson’s spell, was also arrested in October and returned here from Inyo County last week as a material witness in the Tate and LaBianca murders.

The LaBianca residence was a third choice of the raiders on Aug. 10.

The raiders’ car stopped outside a home in another neighborhood, Manson looked in the window and saw pictures of children on a table. He did not want to take victims in a residence occupied by children, Miss Atkins said.

She said she was sleeping when the car stopped at a second house and claimed she did not know why Manson avoided it.

Her story went on:
Outside the LaBianca home, Miss Atkins, Mrs. Kasabian, Grogan, Watson, Miss Krenwinkel and Miss Sankston remained in the car, while Manson entered alone and at gunpoint confronted and then tied the couple.

Manson then emerged from the home and sent Watson, Miss Krenwinkel and Miss Sankston in to kill and rob them, she said.

Because only the three Miss Atkins places in the LaBianca home can say, it is not known what roles each played in the murders there.

However, Miss Atkins said she was told that Miss Krenwinkel stabbed LaBianca with a carving fork and left it in his stomach.

Watson returned to the car with a wallet containing credit cards and handed it to Manson, Miss Atkins said; then the car drove away, leaving behind Watson, Miss Krenwinkel and Miss Sankston.

The latter three hitchhiked back to the Spahn Ranch, according to Miss Atkins.

Miss Atkins currently is awaiting trial for the Topanga Canyon murder last July of musician Gary Hinman, 34, with whom Manson and members of his occult clan once resided.

A witness in the trial last week of a codefendant, Robert Beausoleil, which resulted in a hung jury, testified then that Manson not only had directed that murder but, before it was committed, slashed the victim’s ear with a sword, then left before Hinman was stabbed to death.

The witness said Manson had sent Beausoleil and others of his clan to the Hinman home to force the musician to turn over $20,000 he was thought to have.

According to the testimony of the witness, Daniel DeCarlo, Beausoleil “tortured” Hinman for six or seven hours, then telephoned Manson, who had left by that time, and said: “Gary isn’t cooperating.”

“You know what to do,” DeCarlo said Manson replied. Then, DeCarlo said, Beausoliel killed Hinman.

Although an informant claims Miss Atkins originally identified Manson as one of the Tate killers, investigators tend to believe a later version of the Benedict Canyon slaughter that indicates Manson merely directed the murder orgy.

They reportedly reason that since the young woman, who uses the alias Sadie Glutz, placed Manson at the scene of both the Hinman and LaBianca killings, she would have no reason to shield him in the Tate murders.

Prosecutors Stovitz and Bugliosi said they are seeking an eight-count indictment, one of conspiracy and seven of murder.

It is believed that Manson, Miss Atkins, Watson, Miss Krenwinkel and Mrs. Kasabian are their targets on all eight counts, and Grogan and Miss Sankston only on conspiracy and two murder counts relating to the LaBiancas.

The first witness at Friday’s 4 1/2-hour closed-door grand jury session was Richard Caballero, attorney for Miss Atkins, mother of a small child reportedly delivered by Manson.

Caballero reportedly testified that he had simply advised her that by telling her story to jurors she was waiving immunity to indictment herself.

When she emerged from the grand jury hearing room, Miss Atkins was asked by a reporter. “How do you feel now that you have gotten it all off your chest?”

“Dead,” she replied tersely.

Another newsman asked how she had been treated by authorities, and she answered: “The same as other inmates have been treated.”

Then Caballero reminded reporters that the grand jury had enjoined her and all other participants in the secret session from talking about the cases.

He said his client had cooperated fully with jurors, telling them “whatever they asked her about”

Bugliosi said that during Miss Atkins’ appearance before jurors she was “somewhat nervous but no more than the average witness,” composed but dry-eyed.

Beside Miss Atkins, six other witnesses testified at Friday’s secret jury session, including Terrence Melcher, son of actress Doris Day.

Melcher had been a previous tenant at the Benedict Canyon estate. It was believed he testified that he was acquainted with Manson, and, thus, the cult leader had become familiar with the layout of the grounds and knew persons of affluence lived there.

Miss Winifred Chapman, the maid who found the bodies at the estate, was another witness, as was Wilfred Parent, father of the slain 18-year-old El Monte youth.

Both presumably were called by Stovitz and Bugliosi to establish the identity of the victims.

The grand jury session will resume Monday, with 15 of 22 persons whose names appear on a witness list scheduled to testify. However, it is believed some will be dismissed and some members of the Manson Family substituted.

Miss Atkins, a shapely brownette with shoulder-length hair, was returned to Sybil Brand Institute for Women after her testimony.

Caballero disclosed his wife had picked out the dress his client had worn at the hearing, that he had purchased it and that Miss Atkins had expressed her pleasure over it when he gave it to her Thursday night.

By JERRY COHEN and RON EINSTOSS