• Says Main Tate Witness Urged Not To Testify

Says Main Tate Witness Urged Not To Testify

LOS ANGELES, Jun. 18 – An attorney says attempts are being made to intimidate Linda Kasabian, a young mother expected to be the prosecution’s main witness in the Sharon Tate murder trial.

Gary Fleischman, who represents Mrs. Kasabian, said she had received letters from members of Charles Manson’ s hippie-type “family” urging her not to testify.

The lawyer told newsmen one letter warned his 21-year-old client “there is no real immunity” — a reference to the prosecution’s reported plan to let Mrs. Kasabian go free after she testifies in the current trial.

Manson is on trial with three followers in the bizarre slayings of Miss Tate and six others last August.

Mrs. Kasabian, also charged in the slayings but granted a separate trial, made a surprise court appearance Wednesday and waived her right to a speedy trial.

Demure in a floor-length white dress with yellow embroidery, her dark blonde hair in pigtails, Mrs. Kasabian exchanged smiles with Manson and the three women defendants, Susan Atkins, 21, Leslie Van Houten, 20, and Patricia Krenwinkel, 22.

The girls waved, and Manson, his long hair tied back in a pony tail, gazed at Mrs. Kasabian throughout her 10-minute appearance.

Fleischmen told reporters Mrs. Kasabian’s waiver was scheduled to be heard by the judge privately but that Manson’s attorney, Irving Kamarek, insisted she face the other defendants in open court.

Fleischman called it “an attempt to intimidate Mrs. Kasabian.”

Paul Fitzgerald, attorney for Miss Krenwinkel, objected to Fleischman’s statements concerning letters from the “family” as well as his assertion that Mrs. Kasabian never really belonged to the clan, having spent only a few weeks with them.

“If the inference is to be drawn…that Linda Kasabian is as pure as the driven snow,” he said, “nothing could be further from the truth.” He did not elaborate.

Jury selection continued through a second day, with prospective panel members being questioned behind closed doors on the effect of pretrial publicity. So far no jurors have been seated.

When court recessed Wednesday, 14 of 60 prospective jurors summoned had been dismissed.

The trial was recessed today and Friday while the small court room undergoes minor alterations — including a new sound system — to accommodate a crush of reporters and spectators expected for the lengthy trial.

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2 Responses to Says Main Tate Witness Urged Not To Testify

  1. Dana Ferris says:

    I really don’t know what we are suppose to be commenting about. The book that Alisa and Brie put together.

    The man by the name of George had different things to write about Sharon and some beautiful photo’s. You always have something wonderful to say about Sharon. I’m so glad you found the time to pour yourself into it. To give like that for someone you idolized. I know you wouldn’t be able to express what kinds of feelings you experiencing. I was 16yrs. old when it happened. I remembered and felt, what of a lot of people were experiencing at the mom,ents.

    I was

  2. Dana Ferris says:

    Sorry, messed up the bottom of my page.

    I was saying I remembered and felt, what a lot of people were experiencing at that very moment

    In 1976 my husband and myself visited there. Here it was just a few years since that terrible senseless crime. You could feel the silence in the air.

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