State Woman Says She Saw Slaying In Hippie Family
Saturday, April 11th, 1970
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 11 – A Wisconsin woman testified Friday she witnessed the slaying of a member of Charles Manson’s hippie “family.”
Miss Mary Teresa Brunner of Eau Claire, Wis. offered the commentary during the murder trial of Robert Kenneth Beausoleil, accused of slaying musician Gary Hinman a month prior to the slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six other persons.
Miss Brunner, a University of Wisconsin librarian, said she, Beausoleil and Susan Denise Atkins, 21, had gone to Hinman’s home July 25 to get money, and that they returned July 27, the day Hinman was stabbed in the chest.
“Gary had been stabbed, and Bobby (Beausoleil) was standing behind him,” Miss Brunner said “Gary started breathing real loud. I guess people do that when they are dying.”
Miss Brunner, 26, had been brought to Los Angeles from Wisconsin to testify. She was arrested in California for investigation of violation of probation on a conviction of passing bogus checks.
She is not charged in Hinman’s death.
Miss Atkins, Manson and other members of the Manson hippie community are charged in the Tate slayings last August. They face trial separate from that of Beausoleil.
Is there any way to get the Bobby B trial transcript?