Word: manson
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There is an exit even in the house of horrors that is the Charles Manson murder trial, but it is not possible to leave such a place in peace. As the end of their work finally neared, the jurors last week were shown a display of aberration that was bound to haunt them for a long time to come. It amounted to an unstated plea of insanity...
Describing her murderous night with a knife in the home of Sharon Tate, she demonstrated a disassociation, an unbridgeable chasm between the act and the emotions that should be attached to it. But-and it is a "but" of doubt that will never entirely leave the Manson story-she also showed an ability to make legal points that served a clear end: to absolve her leader and accuse the state's chief witness, Linda Kasabian...
Another follower, Nancy Pitman, 19, described Manson's almost Franciscan mysticism. "Animals would come around him a lot," she testified. Once she saw him pet a rattlesnake and bring a dead bird back to life. Sandy Good, 27, who was raised in a wealthy San Diego family, said: "The energy in that man you have not seen. I believe his voice could shatter this building...
...dilemma of the defense lawyers is that the women convicted of murder with Manson will be equally devoted should they take the stand, possibly starting this week. There is speculation that eventually both Paul Fitzgerald and Maxwell Keith, lawyers for Krenwinkel and Van Houten, will turn on Manson in their summary arguments and claim that the women were victims of Manson's will. Even though the women have already been convicted, the lawyers may, through an argument of "diminished capacity," try to save them from death sentences. On the other hand, if the women do try to absolve Manson...
What do Charles Manson, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Billie Sol Estes, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Scale, various General Electric executives and numerous Mafia members have in common? They have all been accused or convicted of conspiracy, the most elusive crime on the books. The crime can be little more than an intention: an agreement between two or more people to do something illegal. Federal law and many state laws add the stipulation that at least one conspirator take an overt step, not necessarily an illegal one. But so sprawling and elastic is the legal conception that the late Judge Learned...