Two-Night Orgy Of Murder Told To Jury By Tate Suspect
Girl Describes Roles Played By Cult Members
December 6, 1969
Los Angeles Times
By Jerry Cohen and Ron Einstoss
Times staff writers
A composed young woman Friday reportedly described the role 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 deputy district attorney's 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 the 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.
Accompanies six others
Manson accompanied six others 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 August 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 August 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-staked 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.
Armed With Single Gun
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. Kassabian remained outside,
and never did enter the residence.
Voyteck 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's 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 bedroom into
the living.
Sebring, Miss Tate and Miss Folger were tied together with the rope later
found draped over a beam and around the actress's and hair stylist 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.
Found On Lawn
Upon Watson's orders, Miss Atkins said, she slashed with a knife at Frykowski,
who was loosening his bounds. Frykowski ran toward the front door, where Watson
hit him on the head with a gun, and shot and stabbed him, said Miss Atkins.
Frykowski's body was found on the front lawn later.
Miss Folger also loosened her bounds, 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 front lawn, and that
he kicked Frykowski already dead are 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.
Chooses 'Pig'
She chooses "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. Kassabian and returned to the hippie 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, 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" "Satan"; Watson, Miss Atkins, Miss
Krenwinkel, Mrs. Kassabian, Miss Leslie Sankston, about 20, and Steve Grogan,
23.
Third Choice
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 the Death Valley commune.
Miss Sankston, one of the many 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 August 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 the residence occupied by children, Miss Atkins said.
She said she was sleeping when the car stopped at the second house and claims
she did not know why Manson avoided it.
Enters Alone
Her story went on:
Outside the LaBianca home, Miss Atkins, Mrs. Kassabian, 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 into 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.
Credit Cards
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 co-defendant, 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 De Carlo, 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," De Carlo said Manson replied. Then, De Carlo said,
Beausoleil 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.
Eight Counts
Prosecutor 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.
Kassabian are their targets on all eight counts, and Grogan and Miss Sankston
only conspiracy and two murder counts relating to the LaBianca.
The first witness at Friday's 4 1/2 hour closed-door grand jury session was
Richard Cabellero, attorney for Miss Atkins, mother of a small child reportedly
delivered by Manson.
Cabellero 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 got it all off your chest?"
"Dead," she replied tersely.
Another newsmen asked how she had been treated by authorities, and she
answered: "The same as other inmates have been treated."
Then Cabellero 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.
Knew Layout
Besides 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 eighteen-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 brunette with shoulder length hair, was returned to
Sybil Brand Institute for Women after her testimony.
Cabellero disclosed his wife had picked out the dress his client had warned
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.
