I have only heard it confirmed that Manson cut Gary Hinman's ear with a sword and wounded a black pimp with a .22 revolver. That's all the violent acts that have been directly attributed to him.
Van Houten, on the other hand, stabbed Mrs. LaBianca 16 times.
This violent psychopath should have served the original sentence, which was poisoning by gas in a lethal chamber. Having dodged that, she should have spent the rest of her life in a cage.
shareI have only heard it confirmed that Manson cut Gary Hinman's ear
I'm expecting her to be governor of California after Mousse goes to D.C.
shareMrs. Labianca was already dead when Leslie stabbed her. It's silly to be convicted of murder for stabbing an already dead body.
--Michael D. Clarke
On Wikipedia it says:
"Van Houten stabbed her approximately 16 times in the back and the exposed buttocks.[4]: 204–210, 297–300, 341–344 Van Houten claimed at trial[4]: 433 that Rosemary LaBianca was already dead during the stabbing. Evidence showed that many of the 41 stab wounds had, in fact, been inflicted post-mortem."
That tells me is actually just Van Houten's word that the victim was already dead. We know many of the wounds were post-mortem, but it does not seem to confirm or deny that the particular wounds inflicted by Van Houten were post-mortem.
Edit: Also found this in the Wiki article:
In cross-examination, Van Houten aggressively implicated herself in inflicting wounds while the victim was living, and severely wounding the victim, severing her spine, which might have been fatal by itself.
According to van Houten, "Tex wanted all of us to do something to get our hands dirty".
Could ANY decent human being stab someone repeatedly in the back because they were "probably dead" already? What was this evil woman, a doctor? Did she take a pulse before she started stabbing?
Did it not bother her in the least that Leno La Bianca was screaming from the next room, "Stop stabbing me!!"
I've seen her interviewed and she has an almost ho hum, whatever smile on her face. She should be sickened by her behavior. It makes ME SICK!
You don't know what a person like that will do. Sure, she probably won't break in anybody's house, tie them up, and stab them to death. But what if she gets in an argument with someone? She has no ethical boundaries, even though she's old and feeble, she can still be a danger to herself and others.
shareAlso, on wikipedia it is implied that Manson wanted Seabring and the other guy killed because they didn't pay Manson for the drugs he had given them. So all of the killing that happened is actually about a drug deal and not the baloney that Manson had told his "family".
share I wouldn't believe everything I read on wikipedia. I'm not an expert by any means, but I've read extensively on this case for years.
Jay Sebring didn't know Manson. None of the victims in the Polanski residence knew Manson or his Family. After the killings, the "drug rumors" began in earnest. Similar to Nicole Brown Simpson's murder, the defense floated the rumor "it was the Colombians".
In truth, Manson was very angry at record producer Terry Melcher. He had backed out of getting him a recording contract. Manson wanted to be a musician and he was enraged when Melcher didn't get him a record deal. Terry Melcher lived at the Cielo Drive residence earlier. Manson wanted everyone in that house killed whether it was Melcher himself or the "rich folks" in this world that he believed looked down on him.
The killings were done to try to frame the "Black Panthers" for the crime. Hence, the word "Pig" on the front door. Also, there was an earlier killing of musician Gary Hinman and a black panther paw was placed on the wall in his blood and the word "Political Piggie".
Manson awhile before these killings had shot and falsely believed he killed a black man (Bernard Crowe--a black panther) in a drug deal gone bad. So, Manson ordered all these killings to make it seem like "Black Panthers" did it because he was a hardcore racist and was trying to divert attention away from himself and his crew.
The Terry Melcher thing may have been a secondary reason but not the main reason. Also, Tex Watson knew the layout of the house.
This whole "Helter Skelter" thing is a bunch of hogwash invented by Bugliosi.
--Michael D. Clarke
I'm very familiar with the whole "race war" that Manson wanted to start. Whatever you want to believe about Bugliosi, Manson's drugged out followers sure believed that starting a race war would ultimately put Manson in charge. I've seen interviews of Family members and they believed in the Helter Skelter theory.
Anyway, during the entire O.J. Simpson trial I kept thinking how lucky he was that Vincent Bugliosi wasn't the D.A. Instead he was lucky enough to have a group of incompetents trying him for murder.