The Closing Argument...

Hatami said then that he spoke loudly to the man and he demonstrated. He came off the witness stand and he demonstrated the manner in which he spoke with him. And when he demonstrated he indicated that he pointed with his finger when he said, "Take the back alley."

Hatami testified that near the end of this conversation with the man, Sharon Tate came out of the front door of the residence and said, "Who is it, Hatami?" And Hatami told Sharon that the man was looking for someone and he, Hatami, told the man to go to the rear. Hatami testified that Sharon could see the man and the man could see Sharon as they were relatively close to each other, and there were no obstacles between them. Moreover, when the man later turned around and walked away he walked in the dirt pathway, inasmuch as the dirt pathway was right in front of the Tate residence, and Sharon was standing at the front door. At that time she also would have the opportunity to look directly at him and him at her.

So, it appears, ladies and gentlemen, that Charles Manson saw Sharon Tate and Sharon Tate saw Charles Manson on the date of March the twenty-third, 1969, when Manson was on the Tate premises.

A very beautiful honey blonde, Sharon Tate, looked into the eyes of the man who the evidence shows just four and a half months later would order her tragic and violent death.

Now, the back alley may be an alley to Hatami, a foreigner from Iran, but to Charles Manson, a back alley is a place where they have garbage cans, it is the habitat of rats and cats and dogs. So I am sure he wasn't too happy when Hatami says to take the back alley. One doesn't have to stretch the imagination to realize that the Tate residence was symbolic to Charles Manson, and particularly the establishment's rejection of him. Now, with an overall motive for these murders, an overall motive of Helter Skelter, the victims who Charles Manson ordered murdered really didn't make too much difference to him. As long as they were white and members of the establishment they were qualified, as it were. On the evening of August the eighth, 1969, when Charles Manson sent his robots out on a mission of murder, since the only qualifications the victims had to have was that they be white and members of the establishment, obviously, it made immense sense to Charles Manson, so he may just as well select a residence that he was familiar with, particularly one where he had been treated rather shabbily and whose former occupant, Terry Melcher, had rejected him. If the Tate premises, ladies and gentlemen, did not symbolize the establishment to Charles Manson, no residence, no premises, ever would.

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