The Closing Argument...

"Then he looked at me and he said, 'What about that man you and Sandy met?' He said, 'Isn't he a piggy?' I said, 'Yes, he is an actor.' And then he further questioned me and he asked me if the man would let him in. And I said, 'Yes.' And he asked me if the man would let my friends in, Sadie and Clem. And I said, 'Yes.' And he said, 'Okay. I want you to kill him,' and he gave me a small pocket knife. And at this point I said, 'Charlie, I am not you, I cannot kill anybody.' And I don't know what took place at that moment, but I was very much afraid. And then he started to tell me how to go about doing it, and I remember I had the knife in my hand, and I asked him, 'With this?' And he said, 'Yes,' and he showed me how to do it. He said, 'As soon as you enter the residence, the house, as soon as you see the man, slit his throat right away.' And he told Clem to shoot him. And then, also, he said if anything went wrong, you know, not to do it."
"What happened after you arrived at this man's apartment?"
"Charlie wanted me to show him where he lived."
"Did you do that?"
"Yes, I did."
"Did you get out of the car with Charlie?"
"Yes."
"What about Sadie and Clem?"
"No, they stayed behind."
"What is the next thing that happened?"
"We entered the building and we walked up the stairs. I am not sure in took him to the top floor-I am not sure exactly what floor I took him to. Then I pointed out a door which was not his door."
"Which was not the actor's door?"
"Yes."
"What is the next thing that happened?"
"Then we walked back downstairs to the car, and he gave Clem a gun."
"Charlie Manson gave him a gun?"
"Yes. At this point he said something--"
"When you say 'he,' you are talking about Charles Manson?"
"Yes. He said that if anything went wrong, you know, don't do it; and of course, to hitchhike back to the ranch, and for Sadie to go to the waterfall."

Manson told Clem and Sadie that while Linda knocked on the door, for them to wait around the corner until she entered and asked the man if they could come in.

"Did either Clem or Sadie say anything to Mr. Manson at this point?"
"No, not that I know of"
"Then you say Charlie drove off?"
"Yes."
"What is the next thing that happened?"
"Clem, Sadie, and myself walked up-I believe I took them to the fourth floor, because I know I didn't go all the way to the top, and I went-as I entered the hallway, whatever it is, where all the doors are, I went straight to-to the first door, and I knocked. They hid behind the corner."
"When you say 'they,' you are referring to whom?"
"Sadie and Clem. And I knocked on the door, which I knew wasn't the door, and a man said, 'Who is it?' And I said, 'Linda.' And he sort of opened the door and peeked around the corner, and I just said, 'Oh, excuse me. Wrong door.' "
'And that was it? How long did you look at this man who opened the door?"
"Just for a split second."

Linda identified a photograph of the actor, and we learned his name as being Saladin Nader. She said the beach house had five floors, and Nader lived on the top floor. Linda said that the actor lived on the top floor. So, there is just obviously no question in the world that the actor whom Linda was testifying about lived on the top floor.

Now assuming-of course, we don't know, because Nader has not been able to be located-assuming that Nader was in his apartment house that night-we don't know, but if he was-but for Linda's deliberately knocking on the wrong door, the probabilities are great there would have been eight murders, not seven, on these two nights ofhorrendous murder.

Recall that Clem Tufts had a gun which Manson had given him, and Sadie was with Clem, waiting around the corner. Now, I am not saying, ladies and gentlemen, that Linda Kasabian deserves any medal, any award from the Kiwanis Club or anything like that; all I am saying is that there is a distinct possibility that she saved the life of a human being on the night of the LaBianca murders, and this act by Linda in deliberately knocking on the wrong door shows, along with all the other evidence in this case about her, that although she is not an angel-and we have never said she was; and she would be the first one to admit that she is not an angel-she is not cut out of the same cloth that these defendants are.

more on the closing argument