The Closing Argument...

Manson's total and complete domination over his Family, including the actual killers, "Tex" Watson, Krenwinkel, Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, is extremely powerful circumstantial evidence that on the two nights in question he was also dominating them and directing everything that they did. He dominated Watkins, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten before the Tate-LaBianca murders, during the Tate-LaBianca murders, and after the Tate-LaBianca murders, right up until the time of the Family's arrest in October of 1969 at Barker Ranch.

There is a very powerful item of evidence, circumstantial evidence, that you may consider against Manson, Atkins, and Krenwinkel on the LaBianca murders-not on the Tate murders-but on the LaBianca murders, and not against Van Houten, justManson, Atkins, and Krenwinkel on the LaBianca murders.

Now, remember we discussed during voir dire, we went over it ad nauseam, that from circumstantial evidence of one fact we infer the existence of another fact.

Now, the testimony that I am referring to is this, it is rather clear, ladies and gentlemen, even without Linda Kasabian's testimony, in fact, without the testimony of any witnesses in this case, other than the testimony of the coroners [and] the testimony of the officers who testified of their observations of the murder scene, just by looking at their testimony without any other evidence, it is obvious, ladies and gentlemen, that the people who murdered the Tate victims also murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Now, I say this because of the very, very substantial and unique similarities between the Tate murders and the LaBianca murders.

These murders happened on consecutive nights; both murders apparently were committed in the depth of night. The Tate-LaBianca victims were all Caucasians, and I think they would be considered or described to be members of the establishment.

Certainly, Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, and Jay Sebring were rather prominent people. Mr. LaBianca was the chief stockholder in Gateway Markets.

Getting into the murders themselves, the main murder weapon in both the Tate and LaBianca murders was a knife; not only was the murder weapon a knife, ladies and gentlemen, but four out of the five of the Tate victims and Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca received a great number of stab wounds. The five Tate victims were stabbed 102 times. Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca were stabbed sixty-seven times for a total of 169 stab wounds! In fact, the cause of death of six out of seven of the Tate-LaBianca victims was multiple stab wounds. This multiplicity of stab wounds certainly is a strong similarity between the Tate and the LaBianca murders, and somewhat related to what I just said, both murders were marked by incredible savagery.

There was a literal orgy of murder at both places.

Also, both murders were marked by a lack, an absence of a conventional motive. Neither the Tate nor the LaBianca residences had been ransacked, and many items of very valuable personal property were found all over the residence and had not been stolen. These were not murders committed to carry out any burglary or robbery.

At the Tate residence, the killers placed a towel over Jay Sebring's head. That is kind of unusual, very unusual, and yet at the LaBianca residence Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca had pillowcases over their heads. Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring had ropes tied around their necks. Leno and Rosemary LaBianca had electrical cords tied around their necks. Perhaps the most unique and conclusive similaritybetween the Tate and the LaBianca murders is that not only did the killers print words in the victims' blood at the scene of bothresidences, which in and of itself was extremely unusual-extremely unusual by itself, but some of the words they printed were the same.

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