greta: november, 1969. held for car theft, charles manson and the family were slowly being tied to a string of murders. from her cell, a manson girl started talking about susan atkins being a killer. the victim, musician gary hinman who had been stabbed to death two years before the tate labianca murders. she told these two coinmates of hers that the family was responsible for the tate labianca murders and one of the girls called the lapd with a dime at a pay phone. and it broke the case. the persons for whom the warrants have been issued are charles watson, patricia
late at night, he says you got to listen to this guy. anyway, i got my clothes on and i came down and that was the first time i met charlie. there were a lot of girls and some guys and everybody was partying. it was at night. it was fun. greta: one of the other men was 22-year-old charles tex watson. a former wig salesman. watson had picked up a hitch hiking dennis wilson on sunset boulevard. when the beach boy invited him into his mansion, watson came face to face with his future, charles manson. tex watson didn t have the longhair and gruffy look, you could confuse him as a freshman at cornel university. from farmersville texas. he had an a average in high school. football, basketball and track star. one of the sweetest guys i ever met. nice guy with a texas accept. drove a beautiful semi restored old pickup truck and was a sweet heart. loved to smoke we d and just was always out for a good time
would be another night of murder. this time he went along. behind me at this home on waiverly drive, 20 miles from the slaughter on ciello, the manson family struck again, butchering leno and rosemary la bianca.r they had been in the area before because there was a fellow that lived next door to them that was a friend of the families. leno and his 38-year-old wife rosemary had just returned from a weekend of boating when manson slipped into their home. he convinced leno that in he cooperated no harm would come to him. tied his hands behind his back with his leather thongs and then came back with to the car and sent his killers in there. this time, watson and krem
was karl rona pictured here with matson. matson manson. a few days after murders, linda had fled spahn ranch and returned home. tex watson decided to bolt back to texas. tex is the only one that i was ever suspicious of at that time. he was the butcher boy. the other members of the family remained with manson at the ranch. it was much like living at spahn ranch but it was different, too, it was much darker and more desperate. you could feel the tension. rating through the desert in stolen dune buggies, manson dreamed of recreating the dreams of the desert corps. a california high patrolman began to take a closer look at family. our interest in the group was as a group of hippies with stolen items.
what i remember most is his eyes. he was staring at me as i testified. dark piercing evil eyes. greta: rumors ran child when leslie van houghton s lawyer disappeared four months into the trial. he goes up to the hot springs area of ventura county to work on his argument and the court reconvenes the following monday he did not show up. my god, i just wonder the family. from what anybody could discern, a flash flood came alock and washed him away. in january of 1971 it took the jury seven days to reach a verdict. it was our belief that the jury could only come to one verdict, guilty. each defendant was convicted of every count of which they were charged. greta: the four were sentenced to death on march 29th, 1971. in october, tex watson was also convicted and sentenced to death.