People still fascinated with story of Manson family

saying Manson and Nixon immediately became a trending topic.

Lawyers for Manson and his followers immediately demanded a mistrial, portraying their deranged clients as the peace-and-love good guys when compared to Nixon’s misdeeds in Vietnam.

Judge Charles Older ultimately denied the mistrial motion.

But that was not the end of the story.

The next day, Manson got hold of that morning’s Los Angeles Times, which contained the headline: “MANSON GUILTY, NIXON DECLARES”

Manson began waving the newspaper around the courtroom. Courtroom officers confiscated it quickly, but lawyers for the defendants once again asked for a mistrial. The judge held a hearing in which he asked each juror what they had seen. Their answers were somewhat entertaining.

One juror detected a whiff of fake news. The Washington Post reported: “Juror No. 2, Shirley Evans, said she also read the headline. ‘What did you think of what you saw,’ Older asked.

“’The first thing I thought was that’s ridiculous. I don’t believe the president of the United States would say a thing like that. I think he has more important things to do.’”

Another was defiant. “Marie Mesmer, a retired newspaper drama critic, said she saw the headline. Would it affect her performance as a juror?

“’No. No one does my thinking for me.’”

In the end, the judge declined — again — to declare a mistrial.

Over the years, Manson, who died in prison in 2017, would threaten Kay’s life — before he was sentenced for murder, and later from behind bars.

“They said they were going to do to my house what was done at the Tate house,” he said, adding that both he and Bugliosi, who died in 2015, retained bodyguards throughout the trial.

When the trial ended after nearly a year, Manson and three followers — Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel — were sentenced to death but later had their punishment reduced to life in prison. Atkins also died while serving her term, in 2009.

Another disciple, Charles “Tex” Watson, fled to his native Texas after the killings and fought extradition for nearly a year. When he returned, Bugliosi and Kay, now co-counsels, won his conviction.

Van Houten, whose attorney vanished during the first trial and was later found dead under mysterious circumstances, was granted a retrial in 1976. By then Bugliosi had left the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, and Kay was the sole lead prosecutor.

After a hung jury, he won a conviction in 1978, and Van Houten returned to prison, where she has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in counseling and leads programs to rehabilitate fellow inmates. She was recommended for parole three times in recent years, but each time the governor blocked the recommendation.

Retired for several years now, Kay still keeps in touch with Sharon Tate’s younger sister, Debra, having grown close to the family during the trials and numerous parole hearings.

Meanwhile, new books and films about Manson seem to come out every year, but Kay says people shouldn’t expect one from him.

“It would be nice if it would just go away,” he said of the public’s continuing fascination with Manson.

“But,” he quickly added, “it’s the case that never goes away.”