04-07-2015, 05:25 AM
Jim DiEugenio Wrote: "In fact, unfortunately for client Leslie Van Houten, this had been Ronald Hughes' first criminal trial".
Isn't that incredible?
See, in Helter Skelter, Bugliosi and Gentry do everything they can to paper this over. That is, the fact that the defendants had incompetent counsel. During the trial, Bugliosi was a bit more honest about it. And I quoted that. But he was not so honest in his book.
See, when the defense offered no case at all, this left the door open for Bugliosi to use that fantastic race war fantasy. And because it was uncontested by the defending counsel, it apparently worked. That, plus the success of the book, kept these people behind bars for life.
Which, I think is ridiculous.
Didn't the fantastic race war fantasy originate with Susan Atkins' 12/14/69 LA Times article, which laid out the whole Manson-as-Cult-Mastermind scenario?
http://www.cielodrive.com/archive/susan-...of-murder/
Didn't Atkins' dad denounce her as a liar?
If the Tate-LaBianca murders had a "master-mind" it sure looks like Susan Atkins to me.