“If ever there was a star witness for the prosecution, it was Linda Kasabian. Without her testimony … it would have been extremely difficult for me to convict Manson and his co-defendants.”
With these words in 2009, the main prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi evaluated the role of Linda Kasabian in the trial of the cult of one of the most famous killers of the 20th century, Charles Manson. His murderous rampage in 1969 terrified the entire United States, and nine people did not survive.
Kasabian did not directly participate in the murders. Since the late 1960s, she has kept to herself, living under the name Linda Chiochios, reports British daily The Guardian.
She died now at the age of 73. Her death was reported by the Tacoma News Tribune of Washington state, the cause of which is unclear.
On the way to freedom
Linda Kasabian met Charles Manson in July 1969. At that time she had just celebrated her twentieth birthday, left her husband and found shelter with her not even two-year-old daughter at Spahn’s ranch in Los Angeles. It was mainly used for shooting western movies and it was here that Manson and his sect members lived.
“When I left, I was looking for love and freedom,” she describes one of the reasons why she decided to join Charles Manson’s “family”. This “guru” surrounded himself with his admirers, manipulated them and then led them to kill.
“I was looking for God,” Kasabian said in 2009 in one of the few interviews she gave.
She described life on the ranch as full of loose sex and drug orgies. According to her, Manson, then a criminal and frustrated musician, tried to psychologically control the followers of the sect, instill in them hateful thoughts against African Americans and start a race war.
Just a few weeks after she met Manson, Kasabian, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles Watson found themselves on a murderous mission, describes the American daily The New York Times.
On the night of August 8, Kasabian was the one waiting in her car while the others brutally murdered five people in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood, including director Roman Polanski’s wife at the time, Sharon Tate.
The next evening, Manson and his “sheep” went to the home of Len and Rosemary LaBianca. Manson handcuffed them on the spot and then left with Kasabian. The rest of the group then stabbed them to death.
Kasabian became a key witness and accepted conditional immunity. As a result, she became the only defendant to escape without punishment.
Key witness
When Manson and other criminals from his sect were caught, Atkinson was to give crucial testimony before the grand jury. But she changed her mind and refused to testify against Manson and others.
However, lead prosecutor Bugliosi said in his 1974 book “Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murder” that he did not mind the twist. He knew that it was Kasabian who was willing to testify. “If I had to choose between Susan and Linda as the main witness for the prosecution, I preferred Linda. She didn’t kill anyone,” he wrote.
Thus, Kasabian began to testify and secured conditional immunity. In the months-long trial, she testified for 17 days despite threats from the defense and Manson himself. Additionally, according to Bugliosi, she was consistent in her answers. “I was proud of her… We are all extremely grateful to Linda, (…) because if Manson had gotten out, he would have undoubtedly continued to kill. He would kill as many people as he could,” he continued in the book.
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In addition to a detailed description of the events of the fateful night, the member of Manson’s sect also described how Manson influenced his admirers. “He just had something that kept you going… The girls just seemed to adore him… They would do anything for him,” she described.
However, prosecutor Bugliosi emphasized that Kasabian was different from other members of the sect. While the others were “ruthless killers”, Kasabian was not prone to violence. She went to the night murders mainly because she was one of the few who had a driver’s license.
However, Kasabian’s critics drew attention to the fact that she tried to avoid punishment, reproached her for not running away and leaving her daughter in the care of other people at the ranch for some time.
However, the then member of the revolting youth defended herself that she was afraid of Manson and, moreover, did not trust the police in general.
Ordinary citizen
After the murders, Kasabian and her children moved to her home state of New Hampshire. In an interview with Larry King in 2009, she said that she tries to live a normal life, but admitted that it is not easy.
“I was on a mission of healing and rehabilitation… I took a lot of drugs, alcohol, I went through self-destruction. I probably needed psychological help 40 years ago,” she admitted at the time.
According to information from the British diary Daily Mail from 2017 she was already living as Chiochios in an apartment complex in Tacoma, Washington.
