By BOB BUDD
Staff Writer
Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney turned author who put Charles Manson and most of his family behind bars, painted a bizarre picture of the family’s crimes for students and guests at TCC Nov. 10.
Marked for murder by the Manson family, Bugliosi said in a press conference following his talk, he was unafraid. Asked what he thought Manson would do if released from prison today, he said, “He’d probably be bolder than ever, if released with his family.”
“To do what they did, probably murder 35 people or more, and get out after just a few years, I’d hate to speculate on the outcome,” Bugliosi said. “Obviously members of the family would never be let out altogether. Their release would have to be staggered.”
Asked how Manson is taking prison life, Bugliosi replied, “Very well. He is totally institutionalized. He’s spent most of his life behind bars. He has his guitar, three meals a day, and he does a lot of drawing. He’s bisexual and doesn’t really mind prison life at all.”
All the hard-core figures in the Manson family have been jailed. A couple have renounced Manson such as Charles “Tex” Watkins and Susan Atkins who both claim to be born-again Christians. However, Bugliosi questions their sincerity.
Most of the members of the family still believe in Charlie,” he said. “They still correspond with him but, of course, his mail is monitored by authorities.”
Not long ago Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, held in a federal prison in West Virginia after her abortive attack on President Ford, echoed the family line in an Associated Press interview. She warned, “The curtain is about to come down on all of us… if we don’t turn everything over to Charlie soon, it will be too late.”
Some of the Manson followers may have given up on him. There is no group on the outside currently trying to keep the family name alive. As for Manson himself, he would like to get out and go back to the desert and live with the animals,” Bugliosi said.
Other cults have risen to power since the Manson family ran helter-skelter throughout southern California. Bugliosi warned it could happen again.
“What happened with the Manson family could happen again,” he said. “The kids are still out there. They take drugs. They live in communes. Maybe there aren’t as many as in the sixties, but they’re out there. They turn over their body and soul… their intellect and everything goes to the cult leader. There are hundreds of these groups around the country.”
Bugliosi, who lectures nationwide on courtroom techniques, still gets more than 150 requests a year to speak to groups about the Manson family. He said fascination with the family and their crimes still runs high.