Steel Notes Magazine
July & August 2016
except what the media said. The media had them programmed
to believe it all happened because we were out to start a race war.
The media, called us a “family.” And it was the only true thing
they said. We were a family. We were mother, father, brother,
sister, daughter, son. And so for the love of a brother, a brother
who was in jail on a murder rap, all those killings came down.”
Bobby Beausoleil, 1981 (Quote Source: Truman Capote) Robert
Beausoleil, who is now thirty-one, is the real mystery figure of the
Charles Manson cult; more to the point, and it’s a point that has
never been clearly brought forth in accounts of that tribe, he is
the key to the mystery of the homicidal escapades of the so-called
Manson family, notably the Sharon Tate, LaBianca murders.
It all began with the murder of Gary Hinman, a middle-aged professional musician who had befriended various members of the
Manson brethren and who, unfortunately for him, lived alone in
a small isolated house in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles County.
Hinman had been tied up and tortured for several days (among
other indignities, one of his ears had been severed) before his
throat had been mercifully and lastingly slashed. When Hinman’s
body, bloated and abuzz with August flies, was discovered, police
found bloody graffiti on the walls of his modest house (“Death to
Pigs!”), graffiti similar to the sort soon to be found in the households of Miss Tate and Mr. and Mrs. Labianca. However, just a
few days prior to the Tate, Labianca slayings, Robert Beausoleil,
caught driving a car that had been the property of the victim, was under arrest and in jail, accused of having
murdered the helpless Mr. Hinman. I am going to include part of Bugliosi’s closing statement from the trial transcripts because I really believe that if you as a juror did not have the media circus and lies told prior to the trial,
and were not allowed to hear any testimony from any witness and the defense presented no case, you might well
have just bought into the nightmare fairytale. (The following is taken verbatim from Bugliosi’s closing argument
to the jury). “Briefly discussing the rules of law under which these defendants are guilty of these murders, you
will recall my earlier discussion, beginning with my opening argument regarding the law which you are going to
be dealing with during your deliberations, all of these defendants are charged in count eight of the indictment
with the crime of conspiracy to commit murder. Conspiracy is nothing more than an agreement, getting together, agreeing to commit a crime, followed by an overt act to carry out the object of the conspiracy. Conspiracies
can be and normally are proven by circumstantial evidence.
In this case, we proved the conspiracy by direct evidence; Linda Kasabian, ladies and gentlemen, was present
with these defendants and she told you everything that happened in her presence. To have a conspiracy it is not
necessary that the conspirators enter into any formal agreement. All that is necessary is that there be a meeting
of the minds; that they be working together toward a common goal. You saw a witness who took that witness
stand with one and only one purpose in mind, to tell you everything she knew about these two nights of murder.
Although she testifi ed for eighteen days, I am convinced that long, long before she was through testifying, long
before that, it was obvious to each and every one of you that Linda was telling the truth. She was given immunity
from prosecution of these crimes. Although the evidence at this trial shows that Charles Manson was the leader of the conspiracy to commit these murders, there is no evidence that he actually personally killed any of the
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