Witness Against Charles Manson, Linda Kasabian Passes Away at Age 73
In her 73rd year, Linda Kasabian, a member of the notorious cult led by Charles Manson that murdered Sharon Tate in 1969, has passed away on 21 Jan, 2023. The Tacoma News Tribune reported on her passing. However, the paper did not reveal the reason for her demise at the time. According to her death certificate, Kasabian had changed her name to “Chiochios” and stayed out of the spotlight after the murders.
While the so-called “Manson family” murdered Tate, the eight-month pregnant wife of film director Roman Polanski, and three others in a rented house in an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood in August 1969, 20-year-old Kasabian acted as a lookout. The following evening, she went with Manson and other cult members to the house of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, where they murdered the couple.
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Prosecutors granted Kasabian immunity so that he could testify against Manson and four of his followers at their famous 1970 trial in Los Angeles. Kasabian had nothing to do with the murders. In the end, all five were found guilty. Ex-convict Manson and a group of misfits, including Kasabian, settled onto a former movie ranch north of Los Angeles and created a temporary commune.
Seven people were killed in what authorities claimed was Manson’s plot to provoke a racial war that summer of 1969. As a result of the murder of Gary Hinman and his association with the Manson Family, Manson was given a death sentence in 1969. The death penalty was deemed unlawful by the California Supreme Court in 1976, saving his life. By 2017, he was dead behind bars.
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The lead prosecutor in the Manson case, Vincent Bugliosi, stated in 2009, “If there ever was a star witness for the prosecution, it was Linda Kasabian. For me, to have convicted Manson and his co-defendants without her testimony would have been an uphill battle.