Manson Hopes to Pay His Way With Record Album

San Francisco Examiner
December 26, 1969 - pg. 18

LOS ANGELES — (UPI) — Hippie cult leader Charles Manson hopes to finance his legal defense against seven counts of murder in the Sharon Tate slayings by selling a record album.

George E. Shibley, the lawyer who is handling Sirhan B. Sirhan's appeal and who has identified himself as an old friend of Manson, says the defendant is conducting negotiations with a record company.

Shibley said the negotiations are in connection with tapes Manson recorded prior to his arrest.

The attorney said the bearded, long-haired Manson learned to play the guitar while in federal prison several years ago and is considered an excellent guitarist and "an adequate vocalist." He said the album will contain a number of protest songs and numbers Manson improvised.

Manson was known as a musician in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco where he lived after his release from prison, before he and his followers known as "The Manson Family" moved to Southern California.

Susan Atkins, a defendant turned informer on the Tate killings last August and the slayings two days later of Leno LaBianca and his wife, has indicated Manson bore a grudge against Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day. The grudge came about, Miss Atkins said, when the young producer was not interested in recording Manson's songs.

Miss Atkins, 21, claimed Melcher's home became a "symbol of rejection" to Manson and he later sent his followers to the Benedict Canyon house, by that time occupied by Miss Tate.