Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty
Linda Kasabian, theManson Family’s lookout during the cult’s infamous murder spree, has died at the age of 73.
Seven people dead across two nightsin the summer of 1969, however Kasabian did not take part in the actual murders.
Kasabian had been living in Washington State when she died and hadchanged her surname to “Chiochios” to protect her identity,The Guardianreported.
No cause was cited on a death certificate from Tacoma-Pierce County, which theWashington Postobtained a copy of.
AP.
Kasabian was 20 years old when she moved to Spahn Ranch in July 1969, an old movie set in Los Angeles where Manson and his followers were living in a commune.
That same year, Manson ordered a group of his followers to carry out a series of murders in what criminal prosecutors said was a plan to incite a race war.
Manson told his followers, who were mainly young women, of an impending race war he had dubbed ‘Helter Skelter’ (named after the well-knownBeatlessong). The murders he had plotted would supposedly speed up the start of this imagined war.
In the early hours of Aug. 9, Kasabian waited in the getaway car outside a Los Angeles mansion. Her passengers, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles Watson, had forced their way into the home,The New York Timesreported.
Inside, they murdered actressSharon Tate— the eight-month-pregnant wife of film directorRoman Polanski.
Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski.Joe Bangay/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty
The very next night, under the direction of cult leader Manson, Kasabian and other members went to the house of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. The couple was slain inside their own home.
The Manson Family murders gripped the nation and Kasabian’s 17-day testimony was a major reason for the criminal convictions.
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Manson was sentenced to death for his role in ordering the killings, in addition to the murder of acquaintanceGary Hinman. However, in 1976 the California supreme court declared the death penalty unconstitutional andManson was spared execution.
The cult leader died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83.
Manson Family members Atkins, Krenwinkel andLeslie Van Houtenwere also convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Watson wasfound guilty of murder in a separate trial,The Washington Postreported.
“Some people glorify him as a sort of master outlaw,“Bugliositold PEOPLE in 2015. “But he really was nothing more than an evil, very sophisticated con man.”
source: people.com
