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Eight hours of audio never before heard by law enforcement has been requested by the Los Angeles Police Department, and it could link followers of the Manson Family to unsolved murders. In a letter dated March 19, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck requested "eight hours or so" of audio recordings between attorney Bill Boyd and his then-client Charles "Tex" Watson, according to a U.S. bankruptcy filing. Watson, the former right-hand man of Charles Manson, is currently serving a life sentence for his involvement in the 1969 Manson Family murders.
Although the LAPD has yet to receive the recordings, police believe the interviews could contain information about unsolved murders. "The LAPD has information that Mr. Watson discussed additional unsolved murders committed by followers of Charles Manson," Beck wrote in a request to a trustee with the U.S. Department of Justice. The LAPD's request corresponds to the liquidation of Boyd's Texas-based law firm as part of a bankruptcy proceeding. Boyd, who died in 2009, represented Watson beginning in 1969 and "for some time thereafter," according to Beck. "It is requested that the original recordings be given to the LAPD in order to determine if information regarding unsolved murders was included in the recordings. The LAPD, Robbery-Homicide Division will be investigating Mr. Watson's recordings " wrote Beck.
A bankruptcy court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Plano, Texas, to determine if the audio will be given to police. The recordings remained private until September 1976 when Watson authorized its sale to author Chaplain Ray Hoekstra to help cover unpaid legal fees. Hoekstra used the material for his 1978 book "Will You Die For Me?" Watson was sentenced to death for the murders of Abigail Ann Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Thomas Jay Sebring, Steven Earl Parent, and Sharon Tate Polanski. California temporarily suspended the death penalty in 1972, and Watson has been serving a life sentence ever since. He was most recently denied parole last November.
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Bruce Davis, who turned 70 yesterday, was already recommended for parole once in 2010, but then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected the recommendation, saying Davis would pose a danger to society. Davis won a new release recommendation on Thursday at his 27th California Parole Board meeting since his conviction over the 1969 deaths of musician Gary Hinman, who was stabbed, and stuntman Donald Shorty Shea. Six months after the January 2010 parole green light, Schwarzenegger rejected it, saying in a review that releasing Davis would pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society at this time.
The killings for which Davis was convicted were especially heinous because both victims were abused, tortured and mutilated, wrote the former Hollywood film star, who is returning to the big screen after leaving office last year. Indeed, some murders are so atrocious that the gravity of the murder, by itself, evidences current dangerousness. I believe this is such a case, he wrote. Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office, said prosecutors are to evaluate the parole panels recommendation before deciding how to proceed.
Manson himself was refused parole in April, in what could be the 77-year-olds last review for release after more than 40 years behind bars, since he would not be eligible for parole again for another 15 years. He headed an apocalyptic cult and hatched a plot to commit murders in upscale, white neighborhoods in Los Angeles which he planned to blame on African Americans, to spark a race war.
He was sentenced to death with four of his disciples for having led the 1969 killing of seven people, including Sharon Tate, the wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski. Tate was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. One of Mansons disciples, Leslie Van Houten convicted in the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Angeles home was denied parole in 2010. Another follower, Susan Atkins, died of cancer in prison in 2009. She had mounted over a dozen bids for parole in nearly four decades of incarceration and repeatedly apologized for being part of the brutal crime spree.
Follower of cult US killer Manson wins parole green light - Taipei Times