hen Charles Manson announced that he wanted Ronald Hughes to represent him at his murder trial, even Hughes seemed surprised. He was no one’s idea of a skilled defense attorney. He had passed the bar, after three failed attempts, just 10 months earlier. He had been Manson’s most frequent jailhouse visitor, serving as his “legal runner” — a glorified gofer — but had never tried a case.
Now, improbably, Hughes would take a key seat at America’s most-watched trial, with a client accused of masterminding the gruesome home invasion murders of actress Sharon Tate, grocer Leno LaBianca and five others.
In this series, Christopher Goffard revisits old crimes in Los Angeles and beyond, from the famous to the forgotten, the consequential to the obscure, diving into archives and the memories of those who were there.
Known as the “hippie lawyer,” with a bushy, unkempt beard, Hughes was a huge, amiable mess. He sometimes wore a love-bead necklace to court. He slept on a mattress in a two-car garage with holes in the roof. On the wall hung his UCLA law degree, decorated in psychedelic colors.
It was March 1970. Hughes had just turned 35. For those who studied Manson, there was a certain logic in the choice. Hughes spoke the language of the counterculture and had socialized with Manson before the cult leader’s 1969 arrest. Hughes was supposed to be another of Manson’s many puppets, a neophyte attorney who would be easily manipulated — or intimidated — to do whatever Manson demanded.
Soon, Manson appointed him as the attorney for 19-year-old Leslie Van Houten, one of three young female co-defendants. The former high school homecoming princess was accused of participating in the stabbing deaths of LaBianca and his wife at their Los Feliz home.
“What is your relationship with Mr. Manson now?” a reporter asked Hughes.
“I think it’s a very friendly one, and always has been,” Hughes replied. “We’ve seen eye to eye on a great number of things.”
Read full article: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-03/he-was-leslie-van-houtens-hippie-lawyer-then-he-defied-manson
