Charles Manson’s infamous “Manson Family” criminal gang member Linda Kasabian passed away at the age of 73.
On January 21, Kasabian passed suddenly in a Tacoma, Washington, hospital. Although it has been stated that her remains was later cremated, her exact cause of death has not been made public.
According to a death certificate that TMZ was able to get, Kasabian changed her last name to “Chiochios” in later life to hide her identity after she severed her ties to the cult.
Kasabian consented to testify as a crucial prosecution witness at Manson’s trial in 1970–1971 in exchange for immunity after taking part in the “two nights of mayhem” in which the gang murdered seven people in Los Angeles, California, in August 1969.
During her 18 days of evidence, Kasabian detailed how gang members Charles “Tex” Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and broke into the couple’s Benedict Canyon house on Cielo Drive and killed Sharon Tate, an actress who was eight months pregnant.
She claimed that while Mr. Polanski was away in Europe filming a movie, Watson, Krenwinkel, and Atkins fatally shot and stabbed five victims at the scene: Tate and her unborn child Paul, hairdresser Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, her boyfriend Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent, a friend of Tate’s groundskeeper.
What was Linda Kasabian charged with?
On December 2, 1969, Linda Kasabian was charged with being indicted for the Tate-Labianca killings. She turned State’s Evidence, though, and was granted immunity in return for her testimony, which helped put Charles Manson behind bars.
She was also fined $100 after being found guilty of disorderly conduct in 1976 for attempting to stop firefighters from putting out a bonfire in Nashua, New Hampshire.