As I've said in interviews, I never believed the stories Linda told on the stand or that Bugliosi told about her. She, above and beyond almost everyone still alive in this story, is the one I'd give anything to interview. As many know, the one interview she's given in the last thirty years (on Larry King) was stage managed by Bugliosi who nervously sat beside her and interrupted every time she veered from his official narrative (more about that farcical event in a possible post to come).
For now, here's one tidbit that stayed out of the book:
The interview notes of George Healy by Bugliosi, never before revealed, discovered in the Los Angeles District Attorney's files when I had limited access in the early 2000s.
Healy was Terry Melcher's valet for at least a decade up until the time of the murders but then seems to have just vanished off the face of the earth.
. I never could find him and have to presume he's long dead. What Healy told Bugliosi, of course, could've been a mistake. He could have mistaken Kasabian for someone else, but what's intriguing is the fact that Bugliosi, an infamous stickler for details and extensive note-taking doesn't correct the (mis?) identification of Linda Kasabian at Cielo Drive in his notes. He let it stand.
As students of the Tate-LaBianca murders know, despite being played down and written off by Bugliosi as just a coincidence, Kasabian, who drove the killers to the house next door to Harold True's house (the LaBianca's) the night after she drove another group of killers to the Tate house, had been to the True house the summer before -- before she even met Manson or anyone else in the family.
Release the Watson tapes.
Tom O'Neil
(first document is close up of statement in question