This is an LA Times Studios podcast.

Welcome to Crimes of the Times. I'm Christopher Gafford. Today, part two of my conversation with Stephen K.

The Last Living Manson Prosecutor. At the end of last week's segment, we spoke about the fate of Ronald Hughes, an attorney who was

representing one of Charles Manson's co-defendants at his 1970 trial and who ran a foul of Manson.

Hughes was known as the hippie lawyer. He wore love beads to court and decorated his UCLA law degree

in psychedelic colors.

He was no one's idea of a skilled defense attorney,

and Manson thought he could control him.

But Hughes surprised everybody, maybe even himself,

by putting up a real fight for his client,

19-year-old Leslie Van Houghton.

She was a former homecoming princess accused of participating in the stabbing deaths of Lino and Rosemary La Bianca.

Hughes established that her prince were not found at the crime scene and fought for her acquittal.

He made the biggest impression when he cross-examined the state star witness, a Manson family member named Linda Kasabian. He grilled Kasabian about her drug use in relentless detail. He happened to be

intimately familiar with the subject. Among his questions, quote, sometimes on grass or on

hashish, don't you see things in a totally new light? Do you feel that you were

controlled by Mr. Manson primarily by vibrations? Hughes disappeared mid-trial in November

1970 and his body was badly decomposed when it was discovered. The autopsy listed his cause of

death as undetermined. Whether Manson had him

killed is one of the cases abiding mysteries. The breaking point, as I recall, was the three female co-defendants want to take the stand,

right? And Hughes says, Your Honor, I'm not going to be a party to this. I'm not going to be a party to pushing my client out the window.

In other words, he's afraid that Van Houghton will take the stand and maybe take the

...