Editing Charles Manson (section)

=== Ongoing disruptions ===
During the trial, Family members loitered near the entrances and corridors of the courthouse. To keep them out of the courtroom proper, the prosecution [[subpoena]]ed them as prospective witnesses, who would not be able to enter while others were testifying.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|309}} When the group established itself in vigil on the sidewalk, some members wore sheathed hunting knives that, although in plain view, were carried legally. Each of them was also identifiable by the X on their forehead.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|339}}

Some Family members attempted to dissuade witnesses from testifying. Prosecution witnesses [[Paul Watkins (Manson Family)|Paul Watkins]] and Juan Flynn were both threatened;<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|280, 332–335}} Watkins was badly burned in a suspicious fire in his van.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|280}} Former Family member Barbara Hoyt, who had overheard [[Susan Atkins]] describing the Tate murders to Family member [[Ruth Ann Moorehouse]], agreed to accompany the latter to Hawaii. There, Moorehouse allegedly gave her a hamburger spiked with several doses of [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]]. Found sprawled on a [[Honolulu]] curb in a drugged semi-stupor, Hoyt was taken to the hospital, where she did her best to identify herself as a witness in the Tate–LaBianca murder trial. Before the incident, Hoyt had been a reluctant witness; after the attempt to silence her, her reticence disappeared.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|348–350, 361}}

On August 4, despite precautions taken by the court, Manson flashed the jury a ''Los Angeles Times'' front page whose headline was "Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares". This was a reference to a statement made the previous day when U.S. President [[Richard Nixon]] had decried what he saw as the media's glamorization of Manson. [[Voir dire]]d by Judge Charles Older, the jurors contended that the headline had not influenced them. The next day, the female defendants stood up and said in unison that, in light of Nixon's remark, there was no point in going on with the trial.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|323–238}}

On October 5, Manson was denied the court's permission to question a prosecution witness whom defense attorneys had declined to [[cross-examination|cross-examine]]. Leaping over the defense table, Manson attempted to attack the judge. Wrestled to the ground by bailiffs, he was removed from the courtroom with the female defendants, who had subsequently risen and begun chanting in Latin.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|369–377}} Thereafter, Older allegedly began wearing a revolver under his robes.<ref name="bugliosi" />{{Rp|369–377}}