7/27/2019 The Mystery of the Pillow Cases (LaBianca murders)

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The mystery of the pillow cases

Commonly it is said that Leslie Van Houten put the pillow case over Mrs. LaBianca’s head before

she was being stabbed, while Patricia Krenwinkel was fetching knives from the kitchen. When Leno

got the pillow case over his head and who did it is conveniently not mentioned anywhere (like the

ever popular Wikipedia, for instance) but I believe Tex Watson has taken credit for this.

But is this how it happened? Let’s examine some versions of events:

From Helter Skelter: the true story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry,

first edition, p. 44-45: All but one of Leno's wound's were to the front of his body; thirty-six of the

 forty-one inflicted on Rosemary were to her back and buttocks. Leno had no defensive wounds,

indicating that his hands had probably been bound before he was stabbed. Rosemary had a

defensive slash wound on her left jaw. This wound, plus the knife in Leno's throat, indicated that 

the placing of the pillowcases over the heads of the victims was a belated act, possibly even

occurring after they had died. The pillowcases were identified as the LaBiancas' own, having been

removed from the two pillows on their bed.

There's something on the autopsies on page 43 of the same book:

 Deputy Medical Examiner David Katsuyama conducted the LaBianca autopsies. Before starting, he

removed the pillowcases from the heads of the victims. Only then it was discovered that in addition

to the carving fork embedded in his abdomen, a knife had been stuck in Leno LaBianca's throat.

And more on page 45:

The LaBianca detectives later noted in their report: "The knife recovered from his [Leno's] throat appeared to be the same weapon used in both homicides." 

 It was a presumption, and nothing more, since for some reason Dr. Katsuyama, unlike his

superior Dr. Noguchi, who handled the Tate autopsies, did not measure the dimensions of the

wounds. Nor did the detectives assigned to the LaBianca case ask for these dimensions.

The ramifications of this one presumption were immense. A single weapon indicated that there was

 probably a single killer. That the weapon used belonged to kill the pair occurring sometime after he

entered the premises. This in turn suggested: (1) that the killer had arrived to commit a burglary or 

 some other crime, then had been surprised when the LaBiancas returned home; or (2) that the

victims knew the killer, trusting him enough to let him in at two in the morning or thereafter.

One little presumption, but it would cause many, many problems later.

 As would the estimated time of death.

 Asked by the detectives to determine the time, Katsuyama came up with 3 P.M. Sunday. When other 

evidence appeared to contradict this, the detectives went back to Katsuyama and asked him to

recalculate . He now decided Leno LaBianca had died sometime between 12:30 A.M. and 8:30

 P.M. on Sunday, and that Rosemary had died an hour earlier. However, Katsuyama cautioned,

the time could be affected by room temperature and other variables.

 All this was so indecisive that the detectives simply ignored it. They knew, from Frank Struthers,that Leno was a creature of habit. Every night he bought the paper, then read it before going to

bed, always starting with the sports section. That section had been open on the coffee table, with

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 Leno's reading glasses beside it. From this and other evidence (Leno was wearing pajamas, the bed 

hadn't yet been slept in, and so forth) they concluded that the murders had probably taken place

within an hour or so after the LaBiancas had left Fokianos' newsstand, or sometime between 2 and 

3 A.M. on Sunday.

Incredibly, I found yet another version of events:

 Both Patricia Krenwinkel and Tex Watson claim that it was Watson who tied up the couple and 

 placed the pillowcases over their heads. Both Krenwinkel and Van Houten have stated they never 

saw their faces. [THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!!]

Source: http://www.mansonfamilytoday.info/krenwinkel-biography.htm

So I guess it's safe to presume that Tex put the pillowcase over Leno LaBianca's head and logic

dictates it was done after the knife was stuck into his throat (so after he died). I'm still puzzled about

the chronology of events as far as the pillowcase over Rosemary LaBianca's head, though.

Think about this:

• Why hasn’t the DA Office ever corrected any of the killers, reminding them of the findings

of the coroner’s office? Why don’t they point out to the parole board that the hoods must’ve

 been put on after death due to wounds being underneath the pillow cases that were only

detected after the pillow cases were removed (so there were no tears or blood stains on the

 pillow cases indicating the knives went through them in order to afflict those wounds)? This

is a contradiction that has been there ever since the 1970 trial. Bugliosi never bothered to setthe record straight, nor has anyone else at the DA Office to date.

• The parole board goes over the details of the crimes and discusses the crimes with the killers

in every single hearing. But strangely enough none of the commissioners ever appeared to

have noticed these contradictions. Are all the DA Office and the Parole Board really that  

incompetent??

• How come that particularly Van Houten can’t remember what Rosemary LaBianca’s face

looked like while she is the one generally considered to have put the pillow case over her 

head? Isn’t anyone finding this strange, if not an impossiblity? She could lie about this, of 

course, but what if she’s actually telling the truth? That would disrupt the official version of events, wouldn’t it?

And that’s just one small detail in this case that I’m pointing to where you simply can’t establish

what exactly happened and how it happened, which should be fairly easy to put together by simply

comparing the statements of the killers. The killers were there and did it, so they should know.

Except they apparently don’t because they all contradict both each other and the evidence (the

crime scene).

Odd, isn’t it?