Ronald Hughes

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Ronald Hughes (March 16, 1935 - c. November 1970) was a court appointed attorney who represented Manson "family" member Leslie Van Houten and an alleged Manson Family murder victim.

1 Tate-LaBianca Murder Trial
2 Disappearance
3 Death
4 Controversy
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Tate-LaBianca Murder Trial

Hughes was among the first lawyers to meet with Charles Manson in December of 1969. Initially, he signed on as the attorney for Manson, but was replaced by Irving Kanarek two weeks before the start of the trial.^[1]

Prior to representing Leslie Van Houten in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial, Hughes flunked the bar exam three times before passing and had never tried a case. Hughes, a onetime conservative, was called "the hippie lawyer" due to his intimate knowledge of the hippie subculture. That knowledge occasionally served his client well. He was able to raise questions about Linda Kasabian's credibility by asking her about hallucinogenic drugs, her belief in ESP, her thoughts that she might be a witch, and her experiencing "vibrations" from Manson.^[1]

As attorney for defendant Van Houten, Hughes tried to separate the interests of his client from those of Charles Manson, a move that angered Manson and may have cost Hughes his life. He hoped to show that Van Houten was not acting independently, but was completely controlled in her actions by Manson. This strategy contradicted Manson's plan to allow fellow "family" members to implicate themselves in the crimes, clearing him of all involvement.^[1]

Twenty-two weeks into the trial, which included outbursts and bizarre behavior from Manson and his co-defendants, the prosecution rested. Lawyers for the defendants stunned the courtroom by announcing that the defense also rested. Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten immediately shouted that they wanted to testify. Per Manson's instructions, the girls said that they wanted to testify to committing the murders on their own and that Manson had nothing to do with the crimes. Hughes objected and stood up against Manson's ploy and stated, "I refuse to take part in any proceeding where I am forced to push a client out the window."^[2] After Manson made a statement to the court, however, he then advised the girls against testifying. The defense then rested its case.^[3]

[edit] Disappearance

On November 30, 1970, Hughes failed to return from a recess the judge ordered prior to final arguments.^[4] On the last weekend of November 1970, Hughes decided to take a camping trip in a remote area near Sespe Hot Springs, California. According to James Forsher and Lauren Elder, two friends who accompanied Hughes on the trip, heavy rains mired their Volkswagen in mud. Hughes' friends hitchhiked out, while Hughes decided to stay. As the rains continued, the wilderness area was evacuated. Campers had seen Hughes walking in the rugged terrain, and the Volkswagen was later found with trial transcripts in it, but there was no sign of Hughes. ^[5]

Despite the disappearance, Judge Charles Older ordered the trial to proceed and appointed a new attorney, Maxwell Keith, for Van Houten. The girls angrily demanded the firing of all their lawyers, and asked to reopen the defense. Judge Older denied the request. By week's end, Hughes had been missing for 15 days. When the court reconvened, Manson and the girls created a disturbance suggesting that Judge Older "did away with Ronald Hughes," which resulted in their being removed again from the courtroom.^[2]

[edit] Death

The search for Hughes continued despite doubts that he would be found alive. On March 29, 1971, the same day the jury returned death penalty verdicts against all the defendants on all counts, news came that Hughes' badly decomposed body had been found wedged between two boulders in Ventura County.^[2] Hughes was positively identified by dental x-rays.^[6]

Due to the severe decomposition Hughes' body underwent, the cause and nature of his death was ruled as 'Undetermined'.^[3]

[edit] Controversy

In his book Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi claims that Sandra Good, an associate of Manson and a close friend of devoted Manson "family" member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, admitted that the "family" had killed "35 to 40 people" and that, "Hughes was the first of the retaliation murders."^[7] Bugliosi went on to speculate that James Forsher and Lauren Elder, the couple that accompanied Hughes to Sespe Hot Springs, were actually a couple named James and Lauren Willett.^[3] The Willetts were associated with Manson for a time and were later found dead.^[8] Noting that individuals named "James" and "Lauren" were involved in both incidents, Bugliosi speculated that Manson’s associates had killed the Willetts because they were Forsher and Elder, and knew too much about Hughes’s death. He decided that it was unlikely that Forsher and Willett were the same man, citing apparent age differences, but continued to speculate that Lauren Elder was Lauren Willett.^[3]

In 1998, Forsher brought a defamation lawsuit against Bugliosi, alleging that Helter Skelter implied that he had participated in Hughes’s disappearance and death, a claim that Forscher denies.^[9] Forsher ultimately lost the initial case and subsequent appeals.

To date, no one has been charged with the death of Ronald Hughes.