She was the woman who drove the getaway car and the only member of the murderous Manson family not to be jailed, after turning witness for the prosecution during the 1970 trial.
Afterwards, she disappeared – changing her name and moving from state to state with her four children in a bid to avoid attention.
Now DailyMail.com can exclusively disclose that Linda Kasabian, 68, is living in a modest apartment complex in Tacoma, Washington, not far from the home of her daughter Quanu, 45.
The property, which is painted green and sits down a side-street in a rough part of town, is reserved exclusively for low income tenants – defined as those who earn less than $34,550 in Pierce County.
The mother-of-four appears to live alone and uses the last name Chiochios – her second name change since jettisoning the Kasabian moniker shortly after Manson’s 1970 trial.
And her name isn’t the only thing that has changed.
Asked by DailyMail.com whether she was relieved to hear that her former lover and leader Charles Manson had died on Sunday aged 83 in Bakersfield, California, she refused to answer and stormed into her home.
Linda Kasabian, the one member of the Manson Family who escaped jail, now lives a quiet life in in Tacoma, Washington. Pictured: Kasabian running errands on Tuesday
The 68-year-old drove the getaway car the night Manson cult members murdered Sharon Tate But she was spared jail after turning witness for the prosecution during the trial. Pictured: Kasabian arriving to court to give her testimony in August 1970
Cult leader Charles Manson (pictured left in August 2017 and right in October 2014) and the mastermind behind the gruesome murders, died aged 83 on Sunday
Kasabian now lives a quiet life in in Tacoma, Washington. She lives in a low-income apartment complex (pictured), reserved for low income tenants – defined as those who earn less than $34,550
Since the trial, Kasabian has largely remained silent about the August 1969 killing spree that saw members of Manson’s murderous hippie cult invade homes in Los Angeles’ upmarket Benedict Canyon and Los Feliz neighborhoods, brutally killing all inside.
Among the nine victims was actress Sharon Tate, just 26 years old and eight months pregnant. At trial it emerged she had begged for the life of her unborn baby only to be stabbed and hung from a rafter.
Other victims who died in Tate’s Benedict Canyon home on the night of August 9, 1969, included hairdresser Jay Sebring, screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski, and coffee heiress Abigail Folger.
Kasabian ferried killers Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel to Tate’s Cielo Drive home – despite having only been a member of the cult for four weeks.
The product of a difficult upbringing, Kasabian’s early life included a father who abandoned the family to relocate to Miami, a stepfather she hated and a teenage marriage that went badly and ended after a few months.
Kasabian met her second husband, American-Armenian Robert, during a brief stint in Boston where she lived in a commune called the American Psychedelic Circus.
The pair married in September 1967 and relocated to Venice Beach, California, where their daughter Tonya was born in March 1968.
But the marriage proved unstable, with frequent splits and separations, and less than a year later, Kasabian was back in New Hampshire where on May 2 1969, she pleaded guilty to operating a car without a valid license.
Asked by DailyMail.com if she was upset about the death of Charles Manson, a man she once idolized, Kasabian said: ‘What I’m upset about is you invading my privacy. Get out of here’
Since the trial, Kasabian has largely remained silent about the August 1969 killing spree that saw members of Manson’s murderous hippie cult invade homes in Los Angeles’ upmarket Benedict Canyon and Los Feliz neighborhoods, brutally killing all inside
During the trial, she was repeatedly threatened by members of the Manson Family, told ‘you’re killing us’ by Atkins and was the target of a throat-cutting gesture from Manson himself. Pictured: Manson sits in the courtroom during his murder trial in 1970 in Los Angeles
Still desperate to rekindle her off-on relationship with Robert, Kasabian again took off for Los Angeles – arriving in June 1969 and briefly reconciling with her husband.
It wasn’t to be: when Kasabian met Manson a month later, she had been deserted by her husband who had chosen to go traveling in South America without her.
Kasabian was also pregnant with her second child; a son now 47, whom she named Angel but now goes by the name Nathan.
She had, she said, fallen under Manson’s spell almost immediately on encountering him at a July 4th party at his home, later describing him as looking ‘Christ-like’ and magnificent in his buckskin outfit.
Manson allowed Kasabian, who had just turned 20, and her daughter Tonya to move into Spahn Ranch, a dilapidated desert property in Chatsworth, California.
Like other female members of Manson’s cult, Kasabian frequently had sex with him and took part in ‘creepy crawl’ thieving missions at his behest, later telling the trial: ‘We always wanted to do anything and everything for him.’
On the night Tate was killed, she said she saw Watson shoot Steven Parent, a teenager visiting Tate’s housekeeper, before being instructed to remain by the car while the others carried out the murders.
Hearing the ‘horrible’ screams coming from the property, Kasabian said: ‘I started to run toward the house, I wanted them to stop.
‘I knew what they had done to that man [Parent], that they were killing these people. I wanted them to stop.’
By the door, she saw a badly wounded Frykowski and told the trial that she had begun to apologize to him, only to see him collapse into the bushes after being followed out and repeatedly stabbed by Watson.
Kasabian was one of the accused in the Sharon Tate and LaBianca murder cases, and is seen here being escorted by police officers to a jail cell. She would go on to be offered immunity from prosecution to testify against the Manson family
Susan Atkins (left) Patricia Krenwinkel (center) and Leslie van Houton (right) took part in several of the slayings, including those at the Tate residence, where Susan tasted Sharon Tate’s blood and used it to write ‘Pig’ on a house wall
Charles ‘Tex’ Watson (left) described himself as Manson’s (right) ‘right hand man’ and was involved in the murders
Fearing for her own life and that of her one-year-old daughter, Kasabian said she was rooted to the spot and felt unable to run for help but did attempt to halt the killings by telling Atkins someone was coming.
When that didn’t work, she waited for Watson, Atkins and Krenwinkel to finish off their victims before driving the killers back to the Manson Family compound.
The following night, Manson ordered her to drive himself, Watson, Atkins and Krenwinkel – joined this time by acolytes Leslie Van Houten and Steve Grogan – into Los Angeles.
In the Los Feliz neighborhood, they came across the residence of supermarket boss Leno LaBianca, 42, and his wife Rosemary, 38.
The couple were overpowered and tied up by Manson at gunpoint. He then returned to the car, according to Kasabian’s testimony, and ordered Watson, Krenwinkel and Van Houten into the house.
Once inside, the trio stabbed the couple multiple times, including with a chrome-plated bayonet, and daubed the words ‘Death to Pigs’ and ‘Helter Skelter’ on the walls using their blood.
On their return to the car, Manson ordered Kasabian to drive to another location – this time in Venice Beach – where he ordered all five and Kasabian herself to kill an actor acquaintance of his named Saladin Nader.
He drove off and, Kasabian claimed during the trial, she foiled the plan by deliberately knocking on the wrong door and waking a stranger which led to the group abandoning their plans.
Two days later, she fled the Manson Family’s home; taking her daughter and hitchhiking to Miami to be reunited with her bartender father Rosaire Drouin.
On the night Tate was killed, Kasabian said she saw Charles Watson shoot Steven Parent, a teenager visiting Tate’s housekeeper. Hearing the ‘horrible’ screams coming from the property, Kasabian said: ‘I started to run toward the house, I wanted them to stop
Victims: (top row left to right) Voytech Frykowski, Sharon Tate, Stephen Parent, (middle row left to right) Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Gary Hinman, (bottom row left to right) Leno LaBianca, Rosemary LaBianca, Donald Shea.
Coroner’s office personnel wheel the body of film actress Sharon Tate from her home in Bel Air, California, August 9, 1969
He then paid for Greyhound Bus tickets for the pair to Milford, New Hampshire, and Kasabian moved in with her mother, Joyce Taylor.
When the police investigation closed in on Manson and his killer cult in October 1969, Kasabian turned herself in to the local sheriff after learning that a warrant for her arrest had been issued.
She was charged with seven counts of murder but was given immunity from prosecution after agreeing to return to Los Angeles as a witness.
During the trial, she was repeatedly threatened by members of the Manson Family, told ‘you’re killing us’ by Atkins and was the target of a throat-cutting gesture from Manson himself.
After Manson, Watson, Krenwinkel, Atkins and Van Houten were convicted and sentenced to death, Kasabian returned to New Hampshire with her children.
There, she lived for a time in a hippie commune and was briefly reunited with her estranged husband – later giving birth to a third child, Quanu, in 1972.
The same year, she and Robert went to court to legally change their name to Christian. Court records show they claimed they had been made to suffer ‘adverse publicity’ because of their name’s association with the Manson case.
But the name change was not enough to save their marriage and in April 1974, Kasabian filed for divorce which passed uncontested – in part because she was pregnant with her fourth child, whose father was not Robert.
Kasabian, who lived in a remote New Hampshire farmhouse with two other women and their children following the divorce, also continued to fall foul of the law.
Like other female members of Manson’s cult, Kasabian frequently had sex with him and took part in ‘creepy crawl’ thieving missions at his behest, later telling the trial: ‘We always wanted to do anything and everything for him’
After the trial, Kasabian bounced around states trying to find stability, picking other arrests, including indecent exposure, DUI and meth possession
Charles Manson is being escorted to his arraignment in 1969 and remained behind bars until his death
Prior to the Manson trial, she had been busted in Boston for drug possession in 1967 and she pleaded guilty to driving without a license in Milford in May 1969.
In 1976, she was fined $100 after being convicted of disorderly conduct for trying to prevent firemen from putting out a bonfire in Nashua, New Hampshire.
A further arrest came in 1982 in Laconia, New Hampshire, which ended with her facing a charge for indecent exposure after she flashed her breasts at motorcyclists taking part in a rally.
In 1987, having changed her name to Chiochios, she was busted yet again – this time for a DUI charge in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Her most recent arrest came in October 1996 in Tacoma, Washington, where she and her daughter Quanu were collared for meth and cocaine possession.
A police report seen by DailyMail.com reads: ‘In the master bedroom, officers located a small baggie containing suspected rock cocaine and a large bundle of cash in the dresser drawer. On top of the dresser was a box of baggies.’
The report added: ‘Officers also searched Chiochios’s [Kasabian] purse and located a small amount of methamphetamine.’
The following year, the charges against Kasabian were dismissed with prejudice after she agreed to take a drug treatment course.
Quanu was convicted of possession and intent to supply and was sentenced to a month in jail.
Now a grandmother at least twice over, Kasabian lives a quiet existence in a rundown part of Tacoma; an urban port city of approximately 200,000 people, roughly 35 miles south of Seattle.
After reliving the murder spree, she said she was ‘trying to live as normal a life as possible’ before claiming to have spent the preceding 12 years on ‘a mission of healing and rehabilitation’. Pictured: Kasabian in 1971
Pictured: Manson in his younger days, arriving for court in 1971
Neighbors told DailyMail.com she keeps herself to herself, venturing out to run errands or visit her daughter Quanu who still lives nearby.
Of her past – and of Manson – she says nothing, declining most interviews including one with DailyMail.com.
But in September 2009, she did agree to appear on Larry King – heavily disguised and accompanied by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor at the Manson trial.
After reliving the murder spree, she told King she was ‘trying to live as normal a life as possible’ before claiming to have spent the preceding 12 years on ‘a mission of healing and rehabilitation’.
She did not mention the meth bust a decade earlier but did admit to going through ‘a lot of drugs and alcohol and self-destruction’.
Asked whether she ever thinks of the night Sharon Tate was murdered, Kasabian said she still hears the screams of the victims ‘if I let myself go there’.
But she added: ‘I have learned to put it in its proper perspective over the years. And deal with my own feelings of shame and guilt.’
The Manson family today: From finding God, to winning a college degree and writing a book, the followers of Charles Manson are either behind bars or dead – apart from one
By Kelly McLaughlin
Manson’s ‘Family’ disciples committed at least nine murders, but it was the horrific killing spree of seven people on August 9-10, 1969 that sealed his notoriety – and earned him and many of his followers life in prison.
Since the murders, only one member – Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford – has been paroled.
Six other cult members remain in prison, while one, Susan Atkins, died of brain cancer while incarcerated in 2009.
Here, MailOnline reveals what has become of the members of Manson’s cult.
Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, 71: Jailed
Watson described himself as Manson’s ‘right hand man’.
On August 9, 1969, he and three female accomplices murdered actress Sharon Tate and four visitors at her Beverly Hills home.
The following night, they killed a couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, at their Los Angeles home.
Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, 71, has apologized for the killings. He became a minister in 1981, taking a path similar to some other ex-Manson Family members who also turned to Christianity
Watson was initially sentenced to death in the stabbing and shooting rampage, but the sentence was later commuted to life when the California Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional.
Watson remains in prison near Sacramento, California, after repeatedly being denied parole.
Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate — the last surviving member of her immediate family — urged a panel of parole commissioners last year to reject freedom for the man she called ‘the most active, the most prolific killer in the Manson family’.
In prison, Watson wrote a book, Manson’s Right-Hand Man Speaks Out, saying the charismatic Manson offered utopia, then persuaded his followers to act out his ‘destructive worldview’. Watson has apologized for the killings.
He became a minister in 1981, taking a path similar to some other ex-Manson Family members who also turned to Christianity.
Watson also obtained his college degree behind bars.
Susan Atkins, died in 2009, aged 61
Atkins took part in several of the slayings, including those at the Tate residence, where she tasted Sharon Tate’s blood and used it to write ‘Pig’ on a house wall.
She died of brain cancer in a California prison in 2009 at age 61. Atkins had been denied a request to be freed on parole as the fatal illness took hold.
She is the only other cult member – other than Manson himself – to have died.
Atkins admitted stabbing Tate to death as the actress begged for her life and that of her unborn son. Atkins claimed she and other cult followers acted on orders from Manson and were on LSD.
She died of brain cancer in a California prison in 2009 at age 61. Atkins had been denied a request to be freed on parole as the fatal illness took hold
Atkins’ death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972, after the California Supreme Court abolished capital punishment. Atkins will next be eligible for parole in 2012.
While living with the Manson ‘family’, she became pregnant and Manson helped deliver the baby boy, naming it Zezozoze Zadfrack. His whereabouts are unknown.
Patricia Krenwinkel, 69: Jailed
Krenwinkel took part in the murders of the LaBiancas and at the Tate residence and has become California’s longest-serving woman prisoner.
In June, commissioners again denied parole for Krenwinkel, after a six-month inquiry to look into allegations that she had been abused by Manson or someone else, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Krenwinkel has been denied parole 13 times for the slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people.
‘Family’ member: Patricia Krenwinkel took part in the murders of the LaBiancas and at the Tate residence. She has become California’s longest-serving woman prisoner
She was a 19-year-old secretary living with her older sister when she met the 33-year-old Manson at a party. She testified that she left everything behind three days later to follow him because she believed they had a budding romantic relationship.
She said in December that her feelings faded when Manson became physically and emotionally abusive, and trafficked her to other men for sex.
She said she left him twice only to be brought back, and that she was usually under the influence of drugs and rarely left alone.
‘I thought I loved him. I thought – it started with love, and then turned to fear,’ she once said.
Krenwinkel in December recounted how she chased down and repeatedly stabbed Abigail Folger, 26, heiress to a coffee fortune, at Tate’s home on Aug. 9, 1969, and helped Manson and other followers kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the following night.
Manson and his right-hand man, Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, told her to ‘do something witchy,’ she said, so she stabbed La Bianca in the stomach with a fork, then took a rag and wrote ‘Helter Skelter,’ ”Rise’ and ‘Death to Pigs’ on the walls with his blood.
Leslie Van Houten, 68: Jailed
Van Houten is serving a life sentence for taking part in the murders of the LaBiancas.
Last year, California Governor Jerry Brown overturned a parole board recommendation that she should be released, saying that Van Houten still posed an ‘unreasonable danger to society’.
In September, the parole board again granted her parole, which started a 150-day review process that will likely culminate in a final decision by Brown.
‘Family’ member: Leslie Van Houten is serving a life sentence for taking part in the murders of the LaBiancas. She was the youngest member of Manson’s cult
Van Houten was the youngest member of Manson’s cult and was just 19 years old when she took part in the murders of the LaBiancas.
Over two nights in August 1969, Manson’s ragtag band of followers killed seven people, including actress Sharon Tate.
Van Houten didn’t take part in the first night’s killings of Tate and four others, but she helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, on the second night.
She said that on the night of the attack, she held Rosemary La Bianca down with a pillowcase over her head as others stabbed her dozens of times.
Then, ordered by Manson disciple Tex Watson to ‘do something,’ she picked up a butcher knife and stabbed the woman more than a dozen times.
But since her incarceration more than 40 years ago, she has been a model prisoner.
During those years she has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in counseling, been certified as a counselor and headed numerous programs to help inmates.
Bruce Davis, 75: Jailed
Davis is serving a life sentence at the California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo for the 1969 slayings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald ‘Shorty’ Shea.
At the time of his arrest Davis had the Family ‘X’ carved into his forehead.
Bruce Davis (center) is serving a life sentence at the California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo for the 1969 slayings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald ‘Shorty’ Shea
Davis was not involved in the more notorious killings of Tate and six others by the Manson ‘family.’
He long maintained he was a bystander in the killings of the two men but in recent years he acknowledged his shared responsibility because he was present.
He testified at his 2014 hearing that he attacked Shea with a knife and held a gun on Hinman while Manson cut Hinman’s face with a sword.
‘I wanted to be Charlie’s favorite guy,’ he said then.
During the half-century since the slayings, parole panels have decided five times that Davis is no longer a public safety risk. Officials have cited his age and good behavior behind bars that includes earning a doctoral degree and ministering to other inmates.
But California Governors, who have the final say on release, have repeatedly denied him parole.
Robert (Bobby) Beausoleil, 70: Jailed
Beausoleil is serving a life sentence for the 1969 murder of Hinman
Beausoleil is serving a life sentence for the 1969 murder of Gary Hinman.
A California parole board last denied his bid on October 14, 2016. He will be eligible for a hearing again in 2019.
Beausoleil was sentenced to death for the 1969 slaying of musician Gary Hinman, but it was commuted to life in prison when the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972.
He was transferred in 1994 to the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem at his request, after he married a woman from Oregon while in prison and fathered four children.
Beausoleil was an aspiring musician and actor before he joined the Manson family.
He was in jail when other Manson followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four others, then murdered grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.
Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, 69: Paroled
Fromme was a member of the Manson Family and attended Manson’s trial.
In 1975, she was tackled by a Secret Service agent after she aimed a pistol at then President Gerald Ford.
Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme was a member of the Manson Family and attended Manson’s trial. In 1975, she was tackled by a Secret Service agent after she aimed a pistol at then President Gerald Ford
Convicted of attempted assassination, she was sentenced to life in prison.
She was paroled in 2009 and moved to Marcy in New York state, according to the New York Post.