Bee history: Manson family pair sentenced to prison in ’76
The Sacramento Bee is celebrating its 160th anniversary this year. This story is part of our ongoing coverage.
April 13, 1976: Sandra Good and Susan Murphy, begging to join imprisoned Charles Manson family members, were given their wish today by federal Judge Thomas J. MacBride.
MacBride imposed a 15-year sentence on Miss Good, who was convicted last month of conspiring to send threatening letters through the mails and making telephone threats.
The judge imposed a five-year sentence on Miss Murphy, who also was convicted of the mail conspiracy.
“Both of you are dangerous,” MacBride said. “I’ve searched in vain to mitigate your sentence.”
He said both “represent a serious danger to society. I look upon your conduct as acts of terrorism hardly less egregious than the acts of political hijackers and kidnappers.
Miss Good (at left in the above photo), dressed in a full length royal blue robe, said: “I cannot bear to be outside your society … I want to be inside with my family.”
Throughout her remarks Miss Good made references to cult leader Manson, convicted mastermind of the Tate-LaBianca murders. Miss Murphy said simply, “I want the maximum sentence and I want to go with the Manson family.”
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, another Manson family member, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator but was not charged. She was convicted earlier of the attempted assassination of President Ford. MacBride was also the judge in that case and sentenced her to life in prison.
Hints with ‘Katherine Kitchen’ lasts for decades
March 9, 1934: “Katherine Kitchen” debuts with a household hints column.
Written by a succession of staffers, the column remained a fixture in all three Bees – Sacramento, Modesto and Fresno – for decades.
Here’s the top of the first column:
Dear Miss Kitchen: Please print some cake filling recipes:
Reply – Following is several filling recipes, which I hope you will like.
Prune Filling: 1 cup cooked prunes, 1/3 cup orange marmalade, 1/3 cup chopped walnut meats, 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Stone prunes, then measure, chop fine and add the rest, mix well and spread between the layers of the cake.
Whipped Fruit Filling: 1 1/2 cups grated apple, peach or mashed berries, 1 1/2 cups sugar, whites of 2 eggs, grated rind of 1 lemon. Mix all together and beat with wire egg beater until very stiff. Use between top of layer cakes.
1925 inauguration photos printed the same day in Bee
1925: On the afternoon of March 4, 1925, Bee readers picked up their papers to see three photographs of Calvin Coolidge being sworn in as president. What made that unusual was the photos had been taken that morning in Washington, D.C.
As The Bee explained it:
These are the facts, simple in the recitation, but tremendous in the obliteration of time and space: These pictures were taken at noon today in Washington D.C., more than 3,000 miles from Sacramento. They were sent over the transcontinental telephone wire from Washington to San Francisco, a wire distance of 3,600 miles. The transmission was accomplished by recently invented machines. The photograph, as received in San Francisco, is practically as perfect in detail as the original.
In San Francisco, the photograph was rushed from the telephone transmission machine to the engraver, where cuts were made. The moment these were completed a representative of The Sacramento Bee and The Fresno Bee rushed to the Marina with them.
There two aviators received the cuts. Two planes rose into the air. One winged its way south to Fresno. The other … flew to Sacramento, landing at Del Paso Field. There Sacramento Bee representatives received the cuts and dashed into the city in an automobile.
The rest of the story is before the reader, a mere matter of everyday printing.
Simple as the first-grade reader – wonderful as a tale by Jules Verne.
Cartoon Corner
Newton Pratt cartoon from 1966: Gubernatorial candidate Ronald Reagan was called on his contradictory campaign statements
Sacramento Bee file
This story was originally published March 11, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Bee history: Manson family pair sentenced to prison in ’76."