I came across this on the web tonight:
http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /606200578
LA Judge Charles Older, presided over Manson trial, dies at 88
The Associated Press
Charles Herman Older, the Los Angeles Superior Court judge who presided over the murder trial of Charles Manson and his followers, has died. He was 88.
Older died Saturday of complications from a fall, said his longtime friend and former law partner, Edward Cazier.
"He was a Renaissance man," Cazier said. "He was, in addition to his wartime and judicial exploits, an accomplished watercolorist and a very good golfer."
Older served as a pilot with the Flying Tigers during World War II, and his family said he shot down more than 18 Japanese planes, the third most of any Flying Tiger.
He had been on the bench only a few years when he was handed the Manson case and its circus-like atmosphere. Manson and three of his LSD-dropping followers - Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten - were tried for the 1969 cult killings of actress Sharon Tate, Leno and Rosemary La Bianca and four others.
The defendants showed up in court with shaved heads and Xs on their foreheads and sometimes chanted nonsensically. Manson one day tried to attack Older.
"He presided over the trial in a very firm, dignified way, and he tried to be fair to both sides, with no preexisting bias," said Vincent Bugliosi, the Manson trial prosecutor.
After the trial, Older sent a Los Angeles Times reporter to jail for refusing to reveal the source for a story he wrote on the case. That move ultimately resulted in the strengthening of the state's shield law for reporters.
Older is survived by his wife, Catherine; and three daughters, Catherine Lapat, Nancy Yarbrough and Victoria Currie.