Los Angeles Herald Examiner Charles Manson and his followers, who were charged with the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others, "Herald Examiner" reporter William Farr reported in an article that Manson had planned to murder Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. Farr was summoned by judge Charles Older to divulge his sources for the article. Farr refused. But at that time Farr had left the "Herald Examiner" to work for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and later for the "Los Angeles Times". Farr cited the California reporters shield law that protected him from revealing his sources, but Older ruled that
Charles Manson Family members were also responsible for other assaults, thefts, crimes, and the attempted assassination of United States President Gerald Ford in Sacramento by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme. On March 6, 1970, (the day the court vacated Manson's status as his own attorney), "", an album of Manson music, was released. This included "Cease to Exist", a Manson composition the Beach Boys had recorded with modified lyrics and the title "Never Learn Not to Love". Over the next couple of months only about 300 of the album's 2,000 copies sold. Manson was admitted to state prison from Los Angeles County on April