‘I Wanted to Help These Kind of People’

Thomas F. Maniscalco says he became a lawyer because he identified with the counterculture.

Maniscalco, clean-shaven now and with his wavy hair cut short, said in a recent interview at the Orange County Jail: “I wanted to help these kind of people.”

Maniscalco, charged with a 1980 triple murder in Westminster, says he is the victim of some of the people he tried to help. He also claims that his attacks on the legal system have led prosecutors to dump the Westminster murders at his doorstep.

Here is what Maniscalco had to say about several aspects of the case against him:

- On the murders:

“It’s lunacy to believe that I would be involved in this bumbling, cowardly deed. This is not the work of people who knew Rabbit (Rizzone) well and had access to him. If I were going to commit a murder, do you think I would involve people like” Robert Robbins and Phil Warren?

- On life at his house:

“It was a commune. My wife was very young (17 then), and I was a workaholic, never home. I wanted people around the house her own age. I really didn’t know these people. I knew Phil (Warren), and I liked him. But I hardly ever saw the others. I look back now--I see I should have been more critical.”

- On allegations of counterfeit money and drugs at his house and the allegation that he planned a poisoning:

“I made it clear to anyone who stayed there: They had to be clean. I did not want to jeopardize my standing as a lawyer. I’m a man of simple means. If I’m this great Mafia leader, what did I do it for? Where’s my great wealth?”

- On the police:

“The police have been trying for many, many years to pin a homicide on me. I represent people who are unpopular.”

- On the Hessians motorcycle club:

“We formed the club because we were getting pulled over by the cops so many times, and they said it was because they thought we were Hell’s Angels. So we decided we needed our own identity.

“I retired from the Hessians before I even became a lawyer. I still have access to the members, but mostly I just represent them in court. It’s bull to think I am their leader.”

- On the man who is prosecuting him, Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas Jr., and the Superior Court judge who is to preside at his trial, Theodore E. Millard:

“Millard hates me. He’s hated me ever since he was in the D.A.’s office. I couldn’t possibly get a fair trial in his courtroom.

“I used to write papers about the effect that political action committees had on the judicial system, and I used Rackauckas as an example as one of the worst offenders. He was always leaving the D.A.’s office to fight (then-California Chief Justice) Rose Bird. He has wanted to nail me ever since.

“I’m told he was the one who decided to have me arrested.”

(Millard has said in court papers that he barely knows Maniscalco. Rackauckas laughs at Maniscalco’s allegations, but he adds that he is right about one thing--it was his decision to prosecute Maniscalco for murder.)