LOS ANGELES, Jan. 23 – Charles Manson has asked the California Court of Appeal to overturn a lower court order denying him use of a tape recorder in preparing his own defense in the Sharon Tate multiple killings, attorney Daye Shinn said Thursday.

Manson asks that Superior Court Judge George M. Dell’s decision on Jan. 14 be overruled.

Manson, 35, charged in the slayings of Miss Tate and six others, is conducting his defense from the Central County Jail law library.

“Manson can’t type and writes very slowly and illegibly,” Shinn added.

Meanwhile, the children of Rosemary LaBianca, one of the murder victims, filed a $2 million wrongful death suit Thursday against the six persons charged with the crime.