LOS ANGELES, Apr. 29 – Charles Manson and his followers want Charles D. (Tex) Watson to return to California and stand trial with other members of Manson’s hippie family for the Tate-LaBianca slayings, it was revealed Tuesday.

In a letter to Watson, who is fighting extradition from Texas, Leslie Van Houten appealed to Watson “to be with all of us throughout this trial.”

In her-letter, the I9-year-old Miss Van Houten, charged only with the LaBianca slayings, wrote of togetherness, love and unity.

“In spite of what anyone may tell you, the family still is. No matter how many miles, institutions, bars and confusion may try to separate us, we become closer. One cannot be divided,” she said.

“You know the strength of unity. Myself, as well as the others, would like very much for you to be with all of us throughout this trial.”

She assured Watson that she has spoken to members of the family, both in and out of jail, including Manson, and all agree they want him back with them in California.

“Everything that was still is,” she wrote. “Know and feel that the love the family shares is inside. No one can take this feeling from us. It only grows stronger.”

She said members of the family still are “with each other” as much as they were when they were living on the desert near Death Valley — “if not as much, even more.”

Miss Van Houten wrote that “the love and togetherness we all share is the real love and togetherness” and she closed by telling Watson “I truly do hope to see your shining face here soon.”

She signed it both Leslie Van Houten and “Morning Flower.”

She attached a 14-line poem, in which she also wrote of love and togetherness, to the letter.

Watson, 24, is accused in both the Tate and LaBianca cases along with Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle and Linda Kasabian.

Miss Kasabian is expected to be a prosecution witness at the trial, now scheduled for June 15.

Manson and Miss Atkins, along with Bruce Davis, also are charged with killing musician Gary Hinman. Robert K. Beausoleil, another member of Manson’s hippie family, already has been convicted in the Hinman slaying and sentenced to death.

The contents of Miss Van Houten’s letter, written Monday and mailed Tuesday, were released by her attorney, Ira Reiner.

Reiner said his client wrote Watson after he spoke to Watson’s Texas attorney, Bill Boyd, on Monday.

Boyd told him, Reiner explained, that Miss Van Houten could write to Watson and could speak to him by telephone if Watson would consent to receive such a call.

Boyd said last week in Texas that he believes it would be in Watson’s best interest to be tried separately from the others for the Tate-LaBianca slayings. He said he will continue to oppose efforts to extradite his client.

Reiner said Tuesday that he is convinced from his telephone conversation with Boyd that the Texas attorney believes he is acting in the best interest of Watson.

By RON EINSTOSS