Once characterized by prosecutors as a top lieutenant to Charles Manson, former Roane County resident Bruce Davis continues to serve a life sentence.
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Once characterized by prosecutors as a top lieutenant to Charles Manson, former Roane County resident Bruce Davis continues to serve a life sentence in a California prison for his part in two killings orchestrated by the murderous cult leader.
Davis, a 1961 graduate of Roane County High School and a University of Tennessee dropout, has been granted parole five times since 2010 only to see each decision reversed by a California governor.
Mostly recently, Gov. Jerry Brown overturned a decision by parole board members to release Davis, now 75, in June 2017.
Davis was not involved in the notorious Sharon Tate-LaBianca killings, but was convicted with Manson and fellow Family member Steve „Clem“ Grogan in the 1969 murders of Gary Hinman and Donald „Shortly“ Shea.
Davis, who was sentenced in 1972, long-maintained he was a bystander in the killings. In recent years, however, he has acknowledged his role as „a willing and equal participant.“
„My role was as destructive as any of the others,“ he said in a 2010 written statement to the parole board. „That admission gave me a different, more personal sense of responsibility for the murders, and brought me to terms with the personal influence for evil I had been, and the senseless murders I committed.“
Grogan was released many years ago after he agreed to lead authorities to where the bodies were buried on a remote movie ranch in the San Fernando Valley, which the family turned into a compound.
Manson died of natural causes Sunday at age 83.
Davis became a born-again Christian in prison and ministered to other inmates, married a woman he met through the prison ministry, and has a grown daughter. The couple now is divorced. Davis also earned a doctorate in philosophy of religion.
He is tentatively set for his next parole suitability hearing in August 2018.
