Mass murderer Charles Manson was taken from a Central Valley prison to a hospital for an undisclosed medical issue, two sources familiar with the situation said.
One of the sources said Manson was seriously ill but could not provide specific information.
Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation declined to comment, citing federal and state laws and saying inmates’ medical information is private.
« We do not disclose inmate movements for safety and security reasons, » said Terry Thornton, a department spokeswoman.
However, she said: « He is alive. »
Manson and other members of his so-called family were convicted of killing actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area during two August nights in 1969. Prosecutors said that Manson and his followers were trying to incite a race war that he believed was in the Beatles’ song « Helter Skelter. »
Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was killed at her hilltop home in Benedict Canyon on Aug. 9, 1969. Besides Tate, four others were stabbed and shot to death: Jay Sebring, 35; Voytek Frykowski, 32; Abigail Folger, 25, a coffee heiress; and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of Tate’s caretaker. The word « Pig » was written on the front door in blood. The next night, Manson rode along with his followers to the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, then left three members to kill the couple.
Manson, now 82, has had « hundreds » of rules violations, prison officials say, and has been in trouble for having a cellphone and a homemade weapon while incarcerated. Manson has been denied parole 12 times. His next parole hearing is scheduled for 2027, when he will be 92. He has been in prison since 1971 and is serving his time at Corcoran State Prison.
In 2014, Manson and Afton Elaine Burton, a 26-year-old Manson devotee, were granted a marriage license , but it expired before the two could marry.
Last week, state parole officials postponed a decision on setting free Patricia Krenwinkel, a Manson follower and convicted killer, after the woman’s attorney made new claims that she had been abused by Manson or another person.
Krenwinkel was sent to death row in 1971 after a Los Angeles jury convicted her in the Tate murders.
Several Bakersfield media outlets said a corrections department van was parked outside Bakersfield’s Mercy Hospital. The Bakersfield Californian reported Manson was admitted there Sunday under a “Joe Doe” name.
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