The infamous killer, who orchestrated the deaths of nine people including actress Sharon Tate, died of natural causes Sunday evening at a hospital.
Charles Manson, the wild-eyed cult leader who orchestrated a string of gruesome killings in Southern California by his «family» of young followers, shattering the peace-and-love ethos of the late 1960s, died on Sunday, prison officials said. He was 83.
Manson died of natural causes Sunday evening at a Kern County hospital, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement. It gave no further details of the circumstances surrounding his death.
He had been serving a life sentence at the nearby Corcoran State Prison for ordering the murders of nine people, including actress Sharon Tate.
Long after Manson had largely faded from headlines, he loomed large as a symbol of the terror he unleashed in the summer of 1969.
«The very name Manson has become a metaphor for evil,» the late Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Manson, told the Los Angeles Times in 1994.
A recent photograph showed the gray-bearded killer’s face still bearing the scar of a swastika he carved into his forehead decades earlier.
Manson became one of the 20th century’s most notorious criminals when he directed his mostly young, female followers to murder seven people in what prosecutors said was part of a plan to incite a race war.
GRAFFITI WITH VICTIMS’ BLOOD
Tate, aged 26 and eight months pregnant, was stabbed 16 times in the early morning hours of Aug. 9,1969, by members of Manson’s cult at the rented hillside house she shared with her husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski, in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles.
Four friends of the celebrity couple, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger and hairstylist Jay Sebring, were also stabbed or shot to death that night by Manson followers, who scrawled the word «Pig» in blood on the home’s front door before leaving. Polanski was away in Europe at the time.
The following night, members of Manson’s group stabbed grocery owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary to death, using their blood to write, «Death to Pigs» and «Healter Skelter» — a misspelled reference to the Beatles song «Helter Skelter» — on the walls and refrigerator door.
Although Manson did not personally kill any of the seven victims, he was found guilty of ordering their murders.
He was later convicted of ordering the murders of music teacher Gary Hinman, stabbed to death in July 1969, and stuntman Donald «Shorty» Shea, stabbed and bludgeoned that August.
Manson was sentenced to death for the Tate-LaBianca murders, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court abolished capital punishment in the state in 1972.
Born Charles Milles Maddox on Nov. 12,1934, in Cincinnati to a 16-year-old girl, Manson spent much of his youth shuttled between relatives and juvenile detention halls. By age 13, he had been convicted of armed robbery.
Newly paroled from prison in 1967, he began attracting members of his «family» in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, which had become a haven for the hippie youth culture.
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Charles Manson in recent years
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Charles Manson in recent years
Charles Manson, the cult leader who sent followers known as the «Manson Family» out to commit gruesome murders, currently being held at California State Prison, Corcoran, California, U. S. is seen in this August 2017 photo released on November 16,2017. Courtesy California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS — THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.
File Photo: Convicted mass murderer Charles Manson is shown in this handout picture from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation dated June 16,2011 and released to Reuters April 8,2012. REUTERS/CDCR/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS — THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
CORCORAN STATE PRISON — MARCH 18: In this handout photo from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Charles Manson, 74, poses for a photo on March 18,2009 at Corcoran State Prison, California. Manson is serving a life sentence for conspiring to murder seven people during the ‘Manson family’ killings in 1969. The picture was taken as a regular update of the prison’s files. (Photo by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images)
Charles Manson reads a statement at his parole hearing in San Quentin. He was turned down for parole for the 6th time.
The Corcoran State Prison compound is seen in central California, where the 12th parole hearing for convicted mass murderer Charles Manson will take place, April 11,2012. Aging mass murderer Manson, one of America’s most notorious convicts, was scheduled for his latest parole review on Wednesday, where he has been serving a life prison term since the 1970s. Manson, 77, has been denied release on parole 11 times before, most recently in 2007. REUTERS/Gus Ruelas (UNITED STATES — Tags: CRIME LAW)
A car enters the Corcoran State Prison compound in central California, where the 12th parole hearing for convicted mass murderer Charles Manson will take place, April 11,2012. Aging mass murderer Manson, one of America’s most notorious convicts, was scheduled for his latest parole review on Wednesday, where he has been serving a life prison term since the 1970s. Manson, 77, has been denied release on parole 11 times before, most recently in 2007. REUTERS/Gus Ruelas (UNITED STATES — Tags: CRIME LAW)
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The group moved with his followers to the Los Angeles area, eventually settling at Spahn Ranch, site of an outdoor movie location used for Western films and TV shows. Communal sex and drug use were a way of life as Manson became a messiah to the runaways, outcasts and criminals drawn by his charisma, intimidation and twisted spiritualism.
One follower told authorities she had seen Manson bring a bird back to life by breathing on it. Another said he could see and hear everything she did and said.
Manson aspired to be a rock star, and through one of his followers befriended Dennis Wilson, drummer of the Beach Boys, who would go on base their 1969 song «Never Learn Not to Love» on a Manson composition.
Wilson introduced Manson to music producer Terry Melcher, who later snubbed him. Melcher, along with his then-girlfriend, actress Candice Bergen, had previously rented the Benedict Canyon house.
The brutality of the killings stunned the nation.
«There was a lot of fear,» Bugliosi, author of the chilling book about the murders, «Helter Skelter,» told the Times in 1994.
