Charles Manson in hospital

© California State Prison, Corcoran, Calif. Inmate Charles Manson in 2009.

Reports: Charles Manson in hospital

Convicted serial killer Charles Manson has been taken from prison to a hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., according to various news reports.

Manson was taken from Corcoran State Prison in Corcoran, Calif., with an unknown ailment, the news website TMZ reported.

The hospital is about an hour away from the prison, TMZ says.

Manson, 82, is serving 9 life sentences for the 1969 Manson Family cult murders of actress Sharon Tate and others.


Charles Manson seriously ill, moved to hospital, sources say

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.


Reports: Charles Manson hospitalized

Charles Manson, the cult leader whose followers committed heinous murders that shocked the nation almost a half century ago, has been hospitalized, the Los Angeles Times and TMZ reported on Tuesday.

Lt. Stephen Babb, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told CNN the department cannot provide information on Manson, 82, due to privacy laws on health information.

Manson, who is incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison in central California, was taken to a hospital in Bakersfield, TMZ said.

One source told the Times that Manson is in serious condition.

Manson is serving nine life terms for ordering a wave of killings in the summer of 1969.

The murders
On June 16, 1970, Manson and three of his followers -- Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten -- went on trial in Los Angeles.

The first set of victims: Screen beauty Sharon Tate, who was eight months' pregnant; celebrity hairstylist named Jay Sebring; coffee fortune heiress Abigail Folger; writer Wojciech Frykowski; and Steven Parent, a friend of the family's caretaker. Each was slain on August 9, 1969, at the home of Tate and her husband, famed movie director Roman Polanski. Polanski was out of the country at the time.

The next evening, another set of murders took place. Supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, were killed at their home.

Although Manson ordered the killings, he didn't participate.

Over the course of two nights, the killers took the lives of seven people, inflicting 169 stab wounds and seven .22-caliber gunshot wounds. Both crime scenes revealed horrifying details. And a few details linked the two crime scenes.
The word pig was written in victim blood on the walls of one home and the front door of another. There was also another phrase apparently scrawled in blood: Helter Skelter. The reason for the disturbing writings, the prosecutor argued, was because Manson wanted to start a race war and had hoped the Black Panthers would be blamed for the killings.

All of those details came tumbling out in the trial that both mesmerized and horrified the nation. During the trial, Manson and his followers created a circus-like atmosphere in the court with singing, giggling, angry outbursts and even carving X's in their foreheads.

The charges came after a major break in the case when Atkins, who was already in jail on another charge, bragged to a fellow inmate about the Tate murders. She said they did it "because we wanted to do a crime that would shock the world. ..."

Manson was originally sentenced to death but the death penalty was briefly abolished in the state and his concurrent sentences were commuted to life in prison.

Manson has been denied parole 12 times. His next parole hearing is set for 2027.

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