No parole for Manson accomplice
SACRAMENTO, CALIF.— California parole officials recommended Thursday that Charles (Tex) Watson, the self-described right-hand man of murderous cult leader Charles Manson, should remain in prison 47 years after he helped plan and carry out the slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people.
Watson’s 17th parole hearing was held at Mule Creek State Prison, near Sacramento. He can seek parole again in five years.
Watson, 70, is serving a life sentence for the murders of Tate and four others at her Beverly Hills, Calif., home on Aug. 9, 1969. The next night, he helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.
“These were some of the most horrific crimes in California history, and we believe he continues to exhibit a lack of remorse and remains a public safety risk,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement after the decision.
Watson was initially sentenced to death in the stabbing and shooting rampage, but the sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court ruled in1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional. He currently is in Mule Creek State Prison, near Sacramento.
Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate — the last surviving member of her immediate family — urged the panel of parole commissioners to reject freedom for the man she called “the most active, the most prolific killer in the Manson family.”
“He’s a sociopath and sociopaths are incapable having insight or empathy for anything. It’s all about him. He didn’t have it then and he doesn’t have it now,” she said after the hearing. She said Watson still blames the murders on his drug use and lack of a clear goal in life rather than accepting full responsibility.
In July, Gov. Jerry Brown reversed a Board of Parole Hearings recommendation that the state release Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, 67, who is serving a life sentence for the La Bianca killings.
In January, he blocked the release of Bruce Davis, 74, another Manson devotee who was convicted in the killings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea.
In prison, Watson wrote a book, Manson’s Right-Hand Man Speaks Out, saying the charismatic Manson offered utopia, then persuaded his followers to act out his “destructive worldview.” Watson has apologized for the killings.
Watson says he converted to Christianity in 1975, founded Abounding Love Ministries in 1980 and ministers to other inmates. He also obtained his college degree.
Watson wrote that he was raised in Texas and headed to California at 21 against his parents’ wishes in 1967 in search of “drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll.”