Official says Charles Manson alive; reports say hospitalized
BAKERSFIELD, CALIF. — A prison official would only confirm that 82-year-old mass murderer Charles Manson was alive Wednesday and gave no other information after news reports that he had been taken from his California prison cell to a hospital.
The cult leader was convicted of orchestrating the 1969 murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others.
B oth TMZ and the L os Angel e s Ti mes re p o r t e d Tuesday that Manson had b e e n h o s p i t a l i z e d . T MZ said he had been taken to a medical center in Bakersfield, about 60 miles south of Corcoran State Prison.
Two vans from the Cali- fornia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation were parked early Wednesday outside Bakersfield’s Mercy Hospital Downtown, where state prisoners have been treated before.
But CDCR spokeswoman Terry Thornton said only that Manson was alive and still assigned to the prison in Corcoran. She declined to say whether he was at the hospital in Bakersfield, citing safet y privac y laws that prohibit discussing an inmate’s medical situation.
Tate’s sister Debra Tate said Tuesday night that, as a Catholic, she makes “no ill wishes” for the people who killed her sister, and will reserve her feelings until hearing Manson has died.
“I would probably say a prayer for them and shed a tear and ask God to have mercy on their souls, but so far I haven’t allowed myself to feel anything because it’s unsubstantiated,” Tate said. “I’m not allowing myself to feel anything until I know that it’s true.”
Manson and three female fol l owers, Susan At ki ns, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, were convicted of murder and sentenced to death for killings at two gruesome scenes in the summer of 1969. Another defendant, Charles “Tex” Watson, was convicted later.