Manson’s body may not be on ice for much longer
UNITED STATES: The body of murder mastermind Charles Manson may soon be put to rest, after a California court commissioner said yesterday that she will rule soon in the dispute over who can collect his remains.
The tussle has been evolving since Manson, who orchestrated the 1969 killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and eight others, died last November in a Bakersfield hospital, aged 83.
A man who claims he was fathered by Manson and another who says he is a grandson are locked in a three-way dispute with a penpal who was friends with Manson and has filed what he says is the cult leader’s will.
A hearing yesterday was anticipated to be mainly to schedule future hearings, but Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Alisa Knight said she did not want to continue the matter, and that she would rule after reviewing court filings, said Deputy Kern County Counsel Bryan Walters.
Knight said she ‘‘thinks it’s unreasonable to have a body in storage while people fight over it’', Walters said. ‘‘We want to get this resolved as soon as possible.’’
Another purported son, Matthew Lentz, who claims he was fathered by Manson during a Wisconsin orgy, appeared in court yesterday for the first time. Lentz hasn’t filed court papers but is named as the sole beneficiary in a will filed with the coroner’s office by a memorabilia collector who befriended Manson while he was in prison. – AP