Aging Charles Manson captured in prison photo

California corrections officials released a photograph taken today of aging convicted mass murderer Charles Manson, replete with receding hairline, fading forehead Swastika carving and a thick, heavily graying beard.

The photograph of the 74-year-old cult leader was taken at Corcoran State Prison, where he is serving a life sentence and is part of periodic updates of inmate images by prison officials, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

This August marks the 40th anniversary of the Manson killings, which stunned the nation and effectively marked the end of the counter-culture, "flower power" era of the 1960s.

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 prophesied 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 including 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 so-called family members to the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, then left three of them to commit the murders. "Death to pigs" was written on a wall, and "Healter Skelter," which was misspelled, on the refrigerator door.

Manson was also convicted of the earlier murder of musician Gary Hinman in his Topanga Canyon home, and the slaying of former stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea at the Spahn movie ranch in Chatsworth, where Manson had his commune.

Manson initially was sentenced to death. A 1972 ruling by the California Supreme Court found the state's death penalty law at the time unconstitutional and his death sentence was changed in 1977 to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The septuagenarian has made 11 failed bids for parole since 1978, the last in 2007 when he was ordered to continue serving life sentences. Manson's next parole hearing is scheduled for 2012.

--Andrew Blankstein

Photos: Charles Manson in a 1968 booking photo, left, and a photo taken today at Corcoran State Prison. Credits: Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Comments

[sarah]

He needs to stay right where he is but Pat, Susan & Leslie should be let out of prison. They have done enough time. They have rehabilitated themselves. They have kept their noses clean. Even their counselors in prison have said that they should be let out & would be employable people. Charlie NEVER!!! He was the person behind the madness. Without him, I don't think that Pat, Susan or Leslie would have ever gotten in trouble. I think that Tex Watson should also stay where he is in prison. He is also evil.

[Fred Zimmerman]

It is ridiculous for the LAT to associate the end of a well-intentioned mass movement with the behavior of a sociopath who shared none of its aims. Sloppy thinking and writing.

[Bob]

//MANSON did say if he started killing people, there'd be none of us left...we're still here...and he never once took a life himself. //

Uh, "we're still here" because he's been in prison.

Also, he DID take part in the killing of Shorty Shea, and he DID tie up the LaBiancas. That's murder, period.

[Mike]

In respectful regards to your comment Mr Zimmerman, I believe it's not just LAT that saw the killings as the end of the hippie movement. I've heard this notion expressed in countless documentaries and retrospectives. Certainly there were other factors that brought the era to a close (the deaths of Joplin and Hendrix) but it was one of the pivotal moments in the history of the nation that made everyone really look at the counter culture in a highly suspicious and critical eye.

[dan winters]

i like when he told heroldo he could have his head sent to him in a box. right after heroldo asked him if he would kill again . he said he didnt have to leave prison to kill.

[Feeling That]

It is widely reported elsewhere that this photo was obtained by LATimes after registering a request to obtain any and all periodic updated photos of the murderer Charles Manson. Interesting that the reporter on this article omits that specific source and it must be the basic journalistic integrity that seems to be serving the LATimes so well lately - NOT!!
I also take issue with the caption box posting the comment by a blogger named MajorAdamHenry as it suggests a level of sympathy for this unfortunate creature. Most of the posts are clearly unsympathetic towards Manson, as is the majority of the law abiding population. To highlight a comment from an individual who appears to be self righteous in his claims of having resuscitated Manson is the ultimate in propaganda and shows the incompetence that exists at LACrimes serving only to promote personal agendas.
I would like to curse openly and loudly at MajorAdamHenry for his failure to recognize his ethical violations in treating Manson and determining that his personal observances within the confines of a prison system and the resignation of an ill man do NOT subvert the legally binding outcome of a jury of Manson's peers. Isn't medical information a private matter? Manson is a convicted felon first, plain and simple. If MajorAdamHenry wants to consider him a lovely past patient for a short stretch of time, so be it but don't try and push that feel good story on the rest of us. As a society, we are committed to upholding the decisions of the court based upon the evidence - not the short and very limited observations of a medical worker confined to a specific detail or ailment. Wild stories are just that, facts are a whole different ballgame with rules and obligations to be upheld.
Disgusting LATimes, promoting this photo to gain profits and hits. How many subscriptions does the Times sell to the prison systems? Maybe they realize just how far they've fallen with this photo.

[Clayton Thomas]

I am so tired of self righteous comments. I didn't kill anybody and i guess most of the people posting haven't either. I used to play in Manson's camp in California as a child and i am still alive! People talk about the wild sex that went on in the camp with discust yet are fascinated with roman history and even teach this in schools including all the murders and the orgies. But this did not happen in our backyard so it is ok! There was a post about the devil. SCARY! I would have to guess this was a christian who is ok with mass murder on a grand scale all accross the world because it was a religious cause. Does murder for any cause make it right? There was another post about Sharon Tate's son turning 40 and the MONSTER should not even get medical treatment in prison. Would we think the same way if our sons had somebody killed? Would we sit by their bed with hatred and watch them die slowly? I am sure we would because we always hate somebody that does not represent what society thinks is acceptable. And Brittany do you really think the world is going to end if he get's out? Is he going to kill more people than George Bush? Well maybe if we elect him. But that is ok because it will not be in our back yard! WAKE UP PEOPLE. The things he had done were terrible by any standards but where does our foregiveness as we are tought in church come in to play? I guess we really don't live that except on sunday in our suits then go home and drink a beer and watch nascar for the wrecks and fights. Maybe somebody will get killed in a wreck, Gives us something to talk about on Monday at work doesn't it? I really wonder if all the people saying other people should die have the nerve to put a needle in somebodys arm? Maybe by peoples standards Manson deserves it and maybe he doesn't. I don't know. I do know when my time is up and i talk to the "higher power" i can honestly say i never killed anybody but then again it would be ok if i ask for forgiveness!

[tim moses]

all you liars, theives,fornicators,adulterers,etc.....will burn in hell before manson does.he who is without sin cast the first stone.....judge that.

[TheOtherRick]

Uncle Chuckie's a nutbar and he's gonna die in that cell.

[Tom]

As I recall the guy was wasted on Heroin and booze and his failure to be included in the profitable music business (which he had no talent in ) caused the guy to kill a few Hollywood notables.

sad creature he was

LAT was right to suggest a connection between the end of the "counter culture" and C.M.

Counter cultures need sobriety, a clear path which respects life and relegates personal ambitions, delusion and the will to be against the establishment (as a platform) to the trash can ....where they belong.

t

[BRETT SHEPHERD]

THE SAD PART ABOUT ALL OF THIS IS THAT MORE FOLKS WILL FIND EXCUSES AND WOULD EVEN WELCOME THIS MF BACK TO SOCIETY AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT HE AND HIS FREAKS DID. YET FOLKS CONTINUE TO PERSECUTE OJ SIMPSON FOR SOMETHING YOU "THINK" HE DID...

BRETT SHEPHERD
ATLANTA, GA

[twogross]

still crazy after all these years

[CCG]

Couldn't we link this photo to a loop of the Paul Simon song "Still Crazy After All These Years"? Just wondering...

[rose]

MajorAdamHenry

You could not be more right. I too am with you on this. I have been down this road with Charlie from the beginning. He did NOT kill anyone. He did NOT order anyone killed. I wish people would not spend their beliefs on media that is not even 15% truth. Those of us that know this case, know Charlie, Span, Death Valley and The Haite and the rest of all that hoopla know what went on back in the day. Too many drugs, too much partying.

My Lord look at Timothy Learys acid and Oswald. OK I don't know what to say. I am on Charlies side. He did NOT ask to be chased around by a buch of incompetent kids. He just got out of prison. I don't agree with a lot of people here and that is because I was around back in the day. It is NOT what Bugs said. It is NOT Helter Skelter. Bugs even admitted that he could not get a conviction without this crazy HS theory. It was a buch of crazy freaks on drugs and alcohol that got burned over and over and over.

A lot of the people that "burned them for money and drugs WERE the victims! This does not condone murder but it is the TRUTH! Manson has spent 40 years of his life in prison to make the political arena happy. Charlie does look good considering what he has been though. He is very easy to talk to and carry on an intelligent conversaton with. Those that fall for the crazy act are not very bright.

[Auntie Hosebag]

Lots of misinformation here. People, y'all need to read up on this if you're going to talk about it. Otherwise, you just look foolish.

Try "The Family", by Ed Sanders. Not sensationalistic, or self-aggrandizing, like some perhaps more famous entries, but I do personally know people who lived at the Spahn ranch that summer and they agree with me on this. And yes, Charlie was an effin' FREAK! "Kind of guy you made sure was never behind you.", is how one of those people put it to me.

He's a fascinating laboratory specimen, no doubt. That's pretty much it. As for his living victims, the actual murderers themselves? They were dumbass, empty-headed teenagers from upper-middle class homes who just happened to choose this particular scene as their rebellion phase. None of them was mature or hardened enough to recognize Charlie as the sociopath he was. He was genuinely charismatic to these girls, and if you've ever watched footage of him in interviews you can see flashes of that--if you pretend to be young and stupid and quite high.

That the media still makes such a big deal about him is a comment on this culture more than anything else. Charlie himself ain't nuthin'. Get over it.

He's where he's going to be and that's the only development. Ever.

[Bob]

//He did NOT kill anyone.//

He DID kill Shorty Shea.

//He did NOT order anyone killed.//

Then why did he personally tie-up the Labiancas? For fun?

[jayne]

when helter skelter went down in 1969 i was 15 years old. never in my life untill then did i know true terror. the entire country was petrified. never had a crime such as that been commited, and probably not since then. that event changed my entire life. i was an innocent flower child who suddenly saw the dark side for the first time. do you know what scares me now? all you stupid twits who defend a man who would slice YOUR throats RIGHT NOW...just for fun. please get some help....you people have personality disorders not even discovered yet. you are the scum they scrape off scum to get to the scum under the scum

[Murph]

I'M not taking up for the guy,and truthfully I think he is where he should be.The actual killers though have blamed everything since on him to try to make the crimes they committed look like they were brainwashed follower's,when they actually wanted to commit these crimes to avenge Bobby Beausoliel probably as much as Manson himself. I read one account where it was actually one of the girls idea originally and Charlie was actually skeptical that it would work. He definately had knowledge though and even participated in the Labianca's deal before leaving the house and the dirty work up to his friends.He was also very aware of what had happened the night before. As mortal humans we have to keep all of them where they are and hopefully the higher power will forgive them and make everything alright.We do not have the power to do that obviously so we must do what we are doing. With the killers paying the debt they are having to pay with a life of incarceration,we may actually be doing them a favor,with that being a factor in God's judgement for them.

[Viesta]

He is a stone cold killer! He deserved to be on death row for what he did. He has been playing the political game since he was put in prison for the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area during two August nights in 1969. He had a cult following and it was his game then. Now look at him, pathetic!!!! I only wish we had back the money it took to house this waste of a human being!

[crystal manson]

First of all you all or just a bunch of fantics that only have read books from people that do alot of guessing...I KNOW HE DID ORDER THE HITS AND WAS PROUD OF IT...HE ONLY CHANGE THE STORY WHEN LIKE ALL CONVICTS GOT CAUGHT HE DESERVES TO DIE THERE

[jfb]

you are all programed one way or another. he was and is brilliant! just had his own focus which he carried out. keep blaming him and never look at your perfect life. we all got our skeletons but like to use someone else as our dealing of our own guilt. death is a trip! obviously everyone has there own ideas. so enjoy them cause it all ends and then what does it mean?

[Daveee]

All those that say Manson should be put to death are playing the same role as Manson himself essentially. Surely you're not killing someone, but you're insisting upon their death. And considering he didn't kill anyone how can you say he deserves to die? Because he managed to have influence over some stupid drugged out teens? Sure it's wrong, but how does that make him eligible for the death penalty, and how can WE be responsible for his life? Answer = we can't be. So shut up.

[WakeupSHEEP]

Our very own Government is guilty of crimes, way more worse than anything Manson did, And have gotten away it!!! Pretty sad everyone makes such a big deal out of some Hollywood yahoo's when there are much bigger things that need attention. It is also amazing how many of you are brainwashed by the ones in control and do not even realize it, keep on denying everything, and blaming everyone else.

[Daniel Calvo]

Our world and the people in it are more important instead the government just takes the money and spend it on more things like weapons,fuel,nuclear bombs,and war machines that well destroy the world.Instead of changing the world into something new a new world where we can make peace to our brothers and sisters no more war,no more riots,no more of this trash around the world, and no more killing.All we want in life is to have a regular life with family and friends is that to much to ask.

[steven foster]

clayton he can get forgiveness in his next lifetime. i cant believe you think this guy should be out on the streets.are you that big of an idiot? im buddhist and preach forgiveness is divine to the bitter end. humans can be bad but souls are not. he is a bad human and should be killed so he can learn from his mistakes. you need to really think about him walking down the street free. with your comments about bush he does not care what anyone thinks of him he did what he thought was right and had your safety as his best interest so i suggest u not critique something u so narrow mindingly percieve...oj simoson is an idiot too. people bring out the racist card when the evidence against him was beyond overwhelming. its a joke. the world we live in is messed up. i suggest we people look at things from every perspective and choose which we think is logical, not what we want to think just because..