California corrections officials released a photograph taken today of aging convicted mass murderer Charles Manson that shows him with a receding hairline, a fading forehead Swastika carving and a thick, graying beard.
The photograph of the 74-year-old cult leader was taken at California State Prison, Corcoran, as part of a periodic update of inmate images, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
August marks the 40th anniversary of the killings for which Manson is serving a life sentence at Corcoran. He 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 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 that night: 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.
Manson has made 11 failed bids for parole since 1978. His next parole hearing is scheduled for 2012.
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