Charles Manson again denied parole in California
Charles Manson in a 1989 file photo. California denied parole on Wednesday to Manson, one of America's most notorious mass murderers, in his 11th bid for release.
Credit: Reuters/Calvin Hom
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California denied parole on Wednesday to Charles Manson, one of America's most notorious mass murderers, in his 11th bid for release.
California's Board of Parole Hearings said in a statement that Manson, 72, "continues to pose an unreasonable danger to others and may still bring harm to anyone he would come in contact with."
Manson and his cult "family" were convicted and sentenced to death for the 1969 murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, pregnant actress Sharon Tate (film director Roman Polanski's wife) and four others.
Manson believed the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" warned of an impending war between blacks and whites and hoped to spark such a conflict by killing whites around Los Angeles in such a manner that blacks would be blamed.
Manson is in California State Prison, Corcoran, 175 miles northwest of Los Angeles, which is home to some of the nation's most infamous killers.
He is kept in a protective housing unit that allows interactions with only 17 other inmates, including Sen. Robert Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, prison officials say.
Manson was originally set to be executed in the gas chamber. But in 1977, his sentence was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole along with other death row inmates when the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional.
The state later resumed executions, but Manson remains eligible for a parole hearing at least once every five years. Manson, who did not appear before the panel on Wednesday, will not be eligible for another hearing until 2012.
