Posted on 04/24/2002 7:12:15 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Charles Manson, one of America's most notorious mass murderers, was denied parole on Wednesday for the 10th time at a hearing before a prison board at Corcoran State Prison in California where he has been jailed for masterminding a bloody 1969 rampage, prison officials said.
His next chance for parole is in the year 2007, said Lt. Johnny Castro, a spokesman at the Corcoran State Prison where Manson is being held about 150 miles (240 km) north of Los Angeles.
Castro said Manson, 67, who is currently being held in solitary confinement to keep him away from the general prison population, was refused parole because he has had 17 "serious" infractions on his record since his last parole hearing five years ago, including "possession of a (blunt object) weapon and threatening to hurt or kill peace officers."
Manson was also charged, in 1997, of arson for trying to set his mattress on fire, Castro said.
Prior to the hearing, which Manson refused to attend, Los Angeles Assistant District Attorney Stephen Kay said Manson has been a "terrible prisoner" in recent years, and that his record shows multiple incidents in which he hit, spit at, or threw coffee on prison guards and other employees.
"He's really not much different than he was in 1969 or 1970," Kay said.
Manson was originally sentenced to die in the gas chamber for masterminding the 1969 killings of Hollywood actress Sharon Tate -- the pregnant wife of film director Roman Polanski -- and six other people.
The head of the so-called "Manson family" was convicted of ordering his followers to carry out the murders during a two-day rampage in the Los Angeles area. Manson hoped the slayings would ignite a race war.
His sentence, and those of other Death Row inmates, was later reduced to life in prison when the state Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional. California later restored capital punishment.
In 1997 Manson was denied parole for the ninth time. Prison officials said that for years he has been in and out of solitary confinement, commonly referred to by inmates as "the hole."
On Wednesday, Castro said, Manson steadfastly refused guards' persistent requests for him to attend his hearing saying he did not want to wear the required handcuffs. "He refused to be handcuffed and stated that if he could not go with his hands free that he would not attend," Castro said.
"They asked him to attend up until the last minute (and) he refused."
I cant stop laughing
What else should we expect. The jury that sentenced him to death didn't think that there was any possiblity that he could be reformed. Thanks to the Warren court, his death sentence was commuted to life.
He deserves to rot in jail for that alone.
It apparantly wasn't loving him back.
Poor Charles, so misunderstood./sarcam.
This quote always cracked me up,he must miss the 'good ole' days.
Mudbone (Richard Pryor's character) on Manson's parole chances.
Lanette (Squeeky) Frome is back in prison after a failed attempt on President Ford's life on the order of Charles Manson.
The guy's name is Tex Watson, who, BTW, was allowed to breed in prison; he sired three kids (I think it was three, perhaps only two), and last I heard, the mom lives nearby the prison on welfare. Nice, huh?
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The ironic thing is, Manson had nothing to do with it and is innocent. I heard One of the FBI authorities on the case hint Tex Watson was the head of the family.
My first thought was, "No Way!". So I decided to check . . .
Lo and behold, there is not only an album, but a fairly comprehensive discography! And of course, the ubiquitous Web Site . . .
It says we have the capacity for forgiveness, and we have the wisdom and the foresight to acknowledge that there can be extenuating circumstances. Manson, appropriately, was NOT found to be worthy of (Judicial) forgiveness (I can't speak for the Almighty), and NOT found to be an 'exceptional circumstance'. Our Justice system is still has a pretty decent structure to it, despite all the abuse it has endured.
I did a search and couldn't find it. Has it been posted and yanked? Yes/ no? If so, why?
The take on the situation as I've come to understand is that Watson was in a power struggle with Manson over control of the "family", and orchestrated the killings as a way of breaking Manson's control, forever binding the woman to him (Watson) instead of Manson. I guess there wasn't enough political hay to be made under that scenario, so the prosecutors went after Manson.
And here's a bit of interesting (though not surprising) trivia: Manson receives more "fan" mail than anyone else incarcerated in the United States.
He motions for parole (as allowed) every few years. Than he shows up to the hearings (if he feels like it) and does his best madman bit knowing he'll never get out. He does this simply to make a mockery of the system.
Manson in close-up pictures looks very ferocious. In actuality he is a very tiny man witghing about 130 pounds who is frightened of any kind of physical confrontation. Geraldo did an eight-hou series of interviews with him about 15 years ago that were brilliant and diagnostic although Geraldo didn't understand what was happening. He'd bait Manson by calling him evil and whatever. Manson would then explode in angry speechs about what mankind has done to birds and the environment because he is incapable of expressing anger directly. The swaztica on his forehead isn't a labeling of himself, but is an encoded way of calling other people Nazis. It's as close as he can come to saying it.
Manson said his interest in the group was in sex with one of the hippie girls. They hung around him for no other place to go. When the group came back from the killings one of the girls said, guess what we did. Before she could explain he said, "You got me thrown in the jailhouse, that's what you did." I believe his story. It fits the pattern of his life.
At the time of the trial the public refused to believe a bunch of kids who could be their sons or daughters were capable of such things and began to look for an explanation. They wanted some sort of sinister controlling genius to blam the acts on. They chose Manson. Manson was the perfect fall guy because he looked crazy and sounded like an angry madman. He took the rap. The public got it's desired Rasputin. It damned near cost him his life.
Now he sits in the slammer, quite wrongly, and explodes into abstract outrage every time somebody mentions the Manson family and the Manson crimes. There's not a thing he can do about it. The angrier he acts, the more people use it as evidence of his guilt, and the cycle goes on.
At this point he'd need to be institutionalized in some form for the remainder of his life even if there were a retrial and he were found innocent because he has no capacity to function anywhere but in an institution under custodial care.
Where those kids capable of doing what they did on their own without Manson? Believe it. They didn't need Charlie Manson. He was just a chronic neer-do-well caught in the middle.
Charles ‘Tex' Watson denied bid for parole for 13th time October 11, 2001
IONE (AP) -- Charles "Tex" Watson, who was Charles Manson's chief lieutenant during the gruesome Tate-La Bianca murders, was turned down for parole for a 13th time Wednesday and told not to reapply for another four years.
Watson made a personal appeal to a two-member panel of the California Board of Prison Terms, saying he takes responsibility for his crimes and is now a different person who would never do such things again, according to Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Steven Kay, who attended the hearing.
"He said he is such a good Christian now and he is a changed man," Kay said.
The prosecutor said Debra Tate, sister of slain actress Sharon Tate, made a tearful, impassioned 45-minute plea for Watson's continued incarceration.
Kay said a correctional counselor at the Mule Creek State Prison presented a report saying Watson still poses an unpredictable threat to the community should he be released.
In denying Watson parole, the panel cited the callous, heinous nature of the 1969 crimes, which are among the nation's most notorious murders. Ms. Tate, who was eight months pregnant, was slain along with four others at her Beverly Hills home the night of Aug. 9, 1969. The next night, grocers Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were stabbed to death at their Los Feliz area home. The bodies were mutilated and scrawlings in the victims' blood were left at the scenes.
Watson was convicted in a separate trial after Manson and three women followers were found guilty of the seven murders. Their death sentences were commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court briefly outlawed the death penalty in 1974.
Parole boards have consistently denied release for Manson and the three women, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten.
During her Los Angeles trial, Atkins described Watson confronting the terrified victims at the Tate home and declaring, "I'm the devil and I'm here to do the devil's work."
. . . Copyright 2002 by M. Turner.
I tend to believe freepers over anonymous web pages. Are you sure he was released?
I also checked out Abounding Love Ministries website which has the first chapter of his book, Will You Die For Me? on line. It's actually quite revealing reading and doesn't leave me feeling real good about him walking around with regular people. I only hope he really has changed.
Here's more from Texas Monthly (sorry no link, it's cached on Google):
Charles "Tex" Watson
by Anne Dingus
While serving a life sentence for participating in the slaughter of seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, California inmate Charles "Tex" Watson has married, fathered four children, and founded a prison-cell ministry. Watson enjoyed repeated conjugal visits (now forbidden to the state's lifers) with his wife, Kristin, at California's Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, where the 55-year-old has so far served thirty years. Watson was Charles Manson's right-hand man. On August 9, 1969, with the help of three other Manson family members, he shot and stabbed Tate, a fellow Dallas native; her three houseguests; and a teenager who had stopped by. The next day Watson took part in two other brutal murders, those of grocery-store magnate Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary. As the criminal investigation intensified, Watson fled to McKinney, where he had relatives, and fought extradition (the Collin County sheriff was a cousin). But eventually he was returned to Los Angeles. After being briefly confined to a mental hospital, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in 1971 (California did away with the death penalty a year later). Soon he professed a newfound devotion to Christ; amazingly enough, his supporters include Rosemary LaBianca's daughter. In the past decade Watson and his wife have twice been investigated by the California attorney general, for committing Medi-Cal fraud to finance their children's births and for using funds from their nonprofit organization, Abounding Love Ministries, for personal use. The Christian group's Web site offers sermonettes about such topics as "the big four killers of this day and age"—identified as alcohol, sex, drugs, and suicide—and offers copies of a Manson-era memoir by Watson, who once told two of his chosen victims, "I am the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's business." Other articles by Anne Dingus Fess Parker [September
Translation please? : - )
At the time of the trial the public refused to believe a bunch of kids who could be their sons or daughters were capable of such things and began to look for an explanation. They wanted some sort of sinister controlling genius to blam the acts on. They chose Manson. Manson was the perfect fall guy because he looked crazy and sounded like an angry madman. He took the rap. The public got it's desired Rasputin. It damned near cost him his life
The fact of the matter is, that Charlie Manson never killed anybody, and everyone admits that.
There was a similar situation in Michigan a month ago. The murderer was set free, the person who "knew" about the murder but did not participate, a transexual, was the one they put in prison.
Why are they letting him breed?
Exactly! Charlie Manson was not even there! We dont even know if he knew about it until after it was done.
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