Charles Manson, the famous cult leader who commanded his followers to commit gruesome murders, has died at the age of 83.
He was taken to Bakersfield hospital in California earlier this month and died of natural causes on Sunday.
In 1969, he and his cult “The Manson Family” killed nine people including heavily pregnant actress Sharon Tate, wife of film director, producer and actor Roman Polanski. Four other people in Tate’s home were savagely stabbed to death while one of Manson’s younger followers, Susan Atkins, stabbed Tate to death and wrote “PIG” on the front door with her blood.
Others unfortunately subject to the cult’s actions were Donald Shea, a Hollywood stuntman and Gary Hinman who was an acquaintance of the group.
Although Manson was not at the scene of the killings, he was convicted of murder for instructing his followers in seven of the killings and was sentenced to death in 1971.
He spent over four decades in prison before his death sentence could be carried out as California outlawed capital punishment and his sentence was reduced to nine life sentences. He applied for parole 12 times but unsurprisingly turned down every time.