A man who described himself as cult leader Charles Manson’s “right-hand man” has been refused parole in California, 47 years after he helped to kill actress Sharon Tate and six other people.
Charles Manson, who had previously carried out a series of burglaries, began the “Manson Family” in California in the late 1960s.
Prosecutors said he had ordered the murders to try to trigger a race war, which he called “Helter Skelter” – after the Beatles song of the same name.
Charles “Tex” Watson, 70, is serving life for the murder of the pregnant actress and four other people at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on 9 August, 1969.
The next day, he assisted in the killing of a grocer, Leno LaBianca, and his wife Rosemary.
Watson’s parole hearing, at Mule Creek State Prison near Sacramento, was his 17th. He can try again in five years.
Watson, who has apologised for the killings, wrote a book in prison called “Manson’s Right-Hand Man Speaks Out”.
In it, he says that after Manson offered utopia, he persuaded followers to enact his “destructive world view”.
Watson has said he converted to Christianity in 1975, founding Abounding Love Ministries five years later.
As well as gaining a college degree in jail, he apparently ministers to other inmates.
Following the decision, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement: “These were some of the most horrific crimes in California history, and we believe he continues to exhibit a lack of remorse and remains a public safety risk.”
Manson is being held in Corcoran State Prison in California. He was denied parole for the 12th time in 2012. Manson will not be reconsidered for parole for another 15 years (2027) at which time he would be 92 years old.
In 2012, Bruce Davis, who had been convicted of the murder of Shorty Shea and the attempted robbery by Manson Family members of a Hawthorne gun shop in 1971, was recommended for parole by the California Department of Corrections’ parole board at his 27th parole hearing. In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had reversed the board’s previous finding in favor of Davis, denying him parole for two more years. On March 1, 2013, and again on August 8, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown also denied parole for Davis.
In July 2016, former Manson follower Leslie Van Houten’s petition for parole was endorsed by the parole board and forwarded to California governor Jerry Brown who rejected it.
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