Official: Manson Alive Amid Reports He Was Hospitalized

CORCORAN (CBSLA.com/AP) — A Central California prison official says cult killer Charles Manson is alive following reports that he was hospitalized Tuesday.

Sources told the Los Angeles Times that Manson was seriously ill and was taken to a hospital in Bakersfield, about 60 miles south of the Corcoran State Prison where he has been incarcerated. Late Tuesday night, three vans from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation were parked outside Bakersfield's Mercy Hospital Downtown, where prisoners have been treated before.

But officials from the agency declined to say whether Manson had been hospitalized.

CDCR spokeswoman Terry Thornton said Manson, 82, is still assigned to the prison in Corcoran, but she declined to say whether he's there, citing safety and security protocols.

Privacy laws prohibit her from discussing an inmate's medical situation, Thornton said.

Manson was convicted of orchestrating the 1969 murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others.

Tate's sister Debra Tate told The Associated Press on Tuesday night that, as a Catholic, she makes "no ill wishes" for the people who killed her sister, and will reserve her feelings until hearing Manson has died.

"I would probably say a prayer for them and shed a tear and ask God to have mercy on their souls, but so far I haven't allowed myself to feel anything because it's unsubstantiated," Tate said. "I'm not allowing myself to feel anything until I know that it's true."

Sarah Ardalani of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in an email that the agency had no information on Manson. The office prosecuted Manson and has objected to his release. He was most recently up for parole in 2012 — his 12th bid for freedom.

The California State Prison, Corcoran, has medical facilities to treat inmates requiring urgent or emergency care as well as in-patient hospital stays.

"In general, inmates are sent to outside hospitals if they need surgical services, emergency care, or diagnostic services of an acute nature," said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver who controls prison medical care. "These services are not provided in state prison facilities."

In November, the state inspector general, which monitors the corrections system, characterized care at Corcoran as "inadequate."

Manson was convicted of leading a cult in which disaffected young people living in a commune followed his orders and were ultimately turned into killers.

Manson and three female followers, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, were convicted of murder and sentenced to death for killings at two gruesome scenes in the summer of 1969. Another defendant, Charles "Tex" Watson, was convicted later.

All were spared execution when a U.S. Supreme Court ruling temporarily banned the death penalty in 1972.

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