Reports: Charles Manson, mass murderer, has died

FIRST REPORT

Mass murderer Charles Manson is in a California hospital and is said to be in grave condition, several media outlets are reporting tonight.

The New York Post, Los Angeles Times and others are reporting that the 83-year-old, who was born in Cincinnati, has struggled with gastrointestinal problems.

Kern County Sheriff's Lt. Bill Smallwood confirm to the Times that Manson is at a hospital in Bakersfield.

Vicky Waters, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, declined to comment to the Times, citing federal and state medical privacy laws that preclude the agency "from commenting on protected health information for any inmate in our custody."

Waters did confirm that Manson is alive, according to the Times report.

Manson is serving multiple life sentences at a Corcoran, California, prison.

Manson and members of his "family" of followers were convicted of killing actress Sharon Tate and six others during a rampage in the Los Angeles area in August 1969. Prosecutors said Manson and his followers were trying to incite a race war he dubbed "Helter Skelter," taken from the Beatles song of the same name.

Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, was 8 ½ months pregnant when she was killed at her home in Benedict Canyon on Aug. 9, 1969.

Four others were stabbed and shot to death the same night: Jay Sebring, 35; Voytek Frykowski, 32; Abigail Folger, 25, a coffee heiress; and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of Tate's caretaker. The word "pig" was written on the front door in blood.

The next night, Manson rode with his followers to the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, then left three members to kill the couple.

Manson’s death sentence was changed to life without parole following a 1972 California Supreme Court ruling that found the state's death penalty law at the time unconstitutional. He has been denied parole 12 times.