Notorious cult killer Charles Manson was hospitalized Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
Anonymous sources told the Los Angeles Times that the 82-year-old is seriously ill, but didn’t explain the nature of the illness.
A spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told the newspaper she could not comment on the movements of prisoners but did confirm that he was alive.
“We do not disclose inmate movements for safety and security reasons,” said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the corrections department.
Manson is serving a life sentence at Corcoran State Prison in Corcoran, in the Central Valley between Bakersfield and Fresno.
TMZ also reported that Manson had been rushed to a hospital Tuesday. The celebrity news site reported that Manson is being treated at a hospital in Bakersfield.
Manson was convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in killings carried out over two nights in August 1969, dubbed the “Manson family murders” or the “Tate/LaBianca murders.” Four of his followers were also convicted.
The killings were intended to trigger what Manson predicted would be an apocalyptic race war that he called “Helter Skelter.”
Manson has been denied parole 12 times since he was incarcerated in 1971, last in 2012. His next parole hearing is scheduled for 2027.
He initially received a death sentence but that was changed when the state Supreme Court in 1972 found California’s death penalty law unconstitutional.
