CHARLES MANSON PAROLE HEARINGS

Article BY Tara Rath - Art by nellie brown

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Parole hearing number 1 – November, 1978

Mass murderer Charles Manson was denied parole Thursday after he told the state parole board that he should not be released from prison because he is "totally unsuitable for that world out there."

“I’m mad. I’m indignant. I’m mad to every bone of my body that I have to come back to the penitentiary when I didn’t break no law.”

“My plan would be to go to the wilderness and live off the land. I’d go to the desert and talk to the animals. I couldn’t make it running by the watch and making car payments. My ways are simple.”

“Hardly anyone comes to visit him. Some people who do come he doesn’t want to see. Sometimes he’s very withdrawn, other times he’s quite verbal.” Vacaville Medical Facility spokesman, Bill Heise

 

Parole hearing number 2 – November, 1979 –

Manson skipped out on this parole hearing and sent the parole board a “get out of jail free” card from his Monopoly set.

Parole hearing number 4 – November, 1981

During the hearing, Manson stood and told the board: "I'm not ready for parole. I could have saved you all this time." Appearing at times confused, Manson also told the board that his heroes are the late shah of Iran, the Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. (1981, Boston Globe)

 

Parole hearing number 5 – 1982

To no one's surprise, mass murderer Charles Manson was again denied parole yesterday. It was the fifth time the California Parole Board said no to the 48-year-old cult leader. Frank Coronado, chairman of the parole panel, said Manson's direction of the Tate- LaBianca slayings in 1969 and two other killings was "cold-blooded and senseless." Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen Kay called him "a walking advertisement for the death penalty." Manson, who boycotted the hearing, gets his next chance in December 1985.
In a letter to the California Board of Prison Terms, Manson's appointed attorney, Richard Guarino, asked to be withdrawn from the case, saying the mastermind of the Tate-LaBianca murders refused legal assistance.

 

Parole hearing number 6 –1986- Excerpt of Manson’s lengthy statement to parole board:

Swastika appeared at this parole hearing

“All of the judgments and the blame that is pushed off on me will be reflected back in the fires of the Holy War that call crime....I did invoke a balance for life on Earth.  From behind the time locks of courtrooms and from the worlds of darkness, I did let loose devils and demons with the power of scorpions to torment.  I did unseal seven seals and seven jars in accord with the judgments placed upon me...You've drugged me for years, dragging me up and down prison hallways, laying my head on every chopping block you've got, chained me, burnt me, but you cannot defeat me...In all that was said about me, it was not me saying it, and if you see a false prophet, it is only a reflection of your own judgments."

A parole board, citing the ``heinous, atrocious'' nature of the 1969 Sharon Tate-LaBianca murders, refused to release Charles Manson ``family'' member Leslie Van Houten from prison. ``The savagery goes beyond description,'' said board member Rudolph Castro, who announced the decision of a three-member panel after a six-hour hearing.
Three-member board yesterday decided to reject Manson's bid for parole from a life sentence after he said that, if released, he might go to Libya or Iran or "join the revolution down south somewhere and try to save my life on the planet Earth."

“I don't want out of your prison unless I can go with my brothers and sisters. If I have a world and not my family, I have nothing.''

“I'd probably try to stop the rain forests from being cut down.”

 

Parole hearing number 7 – February, 1989

Did not appear at this hearing

The board considered the latest psychiatric study of Mr. Manson and his prison history, which listed six citations for behavioral problems since his last parole hearing, in February 1986.

 

Parole hearing number 8 – April, 1992

Manson argued before the three-member state Board of Prison Terms that he had been in prison longer than the law allows because he wasn't present at the killings. "I am right with God and I am right with myself," he said during the two-hour hearing.

 

Parole hearing number 9 – March, 1997

Violated prison regulations 13 times since last parole hearing including threatening staff members, attacking guards, creating stabbing instruments, drugs, etc.

"I accept this decision. That's cool. What I'd like for you to do in your own minds personally, everybody that has a personal mind of their own, could possibly consider that the longer that you let this conviction stand, and this little Helter Skelter scheme of the District Attorney to give his particular reality over into the play, that's going to be the reality that they're perpetuating. That's not the reality that I'm perpetuating. I'm not saying that I wasn't involved. I'm saying that I did not break man's law nor did I break God's law. Consider that in the judgments that you have for yourselves. Good day. Thank you."

 

Parole hearing number 10 – 2002

Manson was denied parole for the tenth time, due to his behavior. Manson allegedly had 17 serious infractions on his record since his last parole hearing five years ago. These include:

"possession of a (blunt object) weapon and threatening to hurt or kill peace officers."

Arson in 1997 for trying to set his mattress on fire

Hit, spit at, threw coffee at prison guards and other employees. Regarded as a “terrible prisoner” by Stephen Kay (Los Angeles Assistant District Attorney) "He's really not much different than he was in 1969 or 1970," Kay said.

Manson never asked for the hearing. One is automatically scheduled every three to five years. He failed to file any of the papers requested by the board and said he didn't want to be represented by a state-appointed lawyer.

Manson refused to go because he was required to wear hand-cuffs. If he could not have his hands free, he did not want to go at all.

Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate was in attendance. This was the first time a Tate member had been in audience at a parole hearing. She was disappointed by Manson’s lack of presence and stated, “"I would like to give him a piece of my mind. I would like to look in his eyes and see what I see - any conviction of heart and soul."

 

Parole hearing number 11 – May, 2007

Denied for 11th time because he "continues to pose an unreasonable danger to others and may still bring harm to anyone he would come in contact with.”

Did not attend or send a representative to the parole hearing

He previously told a prison counselor that he refuses to participate because he considers himself a "prisoner of the political system," said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira, who attended the hearing.

Manson has had 12 disciplinary violations since his last parole hearing in 2002.

"He refused to cooperate, so the conclusion they drew from the reports is he still remains a
danger to the public,"

Manson’s 12th parole hearing is scheduled for the year, 2012.

In 1982, he said he wouldn't know what to do if paroled. Five years later he said he would spark a revolution if released. In his previous appearances, Manson has said he wanted to live among snakes and spiders in the desert and be a "force of darkness" tormenting the world.