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Charles Manson

MANNY CHRISTOMO/Sacramento Bee
Stacy Salgado (left) and DeSean Larkins look over the Manson exhibit at The Museum of Death on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Old Los Angeles immersed in noir

Last updated Sunday, May 13, 2012 - 7:23am

LOS ANGELES -- It was a dank, rain-sodden Raymond Chandler kind of morning, as if some omnipotent auteur had rung up the studio and ordered a classic film-noir sky. Cumulonimbus clouds the color of a snub-nosed revolver hovered with ominous intent, and tires on slickened freeway lanes gave off a sinister, knife-sharpening hiss.

Only a sap would be out on a day like this, searching for the seedy, serrated soul of L.A. noir.

Yet tourists often come here, searching for the Los Angeles of the 1930s, '40s and '50s. They seek remnants of a period when the city was an incubator of tawdriness, a place where corruption, double-dealing and unchecked passion gave rise to a literary and cinematic genre that to this day captures the imagination.

Features, Murder, Black Dahlia, Charles Manson, Daryl Gates, Death, Los Angeles, California, Noir, Travel Read more Comments

In this Wednesday, April 11, 2012 photo, Debra Tate, younger sister of murdered actress Sharon Tate, leaves Corcoran State Prison in Corcoran, Calif., after she testified at a parole hearing for Charles Manson. The panel denied parole for mass murderer Manson, 77, in his 12th and possibly final bid for freedom. Tate and Barbara Hoyt, the Manson family member whose testimony helped put the killers in prison, have bonded in their long quest to keep those responsible for the murders behind bars. (AP Photo/Tracie Cone)

Women linked by Manson murders form odd friendship

Tracie Cone The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, April 16, 2012 - 10:08am

CORCORAN, Calif. -- On August 9, 1969, two naive 17-year-old girls were launched on a path that led to the unlikeliest of friendships.

That infamous night, four young people under the sway of a charismatic career criminal slipped into a neighborhood of Hollywood glitterati, then bludgeoned and stabbed rising young actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and three others. Across town the next night, the band killed again.

The name Charles Manson quickly became a synonym for unimaginable evil, which nobody knows better than Debra Tate, Sharon's little sister, and Barbara Hoyt, the Manson family member whose testimony helped put the killers in prison.

Murder, Charles Manson, Friendship, Serial killer, National Read more Comments

This file combo of photographs shows how Charles Manson has looked over the years from 1969 up to the most recently released photo in 2011. Manson is scheduled to have a parole hearing at Corcoran State Prison in Central Calif., on Weds., April 11, 2012. (AP Photo, File)

Calif. prison panel denies Manson’s bid for parole

Tracie Cone The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 4:03pm

CORCORAN, Calif — A prison panel denied parole Wednesday to mass murderer Charles Manson in his 12th and probably final bid for freedom.

Crime, Murder, Charles Manson, Parole, Prison, National Read more Comments

(California Department of Corrections/The Associated Press)
77-year-old serial killer Charles Manson

Manson skips 12th parole hearing, may be his last

Tracie Cone The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 12:01pm

CORCORAN, Calif. -- Debra Tate hopes that Wednesday is the last time she has to walk into a prison and argue to parole officials that Charles Manson should not be freed.

For four decades, the sister of murdered actress Sharon Tate has traveled to whatever rural California prison has held the notorious cult leader and his band of murderous followers for hearings she says are too numerous to count.

"I've tried to take this thing that I do, that has become my lot in life, and make it have purpose," says the 59-year-old Tate, who was 17 in August 1969, when Manson sent his minions across Los Angeles on two nights of terror. "I've been doing it for Sharon and the other victims of him for the last 40 years."

Charles Manson, Corcoran State Prison, parole hearing, Prison, National Read more Comments

A photo provided by the California Department of Corrections shows 77-year-old serial killer Charles Manson Wed., April 4, 2012. Manson will have an April 11, 2011 parole hearing in California. (AP Photos/California Department of Corrections)

Charles Manson, now 77, gets new chance at parole

Andrew Blankstein, Shelby Grad Los Angeles Times

Last updated Thursday, April 5, 2012 - 10:48am

LOS ANGELES -- After 11 failed bids for freedom, notorious serial killer Charles Manson, now 77, is up for parole later this month.

Murder, Charles Manson, Parole Board, Prison, Serial killer, National Read more Comments

No parole for Manson follower Krenwinkel

Linda Deutsch, The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, January 21, 2011 - 12:20pm

CORONA, Calif. -- Parole board officials turned aside Patricia Krenwinkel's claims of being a changed woman and ordered the Charles Manson follower to remain in prison, saying the deaths of seven people in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders still "remain relevant."

The two member panel said Thursday that the viciousness and notoriety of her crimes outweighs her efforts at rehabilitation behind bars.

Crime, Murder, Charles Manson, Courts, National Read more Comments