CHARLES MANSON IS currently serving a life sentence in a Californian prison for conspiring to murder seven people in 1971.
He has become the stuff of infamous legend, having led the Manson Family commune in the late 1960s to commit a killing spree.
And now, despite still being in lock-up, it looks like he’s getting married.
Elaine Burton, 25, first discovered Manson when she was just 16, and it was reported this morning that their marriage license has been approved.
The pair were previously at odds over their marriage, giving differing accounts of their plans.
While Burton (sometimes referred to as Star) told CNN that she was already his wife, just “the paperwork hasn’t gone through yet”, Manson told Rolling Stone the rumours were “a load of garbage”.
We’re just playing that for public consumption.
However, she says that ‘none of that is true’ now.
Burton also revealed to CNN that she first became interested in Manson after learning about his ATWA philosophy (Air, Trees, Water, and Animals).
A long-time bugbear of Manson’s followers is that the media chooses to ignore this, and instead focuses on the murderous commune he formed.
Burton’s father told The Daily Mail that she was “digging deeper for bigger answers” at this time of her life, and she soon moved to California to begin visiting Manson in prison in secret.
She is now a leading member of a group claiming Manson’s innocence.
She has been so fanatical that when Manson was placed in solitary confinement (he hasn’t been the best behaved, with three violations for possession of a weapon, threatening staff, and refusal to provide a urine sample) she shaved her head and carved a small x between her eyes.
This was a symbol adopted by Manson’s followers during his trial, when he appeared with the same x and they followed suit. Manson’s x is now a swastika.
This isn’t the only echo of the 1970s Manson Family. Burton’s similarity to one member of the Manson family, Susan Atkins, has been frequently noted.
However, Burton doesn’t have much time for her, calling her a ‘fu*king crazy b*itch’.
Susan Atkins, died of cancer in prison in 2009 after mounting over a dozen bids for parole and repeatedly apologizing for being part of the brutal crime spree.
The marriage license for the pair has been approved and is being finalised, with the wedding expected to take place next month, but conjugal visit won’t be possible due to Manson’s life sentence.
The loyal family following Manson built-up in the 1960s is put down to this abilities as a master manipulator – so this is the case with Burton?
She is firmly of the belief that the pair are in love.
“The only thing he’s trying to manipulate people into doing is planting trees and cleaning up the earth,” she said.
Manson headed an apocalyptic cult that committed murders in upscale, mostly white neighbourhoods of Los Angeles in order to blame the crimes on African Americans, in the hope of sparking a “Helter Skelter” race war.
This, he believed, was inevitable, making plans of where his family would hide in Death Valley when the war broke out, but he became frustrated when it hadn’t started by the late 1960s.
He ordered his followers to carry out these gruesome murders, including that of actress Sharon Tate.
He was sentenced to death in 1969 along with four of his disciples for having led the killing of seven people, but their sentences were later commuted to life in prison.
Manson was married twice before he was jailed, first to Rosalie Jean Willis from 1955 to 1958 and later to Candy Stevens between 1959 and 1963.
In 2012, Manson applied for parole but was denied release and is not eligible to apply again until 2027.
Manson ”family” member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was released from prison in 2009 after serving 34 years for the attempted assassination of US president Gerald Ford.
One of Manson’s disciples, Leslie Van Houten — convicted in the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Angeles home — was denied parole in 2010.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press and AFP.
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