Notorious killer Charles Manson hospitalised in serious condition

LOS ANGELES: Notorious US killer Charles Manson, who led a California cult that killed pregnant Hollywood star Sharon Tate, has been hospitalized in deteriorating health, entertainment news site TMZ said Wednesday.

Citing an anonymous source, the site said the 83-year-old with a swastika tattoo on his forehead was rushed to Bakersfield hospital in central California three days ago and underwent a series of treatments, escorted by five policeman.

"It's not going to get any better for him," the source told TMZ.

Manson was hospitalized in January, according to the site, after being hospitalized for severe intestinal bleeding. He needed surgery to fix a lesion, but doctors deemed him too weak and sent him back to prison.

One of the most famous criminals in the United States, Manson has been behind bars for more than four decades.

He was sentenced to death in 1971 along with four of his followers for the August 1969 bloody killing spree that left seven people dead -- including Tate, who was the wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski. She was heavily pregnant at the time.

Their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.

In prison, Manson was granted permission in 2014 to wed then 26-year-old Afton Elaine Burton, described in US media as a slender brunette, who had been visiting him. But the 90-day license expired without the ceremony going ahead. 

The criminal's "Family" set up a base in a ranch in California's Death Valley in the 1960s. 

Describing himself as a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Manson arranged a series of murders in a bid to provoke a war between whites and blacks. He assumed that the former would win and take him on as their leader.

More than 40 years later, the killing spree by Manson's "Family" continues to haunt the public psyche and stir morbid fascination, fueled by books, songs and tourist routes, internet sites and films.