California Department of Corrections and RehabilitationCharles Manson is off the market. What a crime.
The 80-year-old mass murderer, imprisoned since 1970 after being convicted of masterminding the brutal killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others, has obtained a marriage license that will allow him to tie the knot with 26-year-old Afton Elaine Burton.
The license was issued Nov. 7, according to public records, and is good for 90 days. If the time expires, the lovebirds will have to apply for another one.
Burton, who moved from the Midwest to California to be closer to Manson, has reportedly been visiting him for at least nine years. She said in an interview this week that the wedding "is going to happen" and would have happened sooner if her fiancé hadn't had "some situations" at the prison.
According to a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections, Manson had three violations in February: possession of a weapon, refusal to give a urine sample and threatening staff.
Manson and "Family" members Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle and Tex Watson were originally sentenced to death for the Tate-LaBianca murders, but their sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1972 when California briefly abolished the death penalty.
In the wee hours of Aug. 9, Atkins, Krenwinkle and Watson killed a pregnant Tate and her friends Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski at Tate's rented house in Benedict Canyon, as well as a young man, Steven Parent, who was on the property to visit the home's caretaker. The next night, the same group, plus Leslie Van Houten and Steve "Clem" Grogan, killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at their home in Los Feliz.
Linda Kasabian, who testified against her fellow Family members, including Manson, was at both scenes as well but was not prosecuted. Manson wasn't physically present on either night, but he was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder along with Atkins, Watson and Krenwinkle. Van Houten and Grogan were each convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to death, sentences ultimately commuted to life in prison.
Manson isn't allowed conjugal visits, but he and Burton can have 10 non-inmate guests at their nuptials. Burton, who has stated her belief in her man's innocence, said that the wedding will be sometime next month.
But as creepy as it might seem, Manson—who was denied parole for the 12th time in 2012 and won't be up for it again until 2027—certainly isn't the first convicted murderer to win a woman or man over from the confines of prison. Heck, he's not even the first member of his Family.
Susan Atkins, who died of cancer in 2009, married twice while behind bars and had been with her second husband for nearly 22 years when she passed. It's unclear if Watson was married already when he went to prison, but he and his wife (they divorced in 2003) had three kids thanks to conjugal visits.
Grogan was released from prison in 1985, the only person convicted in the Manson Family's murderous two-night spree to be granted parole.