Charles Manson, the notorious cult leader in the United States who directed his followers to commit a string of brutal murders, and who became a symbol of the dark side of 1960s counterculture, has died at age 83.
According to BBC News, Manson was admitted to Bakersfield hospital, in California earlier this month and died of natural causes on Sunday.
In 1969, his followers, known as the Manson family, killed seven people.
Among the victims of the killing spree was heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate. Four other people at Tate’s home were brutally stabbed to death.
The next day, a wealthy couple in Los Angeles, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, were also killed by the clan.
The killings became known collectively as the Tate-LaBianca murders.
Manson was not at the scene of either slayings, but was nonetheless convicted of murder for directing his followers. He was sentenced to death in 1971.
