Cult leader Charles Manson, whose followers killed actress Sharon Tate and six others in a string of ritualistic murders in California in 1969, has died.
The 83-year-old died of natural causes on Sunday night, according to the California Department of Corrections, after months of failing health.
Manson, who had a Swastika etched between his eyebrows, spent the past four decades in prison after being given nine life-sentences.
He never killed anyone himself but directed his followers to do so.
The killings occurred on successive August nights, terrorising the city of Los Angeles.
Tate, the wife of famed director Roman Polanski, was nearly nine months pregnant when she was found stabbed repeatedly in her Hollywood mansion, along with several of her friends. Other victims included coffee heiress Abigail Folger and celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring. They had been tied up and massacred by Manson’s followers, stabbed collectively 102 times.
The horrifying episode was followed by a double-murder the next night of a supermarket executive and his wife
The two-day spree became known as the Tate/LaBianca killings.
Other celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Steve McQueen were reportedly targets for “The Family”, as Manson and his followers became known.
Investigators learned Manson sent a group of disaffected young followers to commit murder as part of a quasi-religious belief that it would launch a race war from which The Family could emerge as rulers.