Charles Manson hospitalized but still alive

Cult leader and convicted murderer Charles Manson is still alive, despite speculation overnight that he might have died. California prison officials confirmed his status but would not admit he’d been removed from a California prison to a hospital in Bakersfield, as reported by local and celebrity news outlets. Manson, 82, has been jailed since 1969, when he and three female followers were convicted of murdering seven people. All four killers received the death penalty but saw their sentences commuted to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily suspended executions in 1972. Manson has been denied parole 12 times, most recently in 2012. Although Corcoran State Prison, about 60 miles north of Bakersfield, has medical facilities on site, it cannot provide “surgical services, emergency care, or diagnostic services of an acute nature,” said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver who controls prison medical care. Officials would not provide any information on the nature of Manson’s condition.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.