PUBLISHED ONNovember 20, 2017 7:42 AM
Charles Manson, the US cult leader who orchestrated a string of gruesome killings in Southern California by his "family" of young followers in the late 1960s, has died, according to prison officials. He was 83.
Manson had been hospitalised since last week, the Los Angeles Times reported previously.
In the 1960s, Manson, an ex-convict, assembled a group of runaways and outcasts known as the "Manson Family."
In the summer of 1969, he directed his mostly young, female followers to murder seven people in what prosecutors said was part of a plan to incite a race war.
Among the victims was actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski. She was stabbed 16 times by cult members.