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Charles Manson gets marriage permission
Mass murderer Charles Manson plans to marry a 26-year-old woman who spent the past nine years trying to help exonerate him
Charles Manson with the young woman who calls herself "Star"
American mass murderer Charles Manson, 80, has reportedly been granted a licence to marry a 26-year-old woman who has been visiting him in prison.
The marriage licence was issued 10 days ago for Manson and Afton Elaine Burton, the Associated Press reports.
Burton moved to Corcoran, California, nine years ago in order to be nearer Manson's prison, it adds.
The 26-year-old, who is from Missouri, is said to have begun a written correspondence with Manson after becoming interested in his environmentalism. She began visiting him in prison when she was 19 and later started calling herself Star.
Manson is serving a life sentence for the murders of seven people and one unborn child in Los Angeles in 1969.
Their victims included pregnant actress Sharon Tate, wife of film director Roman Polanski.
Burton, who calls herself Star, told AP that she and Manson would marry next month. The licence is reportedly valid for 90 days.
"Y'all can know that it's true... It's going to happen," she told the agency.
"I love him," she added.
The cult leader and his followers, known as the Manson Family, stabbed and shot seven people in Los Angeles over two nights in August 1969 in an attempt to start a race war.
Manson and three women accomplices were sentenced to death for the killings, but that was commuted in 1972 when California temporarily outlawed the death penalty.
Manson and his prospective spouse will be allowed to invite 10 guests who are not inmates.
He and two followers, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel, remain imprisoned. Another follower, Susan Atkins, died of cancer behind bars. Other members of the Manson "family" still behind bars are Charles "Tex" Watson, Bruce Davis and Robert Beausoleil.
Manson, Watson and the women were convicted in the gruesome killings of Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, and four others at her estate on 9 August 1969, and grocers Leno and Rosemary LaBianca who were killed the following night.
Manson is not eligible for parole until 2027.
