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Charles Manson has been cremated and his ashes scattered following a brief private funeral, four months after the death of the man who gained worldwide infamy for the 1969 killings of actress Sharon Tate and others in Los Angeles.
Key points:
- Manson's remains cremated four months after death in prison
- The funeral was finally held after long battle for the remains
- Manson's grandson held the funeral to finally put to rest "this so-called monster"
The memorial occurred on Saturday at a funeral home in the California city of Porterville, according to Mark Pitcher, pastor of the Church of the Nazarene.
Mr Pitcher said about 20 to 25 people attended, among them Manson's grandson Jason Freeman, and Mr Freeman's wife Audrey.
Mr Pitcher said he agreed to a funeral home request to conduct the service after he was told Mr Freeman and his wife were Christians and that Mr Freeman wanted his grandfather to have "a proper burial" despite his notoriety.
The pastor declined to reveal who else attended, but said some were friends of Manson.
The Porterville Recorder newspaper reported the attendees included Manson follower Sandra Good who, although she was not implicated in the 1969 killings, served 10 years in prison for sending hundreds of threatening letters to corporate executives.
Also there, the newspaper said, was Afton Elaine Burton, a woman Manson took out a licence to marry in 2014 when he was 80 and she was 26. The couple never wed.
Manson ordered killings to launch race war
Manson was an ersatz hippie leader who used drugs and charisma to control a rag-tag band of young followers who murdered Ms Tate and six others during two bloody nights in August 1969.
The Manson Family, as the cult leader's followers were called, slaughtered five of victims on August 9, 1969, at Ms Tate's home.
They included the actress, who was around eight months pregnant, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, Polish movie director Voityck Frykowski and Steven Parent, a friend of the estate's caretaker.
The next night, a wealthy grocer and his wife, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, were stabbed to death in their home across town.
Prosecutors said Manson ordered the killings to launch a race war he believed was prophesised by Helter Skelter, a Beatles song.
Mr Pitcher said he discussed Manson's past only briefly during the funeral, but added he did not shy away from relating what he had done.
"There were many choices thrust upon him that brought about very challenging circumstances through his early years," he said of Manson, the son of a prostitute who never knew his father.
"But he also made choices that brought great consequence and negatively impacted other people for many, many years."
Mr Pitcher said he exhorted Mr Freeman and his family to see Saturday's funeral as an opportunity to establish "a new beginning".
Mr Freeman, whose own father killed himself under the burden of being Manson's son, has said he only learned of his connection to the mass killer a few years ago.
A long legal battle for the remains
After Manson's death in November at age 83, Mr Freeman fought a months-long legal battle to gain the right to his remains.
Mr Freeman, who could not be reached for comment, had said he wanted his grandfather cremated and his remains scattered to finally put to rest "this so-called monster, this historical figure that shouldn't have been blown up as big as it was for all these years."
The funeral home's owner, Les Peters, told the Recorder that after the service, which he described as having a hippie vibe, the guests gathered to watch the cremation, then went outside to sing songs by Manson, the Beach Boys and Guns 'N Roses.
Mr Peters said Manson's ashes were handed over to Mr Freeman who said he planned to spread them "free in the air" somewhere.
AP/ABC
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, 20th-century, history, murder-and-manslaughter, crime, united-states