Charles Manson was not granted parole, and an article saying he was freed from prison in California is fake.
The fake report was posted on Empire News, a self-described “satire” website.
“One of the most famous killers in the American prison system will be walking free. On Tuesday Charles Manson, who is now 79 years old, was granted parole by the California Board of Parole and authorized by California Governor Jerry Brown,” it reads. “The ruling, issued by three judges overseeing the state’s efforts to ease the overcrowding, gives California until February 2016 to achieve their goals. But, the judges said, the state has to make elderly inmates and those with serious illnesses eligible for parole immediately,” the article adds.
The fake report had tens of thousands of shares and “likes” on Facebook this week.
According to a disclaimer, Empire News is a “satirical and entertainment website.”
Hoax-debunking website Snopes.com says, “By the following day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news article. However, the article was just a bit of satire from Empire News, a web site that publishes fictional stories such as ‘Cure for Cancer Discovered; ‘Amazingly Simple’ Says Researcher,’ and ‘College Student Excused from Classes After Dog Eats Grandmother.’
In 2012, Manson was denied parole in California after he claimed he is “very dangerous.”
“This panel can find nothing good as far as suitability factors go,” said John Peck, a member of the panel at Corcoran State Prison in California, about Manson’s situation, reported ABC at the time.
“I’m special. I’m not like the average inmate,” Peck said at the parole hearing, referring to what Manson told a psychologist. “I have spent my life in prison. I have put five people in the grave. I am a very dangerous man.”
Manson was convicted of seven murders in 1969 in Los Angeles. The killings included five people at actress Sharon Tate’s home.
He was originally sentenced to death after being found guilty, but the sentence was changed in 1977 to “life in prison with the possibility of parole, after a 1972 ruling by the California Supreme Court that determined the state’s death penalty statute at the time was unconstitutional,” ABC reported.
