Which Members Of The Manson Family Are Still In Prison?

Publish date: 2024-05-09

Bruce M. Davis was 25 years old when he first encountered Charles Manson in 1967. Another vulnerable young person, Davis had been a successful academic, having studied for three years at the University of Tennessee, before being caught in a cycle of menial jobs which eventually led him to a peripatetic lifestyle that made it easy to join up with Manson's cult.

According to the book "The Family," Davis soon became one of Manson's most trusted members and gained a reputation for his use of LSD. In 1968, the cult leader reportedly sent Davis on a round-the-world trip, which included a stay in the U.K. where rumor has it he was tasked with selling a collection of silver dollars the Family had acquired. There, Davis approached the Church of Scientology and another religious group that was reportedly satanic.

Davis handed himself in to police in 1970, after the Manson Family's murders were revealed. Besides robbery and conspiracy to commit murder, Davis was found guilty of the murders of Donald Shea, a stuntman murdered on the ranch occupied by the cult, and Gary Hinman — with Davis having looked on while Manson sliced through his ear with a sword, but allegedly leaving before Family associate Bobby Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to death, per "Helter Skelter." 

Though he has since become a born-again Christian and a minister, Davis has been rejected for parole by either the judging board or governor a total of eight times, with the latest parole board in 2022 saying that he "lacks empathy" (via AP News). 

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9kmxubWlgZMSptcKhZKadnZeys7%2BMppinq5%2BjeqetzKKjsmWjqbatuIyipWaoop7AsLqO