Charles Manson jail photo released

A new photograph of Charles Manson, who along with other members of his so-called 'family' was convicted of killing Roman Polanski's actress wife Sharon Tate in a bloody rampage in Los Angeles in 1969, has been released.

It was taken on Wednesday as part of a routine updating of files at the Corcoran State Prison in California, where Manson is serving a life sentence for conspiring to kill seven people, including Tate. It shows the once flowing-haired cult leader now, at 71, with a receding hairline, a thick gray beard and a fading swastika-shaped scar on his forehead.

The release of the photo comes just months before the 40th anniversary of the Manson killings in August. The slayings, Manson believed, would incite a race war that he believed had been prophesied in the Beatles' song Helter Skelter.

Besides Sharon Tate, who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant when she was killed, four others were stabbed and shot to death: Jay Sebring, 35; Voytek Frykowski, 32; Abigail Folger, 25, a coffee heiress; and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of Tate's caretaker.

The word 'Pig' was written on the front door in blood. The next night, Manson rode along with his followers to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, leaving three of the 'family' behind to kill the couple.

Manson has made 11 failed bids for parole since 1978, the last in 2007, when he was ordered to continue serving life sentences. His next parole hearing is scheduled for 2012.
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