New Charles Manson

New Charles Manson, It is a mug shot for the ages. Charles Manson, the most notorious mass murderer imprisoned in California and perhaps the nation, stares glumly at a camera, holding his booking number in front of him.

In the latest photo released by the California Department of Corrections, the 77-year-old Manson is gray-haired and gray-bearded, a shadow of the shaggy haired, wild-eyed killer whose visage glared from the covers of magazines in 1969.

He was a cult leader back then, the domineering force behind a rag-tag family of followers who said they killed for him.

Next Wednesday, Manson faces his 12th parole hearing. It could be his last because state law now allows a denial of parole for up to 15 years. The chances that he will be released are nil and he has told his jailers that he doesn’t plan to attend the hearing. But California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said he could change his mind at the last minute.

Manson has not attended a parole hearing since 1997, when he rambled on for hours, denying that he had killed anyone and espousing the beliefs that guided his cult.

“I’m not saying that I wasn’t involved. I’m saying that I did not break man’s law nor did I break God’s law. Consider that in the judgments that you have for yourselves. Good day. Thank you,” he told the parole board.

Now, 43 years after the world learned his name, Manson is an old man living among a few other notorious killers whose lives would be in jeopardy if released into the general population at Corcoran State Prison, Thornton said. They are in a protective housing unit and can go outside into a yard.

Charles Manson Photos

Charles Manson Photos, The latest photos of notorious killer Charles Manson have been released by the California Department of Corrections, one week before his next parole hearing. At the request of CNN, the department provided two photographs of Manson taken in June at the state prison in Corcoran, California. They show Manson, 77, with long, flowing gray hair, long beard and mustache.

Photos are taken of prisoners when they are transferred to other prisons or medical facilities or, in the case of Manson, when an inmate’s appearance changes.

“He looks a lot different,” department of corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

The last prison photo of Manson was released three years ago and showed Manson with the top of his head shaved. One distinguishing mark remains in the recent photos, a swastika tattoo on Manson’s forehead.

A parole hearing is scheduled April 11 for Manson, who was initially sentenced to death for the 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six others by a group of his followers as part of what prosecutors said was an attempt to incite a race war. His death sentence was changed to life in prison after California’s death penalty was overturned for a period during the 1970s.