SAN LUIS OBISPO, Apr. 12 – Former Charles Manson associate Bobby Beausoleil has been transferred out of the California Men’s Colony.

Beausoleil, a musician, requested the transfer because CMC shut down its only music course about a year ago.

He was transferred March 21 to Soledad prison.

Beausoleil, 41, killed drug dealer Gary Hinman on July 27, 1969, in Los Angeles. Beausoleil thought Hinman had cheated him in a drug deal and tried to force Hinman to repay him.

Part of that force involved phoning Charles Manson. Beausoleil and Manson were friends.

Manson came to Hinman’s house, slashed Hinman’s face with a sword, then left. Beausoleil stabbed Hinman to death a few hours later after Hinman threatened to go to police.

Beausoleil was arrested the next day as he slept in Hinman’s car on the side of Highway 101 just south of Cuesta Grade.

Over the next two days, while Beausoleil was in jail, several members of Charles Manson’s cult “family” killed six people in two Los Angeles homes.

Among those killed in the bloody massacres was actress Sharon Tate, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant.

Beausoleil at first bragged that he was a member of the cult, but after a few years, began trying to disassociate himself from Manson.

Beausoleil has an almost spotless prison record. He has educated himself in electronics, invented an electronic music synthesizer and helped teach a music course at CMC.

CMC’s one music course ended about one year ago when prison officials decided to have the instructor begin teaching other courses, said CMC Warden Wayne Estelle.

Inmates still play musical instruments in the prison’s recreation program, Estelle said.

The demise of the class prevented Beausoleil from pursuing any of his high-tech musical interests, so he asked to be transferred, said Beausoleil’s wife, Barbara Beausoleil of Arroyo Grande.

Beausoleil left “to participate in an advanced vocational program in electronics,” said CMC spokesman Ted McAlister.

Two former Manson cultists remain at CMC: Charles “Tex” Watson and Bruce Davis. Both are serving life sentences.

Beausoleil also is serving a life sentence. He has been denied parole nine times by three-member panels from the Board of Prison Terms.

However, at each of Beausoleil’s last two hearings, one panel member voted to give him a parole date. He is due for another hearing in October, his wife said.

Beausoleil has said he would like to live in San Luis Obispo County if he is released on parole. Parole authorities have said it is almost inevitable that Beausoleil will someday be released.

By DAN PARKER