FOLSOM, Apr. 24 – His fingernails are close to two inches long.

He rarely bathes.

His hair is straggly and prison guards must use force to trim it.

He talks to nobody. He writes to nobody. He is a loner.

This is Charles Manson today.

Seven months ago, when the key movers in his Family — Lynette Fromme and Sandra Good — were free and active, Manson’s life behind bars was decidedly more alive.

Not anymore.

Prison officials at Folsom Prison in California, where Manson resides in Lockup 4-A, say the mass murderer appears to be turning into something of a vegetable.

“When they arrested his girls, it seemed to sap the strength and energy out of him,” said one Folsom spokesman. “He no longer seems to have a purpose.”

It wasn’t always that way for Charles Manson in prison.

The summer of 1975 — in the months before Lyn Fromme attempted to murder President Ford — Manson looked as if he were a private secretary, constantly writing letters to his clan.

For most of the time since Manson entered prison in April, 1971, he had not been permitted to correspond with Miss Fromme and Miss Good, although they had campaigned steadily for visiting rights at San Quentin, Folsom and Vacaville prisons, where he has been held at various times.

But last July correspondence rights were granted and letters passed from Miss Fromme and Miss Good to Manson a half-dozen times a week, the authorities said.

Manson was attempting to re-group his Family.

At San Quentin, where Manson was then held, prison spokesman Bill Merkle said Manson’s correspondence was not censored, but it was checked for contraband, as is the mail of all maximum security prisoners.

Merkle said, “State prison rules provide for confiscation of any letters containing threats of physical violence against any person or encouraging criminal
activity.”

But, Merkle added, “I’m not saying something couldn’t get by.”

Something did get by.

Letters written by Manson not only deal with violence but reveal a complex code using the names of animals as substitutes for names of the Family.

Letters penned by Manson indicate he still has a sore desire for vengeance against former President Richard Nixon, transferring that hate, in part, to “Nixon’s reality wearing a Ford face,” as he wrote to Lyn Fromme last summer.

It was this letter that authorities feel offers the strongest indication that Miss Fromme may have been persuaded in a subliminal — if not direct — way to attempt to assassinate the President.

But authorities say most of the letters are “murky, the threats veiled and rambling,” and apparently not prosecutable.

Last August Manson granted a rare interview.

In the interview, Manson pushed for appeal of his mass murder conviction but said he has little hope of ever being a free man.

The now-40-year-old convict said, “I would just like to be left alone.”

(Attorney Irving Kanarek, who defended Manson, has filed the latest brief in the appeal, raising 52 points for reversal. The next step in the case will be for the California Court of Appeals to set a date for oral arguments.)

“Those incidents that took place (the Tate murders) have nothing to do with me personally, even though I am responsible and could accept a certain amount of responsibility,” said Manson.

He claimed that the evidence presented by Vincent Bugliosi, then a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, never put him at the scene of the murders and he complained that he was not allowed to defend himself in the way he wished.

Manson’s last interview was conducted by the FBI the day after Miss Fromme tried to murder Mr. Ford.

Manson refused to give answers to specific questions about the actual event or any conspiracy of plan.

“In one and a half hours of questioning we came up with nothing,” said FBI spokesman Tom Griffin.

Because of that interview, Manson was not brought before a federal grand jury investigating a possible conspiracy.

Manson’s death sentence for murders committed during that 1969 Los Angeles-area crime spree has been reduced to life by the California Supreme Court. That means he could be eligible for parole next year.

But a source close to the California parole board terms the “could be” more like a “won’t be.”

“If you’re talking even remotely about parole for Charles Manson,” said the source, “don’t start talking until around the year 2000.”

By JOE HUGHES