CORCORAN, Mar. 16 — Convicted mass murderer Charles Manson, perhaps the most infamous of California’s convicts, was transferred Wednesday from San Quentin to the maximum-security facility at Corcoran State Prison.

Manson is being housed alone in “one of the most secure units in the state,” said prison spokeswoman Lt. Evelyn Mazon.

Manson’s move to the prison in Kings County was prompted by the closing down of maximum-security units at San Quentin, said Mike Van Winkle, of the state Department of Corrections.

“San Quentin is undergoing a major change in mission, from a maximum-security prison to a medium-security prison,” Van Winkle said. Manson is among hundreds of San Quentin inmates scheduled to be sent to Corcoran prison.

Mazon said maximum-security prisoners from Folsom and Tehachapi also are being sent to Corcoran because “those prisons are old and Corcoran was built to handle those types of [high-risk] prisoners.”

Manson is among 957 high-risk inmates who have been transferred to Corcoran prison since the maximum-security units were opened last December, she said. The prison has 1,024 cells in its maximum-security facility.

Officials did not name any other well-known inmates now housed in the facility.

The 960-acre prison, which is south of Corcoran, began accepting prisoners in February 1988. The $253 million facility houses minimum-security Level 1 prisoners to maximum-security Level 4 prisoners.

Wednesday, the total prison inmate population was 3,576.

The 52-year-old Manson has spent nearly all of his adult life in federal and state prisons.

In 1969, Manson and his cult followers went on a monthlong murder spree and brutally killed actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish filmmaker Voityk Frykowski and six others.

Manson was convicted of masterminding and ordering the murders of Tate and others in an effort to trigger a race war which he believed was foretold in the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter ”

Manson, whose criminal record dates back to his childhood, is serving a life sentence for the Tate murders, but is technically eligible for consideration for parole, if the state Board of Prison Terms considered him suitable for release.

At Manson’s latest hearing 13 months ago, the board again turned down a chance of parole for another three years — the longest period allowed without additional review.

Board member Albert Leddy at that time described it as “highly unlikely” that Manson, who has been turned down seven times for parole, would ever be released.

Mixed feelings filtered through Corcoran when news of Manson’s transfer hit the streets.

Police Sgt. Manuel Gonzales said Manson would be “just like the rest of the inmates.” But a City Hall secretary, who didn’t want to be identified, gasped when she was told Manson had been transferred to Corcoran.

Corcoran Mayor Bob Hansen said he didn’t think the Manson transfer would have any effect on the majority of Corcoran’s 7,000 residents.

“We’ve had an inkling that he was coming here,” Hansen said. “I really don’t think there will be much of an adverse feeling from the citizens of Corcoran that [Manson] will be located here.”

Donnetta Murray, 45, a reporter-photographer for the Corcoran Journal, was one of a handful who opposed the prison from the start.

She lives kitty-corner to the prison about a half-mile away.

Wednesday, she said that she has changed her mind because the facility has allowed residents to enjoy a financial boom.

“I was fearful of it at first. I had nightmares about it.” Murray said. “But I have learned to live with it. I really think the community has been supportive and we have gained financially from having it here.

“I’m not worried about Manson or any other maximum-security inmate escaping from the prison,” she said Murray said.

Level 1 prisoners — low-risk inmates — have a better chance of escaping because those inmates require a lower level of security.

“Maximum security prisoners are housed in state of the art facilities — a prison within a prison,” she said. “I know because I toured the facility before it had prisoners.”

Manson, a mesmerizing guru to his Manson Family followers who reportedly killed on his command, described himself to parole board officials as “a force of darkness” who spent his time in confinement fashioning scorpion dolls which would unleash “torment” on the world outside.

Officials said Manson has been housed throughout his two decades in state prison in maximum confinement units not because the threat which the 5-foot-2 Manson posed personally, but because of his ability to persuade others to act violently.

“It’s not that he’s physically dangerous himself … Manson is most dangerous at convincing other people to do his dirty deeds,” said deputy Los Angeles District attorney Stephen Kay, who testified at the most recent of Manson’s seven parole hearings.

By PABLO LOPEZ