CORCORAN, Mar. 28 – A gray-haired, gray-bearded Charles Manson was denied parole for a ninth time on Thursday after conceding that he does not want it.

“I’m involved in too many things,” he said. “I have a Web site I’m working on,” he told a three-member panel of the state Board of Corrections.

Manson, now 62, rambled on for about an hour, giving the panel a taste of the rhetoric that has marked his appearances before other parole boards in past years.

Manson insisted he did not kill actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969.

“I’ve killed a lot of people in my life,” he said. “I have. But I was convicted for things I didn’t do and I was let loose for things I did.”

Of the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders, he angrily said, “I didn’t have nothing to do with killing those people, period. I’ve told you that. I wasn’t around when those people were killed.”

He is serving a life sentence at the high-security state prison in this southern San Joaquin Valley town.

Manson at first sent word that he did not want to appear at the hearing, but showed up at the last minute.

His gray hair was wavy and neatly combed, his face craggy with age. His forehead still bore the deep swastika that he carved there during his 1970 trial.

Manson showed that he was keeping up on the news by almost immediately mentioning the mass suicide of 39 people in San Diego a day earlier.

Ranting about various complaints he had against former Presidents Nixon and Reagan, Manson suddenly declared: “These monks that just took their heads in San Diego – they’re way behind the times.”

The hearing opened with a recounting of the grisly 1969 killings. As a board member described the death of the victims, including Tate, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, Manson appeared to get tearful and wiped his eyes. But he quickly returned to his accustomed bravado.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay, one of the original prosecutors, argued against Manson’s release as he has done at every parole hearing.

“Finding Charles Manson unsuitable for parole is the easiest decision you will have this year,” he told the panel. “Mr. Manson and I both know that Charles Manson will never be suitable parole.”
Manson appeared to agree, chiming in at one point: “Parole isn’t a reasonable perspective. I really wouldn’t take a parole. …I’ve got to go back to court and get my rights.”

Manson long has contended that he did not get a fair trial because he was tried along with three women followers. They ultimately admitted their roles in the killings but said Manson killed no one.

The psychiatric report noted that Manson had commented at one point: “This is a better life than an old folks home.”

Manson gave the psychiatrist high marks.

“Whoever did that, did a really nice job, didn’t he?” he asked the panel. “He’s making me look a lot better than I am.”

The board took 20 minutes to make its decision. When it returned and informed Manson that he would be serving at least another five years, he asked to speak again.

“I accept this decision,” he said. “That’s cool.”

By LINDA DEUTSCH