Charles Manson Reportedly Too Weak For Surgery: Updated

LOS ANGELES, CA — Charles Manson is reportedly too ill to survive a lifesaving surgery for intestinal bleeding.

According to TMZ, which first broke news of the infamous killer’s hospitalization on Tuesday, Manson is suffering significant bleeding from a lesion on his intestines, but his Thursday night surgery was canceled because doctors deemed Manson too weak to risk surgery.

Citing unnamed sources, TMZ reported, “We're told doctors wanted to perform surgery shortly after the 82-year-old arrived at the hospital but he refused. Our sources say Thursday Manson had a change of heart and agreed to the surgery, but during pre-op late yesterday doctors determined he needed to go under the knife ... but felt it was life-threatening because his condition was too weak.”

Unstable vitals such as low blood pressure or oxygenation are some of the factors doctors consider when determining whether to perform surgery. Typically, they will use medication to try to stabilize the patient over time. If the patient’s vitals don’t stabilize, there isn’t much surgeons can do.

News media in Bakersfield reported a corrections department van was parked outside Bakersfield’s Mercy Hospital. According to the Bakersfield Californian, Manson was admitted under the name “Joe Doe.”

Manson has spent the past five decades in California's Corcoran State Prison and is serving nine life sentences for orchestrating a series of grisly murders that shocked the nation. He continues to have devoted followers, including a young woman who sought to marry him in 2014 and one follower who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, a few years after Manson and his followers were imprisoned for their brutal murder spree.

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Manson was the mastermind of the unprovoked murders of the pregnant actress Sharon Tate and her house guests in 1969, followed the next day by the murders of grocery store chain owners Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. In all, a group of Manson's devotees known as the Manson Family were convicted for the murders of eight people. At two crime scenes the killers scrawled messages written in the blood of their victims.

Manson didn't commit any of the killings himself, but he ordered the murders. Following a sensational trial, Manson was convicted of first degree-murder and sentenced to death. He and the other convicted family members were spared execution when the state overturned capital punishment in 1972. He is not up for parole again until 2027.

Photo: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation