Bruce Davis, a convicted Manson Family member, died at 83 in a California prison hospital on Friday, Sept. 11. He was convicted in 1972 of the 1969 murders of Gary Hinman and Donald “Shorty” Shea, and he was denied parole repeatedly despite being deemed suitable, with decisions reversed by multiple California governors.
Davis, a follower of Charles Manson, died in a prison hospital in Vacaville, California, aged 83. He died at the California Medical Facility on Friday, Sept. 11. The article attributes this to Mary Xjimenez — spelled as shown on the page — a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in a statement to PEOPLE. The cause of death was not shared; the article says the Solano County Coroner will determine the official cause.
Davis was described in the article as Manson’s “right-hand man.” Prosecutors, according to The Los Angeles Times, alleged he was Manson’s chief lieutenant and helped execute operations for the Tate-LaBianca killings.
Hinman was killed in July 1969 and is described as the first official “Manson family” victim. The article says he was held at his home in Topanga Canyon, outside Los Angeles, for three days before being found dead on July 31, 1969, and that the scene bore a reported “Manson family” signature.
Shea, a stuntman, was killed the following month. According to The Los Angeles Times, Manson told followers Shea was a police informant working to have the group removed from Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth, California. The article says Shea was fatally stabbed and Davis later confessed to cutting him.
At age 30, Davis was convicted of the Hinman and Shea murders in 1972 and was sentenced later that year to life with the possibility of parole for two counts of first-degree murder.
He served most of his sentence at San Quentin State Prison. The article says he earned a master’s degree and completed multiple self-help programs, and that, according to a 2013 ABC7 report, he allegedly became a born-again Christian in prison and allegedly helped former Manson member Susan Atkins do the same.
During 54 years in prison he had 34 parole hearings. He was found suitable for parole seven times — January 2010, February 2012, March 2014, August 2015, February 2017, June 2019 and January 2021 — and each time his release was reversed by the sitting California governor.
He was due a hearing in August 2024, but it was postponed for three years after he appeared on a true-crime podcast called The Lighter Side of Serial Killers, per Fox News.
At his 2014 hearing he said he wanted to be Charlie’s favorite guy. At a separate hearing, he claimed he did not know about the Aug. 9, 1969 killing of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Parent, and said he learned of their deaths the next morning, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary were found in their home on Aug. 10, 1969, after being stabbed multiple times.
Davis initially claimed he was only a bystander in the November 1969 killing of Manson follower John “Zero” Haught. Haught’s death was reportedly declared a suicide at the time; the article says he died of a gunshot wound to the head after an alleged game of Russian roulette, with Manson family members reportedly present.
