Mass killer Charles Manson gets marriage license

Corcoran, Calif. • Mass murderer Charles Manson plans to marry a 26-year-old woman who left her Midwestern home and spent the past nine years trying to help exonerate him.

Afton Elaine Burton, the raven-haired bride-to-be, said she loves the man convicted in the notorious murders of seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate.

No date has been set, but a wedding coordinator has been assigned by the prison to handle the nuptials. The couple have until early February to get married before they would have to reapply.

The prospective bride and groom have near-matching carvings on their foreheads. Hers is an "X" and his is an "X" that was turned into a swastika after he carved it during his trial to show he was "X'ed out of society."

The marriage license was issued Nov. 7 for the 80-year-old Manson and Burton, who lives in Corcoran — the site of the prison — and maintains several websites advocating his innocence.

Burton, who goes by the name "Star," said she and Manson will be married next month.

"Y'all can know that it's true," she said. "It's going to happen. I love him. I'm with him. There's all kinds of things."

But as a life prisoner with no parole date, Manson is not entitled to family visits, a euphemism for conjugal visits.

She said she is interested in working on his case and marrying him would allow her to get information not available to non-relatives.

"There's certain things next of kin can do," she said without elaborating.

Burton gave an interview a year ago to Rolling Stone magazine in which she said she and Manson planned to marry. But Manson, who became notorious in 1969 as the leader of a roving "family" of young killers, has denied the claim. "That's a bunch of garbage," he said in the December 2013 interview. "We're playing that for public consumption."

Asked Monday about those comments, Burton said, "None of that's true."