Charles Manson gets license to marry devoted prison visitor, age 26

Wedding bells may be on the way for notorious killer Charles Manson.

The 80-year-old inmate convicted of conspiracy to commit multiple murders has obtained a license to wed a 26-year-old woman who has faithfully visited him for seven years. According to records with the Kings County Clerk-Recorder, Manson and Afton Elaine Burton, 26, applied for a marriage license Nov. 7. Burton moved from Illinois to California to be closer to Manson, according to USA Today.

Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, confirmed that the license has been transmitted to Corcoran State Prison, where Manson has been incarcerated since 1989. He is serving a life sentence for his part in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca killings.

According to the Associated Press, Manson and Burton have 90 days to wed before they’ll have to apply for another license.

Burton, who also goes by the name Star, told Rolling Stone magazine last year that the couple planned to marry. “I’ll tell you straight up, Charlie and I are going to get married,” Star said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “When that will be, we don’t know. But I take it very seriously. Charlie is my husband.”

But Manson denied Burton’s claim at the time, telling the magazine, “That’s a bunch of garbage.… We’re just playing that for public consumption.”

Under California law, inmates are entitled to marry; they must obtain and process paperwork through a prison employee who serves as a designated marriage coordinator.

State law allows inmate weddings to include the bride, the groom, an officiant, two inmate guests and up to 10 non-inmate guests.

If the wedding goes forward, though, the convicted killer probably won’t have an opportunity to consummate his marriage anytime soon. Manson, who is serving a life sentence and has been denied parole a dozen times, does not qualify for overnight family visits, which are better known as conjugal visits.