Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 14

Bruce Davis Dies at 83 in Prison After Life Term for 2 Manson-Linked 1969 Murders

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 14

Bruce Davis Dies at 83 in Prison After Life Term for 2 Manson-Linked 1969 Murders

Q: After spending half a century in prison for notorious cult killings, what was the undisclosed cause of Bruce Davis's death?

Bruce Davis’s cause of death was not disclosed. Officials confirmed that the 83-year-old Manson follower died at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where he was serving a life sentence, and TMZ reported he was pronounced dead at 11:03 p.m. on Sept. 11. But both the coroner’s office and subsequent reports said no cause of death had been released. So, based on the available reporting, the answer is that the cause remains undisclosed publicly.

Q: Why was this Manson follower repeatedly denied parole while others walked free, and what finally ended his 50-year sentence?

Bruce Davis remained in prison largely because parole officials and governors decided he had never fully demonstrated insight, remorse, or empathy for the murders that tied him to the Manson Family’s 1969 crimes. Although Davis was not accused of personally carrying out the killings of Gary Hinman and Donald “Shorty” Shea, he admitted participating. Reporting and parole-hearing records said he acknowledged holding a gun while Charles Manson slashed Hinman and using a knife on Shea. At a 2022 denial, his lawyer said a commissioner told him Davis “lacks empathy.” That assessment, combined with the notoriety and brutality of the Manson-related crimes, repeatedly worked against him. Davis was actually recommended for parole multiple times, but those grants did not stick. According to reporting, he was recommended for release seven times, only to have three consecutive California governors reverse those decisions. That distinguished his case from some other Manson followers, including Leslie Van Houten, whose eventual release came after courts overturned a governor’s veto. What finally ended Davis’s more than 50 years behind bars was not parole but death. Officials said he died at age 83 at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where he was serving his life sentence. TMZ reported he was pronounced dead on Sept. 11 at 11:03 p.m. A cause of death was not immediately released.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 14

Bruce Davis, a Charles Manson follower convicted in two 1969 killings, died at 83 at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where TMZ said he was pronounced dead late on Sept. 11.
Solano County coroner officials confirmed the death but gave no cause or other details, leaving only the prison location and timing publicly established.
Davis received a life sentence in 1972 for his role in the murders of Gary Hinman, 34, and Donald "Shorty" Shea, 35, though the report says he was not the direct killer in either case.
He also was not accused in the separate 1969 home-invasion murders of Sharon Tate and four others, the killings that made the Manson Family infamous.