Who Is Charles Manson's Former ‘Wife,’ Afton 'Star' Burton? List Of All The Killer's Ex-Wives
Mass murderer Charles Mason has been locked up for a majority of his 82 years, but that hasn’t stopped him from accumulating multiple lovers. In 2014, people were stunned when Afton “Star” Burton announced she wanted to marry Manson, who she talked to since she was a teenager.
Manson called off their engagement, with their marriage license expiring in February 2015, but Burton still considers the notorious cult leader a “close friend,” her father, Phil Burton, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive report Sunday. Afton, 29, tried to visit Manson in the hospital, but she was not allowed to see him.
“They’re not married or engaged anymore but they’re still friends and right now she’s not able to contact him and he’s not able to contact her,” Phil, 48, said. “She really doesn’t know anything at all.”
Rumors swirled that Manson called off his engagement to Afton because she wanted to marry the killer so she would have procession of his corpse when he died and use it to make money. She apparently planned to charge people to view it. Phil denied the accusation.
“The rumors are that they [the prison authorities] were trying to make it difficult for them. There’s no visitation, no phone calls, no nothing when you’re in solitary,” Phil explained. “Under such pressures the relationship was, he said, impossible to sustain.”
Afton called herself Manson's wife, even though they were not legally married, during a 2014 interview with CNN. “I'm completely with him, and he's completely with me. It's what I was born for, you know. I don't know what else to say,” she said at the time. “The man that I know is not what they have in the movies or in documentaries and the books. He's nothing like that. He doesn't tell people what to do. He's not manipulative at all.”
While Afton was Manson’s latest flame, she was far from his only. The killer was first married to Rosalie Jean Willis in 1955. Together, they had a son, Charles Manson, Jr. The child eventually changed his name to Jay White, the name of his stepfather. Unable to deal with his father’s crimes, White committed suicide in 1993.
After he divorced from Willis in 1958, Manson married Leona “Candy” Stevens the following year. They, too, reportedly produced a child, Charles Luther Manson. His whereabouts are unknown. Stevens and Manson divorced in 1963.
Manson was sentenced to life in prison in 1971 after conspiring to murder seven people, including actress Sharon Tate, in the infamous “Manson Family” slayings from 1969. He was denied parole 12 times. He will not be eligible for parole again until he is 92.
The killer made headlines again after he was hospitalized for gastrointestinal bleeding Jan. 1. Manson was taken back to the California State Prison, Corcoran for “security reasons” Tuesday, TMZ reported.
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