Charles Manson's Cause of Death Revealed

The cause of death for notorious cult leader Charles Manson was acute cardiac arrest, with colon cancer as a factor.

That's according to a death certificate obtained by TMZ, which listed respiratory failure as a contributing cause.

Manson's health had been declining for some time, and he struggled with gastrointestinal issues before he passed away on Nov. 19, 2017.

Manson was hospitalized for "gastrointestinal bleeding related to his colon and deemed too weak to undergo surgery" less than a year before his death, according to The New York Times.

TMZ reported that the convicted murderer and Manson Family head suffered from "intestinal bleeding" in January 2017 and was returned to a Bakersfield, California, hospital shortly before he died. He "was covered in blankets and looked ashen in the gurney," TMZ reported.

"Inmate Charles Manson, 83, died of natural causes at 8:13 p.m. on Sunday, November 19, 2017, at a Kern County hospital," a press release from the California prison system said at the time.

Manson was back in the news due to a new Netflix documentary in March 2025, which raised new questions about his life and case. He was convicted of orchestrating the murders of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate.

"Inmate Manson was admitted to state prison from Los Angeles County on April 22, 1971, for seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder for the August 1969 deaths of Abigail Ann Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Earl Parent, Sharon Tate Polanski who was eight months pregnant, Jay Sebring, Leno La Bianca and Rosemary La Bianca," the press release says.

On December 13, 1971, Manson "received a first-degree murder conviction from Los Angeles County for the July 25, 1969, death of Gary Hinman and another first-degree murder conviction for the August 1969 death of Donald Shea," the release notes.

It says that Manson was "originally sentenced to death," but his death sentence was vacated in 1972 by a judge after a court decision resulted in the vacating of all California capital sentences. Manson was refused parole 12 times, the prison system wrote.

"Inmate Manson had been housed in the Protective Housing Unit at California State Prison-Corcoran since 1989. The unit houses inmates whose safety would be endangered by general population housing. He had also been housed at San Quentin State Prison, California Medical Facility, Folsom State Prison and Pelican Bay State Prison," the release noted.