Bruce Davis, who was Charles Manson’s so-called “right-hand man,” died in a California prison hospital late last week at the age of 83, corrections officials said Monday.
Davis was pronounced dead by a registered nurse at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville at 11:03 p.m. Sept. 11, according to Mary Xjimenez, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
Davis was convicted in 1972 of two counts of murder for the slayings of Gary Hinman, an aspiring musician, and Donald “Shorty” Shea, a stuntman who also worked at what was known then as the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth where Manson and his followers made their homestead. He was sentenced to life in prison and served most of his time behind bars at San Quentin State Prison.
Hinman was targeted because he was viewed as a potential aid for the cult’s planned move from Los Angeles to the desert, according to parole records. But when he refused to cooperate, Davis held Hinman at gunpoint while Manson slashed him from his ear to his chin.
Shea was attacked because Manson told his followers the man was a police informant and attempting to kick them off the ranch. Fellow cult members Steve Grogan and Charles “Tex” Watson joined Manson and Davis in taking Shea to a secluded area and stabbing him multiple times. Davis admitted to cutting Shea.
Athough he was not involved in the group’s most infamous murders — including the killings of Sharon Tate and four others in Benedict Canyon — prosecutors and state officials have repeatedly described Davis as an integral member of Manson’s inner circle. Davis did not shy away from his closeness to Manson.
“I wanted to be Charlie’s favorite guy,” he said during a 2014 parole hearing.
At one of his parole hearings, Davis said he didn’t know about the Tate killings until the morning after they happened.
Davis had been found suitable for parole eight different times since 2010, but California Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom blocked his release on multiple occasions.
In rejecting his release in 2021, Newsom said Davis had continued to minimize his role in the crimes and shown a lack of empathy for his victims.
Davis “does not understand that it was his agreement to participate in Mr. Manson’s plans that resulted in the torture and murder of his victims, regardless of whether he ultimately inflicted the fatal blows,” Newsom wrote, concluding that it “may make him vulnerable to repeating these patterns in the future.”
During his last parole hearing in 2024, panel members heavily questioned Davis’ desire to write a memoir if released and go on a series of speaking engagements, which he referred to as a “redemption tour.”
Ultimately, the hearing was postponed after Davis was confronted about his decision to go on a podcast dubbed “The Lighter Side of Serial Killers.”
“Your plan to reach out publicly about your story, which necessarily includes your involvement with the Manson family, would bring notoriety and glorification to that,” said Parole Board Commissioner Julie Garland. “And I will tell you, when I heard that you were on this podcast, I was like, ‘What the heck? What is he thinking?’”
Although the commissioners ordered an investigation into what Davis discussed and his intentions behind going on the show, his attorney said her client had no intention to profit from his crimes.
“I do not believe that Mr. Davis has a desire to glorify the story, and I think that were we to continue in this hearing, what would come out is that this is an attempt on his part, really, to examine the bad choices that he has made in his life and to talk about them,” said Ananda Hart.
Los Angeles police have investigated several other homicides potentially tied to the Manson family.
Beyond the nine murders for which the group was officially convicted, investigators and prosecutors have long believed the true victim count was much higher.
Stephen Kay, who prosecuted Davis, previously told The Times that Davis was the “family” member most willing to kill. Kay said Davis was a suspect in deaths that occurred in Santa Monica and England.
Just months after the Tate murders, Joel Pugh — the 29-year-old boyfriend of Manson clan member Sandra Good — was found dead in the Talgarth Hotel in London. His wrists and throat had been cut. British authorities listed it as a suicide, saying Pugh had been depressed. No suicide note was left. Davis was in London at the time Pugh died.
Kay and others said Manson hated Pugh. “He had no reason to commit suicide, and Manson was very unhappy that Sandy” was with Pugh, Kay told The Times in 2019.
Davis was also a witness to the November 1969 death of John “Zero” Haught in Venice, according to investigators. Authorities concluded that Haught had died accidentally while playing Russian roulette with a revolver, but that finding was later questioned.
The gun recovered didn’t have any fingerprints on it, The Times’ Jerry Cohen reported in 1969. A young man who held Haught’s head after the shooting told Cohen he entered the room to find a female Manson follower with the gun in her hand. Several Manson followers were inside the home that night, including Davis, The Times reported.
At no point during his more than 50 years in prison was Davis ever cited for a disciplinary issue. While in custody, he obtained a master’s degree and completed multiple self-help programs. His attorney Michael Beckman once called Davis “the most rehabilitated inmate I’ve ever represented.”
Manson died in 2017. Newsom and other governors have repeatedly denied parole to his closest acolytes, though an appeals court overturned Newsom’s veto of the release of Leslie Van Houten in 2023.
The release of Patricia Krenwinkel — who stabbed grocery executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, to death and wrote “Helter Skelter” on the walls of their Los Feliz home in blood — was blocked by Newsom in 2025.