Charles Manson leaves prison to be hospitalised

Notorious cult leader Charles Manson has left prison, where he is serving a life sentence, to be taken to hospital for treatment.

TMZ reported that Manson left California's Corcoran State Prison to get treatment for an unknown illness. He has reportedly been taken to Bakersfield hospital - about an hour away from the jail.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told the New York Daily News that privacy laws prevent them from commenting on inmates' health.

Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969. In 1971 he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the murders of seven people.

One of his accomplices, Patricia Krenwinkel, who is the longest-serving female inmate in California, had her parole hearing suspended just before the New Year after the Board of Parole Hearings wanted to investigate claims she was the victim of battered women's syndrome.

Patricia Krenwinkel, a follower of cult killer Charles Manson., in 2015. Photo / AP

Debra Tate, the sister of actor Sharon Tate who was murdered by Krenwinkel and other Manson followers who also killed her unborn baby, said she didn't believe the claims saying Krenwinkel was free to leave the cult at any time.

And just last year founding member of the Beach Boys Mike Love cast suspicion there could be another unknown Manson victim. Love made the bizarre and startling claims about Manson in his book Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy.

Charles Manson is seen in court in 1986. Photo / AP

Love detailed his experiences with Manson in the memoir and says that bandmate Dennis Wilson claimed to have witnessed Manson shoot and kill a man in 1969, People reported.

Retired Los Angeles County prosecutor Stephen Kay, who helped convict Manson, doubted the claims were true.