Attorneys Christopher B. Johnson and Colin T. Greene told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Barry that their client, Nancy Claassen of Spokane, Washington, claims to be the sister of the late Charles Manson. They said that she will challenge the purported Manson will submitted by the other Charles Manson estate administrator and contestant, longtime Manson pen pal Michael Channels.
KFI AM’s recent article titled “Woman Says She’s Manson’s Sister, Wants to Administer Estate, Contest Will” reports that Channels’ attorney, David Baldwin, said the will is currently at the Kern County Superior Court. Channels claims the will was written in 2002, was filed in Kern County in November 2017 and names him as the executor of Manson’s estate. However, Jason Freeman, a 45-year-old Florida man who says he’s Manson’s grandson, has filed a competing petition asking to be appointed the permanent administrator of Charles Manson’s estate.
Charles Manson Jr. committed suicide in June 1993, and his father died at age 83 in November 2017 of heart failure caused by colon cancer that had spread to other parts of his body.
When asked outside the courtroom after the hearing why Claassen waited so long to enter the case, Johnson said he and Greene were just hired and were trying to update the court on the wishes of their client, who Johnson said has an interest in the case as Manson’s nearest living relative. The attorneys said they hoped everyone claiming a relationship to Manson will be willing to submit to DNA testing.
Freeman won a big court victory when a Kern County commissioner ruled in 2018 that he was entitled to Manson’s remains, which were later cremated. Freeman and the temporary special administrator over Charles Manson’s estate say the 2002 Manson will is a forgery. Claassen also is challenging the will’s authenticity.
Manson was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of Sharon Tate, grocery magnate Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary, and four other people at the Tate home in 1969.
Manson and followers Charles “Tex” Watson, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and the late Susan Atkins were all convicted and sentenced to prison in 1971. Manson also was convicted in December of that year of first-degree murder for the July 25, 1969 death of Gary Hinman and the August 1969 death of Donald Shea. Manson and the others originally were sentenced to death, but a 1972 state supreme court decision commuted all capital sentences in California to life in prison.
Reference: KFI AM (April 27, 2021) “Woman Says She’s Manson’s Sister, Wants to Administer Estate, Contest Will”
