Updated Charles Manson photo released ahead of parole hearing

New photos of an aged Charles Manson, complete with swastika tattoo on forehead, have been released by the California Department of Corrections one week before his next parole hearing.

The photographs of notorious cult leader and murderer, 77, were taken in June at the state prison in Corcoran, California, CNN reported.

"He looks a lot different," CNN quoted department of corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton as saying of Manson, pictured with long gray hair, a long beard and a mustache.

Manson, initially sentenced to death for the 1969 slaying of actress Sharon Tate, faces his 12th parole hearing April 11, the Associated Press reported, adding that it could be his last as California law allows a denial of parole for up to 15 years.

"The last time he had a parole hearing, it was in May of 2007, and he received a five-year denial," Thornton said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Manson is incarcerated at Corcoran state prison, 180 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

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At the last parole hearing Manson actually attended, in 1997, he denied that he had killed anyone.

"I'm not saying that I wasn't involved. I'm saying that I did not break man's law nor did I break God's law. Consider that in the judgments that you have for yourselves. Good day. Thank you," he told the parole board.

Manson's death sentence was changed to life in prison after California's death penalty was overturned during the 1970s.

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