By C1 Staff

SACRAMENTO — New details of an assassination attempt of Charles Manson in 1984 are now coming to light following the retirement of a corrections officer.

According to the Hollywood News Daily, inmate Jan Homstrom, who was then serving time for the murder of his father, doused the cult leader with paint thinner and set him alight using a match.

The former officer says he was in the prison ‘watch office’ when a siren went off signaling the cell block incident was underway.

He and several other COs immediately responded, only to find Manson with a towel on his face and being lead toward a doorway.

“He was screaming, ‘My face is burned!’,” said the unnamed source. “Manson was lucky because it turned out that his beard prevented much more serious injury.”

The source claims that Homstrom had hidden the paint thinner in a cup and pretended it was water until he got close enough to Manson to attack.

Manson allegedly suffered third-degree burns over 18 percent of his body, mostly his face, scalp and hands.

He later made a full recovery and was returned to a maximum security cell at the Vacaville prison.

Homstrom was never reprimanded beyond an assault charge for the attack, but the source claims that photographic evidence was taken and put in a file.

Homstrom was freed in 1990 and later arrested for attempted murder and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He now resides in a high security psychiatric facility.

Manson, now 78, still resides behind bars at Corcoran State Prison.