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Convicted serial killer Charles Manson is to marry a supporter 54 years his junior.

The 79-year-old cult leader will tie the knot with his bride Star despite not being likely to ever go free.

His 25-year-old fiancee moved next to California's Corcoran State Prison when she was just 19 to be closer to him and has recently carved an X into her forehead to match his swastika.

"Yeah, well, people can think I'm crazy," she said. "But they don't know. This is what's right for me. This is what I was born for."

"I'll tell you straight up, Charlie and I are going to get married. "When that will be, we don't know. But I take it very seriously.

"Charlie is my husband. Charlie told me to tell you this."

Star, whose name was given to her by Manson, was born in St Louis, Missouri and claims to be from a deeply religious family.

In an interview with America's Rolling Stone magazine she said she was left locked in her room throughout her school years after refusing to go to church and started taking drugs.

A friend of the artist, who refuses to reveal her real name, told her about Manson and she decided to contact him in prison.

After months of writing, she left her family with her £1,200 savings to move closer to Manson in California.

She now visits him every Saturday and Sunday for up to five hours a day.

Under the State of California penal laws, prisons allow convicted inmates to marry anyone but a fellow con in the same institution.

Star has been likened in looks to Susan Atkins who was famously part of the Manson family.

The convicted killer brainwashed members of his commune into murdering nine people including film director Roman Polanski's pregnant wife Sharon Tate in July and August 1969.

He convinced his followers an apocalyptic racial war, which he called Helter Skelter after the Beatles song, was about to begin between blacks and whites.

He told them to go out and murder saying it would begin the battle.

Although Manson did not carry out the killings he was convicted of murder through America's shared responsibility law.

He was originally given the death sentence but spared execution after the California Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional.

In 1977, his sentence was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Despite numerous appearances before a panel he has always been refused his freedom.

He is next due before the board in 15 years, when he will be 92 years old.

If the marriage goes ahead it will be Manson's third. He has three children.

He first married in 1954 to Rosalie Willis but they divorced three years later as he served a sentence for stealing cars.

In 1958 he wed prostitute Candy Stevens. But again, she divorced him when he was sent back to jail.

When Manson was asked about getting married again he played down his fiancee's claims saying: "We're just playing that for public consumption."