A state parole board panel Friday recommended parole for Bruce Davis, a one-time Manson Family follower who was convicted in two killings in 1969.

Davis, now 78, has been found suitable for parole six previous times, with three different governors reversing the recommendation for parole.

Most recently, Gov. Gavin Newsom blocked Davis’ release in November 2019. Former governors Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger had also reversed the parole board’s recommendation.

Davis was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy for the July 25, 1969, stabbing death of musician Gary Hinman in his Topanga Canyon home and the killing of Donald “Shorty” Shea, who was last seen alive on Aug. 27, 1969.

Davis was not involved with other followers of Manson in the Aug. 9, 1969, murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in a rented Benedict Canyon home, or the stabbing deaths of grocery store owner Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, a day later in their Los Feliz home.

Steve Grogan, who was convicted in Shea’s murder and helped lead authorities to the site where the victim was buried, was the first former Manson follower to be paroled from prison in 1985.

Manson, who died in 2017, was repeatedly denied parole, as have most of his co-defendants.

Robert Beausoleil, 73, who was also convicted in connection with the Hinman killing, remains incarcerated. Also still in prison are one-time Manson acolytes Leslie Van Houten, 71; Patricia Krenwinkel, 73; and Charles ”Tex” Watson, 75.

Onetime Manson family member Susan Atkins died in September 2009, about three weeks after a state parole board panel rejected her plea for a “compassionate release” from prison because of brain cancer.

It was not immediately clear whether the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office opposed Davis’ parole bid or had an attorney present at the parole suitability hearing.

>> Want to read more stories like this? Get our Free Daily Newsletters Here!