Cult killer Charles Manson has been caught with a smuggled mobile phone for the second time in less than two years.
According to spokeswoman Terry Thornton at Corcoran State Prison in California, the 75-year-old was found by guards to be in possession of the phone on January 6.
He had previously been caught with a mobile phone in March 2009. On that occasion Manson had been calling and texting people in California, Florida, New Jersey and British Columbia.
He had also missed calls from Arkansas, Indiana and Massachusetts.
Thornton could not immediately say who he'd been calling this time, nor how he got the phone.
Manson is serving a life sentence for killings including the infamous murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles in 1969.
He faces a disciplinary hearing and could lose early release credits as a result. The Legislature plans to consider a bill making it illegal for inmates to possess phones.
Cell phones are banned form federal prisons, but the rules are murkier in state institutions, especially California, where overcrowding makes it impractical to punish those who own phones.
Still in jail: Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkle recently had her latest parole bid denied
Thornton previously said that the discover of Manson's first cell phone was 'troubling...since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf.'
She added that it was not known whether he had used it on that occasion to orchestrate any crimes.
Manson's potentially longer sentence follows recent reports that one of his followers, Patricia Krenwinkel - who was also jailed for her part in the murders - was ordered to remain in prison after parole board officials rejected her claim she was a changed woman.
Krenwinkel, now 63, has spent four decades behind bars, making her the longest incarcerated woman in the California prison system.
She was convicted along with Charles Manson and two other female followers in the seven murders, admitting that she chased down and stabbed heiress Abigail Folger 28 times at the Tate home on August 9, 1969.
Krenwinkel also participated in the stabbing deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the following night.
Although she wept and apologised for her crimes during the hearing, officials said the deaths of seven people in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders 'remained relevant'.
Susan Melanson, parole commissioner, said: 'This is a crime children grow up hearing about. These crimes are relevant.'
Ms Melanson and deputy Steven Hernandez refused Krenwinkel's parole bid and made her ineligible for reconsideration for another seven years - the longest handed down so far to any Manson family convict.
Officials commended her for self-improvement and community service during her incarceration at the California Institution for Women.
But they dismissed her explanation that she was seeking approval from Manson by following his orders to kill.
