Early release for convicted killer of trio

3 Westminster residents were murdered in 1980

LOS ANGELES (AP)

– An Orange County former attorney and motorcycle club founder who killed three people in 1980 in Westminster has been ordered to be released this week, following a terminal cancer diagnosis, prosecutors said last week.

Thomas Maniscalco, 77, has been incarcerated for nearly 40 years after his 1994 conviction on three counts of second-degree murder, with enhancements for being armed with a firearm, according to state prison officials.

He was sentenced to life in prison and has been denied parole twice.

He was ordered released under California’s compassionate release law, which was amended last year and allows for incarcerated people to be freed if they have a serious and advanced illness with an end-of-life trajectory.

Maniscalco was the cofounder of the Hessian Motorcycle Club. Prosecutors said Maniscalco thought Richard Rizzone, another Hessian, was ripping him off in a coun-

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