BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A California court commissioner says she will rule soon on who can collect the remains of murder mastermind Charles Manson.

Deputy Kern County counsel Bryan Walters says Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Alisa Knight said Wednesday that she would rule in a few days on petitions to release Manson’s remains from the Bakersfield morgue.

Several would-be heirs and a former pen pal are vying for the corpse that’s been on ice since Manson died Nov. 19 in a hospital at age 83.

A man who claims he was fathered by Manson and another who says he’s a grandson are locked in a dispute with a friend who collects so-called Manson memorabilia.

Manson was serving a life sentence for orchestrating the 1969 killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and eight others.