OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 14 — Former hippie cult leader Charles Manson is pushing for appeal of his mass murder conviction, but he says he has little hope of ever being a free man.

Manson says he has a hard time getting along with other inmates at San Quentin Prison but that he doesn’t believe they are afraid of him.

“I don’t think I’m basically a threat to anyone,” said the man whose followers testified during a nine-month murder trial in Los Angeles in 1970-1971 that he was “perfection.”

The interview aired Monday night by station KTVU was Manson’s first since he and three codefendants were found guilty of the murder of actress Sharon Tate and six others.

Manson, now 40 and sporting a short beard and inch-long fingernails, was interviewed in the prison by reporter Stan Atkinson.

At one point, Manson said that “getting out (of prison) is so far away in my mind, I would just like to be left alone.

“If you spend a lot of time in prison, it doesn’t get better or worse, you get a balance with whatever you have to deal with.”

He said that if he ever regained his freedom, it might be difficult for him to confront the “fear at the Manson name and family.”

Manson; Susan Atkins, 26; Leslie Van Houten, 25; and Patricia Krenwinkel, 27, were sentenced to death for the August 1969 murders.

The sentence was changed to life after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment as generally applied by most states was unconstitutional.

“Those incidents that took place (the murders) have nothing to do with me personally, even though I’m responsible and could accept a certain amount of responsibility,” Manson said.

He claimed that evidence by Los Angeles Asst. Dist. Atty. Vincent Bugliosi never put him at the scene of the murders.

Of his efforts to gain freedom, Manson said, “You see, my problem is that I’m scattered all over the place. I’ve got three girls that are locked up and I have to file their motions with my motions. I don’t have typewriters and I don’t have books. In other words, I’m working slowly because I certainly have plenty of time.”

Manson, who spent much of his life before the Tate murders in jail for petty crimes, was asked if he felt there was no place in this world for Charles Manson. He replied:

“Not no place; I made an attempt to adjust, I just can’t seem to adjust to your society because no matter what I do it is wrong.”

Attorney Irving Kanarek, who defended Manson, filed the latest brief in the appeal July 30, He said he has already raised 52 points for reversal and the next step in the case will be for the state Court of Appeals to set a date for oral arguments.

By LINDA KRAMER