SAN LUIS OBISPO, Oct. 6 — Charles “Tex” Watson, who described himself as Charles Manson’s chief lieutenant in murder, has been transferred from San Quentin Prison’s Death Row to the California Men’s Colony here, an official disclosed Thursday.

Although the colony is a minimum security prison, Watson is being housed in a medium-to-maximum-security wing, a spokesman said, adding that Watson was transferred Sept. 19 along with six other prisoners.

Watson, 25, confessed at his trial to the August 1969 killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others. He was sentenced to death last November.

Since the U. S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional, Death Row prisoners have been moved into the San Quentin general prison population or transferred to other prisons.

At his trial, Watson described a metamorphosis from high school honor student to member of Manson’s drug-oriented hippie style “family” and finally to murderer.

He blamed drugs and Manson’s hypnotic control over him for his actions. He said that while under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, he stabbed Miss Tate and all six other victims.

Manson, 37, and three women followers were sentenced to death for the slayings earlier. Manson is at San Quentin; then women are imprisoned at the California Institution for Women at Frontera.