Manson Family killer may be set free after parole board ruling

A parole review board in California has recommended the release of Leslie Van Houten, one of several “Manson Family” members convicted of the 1969 murders of Leno LaBianca, a wealthy Los Angeles grocer, and his wife Rosemary. Ms Van Houten, who is 66, has previously been denied parole 19 times. If the board’s recommendation is approved, she would be the first member of Charles Manson’s cult involved in the infamous Tate-LaBianca killings to be freed.

The ruling is likely to be sent to the desk of California governor Jerry Brown, who may choose to block Ms Van Houten’s release. Another Manson follower and convicted murderer, Bruce Davis, was approved for parole in 2012, but Mr Brown reversed that decision.

On 9 August 1969, members of the Manson Family slaughtered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people at the LA home that Tate shared with her husband, film director Roman Polanski. Ms Van Houten was not involved in the Tate killings, but the following night she went with Manson and several of his followers to the Los Feliz home of the LaBiancas, who had also been randomly targeted for murder. Then 19, she was the youngest of Manson’s acolytes to participate in the crime.

Ms Van Houten struggled with 38-year-old Mrs LaBianca, and then held her down as she was stabbed repeatedly. A Manson accomplice, Charles “Tex” Watson, handed Ms Van Houten a knife and told her to “do something”, as Manson had made clear that he wanted everyone involved to incriminate themselves in the murders.

She stabbed Mrs LaBianca around two dozen times in the back, though she has since claimed that she believed her victim was already dead at the time. After killing the couple, the cult members used their blood to scrawl hate messages on the walls of the home.

Five people were convicted of the Tate-LaBianca murders. Manson, Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel have all been denied parole multiple times. Another of the killers, Susan Atkins, died in 2009. At their 1971 trial, a prosecutor said Ms Van Houten was the most likely of the group to be eligible for parole in later life. She was nonetheless convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death with her fellow Family members. Their sentences were reduced to life in prison when the death penalty was outlawed in California between 1972 and 1977.

A model prisoner, Ms Van Houten has earned two college degrees during her time behind bars, and been praised for her work in supporting the elderly women inmates at her prison. According to the Associated Press, she told the parole board this week that she bitterly regretted her crimes. “I don’t let myself off the hook,” she said. “I don’t find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself.”

Following the panel’s decision to recommend her parole, Ms Van Houten said she felt “numb,” her lawyer, Richard Pfeiffer, told the Los Angeles Times, adding: “A lot of people who oppose parole don’t know anything about Leslie’s conduct. Her role was bad. Everyone’s was. But they don’t know what she’s done since then and all of the good she’s done.”

Leno LaBianca’s daughter, Cory LaBianca, who was 21 at the time of the murders, opposed the ruling. “Maybe Leslie Van Houten has been a model prisoner,” Ms LaBianca said. “But… my father will never be paroled. My stepmother will never get her life back. There’s no way I can agree with the ruling today.”

Just one member of the Manson Family convicted of murder has ever been released: Steve “Clem” Grogan, who helped Manson to kill Hollywood stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea, also in August 1969. Grogan was sentenced to life in prison, but freed in 1985.