Former Manson Family Member Leslie Van Houten Is Released on Parole
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Leslie Van Houten, a former Charles Manson follower who played a role in the gruesome double murder of a Los Angeles couple in the summer of 1969, was released on parole on Tuesday after serving more than half a century in prison, according to her lawyer.
Ms. Van Houten’s lawyer, Nancy Tetreault, said she was taken early Tuesday morning to transitional housing at an undisclosed location. “She’s going to have to learn to live in the world after 53 years in prison,” Ms. Tetreault said in an interview. “So that’s going to take some time.”
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed her release. Ms. Van Houten will have “three-year maximum parole term,” according to Mary Xjimenez, a department spokeswoman.
The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom said this month that it would not challenge her release. Mr. Newsom had reversed Ms. Van Houten’s parole grant three times since taking office, most recently in March 2022 .
Ms. Van Houten was 19 when she and other members of the so-called Manson family broke into the home of wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, and stabbed them dozens of times on Aug. 10, 1969.
The LaBiancas were murdered one night after five people were killed at the home of movie director Roman Polanski — including his pregnant wife, the actress Sharon Tate. The murders were carried out at the direction of Charles Manson, one of the most notorious murderers of the 20th century, who died in 2017 at age 83 .
In 1971, Ms. Van Houten was convicted on two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. She was initially sentenced to death, but her sentence was reduced to life in prison when capital punishment was outlawed in California the next year.
Ms. Van Houten has not been shy about her role in the killings, saying in a parole board hearing in 2002 that she had pinned down Ms. LaBianca while another Manson family member, Patricia Krenwinkel, stabbed her in the collar bone. Charles D. Watson, another figure in the attack, stabbed Ms. LaBianca with a bayonet eight times before Ms. Van Houten then stabbed her in the abdomen 14 to 16 times.
Years later, Ms. Van Houten said that she regretted taking part in the murders and that she had been mentally ill, a condition aggravated by LSD use.
“I believed that he was Jesus Christ,” Ms. Van Houten said of Mr. Manson. “I bought into it lock, stock and barrel.”
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53 years? That's about 40 years longer than she would have served in Canada.
... meet the local walmart's newest front entrance greeter.
trump university has been shuttered for a few years now...
Ah yes, the perennial boogiemen of the right ... Tucker C. and Andrew B. loved going over to Bill's and Bernadette's for supper parties. Andrew and Bill planned a cross-country roadtrip at one of them, unfortunately Andrew died and the 'world' missed what would have been a hoot of a travelogue.
I'm all in on Jacob Chansley teaching Q-anthropology ... maybe The Great Courses (my fave TV channel of late) will hire him.