The panel’s Thursday decision will be reviewed administratively by the state’s Board of Parole Hearings for up to 120 days, then be sent to Brown for his review.
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The killings were the start of what Manson believed was a coming race war that he dubbed “Helter Skelter” after a Beatles song.
She has been seen as the most sympathetic of Charles Manson’s followers. Sadly, the group caught a break when the death penalty was temporarily abolished in California in 1972, a year after Van Houten was sentenced to death. Van Houten would later admit she felt “kind of bad” she didn’t get to go and participate that night.
A former homecoming queen, Van Houten was the youngest Manson follower to be convicted of murder.
Van Houten was convicted in 1971 for the savage murders of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca in their Los Feliz home on August 10, 1969. Now, after serving 46 years in prison, a panel has recommended her for parole. “It really should have happened a long time ago”.
Leslie Van Houten, in prison for two murders as a member of Charles Manson’s cult, confers with attorney Richard Pfeiffer during a visit to the Board of Parole Hearings.
The vicious killers that crawled out of Spahn Ranch in the summer of 1969 at Charles Manson’s behest to kill innocent people didn’t just terrify California, but the entire country.
She later admitted to stabbing Rosemary at least 14 times in the back while tripping on LSD.
“I can’t tell you what an injustice this is”, she said.
The La Biancas were stabbed numerous times, and the word “WAR” was carved into the stomach of Leno La Bianca.
Brown said on Friday that the 73-year-old Davis remains a danger to public safety, saying in his decision that the “horror of the murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969 and the fear they instilled in the public will never be forgotten”. Their son has already said he opposes her release.
Van Houten has been described as a model inmate who received her college degree while in prison.
Manson and many of his other former followers, who have repeatedly been denied parole, remain behind bars.
Van Houten and another woman held down Rosemary LaBianca as Charles “Tex” Watson stabbed Leno LaBianca.
You know what they say about If at first, you don’t succeed…
Van Houten was the youngest Manson follower to take part in one of the nation’s most notorious killings after she descended into a life of drugs and joined Manson’s cult in the 1960s.
Over the years, Van Houten has spoken of her period as a Manson girl as being “saturated in acid” and “no longer in control of my mind”.
Van Houten wasn’t always so well behaved, obviously.
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Van Houten, right, with Krenwinkel and Atkins during their trial.
