“I went in, and Mrs. Labianca was laying on the floor, and I stabbed her, in the lower back, round 16 times”, Van Houten told King in an interview. Van Houten had previously been denied parole 19 times since she was convicted of killing the wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his second wife at their Los Feliz home. The addled, apocalyptic death cult these murderers and their master were the faces of – a cult that embraced a pseudo-philosophy that had something to do with the Beatles song “Helter Skelter” and a race war – was terrifying precisely because it made no sense. Van Houten was sentenced to death in 1971 but one year later the death penalty was overturned.
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Speaking with Larry King in 2002, Van Houten described going into the LaBianca house, where the couple had already been tied up.
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.
Van Houten went through three trials for her role in the killings. “Forty-six years and not a single serious rule violation”.
She told the panel that the girl, who murdered someone, is now a distant memory and she was now fit to be paroled.
You know what they say about If at first, you don’t succeed… Her parents divorced when she was 14, and her mother forced her to have an abortion when she got pregnant not long after. According to LaBianca, nothing Van Houten did in prison could undo or make amends for the horrors suffered by her father and stepmother on August 10, 1969. Indeed, her actions seemed to have shown that through the years, the now 66-year-old Van Houten became a changed woman.
In prior bids for parole, Van Houten’s attorneys have characterized her as a model inmate who has obtained a college degree behind bars and been active in self-help groups. The parole board now saying she can now go free. He is serving nine concurrent life sentences at Corcoran State Prison in Corcoran, Calif., although he remains eligible for parole. (Patricia Krenwinkle was a co-defendant and a Manson family member). She testified to stabbing Rosemary at least 14 more times. After the decision, District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement she would evaluate how to proceed.
Van Houten was the youngest Manson follower to take part in one of the nation’s most notorious killings after descending into a life of drugs and joining Manson’s cult. Family member Bruce Davis, who was not involved in those killings, has been recommended for parole, but it was blocked by the governor. She was retried twice and convicted in 1978 of two counts of murder and conspiracy. You know, before that, it had always been an abstract kind of thing.
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Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme – She was a member of the cult but never charged with the murders.
