Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Parole Recommended for Manson Follower Leslie Van Houten
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
February 2, 2019

Share

LOS ANGELES — A California panel on Wednesday recommended that Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten be paroled after serving more than four decades in prison.
After a hearing at the women’s prison in Corona, California, commissioners of the Board of Parole Hearings found for the third time that the 69-year-old Van Houten was suitable for release.

“She chose to go with Manson. She chose to listen to him. And she acknowledges that.” — Van Houten’s lawyer, Rich Pfeiffer
If her case withstands a 150-day review process, it will rest in the hands of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Van Houten was recommended for parole twice previously, but then-Gov. Jerry Brown blocked her release.
Van Houten was among the followers in Manson’s murderous cult who stabbed to death wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in 1969. Van Houten was 19 during the killings, which came a day after other Manson followers killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in Los Angeles.
Tate’s sister attended Wednesday’s proceedings and said afterward that she vehemently disagrees with the parole recommendation.
“I just have to hope and pray that the governor comes to the right decision” and keeps Van Houten behind bars, Debra Tate said. Newsom’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Van Houten’s lawyer, Rich Pfeiffer, said he was pleased with how the commissioners focused on making sure that she took “full responsibility” for her role in the killings.
“She chose to go with Manson. She chose to listen to him. And she acknowledges that,” Pfeiffer said. He predicted that it “will be much more difficult” for Newsom to block parole than it was for Brown.

Van Houten Joined Manson ‘Family’ Members in Tate-LaBianca Murders

In his decision last year, Brown acknowledged Van Houten’s youth at the time of the crime, her more than four decades of good behavior as a prisoner and her abuse at the hands of Manson. But he said she still laid too much blame on Manson for the murders.
At her last hearing, Van Houten described a troubled childhood. She said she was devastated when her parents divorced when she was 14. Soon after, she said, she began hanging out with her school’s outcast crowd and using drugs. When she was 17, she and her boyfriend ran away to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District during the city’s Summer of Love.
She was traveling up and down the California coast when acquaintances led her to Manson. He was holed up at an abandoned movie ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles where he had recruited what he called a “family” to survive what he insisted would be a race war he would launch by committing a series of random, horrifying murders.
Van Houten said she joined several other members of the group in killing the LaBiancas, carving up Leno LaBianca’s body and smearing the couple’s blood on the walls.
No one who took part in the Tate-LaBianca murders has been released from prison.
Manson died in 2017 of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence.
Earlier this month, a California parole panel recommended for the first time that Manson follower Robert Beausoleil be freed. Beausoleil was convicted of killing musician Gary Hinman.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Hey PG&E Customers, Get Ready for New ‘Transaction Fees’

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Ending ‘Squaw Valley’ Fight After Latest Court Ruling

DON'T MISS

Exclusive: Tesla to Delay US Launch of Affordable EV, a Lower-Cost Model Y, Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Clovis Reconsiders Recycling Vote. Will a Campaign Contribution Matter?

DON'T MISS

Gov. Newsom Offers $50K Reward in 2022 Kings County Homicide

DON'T MISS

Trump’s White House Launches COVID Website That Criticizes WHO, Fauci and Biden

DON'T MISS

Fresno ‘Powers Up’ the Nation’s Largest Combined Solar and Battery Storage Project

DON'T MISS

Trump Admin Asserts COVID-19 Originated in Chinese Lab, Targets Fauci

DON'T MISS

Vendors Back at Fresno’s Art Hop? Survey Wants to Know What You Think

DON'T MISS

Russian Missile Attack Kills One, Wounds 112 in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Officials Say

UP NEXT

What Happens After a Homeless Person Is Arrested for Camping? Often, Not Much

UP NEXT

2 Killed and 5 Hurt in Florida State University Shooting; Gunman in Custody

UP NEXT

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Trump Plan to End Birthright Citizenship

UP NEXT

Popular AIs Head-to-Head: OpenAI Beats DeepSeek on Sentence-Level Reasoning

UP NEXT

Al Sharpton Calls Meeting With Target’s CEO Amid DEI Backlash ‘Very Constructive and Candid’

UP NEXT

Former Pentagon Spokesman Tied to Online DEI Purge Was Asked to Resign

UP NEXT

The Kings Agree to Hire Scott Perry as General Manager, AP Source Says

UP NEXT

LA’s Schools Chief Knows What It’s Like to Be Undocumented

UP NEXT

Shooting at Florida State Sends Students Running; Nearby Hospital Says It’s Treating People

UP NEXT

Valero Books $1.1 Billion Impairment, May Idle California Refinery

Clovis Reconsiders Recycling Vote. Will a Campaign Contribution Matter?

13 hours ago

Gov. Newsom Offers $50K Reward in 2022 Kings County Homicide

13 hours ago

Trump’s White House Launches COVID Website That Criticizes WHO, Fauci and Biden

14 hours ago

Fresno ‘Powers Up’ the Nation’s Largest Combined Solar and Battery Storage Project

14 hours ago

Trump Admin Asserts COVID-19 Originated in Chinese Lab, Targets Fauci

15 hours ago

Vendors Back at Fresno’s Art Hop? Survey Wants to Know What You Think

15 hours ago

Russian Missile Attack Kills One, Wounds 112 in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Officials Say

15 hours ago

Iran Says Nuclear Deal Is Possible if Washington Is Realistic

15 hours ago

49ers Look to Strengthen Depleted Defense in NFL Draft

16 hours ago

Habit Burger & Grill Quietly Drops Impossible Burger From Menu

16 hours ago

Hey PG&E Customers, Get Ready for New ‘Transaction Fees’

Pacific Gas & Electric customers are already paying some of the nation’s highest rates for electricity, and their bills could be g...

12 hours ago

12 hours ago

Hey PG&E Customers, Get Ready for New ‘Transaction Fees’

12 hours ago

Fresno County Ending ‘Squaw Valley’ Fight After Latest Court Ruling

Tesla Inc. vehicle facility is pictured in Costa Mesa, California, U.S., November 1, 2023. (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo)
12 hours ago

Exclusive: Tesla to Delay US Launch of Affordable EV, a Lower-Cost Model Y, Sources Say

13 hours ago

Clovis Reconsiders Recycling Vote. Will a Campaign Contribution Matter?

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. Newsom vetoed a landmark bill aimed at establishing first-in-the-nation safety measures for large artificial intelligence models Sunday, Sept. 29. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
13 hours ago

Gov. Newsom Offers $50K Reward in 2022 Kings County Homicide

The logo of the World Health Organization is seen at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, January 28, 2025. (REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo)
14 hours ago

Trump’s White House Launches COVID Website That Criticizes WHO, Fauci and Biden

14 hours ago

Fresno ‘Powers Up’ the Nation’s Largest Combined Solar and Battery Storage Project

15 hours ago

Trump Admin Asserts COVID-19 Originated in Chinese Lab, Targets Fauci

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend