Charles Manson Follower Recommended for Parole

BY PAIGE AUSTIN

LOS ANGELES, CA Charles Manson disciple Leslie Van Houten, 66, is suitable for parole, a state parole board ruled today.

Van Houten, was convicted in 1969 for the murders of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca at their Los Feliz home during the Manson Family murder spree that also claimed the life of actress Sharon Tate.

Originally sentenced to death, the former Monrovia beauty queen was spared when California overturned the death penalty. Since then, she has been living at the California Institution for Women in Chino. Her bids for parole have routinely been denied for decades along with her fellow Manson Girls.

At each of her parole hearings, the soft spoken Van Houten touted her journey in prison, where she's spent more than 40 years. During that time, she attended narcotics anonymous, earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and worked as an inmate tutor.

In 2006, she told the parole board, “I do what I do in here because that’s how I live with myself.”

If the parole board’s decision is upheld upon review, it will go to Governor Jerry Brown for final say. Van Houten had been denied parole 19 times before despite a track record as a model prisoner. Los Angeles prosecutors and relatives of the Manson Family victims have been fighting Van Houten's parole.

“We disagree with the board’s decision and will evaluate how we plan to proceed,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey.

At past parole hearings, prosecutors described her gleeful role in the killing of Rosemary La Bianca. Prosecutors allege she begged Manson to be allowed in on the murder spree and later bragged about the thrill she got in stabbing Rosemary La Bianca.

The Manson Family's grisly murder spree is considered one of the notorious, ushering in a backlash of the counter culture scene the Manson family embodied.

The Manson Family Murders

The Manson family, which ebbed and waned with a few dozen members, lived at the abandoned Western film set known as at the Spahn Ranch at the time of the 1969 murder spree. Known for free love and acid-tripping, its members followers espoused a slavish devotion to Charles Manson. Manson is credited with masterminding a series of horrific murders ostensibly to trigger a race war while also seeking revenge for those he believed had wronged him

The Manson murders started July 27, 1969 with the killing of musician and Manson acquaintance Gary Hinman.

A week later, a group of Manson followers broke into the home of Tate, Roman Polanski’s wife. On August 8, 1969 they killed Tate, who was nine months pregnant, along with her guests Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski and Abigail Folger and Steven Parent. Tate was held down and stabbed repeatedly.

The next night the Mansons, this time with 19-year-old Leslie Van Houten, broke into the Los Feliz home of the La Biancas, stabbing both to death and using their blood to write on the walls. Van Houten latter admitted to stabbing Rosemary La Bianca more than a dozen times. At one of her three trials, her attorney blamed her susceptibility on hallucinatory drugs.

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY. PLEASE REFRESH THE SCREEN FOR UPDATES.