A California prisons panel has put forward a recommendation that Patricia Krenwinkel, who is serving a life sentence for her role in the grim killing spree orchestrated by followers of cult leader Charles Manson in 1969 Los Angeles, be granted parole. According to KFMP-TV, a CBS News affiliate in San Diego, the State Board of Parole Hearings determined that Krenwinkel, now 77 and the longest-serving female inmate in California prisons, poses a minimal risk of reoffending due to her advanced age and exemplary conduct during her incarceration.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed the finding of parole suitability, which came after Krenwinkel's 16th parole hearing, but refrained from providing further details. The decision rendered on Friday serves as a proposal subject to thorough review by the full state Board of Parole Hearings and the Governor of California for a period not exceeding 150 days before it can be finalized.
Even if the full board upholds the finding of parole suitability, Governor Gavin Newsom has the authority to reject it or remand it for additional scrutiny. In August 2022, Newsom overturned a parole board panel's recommendation to free Krenwinkel made in May of the same year.
Krenwinkel, currently incarcerated at the California Institution for Women, appeared with her lawyer during Friday's four-hour hearing but remained silent, refraining from addressing the commissioners, KFMP reported. Several members of the victims' families spoke out against her release.
In 1971, Krenwinkel was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder for her participation in a brutal two-night rampage that claimed the lives of several innocent individuals, including actress Sharon Tate, the 26-year-old wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski. Tate, who was eight months pregnant at the time, was murdered alongside four of her friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger and hairstylist Jay Sebring, in the hillside house she shared with Polanski in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles. Polanski was abroad during the incident.
The following night, grocery store owner Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, were brutally stabbed to death in their home. The crime scene was marred with graffiti written in the victims' blood, reading "Death to Pigs" and "Healter Skelter," a misspelled allusion to the Beatles song "Helter Skelter."
While Manson did not personally murder any of the seven victims, he was found guilty of ordering their executions as part of a delusional scheme to ignite a racial war. Manson, along with Krenwinkel and other members of his so-called "family" of hippies, runaways, and misfits, including Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and "Tex" Watson, were initially sentenced to death. However, their sentences were commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court abolished capital punishment in the state in 1972.
Manson expired in prison in 2017 at the age of 83. Van Houten was released on parole in 2023 after spending 53 years behind bars. Although Newsom had initially rejected her parole recommendation, a California appeals court overruled his decision. The governor had the option to petition the state supreme court to review the case, but he chose not to, deciding that further attempts to keep Van Houten imprisoned were unlikely to succeed.
