A former follower of cult leader Charles Manson, who is serving a life sentence for her role in a 1969 Los Angeles killing spree, has been recommended for parole.
Patricia Krenwinkel, 77, the longest-serving female inmate in California, is one of two remaining so-called “Manson Family” members still in prison.
In 1971, she was convicted of the murders of seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, during a grisly two-night rampage that shocked America.
Krenwinkel was sentenced to death, however, her sentence was reduced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after California abolished the death penalty in 1972.
Krenwinkel in 2020
It is the 16th time that Krenwinkel has appeared before a parole board, and the second time she was recommended. The first was in 2022, but the decision was overruled by Gavin Newsom, California’s governor.
Mr Newsom wrote at the time that Krenwinkel “still poses an unreasonable danger to society if paroled at this time”.
“At her parole hearing, Ms. Krenwinkel accepted responsibility for her direct crimes, yet she continued to shift disproportionate blame to Mr. Manson for decisions and conduct within her control,” he added.
The governor could reject the parole board’s decision once again or send it back for further review.
Charles Manson did not personally kill the seven victims, but he was found guilty of ordering their murders and died in prison in 2017 – AP Photo/File
Krenwinkel, incarcerated at the California Institution for Women for 54 years, did not speak at the four-hour hearing on Friday, but family members of the victims spoke in opposition to her release.
“For years, this woman laughed about the murders in court and showed absolutely no remorse at all,” wrote Debra Tate, the younger sister of Sharon Tate, in an online petition on Friday.
“Society cannot allow this serial killer who committed such horrible, gruesome, random killings back out.”
Ms Tate, the 26-year-old wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski, was one of seven victims of the grisly killings by the Manson cult on the nights of August 9 and 10, 1969.
Sharon Tate was 26 years old and eight months pregnant when she was murdered – Silver Screen Collection
Eight months pregnant, Ms Tate was stabbed and shot to death at her Beverly Hills home with four friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger, hair stylist Thomas Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Earl Parent. Mr Polanski was in Europe at the time.
The following night, Krenwinkel and other Manson followers stabbed to death grocery store executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary.
Both homes had smears of blood on the walls, and Krenwinkel had used blood to write “Death to Pigs”.
Manson did not personally kill any of the seven victims, but he was found guilty of ordering their murders as part of a delusional plot to ignite a race war, which he believed was heralded in a Beatles song.
Krenwickel daubed ‘death to pigs’ in blood on the walls of Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary’s home
Krenwinkle, who was 23 at the time, along with Manson, 36, and three others of his so-called “family” of misfits and hippie types, were convicted of all the murders. At Krenwinkle’s 14 other parole denials, the board cited the brutality of the murders.
Manson died in prison in 2017 of natural causes aged 83 after nearly half a century behind bars.
One of his followers, Susan Atkins, died in prison in 2009. Charles “Tex” Watson, 79, remains in prison.
Leslie Van Houten was released from prison on parole in 2023 after spending 53 years behind bars. Governor Newsom had rejected her parole recommendation, but was overruled by a California appeals court.