CA gov Newsom rejects parole for Manson follower Leslie Van Houten

Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, 69, has her bid for parole rejected for a THIRD time: Youngest member of the cult will remain behind bars for stabbing a grocer and his wife to death 50 years ago

• Former Charles Manson follower, Leslie Van Houten, 69, who is serving a life term, was denied parole for a third time 
• She was twice recommended for parole by a state panel, the last time in 2017, but each time the decision has been overruled by the governor of the state
• Van Houten is jailed at the California Institute for Women where she has been a ‘model inmate’, earned a master’s degree in counseling and mentored inmates
• At the age of 19 she was among those who murdered Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary a day after the Sharon Tate killings
• She has spent nearly half a century behind bars and received reports of good behavior and testimonials about her rehabilitation
• Charles Manson died in 2017 of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom overruled a parole board’s decision to free Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten on Monday, marking the third time a governor has stopped the release of the youngest member of Manson’s murderous cult.

Van Houten, 69, is still a threat, Newsom said, though she has spent nearly half a century behind bars and received reports of good behavior and testimonials about her rehabilitation.

‘While I commend Ms. Van Houten for her efforts at rehabilitation and acknowledge her youth at the time of the crimes, I am concerned about her role in these killings and her potential for future violence,’ he wrote in his decision.

Leslie Van Houten, 69 and serving a life term, has had her request for parole denied by the California governor despite being recommended for release. She was 19 when she murdered Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary a day after the Sharon Tate killings

‘Ms. Van Houten was an eager participant in the killing of the LaBiancas and played a significant role.’

Manson died in 2017 of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence

Van Houten was 19 when she and other cult members stabbed to death wealthy Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in August 1969. She said they carved up Leno LaBianca’s body and smeared the couple’s blood on the walls.

The slayings came the day after other Manson followers, not including Van Houten, killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in violence that spread fear throughout Los Angeles and riveted the nation.

No one who took part in the Tate-LaBianca murders has been released from prison. It was the first time Newsom rejected parole for Van Houten, while former Gov. Jerry Brown denied her release twice saying she still laid too much blame on Manson for the stabbing deaths.

In his decision in January 2018, Brown acknowledged Van Houten’s youth at the time of the crime, more than four decades of good behavior as a prisoner and her abuse at the hands of Manson. 

‘Nobody wants to put their name on her release, but when they’re speaking honestly or off the record, everyone wants her to go home,’ said Van Houten’s attorney, Rich Pfeiffer.

Newsom is ‘going to have more political aspirations that go well beyond the state of California, and he doesn’t want this tagging behind him,’ he added. ‘Not a surprise. I would have been shocked if he would have said ‘Go home.”

Earlier this year, Newsom reversed a parole recommendation to free Manson follower Robert Beausoleil for an unrelated murder. Beausoleil was convicted of killing musician Gary Hinman.

Newsom’s decision on Van Houten outlined her participation in graphic detail, noting that after the killings, she ‘drank chocolate milk from the LaBiancas’ refrigerator’ before fleeing.

‘The gruesome crimes perpetuated by Ms. Van Houten and other Manson Family members in an attempt to incite social chaos continue to inspire fear to this day,’ Newsom wrote.

Van Houten is still minimizing her responsibility and Manson’s ‘violent and controlling actions,’ he said, and she continues to lack insight into her reasons for participating.

Manson Family killers Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten in 1971

Leno LaBianca (left) and Rosemary LaBianca (right) were murdered by Leslie Van Houten and other Manson followers in 1969. Van Houten admitted to stabbing Rosemary multiple times

Van Houten’s lawyer said in January after her latest release recommendation that the parole board found she had taken full responsibility for her role in the killings.

‘She chose to go with Manson,’ Pfeiffer said. ‘She chose to listen to him. And she acknowledges that.’

Van Houten has also been a model inmate, her lawyer claims. She has since earned a master’s degree in counseling and mentored inmates. 

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 in 1967.

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, terrifying murders.

Brown rejected parole for Van Houten in 2017 because he said she still blamed the cult leader too much for the murders. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge upheld Brown’s decision last year, finding that Van Houten posed ‘an unreasonable risk of danger to society.’

An appeals court will decide whether to uphold or reject that ruling by the end of July.

Manson, pictured following his arrest after the 1969 killing spree, went on to spend four decades behind bars until his death in 2017

Van Houten had been traveling up and down the California coast when acquaintances led her to Manson, pictured here 

‘No governor’s ever going to let her out,’ said Pfeiffer, Van Houten’s attorney who’s pinning his hopes on the appeals court. ‘They are bound by law to enforce the law independently. They have to do it whether or not it’s popular with the public… and the law is that she should be released.’

Manson and his followers were sentenced to death in 1971, though those punishments were commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court ruled capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972. Van Houten’s case was overturned on appeal and she was later convicted and sentenced to seven years to life in prison.

Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, has routinely shown up to parole and court hearings to oppose the release of any Manson follower. Even though Van Houten didn’t take part in her sister’s murder, Tate said she didn’t deserve release under any circumstances.

Supporters of Van Houten said she had been a model prisoner who mentored dozens of inmates and helped them come to terms with their crimes.

Manson died in 2017 of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence.

Source: Read Full Article