After a decades-long search for freedom, former Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten was released from prison on Tuesday after more than five decades behind bars in horrific murders that stunned the nation.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Van Houten, 73, has been “released on supervised parole.” She was serving a life sentence for her role in the 1969 Los Angeles murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
The nephew of Manson Family victim Jay Sebring spoke at Van Houten’s parole hearings on behalf of the LaBianca family. Her release was expected, he told The Times on Tuesday, “but it doesn’t make it any less painful.”
“It doesn’t soften the blow,” said Anthony DeMaria. “It’s mind-numbing, nauseating, suspenseful, and painful to think that this version is real.”
Governor Gavin Newsom has denied Van Houten parole three times, and his predecessor, Governor Jerry Brown, denied Van Houten parole while he was in office.
But Newsom was reversed by a California appeals court this year, and on Friday he said he would not contest the appeals court’s decision to allow Van Houten parole.
Erin Mellon, director of communications for the governor’s office, said in a statement Tuesday that Newsom was “disappointed with the appeals court’s decision to release Ms. Van Houten.”
Legal experts have described Van Houten’s release as rare in light of his previous parole denials.
“I don’t think most people thought any Manson Family member would make it out alive,” said Lori Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School. “The crime was appalling, but I think the governor realized he was unlikely to overturn the parole board and the appeals court.”
A former homecoming queen from Monrovia, Van Houten became involved with the Manson Family in the 1960s. Her supporters described her as a misguided teen under the influence of LSD on the night of the murder.
She was involved in the second Manson Family murder – the murder of LaBianca and his wife in their home in Los Feliz.
Van Houten and another woman held down Rosemary LaBianca while Charles “Tex” Watson stabbed Leno LaBianca. After Watson stabs Rosemary LaBianca, he hands Van Houten a knife. She testified that the woman was stabbed at least 14 times.
Van Houten testified in 1971: “I took one of the knives, and Patricia had one—a knife—and we started stabbing and cutting the lady.”
A day before the LaBianca murders, Charles Manson henchmen—including Watston and Krenwinkel—killed Sharon Tate and her friends Sebring, Abigail Folger, and Stephen Barnet in a brutal attack on a home on Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon.
The two killings, commonly referred to as the Tate-LaBianca murders, attracted international attention and became closely associated with Los Angeles and the late 1960s.
Van Houten went through three trials for her role in the killings. The first resulted in her being convicted and sentenced to death, which was overturned on appeal because her lawyer had disappeared before the sentence was pronounced.
The second trial ended in a hung jury, and the third resulted in her being convicted of murder and sentenced to seven years to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Van Houten’s attorney, Nancy Tetro, was “thrilled” that her client would “be given a chance at freedom.”
“I’m really happy for Leslie because the thing about her is that she went to prison as a 19-year-old who was struggling with a lot of problems in her home life,” Tetro said. “She was introduced to the Manson cult under the guise that it was a happy-go-lucky hippie outfit, and it turned out to be pretty bad for her.”
Tetro said Tuesday afternoon that Van Houten is now analyzing job offers and trying to “find trends for her work.”
“I think she wants to get into some field where she can make an impact,” she said. “When she was in prison, she mentored other inmates and tutored them for GEDs and even bachelor’s degrees.”
Rich Pfeiffer, another attorney for Van Houten who has been working on her case for a decade, said he was “relieved” after her release.
“It was a long battle,” he said, “and it took an emotional toll at times.” All of these sessions were difficult. The governor always waits until the last possible minute to revoke the grant of parole before releasing her. I think that’s incredibly mean.”
Pfeiffer said Van Houten, who earned a master’s degree in the humanities while in prison, has job offers and support from family and friends.
“You’ll do well,” he said.
Pfeiffer said that Van Houten did not want to make any public statement because she was “afraid if she said anything, it would offend the victims.”
“She respects them,” Pfeiffer said.
The families of the victims have long fought for Van Houten’s release. Cory LaBianca, daughter of Leno LaBianca, and Deborah Tate, younger sister of Sharon Tate, previously urged courts to deny parole to the killer. Attempts to reach both Tuesdays were unsuccessful.
Sebring’s nephew, Demaria, said Tuesday that there are concerns among the families of the victims that other Manson followers may be released.
“It’s hard to hear Leslie Van Houten and her attorneys say that Leslie is a changed person and has been rehabilitated,” DiMaria said.
“Rosemary and Lino LaBianca haven’t changed,” DeMaria said in a wobbly voice. “They are still without rehabilitation and without excuse. They died today just as they died the night of August 10, 1969.”
Kay Hinman-Martley, whose cousin Gary Hinman was among those murdered by Manson cult members, said she has spoken with survivors of the LaBianca and Tate families in recent days, and they are all freaked out that Van Houten is on the loose.
“We have four more Manson killers,” she said, “and I’m afraid they’ll all get away with it.” “They are all psychopaths who manipulated systems. All of these killers get all the help they want, but nobody does anything for the families of the victims.”
Despite the parole for Van Houten, who has been described as a model prisoner, Levinson said her release is unlikely to have an impact on other Manson Family members still in prison.
Watson, 77, is still being held at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego and has been denied parole in 2021.
Krenwinkel, 75, works at the California Institute for Women in Chino. In May 2022, the parole board recommended that she be released, but Newsom blocked the attempt in October, saying it posed an “unreasonable risk to public safety”.
“All these years, the focus has been on the crime, not the individual or the inmate,” Levinson said. “I think that is why people are not hoping that Leslie Van Houten will be released. Recently, there has been more focus on whether an individual is a danger to society.”
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