Former Manson Family Member Leslie Van Houten Is Released on Parole

Leslie Van Houten, a former follower of Charles Manson who played a role in the gruesome double murder of a Los Angeles couple in the summer of 1969, was released on parole Tuesday after serving more than half a century in prison, according to her attorney.

Ms. Van Houten’s lawyer, Nancy Tetro, said she was taken early Tuesday morning to transitional housing at an undisclosed location. “She’s going to have to learn to live in the world after 53 years in prison,” Ms. Tetro said in an interview. “So that’s going to take a while.”

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed her release to The Associated Press.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said this month it would not challenge her release. Mr. Newsom has revoked Ms. Van Houten’s parole three times since taking office, most recently in March 2022.

“The governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeals’ decision to release Ms. Van Houten, but will take no further action as further appeal efforts are unlikely to succeed,” a spokeswoman for the governor said.

Ms Van Houten was 19 when she and other members of the so-called Manson family broke into the home of wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary and stabbed them dozens of times on August 10, 1969.

The LaBiancas were killed one night after five people were killed at the home of film director Roman Polanski — including his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate. The murders were carried out under the direction of Charles Manson, one of the most notorious murderers of the 20th century, who died in 2017 at the age of 83.

In 1971, Mrs. Van Houten was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. She was originally sentenced to death, but her sentence was commuted to life in prison when the death penalty was outlawed in California the following year.

Ms. Van Houten is unashamed of her role in the murders, saying at a 2002 parole board hearing that she cornered Ms. LaBianca while another Manson family member, Patricia Krenwinkel, stab in the collarbone. Charles D. Watson, another figure in the attack, stabbed Ms. LaBianca with a bayonet eight times before Ms. Van Houten then stabbed her in the stomach 14 to 16 times.

At the crime scene, Ms. Van Houten wiped surfaces for fingerprints, changed her clothes and drank chocolate milk from the couple’s refrigerator, parole records show.

Years later, Ms. Van Houten said she regretted taking part in the murders and that she was mentally ill, a condition made worse by LSD use.

“I believed he was Jesus Christ,” Ms. Van Houten said of Mr. Manson. “I went for it, inventory and barrel.”

Orlando Mayorkin contributed reporting.