Manson Family Killer Leslie Van Houten Recommended For Parole

LOS ANGELES, CA — Leslie Van Houten, the Altadena native who went from Monrovia High homecoming queen to Manson Family killer, was recommended for parole for a third time by a state board Wednesday.

The last two times, former Gov. Jerry Brown reversed her parole. Now it's Gov. Gavin Newsom who could stand between Van Houten and freedom, making it the new governor's first brush with the perennial test of what to do with the state's most infamous killers.

Van Houten, was the youngest Manson follower and arguably the most sympathetic of the convicted Manson Family killers. According to other family members, Van Houten was a docile follower, who submitted entirely to the whims of Charles Manson. She's repeatedly testified to her remorse for her role in the murders that shocked a nation.

The parole board's decision -- made a hearing in Chino -- begins a 150- day review process. According to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a review of legal issues will be conducted during the first 120 days, and if the recommendation stands, it will be sent to Newsom, who will have 30 days to uphold, reverse or modify the decision, or send it back to the full Board of Parole Hearings for a more thorough review.

Van Houten, now 69, was convicted of murder and conspiracy for participating with fellow Manson family members Charles "Tex" Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel in the Aug. 9, 1969, killings of Leno La Bianca, 44, and his 38-year-old wife, Rosemary, who were each stabbed multiple times in their Los Feliz home.

Manson died Nov. 19, 2017.

The former Monrovia High School cheerleader and homecoming princess did not participate in the Manson family's killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in a Benedict Canyon mansion the night before.

For years, Van Houten and her supporters have vowed to fight for her release, claiming she has been a model prisoner throughout her life. Manson follower Catherine Share, aka "Gypsy," testified at a hearing for Van Houten in 2017.

Share -- who was called to the stand by the defense -- testified that she felt like she almost left her body when Manson beat and kicked her after the top of a barrel of food broke off when she and another woman rolled it down a ravine at his behest. She also said Manson had asked another follower at one point if he would track her down and drag her back to the ranch behind a car if she left.

Share said she didn't feel that she was free to leave and did not think Van Houten believed she could leave, either.

Share -- who said she was known by the name "Gypsy" at the time -- said she lived with Manson for about three years, testifying that she initially thought he was "really smart and really knew a lot about life."

"I said, `There's lots of really good-looking guys at this ranch I live at and this great man, Charlie.' I just thought it was the best thing that ever happened to me," she said, noting that Van Houten showed up at the ranch after meeting her in San Francisco and traveling through California for a time with fellow Manson follower Bobby Beausoleil.

Share testified that the atmosphere at the ranch changed "almost overnight" in the summer of 1969, and that she "found out later it was because Charlie thought he killed someone, a black man, over a drug deal."

"When Charles Manson started to change, did the activities change?" Van Houten's attorney asked.

Manson began talking a lot about how "the cities were going to explode" and there was "going to be a race war" and that they needed to find a place to hide, Share said, noting that the idyllic atmosphere of the ranch changed drastically.

She said Manson was more clever than ordering his followers to do something and instead manipulated them into thinking that it was their own idea, calling him "probably the most intense manipulator I've ever met."

Share -- who served time in prison for armed robbery -- testified that she saw Van Houten become "very withdrawn and not talking to anybody and just staying by herself a lot" after the killings, and that Van Houten seemed to her to be "the most remorseful person that I had met in that prison" while the two women were behind bars.

Manson and many of his other former followers have repeatedly been denied parole.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report. Photo: This Sept. 6, 2017 file photo shows Leslie Van Houten at her parole hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona, Calif. She was convicted of the LaBianca murders. (Stan Lim/Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool, File)