Patricia Krenwinkel was released by a California parole board on Thursday. This is more than 50 years after Charles Manson and his followers terrorized the state. She wrote “Helter Sketer” on a wall with the blood of one their victims.
Krenwinkel, now 74, was previously refused parole 14 times in relation to the 1969 slayings, which included Sharon Tate, Sharon Tate’s pregnant actress, and four others. In what the prosecutors believe was an attempt to start a war of races, she helped Leno LaBianca, a grocer, and Rosemary his wife Rosemary die that night.
Before the recommendation for parole is likely to be sent to the Governor, it will be reviewed by a legal division of state parole board. Gavin Newsom will make a decision in five months. He rejected parole requests for Manson’s followers, and he died in prison in 2017.
Since Krenwinkel was denied parole in 2017, new laws required that the parole panel consider Krenwinkel’s young age when deciding whether she should be allowed to parole her.
Los Angeles County prosecutors were absent at the parole hearing for the first-time. This was due to District Attorney George Gascon’s policy that prosecutors should not participate in the decision about whether prisoners are ready for release.
Keith Wattley, Krenwinkel’s attorney, stated that relatives of the victims raised the same objections as the prosecutors in the past.
This time, the parole panel was more open to following the law. He said that she had not been disciplined and that she is no longer a danger for society.
He said that she had “completely transformed” from the person she was at the time she had committed this crime. This is what it takes to be granted parole.
Wattley stated, “I hope that the governor realizes that he shouldn’t be playing politics with people’s lives.” Wattley stated that the governor would block her parole, not because he is afraid of her but because he doesn’t like her. The law does not allow this.”
Krenwinkel is still being held at the California Institution for Women East of Los Angeles.
Five years ago, she was denied parole by the commissioners despite her argument that she was suffering from battered woman’s syndrome at the time she participated in the bloody slayings.
Krenwinkel, a 19-year old secretary, was living with her older sibling when Manson, 33, met her at a party. In 2016, she testified that she had left her family and moved in with Manson because she believed they might be in a romantic relationship.
She said Manson had abused her emotionally and physically, and she also trafficked her to other men for sexual sex. She claimed she fled twice, only to be returned. She also said that Manson was a cruel and inhumane person who kept her company and often used drugs to get her drunk.
Krenwinkel, who was serving her last sentence, told Tate that she had repeatedly stabbed Abigail Folger (26-year-old heiress to a fortune in coffee) at Tate’s house on Aug. 9, 1969.
She said Manson had told her to do something witchy, so she stabbed La Bianca in her stomach with a fork. Then she took a rag, wrote “Helter Skeleter,” “Rise”, and “Death To Pigs” on the walls using his blood.
Her and the other participants were originally sentenced to death. After the death penalty in California was temporarily ruled unconstitutional, they were sent back to prison and given the chance of parole.
Krenwinkel was the longest-serving female prisoner in the state when Susan Atkins, a fellow Manson follower, died in 2009 from cancer. Wattley stated that he understood why she was the longest-serving female inmate in the United States.
