SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A parole panel in California recommended that Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten be released from prison, as reported by the Associated Press.
Van Houten has been granted parole by a panel five times, but those decisions have been rejected by California’s governor. This recommendation will head to Governor Gavin Newsom, who, like his predecessor in office, previously denied Van Houten’s parole.
Leslie Van Houten was given a life sentence for helping Charles Manson and other members of his cult kill two people in August 1969. She was 19 when she and several others stabbed Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary to death.
Manson and his followers also killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others the night before the LaBianca murders, but Van Houten was not convicted of those murders.
In October, another of Manson’s followers, Tex Watson, was denied parole, according to NBC LA.
Manson died in 2017 of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence.
In this 1969 file photo, Charles Manson is escorted to his arraignment on conspiracy-murder charges in connection with the Sharon Tate murder case in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/File)
FILE: This file combination of images shows the five victims slain the night of Aug. 9, 1969. From left, Wojciech Frykowski, Sharon Tate, Stephen Parent, Jay Sebring, and Abigail Folger (AP Photo/File)
FILE: In this Jan. 25, 1971, file photo, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins and Leslie VanHouten leave a Los Angeles courtroom just after being found guilty, along with Manson of first degree murder, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Pool, File)
More than 50 years ago, Charles Manson dispatched a group of disaffected young hippie followers on a two-night killing spree that terrorized Los Angeles. Manson died in prison on Nov. 19, 2017. (California DOC, left, and Wally Fong, right, via AP, File)
FILE: This combination of file photos shows Susan Atkins, left, during a parole hearing on Dec. 20, 1989, and at right leaving a jail after meeting with Charles Manson in 1970. (AP Photo/Files
FILE: In this combination of file photos Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, left, sits at his home in Pasadena, Calif., on March 7, 2013, and at right talks to reporters outside a Los Angeles courtroom on Jan. 26, 1971.
FILE This combination of file photos shows Patricia Krenwinkel being led to superior court in Los Angeles on Feb. 24, 1970, right, and years later at a parole hearing on Jan. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, left, and George Brich, right, File)
FILE This combination of file photos shows Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme being led away after she pointed a gun at President Gerald Ford, on Sept. 5, 1975, left, and five years earlier at a pretrial hearing in 1970 for Manson. (AP Photo/Files)
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, left, in an undated photo provided by their daughter, Cory LaBianca, posing outside their home in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles and at right the same home on Aug. 11, 1969. (Cory LaBianca via AP)
This combination of file photos shows former Manson follower Charles "Tex" Watson, left, appearing during a parole hearing on Nov. 16, 2011, and Watson in a courtroom at an extradition hearing in 1970. (AP Photo/Files)</p>
Bruce Davis, left, in March 12, 2014, and at right in a 1970 photo. Davis was convicted of taking part in the Hinman and Shea murders but was not involved in the Tate-LaBianca killings.
In this August 11, 1969, file photo, the Hilltop home in Los Angeles’ Los Feliz district, about five miles northwest of the downtown section where Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were found murdered.(AP Photo/File)
This Dec. 22, 1970 file photo shows Charles Manson family members, Bruce Davis, left, and Steve Grogan, leaving court after a hearing in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Harold Filan, File)
FILE: In this Aug. 19, 1970, file photo, Linda Kasabian speaks at a news conference she held at end of her 18 days on stand as a prosecution witness in the Manson Family murder trials in Los Angeles.(AP Photo/David F. Smith, File)
FILE: In this Monday, Jan. 25, 1971, file photo, news media gather outside court before the Charles Manson verdict in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Wally Fong, File)
FILE: This March 29, 1971, file photo shows Leslie Van Houten in a Los Angeles lockup. She didn’t take part in the Tate killings but accompanied Charles Manson and others to the LaBianca home. (AP Photo/File)
In this Aug. 20, 1970, file photo, Charles Manson followers, from left, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten walk to court to appear for their roles in the 1969 cult killings in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/George Brich, File)
In this June 25, 1970, file photo, Charles Manson sticks his tongue out at photographers as he appears in a Santa Monica, Calif., courtroom on, charged with the slaying of musician Gary Hinman. (AP Photo/George Brich, File)
FILE: This Dec. 3, 1969, file photo shows Charles Manson en route to court in Independence, Calif., following his arrest at nearby Barker Ranch. (AP Photo/Harold Filan, File)
In this Jan. 20, 1968 file photo, American actress Sharon Tate and Polish-born film director Roman Polanski skip downstairs after their wedding at Chelsea Register Office in London. (AP Photo/Eddie Worth, File)
Actress Sharon Tate is shown in this undated file photo. She was 8-1/2 months pregnant when she was attacked as she pleaded with her Manson Family killers to spare the life of her unborn son on Aug. 9, 1969. (AP Photo/File)
In this Jan. 26, 1971, file photo, Manson trial chief prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi talks with reporters outside a Los Angeles courtroom.(AP Photo, File)
In this Feb. 9, 1989 file photo, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay holds up a magazine profiling convicted murderer Charles Manson while delivering his closing statement at Manson's parole hearing. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
In this March 7, 2013, file photo, former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi sits next to one of his books at his home in Pasadena, Calif. He died of cancer at age 80 in 2015. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
This Aug. 14, 2017 file photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Charles Manson. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP, File)
FILE: In this Aug. 13, 1969 file photo an aerial view of the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles.(AP Photo, File)
Charles Manson, 83, was serving a life term at the California State Prison at Corcoran when he died. The California Department of corrections said that he died of natural causes.(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP, File)
The cult leader and some of his followers originally were sentenced to death, which was commuted to life when the death penalty was briefly outlawed in the 1970s.
FILE PHOTO: Leslie Van Houten, 68, serving life terms at the California Institution for Women at Frontera. Death sentences commuted to life. She was granted parole by a two-person panel. Gov. Jerry Brown rejected it in 2017. She was recommended once again in 2021.
Patricia Krenwinkel, 69, serving life terms at the California Institution for Women at Frontera. Death sentence commuted to life. She has petitioned for parole 14 times. All have been denied. She will be eligible in 2022.
Susan Atkins, 61, lost her last chance at parole in September 2009 and died at the age of 61 at the women’s prison in Chowchilla. She had been suffering from brain cancer.
Bruce Davis, 75, serving a life term. He became a born-again Christian and married while in prison. He has a teenage daughter and worked in the prison chapel as an assistant pastor. He was recommended for parole in 2017, but Gov. Jerry Bown denied it. He also was denied parole in 2021.
Charles "Tex" Watson, 71 is serving a life sentence. He became a born-again Christian and ordained minister in prison. He is also married and has three children. He has been denied parole 18 times.
