Former Charles Manson follower is recommended for parole
A California state parole board recommended parole for Patricia Krenwinkel, a follower of the cult leader Charles Manson, on Friday for the second time.
The decision will now have to be approved by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who denied Krenwinkel’s first parole recommendation. The governor’s review process can take up to 150 days following a parole hearing.
The 77-year-old is serving a life sentence in the California Institution for Women for her role in the killings of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four others in August 1969, as well as grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the following night in what prosecutors have called Manson’s attempt to start a race war.
Krenwinkel was recommended for parole for the first time in May 2022, but Newsom denied clemency five months later, according to Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate records. She was previously denied parole 14 times before then.
Krenwinkel was 19 and working as a secretary when she met a 33-year-old Manson at a party, leaving her life behind to follow him because she believed they could have a romantic relationship, she said in 2016 testimony. Instead, she was abused by Manson and tried to flee, but was brought back each time and was often under the influence of drugs.
Krenwinkel admitted to stabbing an heiress to a coffee fortune, Abigail Folger, multiple times on the night of Aug. 9, 1969, as well as participating in the killings of the LaBiancas the following night. During the LaBianca murders, she infamously wrote “Helter Skelter” and other phrases on the wall in her victims’ blood.
She, along with other participants including Manson, were convicted and sentenced to death. However, their sentences were commuted to life with the possibility parole in 1972, after the death penalty was briefly ruled unconstitutional in California.
Krenwinkel is now the state’s longest-serving inmate. The California governor’s office and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.