Former Charles Manson follower and murderer, Patricia Krenwinkel was recommended for release Thursday release by a California parole board.
Krenwinkel, 74, was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder in the brutal murder of seven people in August of 1969. Among the victims was pregnant actress Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski. Tate was entertaining friends at her home on Cielo Drive in Los Angeles when the horrifying murders took place. Krenwinkel confessed to stabbing coffee heiress Abigail Folger several times.
She also took part in the murder of grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the night after the Tate murders. She also confessed to brutally stabbing Leno LaBianca in the stomach and writing messages, most notoriously “Helter Skelter,” with the man’s blood on the walls of his home.
She has been denied parole 14 times in the past for her role in the horrendous murders. New laws have passed since her last hearing in 2017 that “required the parole panel to consider that she committed the murders at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner.”
Relatives of Krenwinkel’s victims voiced the same objections as they have in past hearings, but her attorney, Keith Wattley, said the parole panel “was willing to follow the law” and recognized that “she has had no disciplinary violations and is no longer a danger to society.”
“She’s completely transformed from the person she was when she committed this crime, which is all that it’s supposed to take to be granted parole,” he said. The proposed parole decision will go to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has the authority to reverse the decision.
