CA Panel OKs parole for Manson Family cult killer
Gov. Jerry Brown has final say in Leslie Van Houten release.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger severely damaged his already questionable reputation by shortening the sentence of the son of a political ally serving time for the brutal murder of another young man.
Another California murderer is now slated to go free. Our current governor has a chance to enhance his legacy by undoing the recent decision of a 2-member parole board, which authorized the release of former Manson Family killer Leslie Van Houten.
The now-66-year-old Van Houten was “numb” after the panel announced its decision following a five-hour hearing at the California Institution for Women in Chino, said her attorney Rich Pfeiffer.
“She’s been ready for this for a long time,” Pfeiffer said outside the prison, adding that those who signed an online petition opposed to her release don’t know the woman she is today.
…..Van Houten, a one-time homecoming princess, participated in the killings of Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary a day after other so-called “Manson family” members murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in 1969.
The killings were the start of what Manson believed was a coming race war that he dubbed “Helter Skelter” after a Beatles song. Van Houten said the group planned to retreat to the desert and hide in a hole.
The parole board members cited her good behavior and pursuit of higher education while in jail for their leniency in granting parole. However, there are factors that they obviously failed to consider.
For example, the gruesomeness of the crime of stabbing Rosemary Labianca 16 separate time:
This is what the "sweet old lady" #LeslieVanHouten did to #RosemaryLabianca @JerryBrownGov Never Forget. Veto parole pic.twitter.com/fhzYMHskfD
— Jillian Barberie (@askjillian) April 15, 2016
Additionally, Van Houten probably had the reasonable expectation that she would participate in butchering Leno and Rosemary Labianca when Manson Family crew arrived at their home in August, 1969. After all, she had to have heard about the carnage that occurred at the home of actress Sharon Tate the night before.
The couple’s daughter, Cory Labianca, is angered at the decision.
Coming up on @NBCNightlyNews:
Cory LaBianca speaks out on Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten's possible parole.https://t.co/SavHpHPTQI
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) April 15, 2016
“I very much disagree with the ruling,” she said in a rare telephone interview. “We all need to be held responsible for our behavior. The least we can do, for someone who commits a crime against another human being, is to keep them in jail.”
LaBianca did not attend the parole hearing, held at the California Institution for Women in Chino, but her cousin attended. Her son listened via telephone, she said. At one point, she said, he couldn’t bear to hear the detailed account of the slayings.
“He started crying. My son is 41 years old,” LaBianca said. “He stood, crying, and told the [parole] commissioner, ‘I can’t listen to this.’”
Ultimately, Governor Jerry Brown has the final say if Van Houten is to be released. I encourage Californians to contact his office and voice their disapproval of the parole board’s decision.
I hope he just says, “No.” It would be better for his legacy and the Golden State if he did.
(Featured Image via Chicago Tribune/Twitter)
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Comments
“those who signed an online petition opposed to her release don’t know the woman she is today”
Don’t care, she shouldn’t be getting a parole hearing.
“The parole board members cited her good behavior and pursuit of higher education while in jail for their leniency in granting parole.”
Ted Kacyznski had a Phd in Mathematics from Harvard and Michigan U. Ted Bundy attended graduate law school.
Some of the worlds most prolific serial killers were well educated with college degrees. You cannot just take it at face value they are good people because they are educated.
Chess master Raymond Weinstein was good enough to play in the US Championship, a small invitational tournament limited to the country’s top players, in the ’60s. He was said to have “a real killer instinct” before being deported from the Netherlands for attacking another chess master, treated in a psychiatric hospital & released to a halfway house – when he murdered his elderly roommate with a straight razor. He remains in a facility for the criminally insane 50 years later.
Set her free…IN Kuhlifornia. No place else.
I’m sure they have MUCH more dangerous wimmins in the state, and they (she and Kuhlifornia) deserve each other.
Maybe they’ll find each other.
the original sentence was the death penalty…
if they won’t let us put it to sleep, at least leave it locked up until it’s dead.
She should have been put down like the mad dog she is. Can anyone of you imagine even for one second, stabbing a woman that many times for the fun of it? How do you ever get beyond that? GWB understood that Karla Fae Tucker was a changed woman but let the execution go forward because the change only helped Tucker not the victim. Of all the man-on-man crimes murder is the most heinous. If premeditated or of a sadistic nature death should always be the punishment. But wait! This is California after all!
She murdered a 44 yr. old man and his 38 yr. old wife. She should spend the rest of her life behind bars.
If there is any justice, she will.
Actually, Tex murdered the man. Hate to split hairs. Since she was there providing moral support.
Actually, she should be sentenced to death, and the punishment should be enacted as soon as possible. That would be justice.
I think she was sentenced to death, but California abolished the death penalty soon after.
Know what we’ll be calling her in about two years?
Professor Leslie Van Houten . . .
Only in America.
I have to say that brutal murderers who think that old age will get them out of their cages …
… after they denied their victims a chance to reach their own old ages …
… really burn my biscuits.
(signed)
An old guy
She should be released only when the LaBiancas’ lives are returned to them.
Actions must have consequences, and this was a horrific act.
I hope you have more than one pair.
A life sentence should mean life. If she is a changed person, let her use the rest of her days helping other inmates.
There seems to be great ignorance of California Law on a blog which is putatively devoted to law. California has a mandatory parole system. Only by showing she is a danger to public safety can van Houten be lawfully denied parole in California. The Courts had expressed “dissatisfaction” with previous parole hearing results in her case.
Vincent Bugliosi the prosecutor in the Manson Trial did not oppose parole for Susan Atkins.
After spending 47 years incarcerated, leaving prison may be more of a punishment than staying there. She goes out into a new world for which she is unprepared. No children, no spouse, no parents, no Social Security, no friends outside of prison — elderly with no one she can really depend on. Hardly a picnic.
That’s some first class thinking on the part of the Kali parole board, then. Let’s toss an old but still brutal murderer out on the street where she has no one to depend on, no way to make a living, no social security even, and really nothing at this point to lose.
Yup, what can possibly go wrong by throwing someone like her who has proven once that other people’s lives mean nothing to her into a completely hopeless, desperate situation in a world that’s completely alien to her.
Why, this is just bound to end well for whomever crosses her path when she’s homeless and starving.
I would argue she is a danger to public safety, as is evidence by the photo that accompanies this piece.
“Vincent Bugliosi … did not oppose parole for Susan Atkins.”
That was because Susan Atkins had terminal cancer, had one leg already amputated, was incapacitated in a hospital, and was about to die. Obviously she was no danger to public safety.
The 2 cases are very different.
The Brown stain on California continues.
We really need to build that wall. Around Kali.
Squeaky needs a roommate.