Leslie Van Houten, a member of the infamous Manson family responsible for at least nine murders in 1969 (and, honestly, possibly more throughout the 1960s), has been released from a California prison.
Van Houten, who was 19 when she joined the cult led by Charles Manson, is now in her 70s and was released under a three-year parole term, with a parole discharge review taking place after one year. She’ll spend that time acclimating to life in the 21st century, which looks very different from when she was convicted in 1971.
Her release seemed imminent after a state appellate court’s panel ruling in May opened the door for the possibility of Van Houten’s parole. And, as expected, the decision has been met with a great deal of backlash from disappointed politicians, officials, and the family members affected by the murders more than 50 years ago.
Originally, Van Houten was sentenced to death, but it was commuted to a life sentence when California abolished the death penalty. She has been up for parole since 1977, and a state parole board panel first recommended her for release in 2016. That decision has been overturned by California governors five times, three of which by current governor Gavin Newsom, who also expressed his disappointment in the most recent ruling, but won’t challenge it.
What Was Leslie Van Houten’s Role in the Manson Family Murders?
Van Houten played a role in the 1969 murders of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in Los Angeles. The LaBiancas, who owned a chain of Los Angeles grocery stores, were simply the victims of horrific luck, as Charles Manson instructed his “family” to drive around Los Angeles neighborhoods looking for potential victims following the Tate murders.
Though some members of the Manson family attended a party next door to the LaBianca house a year earlier, there was no other connection, and the LaBiancas had no connections to the night’s previous murder victims. In fact, Leno LaBianca discussed the Tate murders from the previous night with newsstand owner John Fokianos, as he and Rosemary were coming back into town from Lake Isabella at around 1:00 a.m. August 10.
Just a few hours later, with Leno sleeping on the couch and Rosemary in the bedroom, the cult entered the home. Manson and the rest of his followers tortured and stabbed the LaBianca couple to death, with Van Houten describing her own role in the killings in a 1994 interview with Larry King:
“I went in and Mrs. LaBianca was laying on the floor and I stabbed her… in the lower back, around 16 times.”
While acclimating to life on the other side, Van Houten will be looking to gain employment that potentially builds on the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in humanities that she earned in prison.
Van Houten is the first member of the Manson family cult involved in the Tate or LaBianca murders to be released.
(Photo credit: John Malmin, Los Angeles Times)
