Patricia Krenwinkel, a former Charles Manson follower, was recommended for release by a California parole board for the first time Thursday.
The now-74-year-old was convicted of seven counts of first degree murder in the killings that left seven people dead in August of 1969, according to CNN. One of the victims was pregnant actress Sharon Tate, who was married to director Roman Polanski. Tate had been spending the night with friends at her home on Cielo Drive in Los Angeles when the murder took place. One of her friends that was murdered was coffee heiress Abigail Folger, who Krenwinkel confessed to stabbing several times.
Krenwinkel also helped murder grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the night after the Tate murders. She confessed to stabbing Leno LaBianca in the stomach and writing messages, most famously “Helter Skelter,” with the man’s blood on the walls of his home. (RELATED: Teenage Manson Follower Reveals Why she Stayed In Cult)
Patricia Krenwinkel, now 74, was previously denied parole 14 times after the slayings of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. https://t.co/z1XcX4awOn
— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) May 27, 2022
She has previously been denied parole 14 times for her participation in the murders, according to NBC News. The last time she was denied parole was in 2017, and there have been new laws passed that “required the parole panel to consider that she committed the murders at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner,” according to the outlet.
CORCORAN STATE PRISON – MARCH 18: In this handout photo from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Charles Manson, 74, is seen March 18, 2009 at Corcoran State Prison, California. Manson is serving a life sentence for conspiring to murder seven people during the “Manson family” killings in 1969. The picture was taken as a regular update of the prison’s files. (Photo by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images)
Krenwinkel’s attorney, Keith Wattley, said that while relatives of her victims offered the same objections as they have in past hearings, 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,” according to CBS News.
“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, according to the outlet. The proposed parole decision will go to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has the authority to reverse the decision.