Charles Manson follower seeks parole
SACRAMENTO — Patricia Krenwinkel, once a devout follower of cult killer Charles Manson and now the longestserving female inmate in California, appeared again Thursday before a parole board — 47 years after she helped kill pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people.
Krenwinkel, 69, has been denied parole 13 times since her conviction in the 1969 slayings.
She acknowledged during her trial that she chased down and repeatedly stabbed Abigail Ann Folger, the 26-year-old heiress of a coffee fortune, at Tate’s home and helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the following night.
Los Angeles County prosecutors say Krenwinkel carved the word “war” into Leno LaBianca’s stomach, then wrote “Helter Skelter” in blood on the couple’s refrigerator.
Krenwinkel’s attorney, Keith Wattley, successfully petitioned the state to hold the hearing a year early at the California Institution for Women, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, where Krenwinkel is imprisoned.
“Ms. Krenwinkel is fully aware of the difficulty she faces,” Wattley told The Associated Press in an email. “But California law officially recognizes a person’s capacity to change and to address the factors that contributed to their previous behavior so that they can safely be paroled.”
Krenwinkel contended at her previous parole hearing in 2011 that she is a changed woman. She has a clean disciplinary record, earned a bachelor’s degree behind bars, taught illiterate inmates to read and trained service dogs for disabled people.
Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, said before Thursday’s hearing that killers such as Krenwinkel cannot be rehabilitated.
“She was a very prolific killer,” Debra Tate said recently. “They may behave well in a controlled environment, but we cannot trust that, given the pressures of life, that they will be able to remain straight” outside prison.
Krenwinkel was a 19-yearold secretary when she met Manson at a party. She testified at her previous parole hearing that she left everything behind three days later to pursue what she believed was a budding romance with him.