Parole denied for Manson follower Krenwinkel
SACRAMENTO — Officials denied parole Thursday for convicted killer Patricia Krenwinkel — a follower of cult leader Charles Manson — after considering whether battered women’s syndrome affected her state of mind at the time of the notorious murders nearly five decades ago in California.
Krenwinkel, 69, was previously denied parole 13 times for the slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people.
The next night, she helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in what prosecutors say was an attempt by Manson to ignite a race war.
The decision on parole came six months after commissioners postponed the latest hearing so officials could investigate whether Krenwinkel was battered by Manson.
“They were willing to discount the level of control through the violence, threats, intimidation that was substantiated by their own investigators,” Krenwinkel’s attorney, Keith Wattley, said after the hearing.
State law requires commissioners to give “great weight” to whether physical, emotional or mental abuse affected offenders to the point that “it appears the criminal behavior was a result of that victimization.”
Krenwinkel was denied parole for five more years at the hearing at the California Institution for Women east of Los Angeles, where she is incarcerated.
She was a 19-year-old secretary living with her older sister when she met the 33-yearold Manson at a party. She testified that she left everything behind three days later to follow him because she believed they had a budding romantic relationship.
She said in December that her feelings faded when Manson became physically and emotionally abusive, and trafficked her to other men for sex.