Parole OKd for Manson follower

LOS ANGELES — Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer Patricia Krenwinkel has been found suitable for parole, according to an announcement by state prison officials.

Krenwinkel, 74, is California’s longest-serving female inmate and was a participant in the 1969 murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate by the Manson “family,” among other killings carried out during the group’s rampage across Los Angeles.

“The tentative decision will be reviewed by (the Board of Parole Hearings) legal division which can take up to 120 days,” according to a statement last week by Terry Thornton, a spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “If the decision becomes final, the governor will have up to 30 days to review it.”

On Aug. 9, 1969, Krenwinkel joined the band of

Manson acolytes who stormed the Benedict Canyon home shared by Tate, 26, and her movie director husband, Roman Polanski. Tate and four others were stabbed and shot.

The next night, Krenwinkel and others killed Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, at their Los Feliz home.

Krenwinkel was sent to death row in 1971 after a Los Angeles jury convicted her of killing Tate and six others in the two-day rampage.

After the state’s highest court in 1972 ruled the death penalty unconstitutional, Krenwinkel’s sentence — along with those of other Manson followers — was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Debra Tate, the sister of the slain actress, started a petition calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to bar Krenwinkel’s release.