LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gavin Newsom denied parole Tuesday for former Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel, who is serving a life prison term for her role in the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders.
Krenwinkel, now 77, was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder in 1971 for participating with fellow Manson family members Charles “Tex” Watson and Leslie Van Houten in the Aug. 9, 1969, killings of the seven-months-pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Thomas Jay Sebring, Abigail Ann Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Earl Parent and the slayings of grocers Leno and Rosemary La Bianca the following day.
She originally received a death sentence, but it was reduced to life in prison under a California Supreme Court ruling that invalidated all death sentences before 1972.
A state parole board panel in May recommended parole for Krenwinkel, but such recommendations are always subject to review by the governor. In a four-page written decision issued Tuesday, Newsom wrote that he has “concluded that the evidence in Ms. Krenwinkel’s case demonstrates that she lacks the requisite insight she needs to be safely released.”
Newsom commended Krenwinkel for her “efforts to improve herself in prison,” including earning multiple college degrees and “an excellent disciplinary history.” But he added, “I conclude that these mitigating factors are outweighed by negative factors that bear on her risk for future dangerousness.
“… When considered as a whole, I find the evidence shows that she currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time. Therefore, I reverse the decision to parole Ms. Krenwinkel.”
A parole board panel had also recommended parole for Krenwinkel in May 2022, but the parole grant was reversed by Newsom in August 2022, according to records from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
