Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Leslie Van Houten, a former follower of Charles Manson, has been recommended for parole after spending more than 40 years in prison for the brutal murders of a California grocer and his wife. Van Houten has been denied parole 19 times before over the 1969 deaths of Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary. Governor Jerry Brown will now decide whether to release Van Houten. A former homecoming queen, Van Houten was the youngest Manson follower to be convicted of murder.
She has been seen as the most sympathetic of Charles Manson's followers. Prosecutors at the time likened Manson to a cult leader and said he controlled his followers using drugs and other means. Van Houten, then 19, held down Rosemary La Bianca while someone else stabbed her and she later admitted she stabbed the woman after she was dead. "I don't let myself off the hook. I don't find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself," she said on Thursday.
Since her conviction, Van Houten, now 66, completed college degrees and demonstrated exemplary behaviour. "The only violent thing she has ever done in her entire life was this crime and that was under the control of Charles Manson," Van Houten's lawyer, Rich Pfeiffer told the Associated Press before the hearing. "She is just not a public safety risk, and when you are not a public safety risk, the law says you shall be released."
The La Bianca killings came a day after other followers of Charles Manson carried out the grisly murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others. Manson, who directed but did not take part in the murders, thought the killings would start a race war, called "Helter Skelter" after a Beatles song. Tate's sister, Debra has fought against the release of Manson and his followers including Van Houten, although Van Houten was not involved in the Tate murders. Debra Tate said Van Houten did not show remorse for years.
Leslie Van Houten, former Manson follower, may be paroled after 40 years - BBC News
Manson, 82, was brought to Bakersfield from Corcoran State Prison before dawn Monday morning with the ailments, according to a source with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity. A sigmoid lesion is a benign or malignant lesion on the sigmoid colon, which is part of the large intestine. Manson arrived at Mercy Hospital's Truxtun Avenue facility via the ER and was signed in as “John Doe,” the source said. Officials at the downtown hospital — where Manson is still believed to be staying — and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said they could not discuss whether Manson had been taken to Bakersfield, or any medical complications they might be treating, due to privacy laws. Two CDCR vans were parked early Wednesday outside the hospital, ABC News reported.
This is not the first time Manson has been treated locally, according to reports. An unnamed corrections department official told the New York Post that Manson was taken to a hospital off prison grounds months ago. “He’s been getting treatment at that hospital for a while. I was told months ago they removed him from the prison for an undisclosed illness,” the official told the Post on Wednesday. San Joaquin Community Hospital, which in the past has treated state prison inmates, issued a news release Wednesday titled "Charles Manson Not at Our Hospital."
The release said certain hospital and CDCR regulations must be followed whenever an inmate is admitted for treatment: the prisoner must be accompanied by two or more armed guards; inmates must wear prison-issued clothing and be handcuffed and shackled; and the inmate must be admitted to the hospital's special lockdown unit, equipped with extra safety measures and staffed by CDCR officers. "Inmate patients are not permitted in regular patient rooms," the release said. California Correctional Health Care Services officials said CDCR has taken prisoners to the following Bakersfield hospitals for treatment in the past year: Bakersfield Heart Hospital; Bakersfield Memorial Hospital; and Kern Medical Center, as well as Mercy and San Joaquin.
Debra Tate, sister of Manson victim Sharon Tate, told The Associated Press on Tuesday she has "no ill wishes" toward the people who killed her sister. She said she will withhold expressing her feelings until she hears Manson has died. "I would probably say a prayer for them and shed a tear and ask God to have mercy on their souls, but so far I haven't allowed myself to feel anything because it's unsubstantiated," Tate told The AP. "I'm not allowing myself to feel anything until I know that it's true."
Manson orchestrated the killings of actress Sharon Tate, 8 1/2-months pregnant at the time, and four others at Tate's home on Aug. 9, 1969. His followers then killed grocers Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the following night. Manson, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkle, Susan Atkins and Charles Tex Watkins were each convicted of multiple counts of murder and sentenced to death. Those sentences were later changed to life terms in prison following a California Supreme Court ruling in 1972 that found the death penalty unconstitutional. Atkins died in prison in 2009 at the age of 61 after suffering from cancer. Manson has repeatedly been denied parole. His next hearing is scheduled for 2027.
Mass murdered Charles Manson suffering from intestinal bleeding
