Patricia Krenwinkel Recommended For Parole

"A California state parole board found Patricia Krenwinkel’s risk of reoffending to be low. 

Former Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel was recommended for parole on Friday, May 30

She was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Earl Parent, Jay Sebring, Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca

"Pat has fully accepted responsibility for everything she did, everything she contributed to, every twisted philosophy she embraced and endorsed and, most importantly, every life she destroyed by her actions in 1969," Keith Wattley, Patricia Krenwinkel’s parole attorney, said

The panel's decision must now be reviewed by the Board of Parole Hearings and then Governor Gavin Newsom, which can take up to 150 days.

Krenwinkel was 21 when she and Manson’s followers went on a two-day murder spree killing pregnant actor Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Earl Parent and Jay Sebring in August 1969 — as well as grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the next night in what prosecutors called Manson’s attempt to start a race war.

Krenwinkel, now 77, testified that she stabbed Folger 28 times, per the New York Times. She later helped kill the LaBiancas the following night and wrote in blood on the walls, “Death to Pigs,” according to the Times.

She was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder in April 1971 and sentenced to death. She was resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 1972 after the death penalty in California was deemed unconstitutional.

Krenwinkel, the longest-serving female inmate in the California prison system, first became eligible for parole in 1976. She has had 16 appearances before the state parole board.

In 2022, Newsom overruled the recommendation by the Board of Parole Hearings for her release after citing that Krenwinkel still posed “an unreasonable danger to society if paroled at this time." 

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"Ms. Krenwinkel fully accepted Mr. Manson's racist, apocalyptical ideologies," Newsom said, per The Associated Press. "Ms. Krenwinkel was not only a victim of Mr. Manson's abuse. She was also a significant contributor to the violence and tragedy that became the Manson Family's legacy."

Jay Sebring’s nephew Anthony DiMaria spoke out at Friday’s hearing.

"Patricia Krenwinkel is not a follower, nor is she a victim," said DiMaria, according to CBS8. "She is a cold-blooded killer of eight people. The more accurate number is eight, as I include the murder of Tate’s unborn son. Krenwinkel obliterated the rights of all of her victims. Charles Manson did not write Helter Skelter in blood. Patricia Krenwinkel did. She is the author of blood-smeared messages that terrified the world. Parole Patricia Krenwinkel once her victims are paroled from their graves."

Keith Wattley, Krenwinkel’s parole attorney, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE that the inmate should be released.

"After 56-and-a-half years of incarceration with no rule violations, with substantial change in who she is, and with the last nine psychological evaluators over the past 40 years agreeing that Pat is no longer a risk, it’s time to make the possibility of parole a reality," he said.

"Pat has fully accepted responsibility for everything she did, everything she contributed to, every twisted philosophy she embraced and endorsed and, most importantly, every life she destroyed by her actions in 1969," Wattley continued.

"Pat has participated in extensive therapy and group counseling to address her experiences as both a perpetrator and survivor of violence, allowing her to understand how she was able to cause this tragedy and helping others along their own healing journeys. This case also shows what happens when we don’t officially offer any healing-focused alternative to survivors of violent crime. Pat and I wish them peace, if they can ever experience it after the harm she caused."  

In response to the recommendation, Sharon Tate's sister, Debra, has started a petition to keep Krenwinkel from getting parole.

"Society cannot allow this serial killer who committed such horrible, gruesome, random killings back out," she wrote. "I am asking for your help by letting the parole board know that you do not want to see her get released by signing this petition."

It has gained 116,790 signatures as of Monday morning.

Manson died in prison in 2017." 

Source:People Magazine with a look at Mansan Family assassin Patricia Krenwinkel after 55 years in state prison.

From People Magazine

As Fred Schneider wrote about this back in 2023 about Leslie Van Houten's parole: 

"I think sparing the life of Leslie Van Houten was a good thing. She obviously became a good, intelligent, responsible person, these last 53 years. But if you are old enough, strong enough, and mentally capable enough, to murder not one, but 2 people, in the prime of their lives, you  are old enough to spend the rest of your life paying for your murders.

My response to what Leslie Van Houten’s lawyer, Nancy Tetreault, who was on CNN last night talking to John Berman, she tried to argue that since Leslie was 19 at the time of her two murders in 1969, that she shouldn’t be held completely responsible for her crimes, because the brain of the 19 year old, isn’t as developed as someone whose in their 20s. Only in Hollywood, California could that argument hold. Well, the rest of Hippieland, California, as well.

But again, if you are old enough, strong enough, mentally competent enough, to murder not one, but two people in the prime of their lives, you are old enough to pay the price for your crimes, for the rest of your life, regardless of how old you were when you committed your murders." 

From The New Democrat

I think Fred covered how The New Democrat feels... pretty much about how anyone who was in the Manson Crime Family, who murdered and got life sentences for their murders, feels about anyone in that crime family, ever getting paroled. We don't think they should ever even be eligible for parole. And I'm just going to give you a few more reasons why. 

To qualify as a serial murderer in the United States, you've had to of murdered at least 3 people. What's a murder? The premeditated, intentional, killing, of an innocent person. Very different from let's say manslaughter where you kill someone accidentally by being irresponsible... like hitting someone with your car, while driving drunk. Or 2nd degree murder, where you intended to physically hurt someone who wasn't an immediate threat to your safety, but you didn't intend to kill them. 

Patricia Krenwinkel is guilty of murdering 7 innocent people, intentionally (which is what 1st degree murder is) and perhaps the worst part, she had no idea who her victims were before she murdered all 7 of them. Think about that for a second: you break into a complete stranger's home and murder 7 people by yourself, because your cult leader said they were bad people, or he simply didn't like them. That's the type of person that Pat Krenwinkel was 56 years ago. 

And if you want to give me "the LSD made her do it", or "Charles Manson made her do it"... she joined the Manson Family voluntarily in 1967 or 68, after running away from her middle class, suburban home in California and she took the drugs voluntarily as well. Not like she was kidnapped and stabbed with LSD 20 times a day, every time that she was there. (That was a half joke) 

I'm all for second chances when it comes to everyone who's never intentionally killed an innocent person. And I do believe that sparing the life of Pat Krenwinkel is just based on the person she's become that last 55 years while in prison. But nothing that she's accomplished while in prison, even taking responsibility for her 7 murders, makes up intentionally murdering 7 innocent strangers, especially the way she did with all the stab wounds and the innocent blood that she left behind because of her murders. 

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