Manson follower denied parole for at least 7 years
Thursday, January 20, 2011
FILE - In this file photo taken Aug. 20, 1970, Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel, center, is seen walking to court to appear for her role in the 1969 cult killings of seven people in Los Angeles, Calif. Krenwinkel , one of two surviving women followers of Charles Manson convicted in the notorious Sharon Tate killings, is facing a parole hearing Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011, after four decades behind bars.
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(01-20) 19:24 PST Corona, Calif. (AP) --
Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel — one of two surviving women convicted in the Sharon Tate murders — has been denied parole by a California panel.
The two-member parole board said after a Thursday hearing in Los Angeles that the 63-year-old Krenwinkel will not be eligible for parole again for seven years, the longest such period handed down to any of the Manson Family convicts.
The panel said they were swayed by the memory and of the crimes, along with 80 letters which came from all over the world urging Krenwinkel's continued incarceration.
Krenwinkel was convicted along with Manson and two other female followers in seven 1969 murders, considered among the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.
She has been imprisoned longer than any other woman in California.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
CORONA, Calif. (AP) — A follower of Charles Manson who has been imprisoned longer than any other woman in California told a parole board Thursday she threw away everything good in herself and became a "monster" after she met Manson.
Patricia Krenwinkel, who was convicted in the Sharon Tate killings, is one of Manson's two surviving female followers.
She has maintained a clean prison record in her four decades behind bars, but her chances for release appeared slim following parole rejections in other Manson cases.
The board was expected to rule later in the day.
During her hearing, a gray-haired and grandmotherly Krenwinkel, 63, was soft-spoken and contrite in response to board members' questions, describing the downward spiral of her life after she met Manson.
"Everything that was good and decent in me I threw away," she said.
It was her father, she said, who helped her realize during his visits to her in prison, "what had happened, and the monster I became."
She said she tells those she counsels in prison, "I am someone you would never have wanted to be, and here are the steps you can take to never go to the dark places I have been."
Krenwinkel's claim that she is rehabilitated was met by anger and opposition from Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira and families of the victims, who argued for Krenwinkel's continued incarceration.
"If she truly had remorse, she wouldn't come to these parole hearings, and would say, 'I accept the punishment,'" Sequeira said.
Debra Tate, sister of Sharon Tate, then tearfully recounted the pain her family endured from the killings. She denounced Krenwinkel for never having written a letter of apology to the families.
"I want to believe the human condition is capable of change," Tate said. "I believe in the possibility of reform. But I know what I am looking at, and I don't see it here."
She told the board through tears that, "Whatever decision you make I will live with. But every time I sit in this chair I have to think, what will happen if they come out? What will society do?"
Anthony Di Maria, the nephew of Jay Sebring, who was killed along with Tate, cried throughout his words to the board, and said the parole hearings "send us back to hell, year after year."
"I wish I had forgiveness to give," Di Maria said.
Krenwinkel was convicted along with Manson and two other female followers in seven 1969 murders, considered among the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.
None of those convicted has ever been paroled and one of them, Susan Atkins, died in prison last year after being denied compassionate release when she was terminally ill with cancer.
Leslie Van Houten, 61, the youngest of the women convicted, was long thought to be the most likely to win eventual release. But she was denied a parole date last summer by officials who said she had not gained sufficient insight into her crimes.
Parole boards have repeatedly cited the callousness, viciousness and calculation of the murders committed by members of the Manson Family.
Krenwinkel admitted during her trial that she chased down and stabbed heiress Abigail Folger at the Tate home on Aug. 9, 1969, and participated in the stabbing deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the following night. Both homes were defaced with bloody scrawlings. She was convicted along with Manson, Van Houten and Atkins. Another defendant, Charles "Tex" Watson was convicted in a separate trial.
All were sentenced to death but their sentences were commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court briefly outlawed the death penalty in 1972.
In her 40 years at the California Institution for Women, Krenwinkel has earned a bachelor's degree and participated in numerous self help programs as well as teaching illiterate prisoners how to read. In recent years, she has been involved in a program to train service dogs for the disabled.
She said she has made arrangements for the possibility that she could be released, and would change her name and leave the state.
Krenwinkel's lawyer Keith Wattley argued at the hearing that the law says if someone is serving life with the possibility of parole, they must be given parole unless they are deemed to be currently dangerous, which he said she is not.
Asked to make her own final case to the board, Krenwinkel wept profusely, wiping her eyes with a tissue, and said, "I'm just haunted each and every day by the unending suffering of the victims, the enormity and degree of suffering I've caused."
Her voice rising in the silent room, she nearly shouted, "I'm so ashamed of my actions. The victims had so much life left to live."
Cult leader Manson, now 75, refused to appear at his most recent parole hearings where he was denied a release date. His multiple disciplinary violations and refusals to participate in rehabilitation activities make it likely that he will never be released.
At times he has said that he does not want his freedom and considers prison his home.
Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel — one of two surviving women convicted in the Sharon Tate murders — has been denied parole by a California panel.
The two-member parole board said after a Thursday hearing in Los Angeles that the 63-year-old Krenwinkel will not be eligible for parole again for seven years, the longest such period handed down to any of the Manson Family convicts.
The panel said they were swayed by the memory and of the crimes, along with 80 letters which came from all over the world urging Krenwinkel's continued incarceration.
Krenwinkel was convicted along with Manson and two other female followers in seven 1969 murders, considered among the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.
She has been imprisoned longer than any other woman in California.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
CORONA, Calif. (AP) — A follower of Charles Manson who has been imprisoned longer than any other woman in California told a parole board Thursday she threw away everything good in herself and became a "monster" after she met Manson.
Patricia Krenwinkel, who was convicted in the Sharon Tate killings, is one of Manson's two surviving female followers.
She has maintained a clean prison record in her four decades behind bars, but her chances for release appeared slim following parole rejections in other Manson cases.
The board was expected to rule later in the day.
During her hearing, a gray-haired and grandmotherly Krenwinkel, 63, was soft-spoken and contrite in response to board members' questions, describing the downward spiral of her life after she met Manson.
"Everything that was good and decent in me I threw away," she said.
It was her father, she said, who helped her realize during his visits to her in prison, "what had happened, and the monster I became."
She said she tells those she counsels in prison, "I am someone you would never have wanted to be, and here are the steps you can take to never go to the dark places I have been."
Krenwinkel's claim that she is rehabilitated was met by anger and opposition from Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira and families of the victims, who argued for Krenwinkel's continued incarceration.
"If she truly had remorse, she wouldn't come to these parole hearings, and would say, 'I accept the punishment,'" Sequeira said.
Debra Tate, sister of Sharon Tate, then tearfully recounted the pain her family endured from the killings. She denounced Krenwinkel for never having written a letter of apology to the families.
"I want to believe the human condition is capable of change," Tate said. "I believe in the possibility of reform. But I know what I am looking at, and I don't see it here."
She told the board through tears that, "Whatever decision you make I will live with. But every time I sit in this chair I have to think, what will happen if they come out? What will society do?"
Anthony Di Maria, the nephew of Jay Sebring, who was killed along with Tate, cried throughout his words to the board, and said the parole hearings "send us back to hell, year after year."
"I wish I had forgiveness to give," Di Maria said.
Krenwinkel was convicted along with Manson and two other female followers in seven 1969 murders, considered among the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.
None of those convicted has ever been paroled and one of them, Susan Atkins, died in prison last year after being denied compassionate release when she was terminally ill with cancer.
Leslie Van Houten, 61, the youngest of the women convicted, was long thought to be the most likely to win eventual release. But she was denied a parole date last summer by officials who said she had not gained sufficient insight into her crimes.
Parole boards have repeatedly cited the callousness, viciousness and calculation of the murders committed by members of the Manson Family.
Krenwinkel admitted during her trial that she chased down and stabbed heiress Abigail Folger at the Tate home on Aug. 9, 1969, and participated in the stabbing deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the following night. Both homes were defaced with bloody scrawlings. She was convicted along with Manson, Van Houten and Atkins. Another defendant, Charles "Tex" Watson was convicted in a separate trial.
All were sentenced to death but their sentences were commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court briefly outlawed the death penalty in 1972.
In her 40 years at the California Institution for Women, Krenwinkel has earned a bachelor's degree and participated in numerous self help programs as well as teaching illiterate prisoners how to read. In recent years, she has been involved in a program to train service dogs for the disabled.
She said she has made arrangements for the possibility that she could be released, and would change her name and leave the state.
Krenwinkel's lawyer Keith Wattley argued at the hearing that the law says if someone is serving life with the possibility of parole, they must be given parole unless they are deemed to be currently dangerous, which he said she is not.
Asked to make her own final case to the board, Krenwinkel wept profusely, wiping her eyes with a tissue, and said, "I'm just haunted each and every day by the unending suffering of the victims, the enormity and degree of suffering I've caused."
Her voice rising in the silent room, she nearly shouted, "I'm so ashamed of my actions. The victims had so much life left to live."
Cult leader Manson, now 75, refused to appear at his most recent parole hearings where he was denied a release date. His multiple disciplinary violations and refusals to participate in rehabilitation activities make it likely that he will never be released.
At times he has said that he does not want his freedom and considers prison his home.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/01/20/national/a014341S69.DTL#ixzz1BecDujhC
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