Leslie Van Houten

[SHRED]

Ms. Van Houten broke into the home of Leno & Rosemary LaBianca on August 10, 1969- after Charles Manson had gone into their home & tied the couple up. She placed a pillowcase over Mrs. LaBianca's head & tied it with a lamp chord. She held Mrs. LaBianca down so Patricia Krenwinkel could stab her. When the knife bent stabbing Mrs. LaBianca in the collar bone, Ms. Van Houten held Mrs. LaBianca down so Tex Watson could come in & stab her. Ms. Van Houten then stabbed Mrs. LaBianca in the lower back several times. Rosemary LaBianca was stabbed a total of 41 times. Words were written in blood on two walls & a refrigerator door. Ms. Van Houten then took a shower, stole one of Rosemary LaBianca's dresses to wear, & ate food from the victims' refrigerator before leaving.

https://www.change.org/p/ask-gov-brown-to-keep-charles-manson-cult-killer-leslie-van-houten-from-being-paroled

[cwydro]

1. They've approved her for parole?

Never thought that could happen.

[Blue_Adept]

2. Well, we do tend to prefer to see people die in prison.

Sometimes you gotta let a white woman out, though.

[cwydro]

4. Dang. I thought all of them would die in prison.

I remember those murders. I was young and they occurred on my birthday (the Tate murders).

I was terrified for months. To this day, you could not pay me to watch Helter Skelter.

But, I get your point.

[LeftInTX]

12. This is the 2nd time...approved last year too

Gov Brown turned it down

[Warpy]

3. She was also drugged up and being threatened by the others

She had more than one trial. They're interesting reading and more literate than the above.

She's paid 49 years of her life. She's no threat. Let her go and make room for someone who is a threat.

[Demsrule86]

10. I think she should die in prison...I don't know how one can be sure she is not a threat.

[LanternWaste]

15. Applicable to seven billion people.

"I don't know how one can be sure she is not a threat..."

A sentiment applicable to just under seven billion people.

[lunamagica]

31. They forced her to eat from her victim's fridge afterwards?

Did they force her to giggle during the trial?

[jodymarie aimee]

5. well you know our sheriff David Clarke is unemployed....

a spot for him there.....perhaps..

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. I have no problem with this parole.

She's reportedly been an exemplary prisoner and paid her price.

[cyclonefence]

8. +1

She has served her sentence. She has done what we as a society declared she must do to pay for her crime.

If people think her sentence was too light to begin with, the time to argue that is long past. She did what we required of her, and she ought to be let out of jail.

[MFM008]

16. I agree

50 years. Good prison record.
Word is she just wants to
spend time with her mother.
It's political at this point.
Yes I've read the books.
Seen the pictures.
She's no threat to society.

[lunamagica]

32. Wasn't her sentrence life in prision?

[cyclonefence]

36. With possibility of parole

If she was to have been in prison for life without parole, that should've been her sentence.

[GeorgeGist]

19. The price was LIFE IN PRISON.

Her parole would be obscene.

[MichMary]

30. I think the original sentence was the death penalty.

Don't support the DP, but if anyone ever deserved it, it was the Manson "family."

[BeyondGeography]

7. I see the arguments on both sides

but respect for the suffering of the victims and their survivors is paramount for me. Whatever the circumstances, her crimes were and remain monstrous enough to merit life in prison.

[brooklynite]

9. How does someone who's been in jail since age 19 acclimatize to modern society?

[H2O Man]

17. Valid question.

My friend Rubin served almost 20 years for a crime he didn't commit. Adjusting to life outside was an extremely difficult process, even with a solid support system.

[tammywammy]

34. And she hasn't been paying into Social Security

I'd assume there would have to be some sort of post-prison acclimatization and financial plan in order to get approved for parole. Otherwise someone like her (a senior citizen with limited skills and never paying into Social Security) would be destined for homelessness.

[maveric]

11. Should die in prison.

Read the Bugliosi book "Helter Skelter". Then tell me if she deserves freedom.

[cwydro]

14. Agree.

I hope she never gets out.

I think one of the other "girls" died last year.

[Zen Democrat]

29. Personally, I don't believe Bugliosi is totally credible. He was a super glory hog.

[cyclonefence]

37. His book has been debunked

particularly the business about the Manson family wanting to start a race war. They were trying to get Bobby Beausoleil out of jail by committing a copycat murder.

There's a lot of information available about the flaws in Bugliosi's theories. Here's a good book about it:

https://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Helter-Skelter-George-Stimson/dp/0991372581/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504828150&sr=8-1&keywords=goodbye+helter+skelter

[rollin74]

13. I don't think the governor will approve her parole

she will probably die in prison

Bruce Davis has been recommended for parole 5 times and he isn't going anywhere either

the Manson Family connection is politically toxic and certain to be a deal breaker for actual early release

[logosoco]

18. As someone who has a family member on death row for murdering

a child, I think some people just need to be kept "away" for life.

One part of this that really bothers me is that there are many folks serving time for non-violent offenses. Some people just because they didn't play the "pay the fine" or check in with your parole officer line. When we have folks like that locked away, it is very hard to say this woman should be let out.

[Jake Stern]

20. If the killings weren't associated with the Manson Family, she'd have been paroled years ago

It's purely political considering the sick people that Jerry Brown has let out on parole including one who blew his own sister away with a shotgun while burgling the family home.

[Saboburns]

21. Been thousands of prisoners who did worse than she who been let out

Once they served their 30 or 40 years.

Thousands.

Of course nobody wrote books or made movies about them so nobody ever knew them or cared.

[melman]

23. Worse?

What can a person do that's worse than what she did?

[Saboburns]

24. How many murders do you think are committed in this country each year?

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/latest-crime-statistics-released

Almost 16,000 in 2015.

And this:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/1400-lifers-released-from-california-prisons-in-last-3-years/

1,400 'lifers' released from California prisons in last 3 years

SAN FRANCISCO - Nearly 1,400 lifers in California's prisons have been released over the past three years -- a sharp turnaround in a state where murderers and others sentenced to life with the possibility of parole almost never got out.

Since taking office three years ago, Gov. Jerry Brown has affirmed 82 percent of the parole board decisions, resulting in a record number of inmates with life sentences going free.

Calif. struggles with prison overcrowding

Brown's predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, authorized the release of 557 lifers during his six-year term, sustaining the board at a 27 percent clip. Before that, Gov. Gray Davis over three years approved the release of two.
This dramatic shift in releases under Brown comes as the state grapples with court orders to ease a decades-long prison crowding crisis that has seen triple bunking, prison gyms turned into dormitories and inmates shipped out of state.

[Saboburns]

25. Quite a large percentage of murderers do get parole

http://abc7.com/archive/8538491/

80 PERCENT OF MURDERERS ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE RELEASED

February 9, 2012 12:00:00 AM PST
By Nannette Miranda
SACRAMENTO -- State officials released new numbers on prison parolees: Governor Jerry Brown has released about 80 percent of convicted murderers eligible for parole. Victims' rights activists are speaking out.
Crime Victims Action Alliance is calling on Governor Brown to release more detailed information on the convicted killers whose releases he declined to stop last year.

The state parole board approved 400 releases -- just 10 percent of the cases -- and the governor reversed only 71 decisions. That gives Brown, a Democrat, a higher release rate than his two predecessors. Brown's release rate stands at 80 percent.

Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was less generous, denying freedom nearly a quarter of the time.

[Saboburns]

26. An older article from 1995 but it shows how many murderes in CA do make parole

Why Should Murderers Get Parole? : Three-quarters of convicted killers in California are released, sometimes after just 13 years

May 23, 1995|MITCHELL KEITER | Mitchell Keiter is a California deputy attorney general. This article represents his personal view only.



In 1971, Jose Morales murdered his girlfriend in Los Angeles. After trial and conviction, a court sentenced him to life imprisonment. Three months after his release in 1980, he murdered his new wife. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Morales was not entitled to a new parole hearing every year, only every third year. The real question is why people like Morales are eligible for parole at all.

Most people know that the Los Angeles Country District Attorney had to choose between seeking the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole in prosecuting O.J. Simpson. Few people know that had there been only one victim, California sentencing rules would have prevented prosecutors from seeking either sentence. This limitation is wrong; California should adopt the federal rule that any murder may be punished by permanent incarceration.

A 1993 Justice Department survey revealed that 59% of people polled considered death the proper punishment for murder; 29% preferred life without parole. Another 10% replied that punishment should depend on circumstances, while only 1% favored neither death nor life without parole.

So how does California punish its murderers? In 1994, courts sentenced 2.5% of the 911 defendants convicted of murder to death, 20.7% to life without parole and 76.7% to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. These "life" prisoners might receive parole after serving only 12 years and nine months.

[melman]

27. Three posts and yet no anwer

What's worse than murder?

[Saboburns]

28. Er, um

I think that Rape and murder, kidnap and murder, murdering more than one person I would think are worse.

Don't you?

[RhodeIslandOne]

33. You can look up Ed Kemper

He was jailed at 14 for murdering his grandmother with a shotgun and then waiting for his grandfather to come home and shot him in the head as well. He then calmly called the cops and waited to be arrested.

He was released at age 20, and then proceeded to murder several college girls, dismembered them and had sex with the corpses. He finished his crime spree by decapitating his mother and also having sex with her body.

Kemper was asked how he managed to gain release, and he basically said it was easy to fool the prison psychiatrist into thinking he was cured. This was also in California.

Hey, you insisted....

[cyclonefence]

38. Jesus Christ

Thousands of murders crueler, more senseless and bloodier have been committed.

I referred to the Sylvia Likens murder in another thread. That's a good place to start if you're looking for a more horrendous murder.

[TheFrenchRazor]

35. that's the way i see it; i see murderers get lower sentences all the time. nt

[NurseJackie]

22. The crime-scene and autopsy photos can be googled. It's horrifying.

I cannot believe she's being paroled.