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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Leslie Van Houten Faces Parole Hearing


Leslie Van Houton, 60, will have a parole hearing today in California; it's her nineteenth parole hearing since being convicted of murder in 1971. Van Houten was, of course, a member of the famous "Manson family", devotees of Charles Manson who murdered Sharon Tate, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, and others in Los Angeles in August 1969. The murders sent shockwaves of fear throughout Los Angeles at the time, and are seen today as a pivotal moment in American social history. Many cultural historians have written that the Manson murders marked the end of the "hippie free love and peace era". When it was discovered that the murderers were free-love hippies who lived together in a commune, it destroyed the idea that that lifestyle was one that could function in a larger society, an idea that many had worked so hard and spent so many years to propagate. In other words, to many, the Manson murders marked the end of the 1960's.
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According to the facts of her trial, Van Houten did not participate in the Tate murders, but went with other family members the next night to the LaBianca home, and according to Van Houten, stabbed Rosemary after she was dead. Along with Van Houten, Manson girls Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1971. But the following year, a California State Supreme Court ruling banned the death penalty in that state, and the Manson girls' death sentences were commuted to life in prison. Van Houten and Krenwinkle are still in prison, while Susan Atkins died last year from cancer, her dying wish to be freed from prison was denied.
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Many, including filmmaker John Waters, have taken up Van Houten's cause in the past few years, calling for her parole, but there are just as many others in this country who believe that Van Houten should forever remain behind bars. We will see.
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(below: Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle and Leslie Van Houten)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No way should any of manson woman be set free. Murder is Murder! She should of been put to death yrs ago, instead they have been allowed to go to school, marry etc. ALL on the tax payers money.

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