Leslie Van Houten, 73, was arrested for stabbing a store owner and his wife in Los Angeles in 1969.
Leslie Van Houten, a former member of the “Manson family” sect, has been released on parole after 53 years in prison in the United States, his lawyer said.
Her release Tuesday was expected after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced last week that he would stop trying to deny parole for Van Houten, 73, who was serving a life sentence.
In May, a California appeals court ruled against Newsom and found that Van Houten is entitled to be released.
The governor would have appealed to the California Supreme Court to review the case but was denied because “efforts to pursue an appeal are not feasible,” the spokesman said.
Van Houten is the first member of the Manson family to receive parole, her attorney Nancy Tetreault said. Led by Charles Manson, the “family” went on a rampage that terrorized Los Angeles in August 1969, killing seven people.
Tetreault told US media that Van Houten left a prison in the southern California town of Corona on Tuesday and moved into a semi-detached house where she has been staying for a year.
“He was a model inmate from the day he entered prison,” Tetreault said. “He’s been involved in medicine for 40 years. He’s a really different person.”
Van Houten was 19 years old at the time of the murder, making her the youngest Manson’s devotees.
The parole board has recommended Van Houten be released early five times since 2016, but she has been denied three times by Newsom and twice by her predecessor, fellow Democrat Jerry Brown.
Manson he died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83, he became one of the most notorious criminals of the 20th century. He told his young and female followers to kill seven people, including actress Sharon Tate, in what prosecutors said was part of a plot. instigators of the war of nations.
Van Houten was accused of murdering grocery store owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in their Los Angeles home on August 10, 1969. The words “Death to Pigs” and “Healter Skelter” – a misspelling of a Beatles song – were found. he scratched the blood of the victims on the walls and the refrigerator.
Last night, members of Manson’s cult broke into the mountain home in Los Angeles that Tate shared with her husband, film producer Roman Polanski, who was in Europe at the time.
Tate, who was 26 and eight months pregnant, was killed along with four friends of the famous family.