Former Charles Manson follower is recommended for parole

A California state parole board recommended parole for Patricia Krenwinkel, a follower of the cult leader Charles Manson, on Friday for the second time.

A California state parole board recommended parole for Patricia Krenwinkel, a follower of the cult leader Charles Manson, on Friday for the second time.

The decision will have to be approved by the Board of Parole Hearings and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who denied Krenwinkel’s first parole recommendation. The governor’s review process can take up to 150 days.

Krenwinkel, 77, is serving a life sentence in the California Institution for Women for her role in the killings of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four other people in August 1969, as well as grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the next night in what prosecutors have called Manson’s attempt to start a race war. She was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder in April 1971.

Krenwinkel was recommended for parole for the first time in May 2022, but Newsom denied clemency five months later, according to Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate records. She had been denied parole 14 times before then.

Friday's parole suitability hearing was her 16th, David Maldonado, deputy chief of strategic communications and external affairs for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, confirmed.