Former Manson Family Member Leslie Van Houten Released from Prison After 53 Years

Leslie Van Houten, the youngest of Charles Manson’s former followers, was released from prison Tuesday after 53 years behind bars – and the relatives of the Manson family’s victims are NOT happy. But how did this all happen? And what’s next for Van Houten? We’ve got the answers in our Social Call video below.

At 73 years old, Van Houten was officially released to parole supervision on July 11 from the California Institution for Women in Corona, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. She was released to a confidential transitional facility and will have a three-year maximum parole term with a parole review after one year.

Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the Manson murders in August of 1969, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the slayings of Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. She was ultimately given a life sentence in prison after the death penalty was abolished in California.

The gruesome murders were part of a two-day spree, during which Manson and his followers killed seven people, including 26-year-old actress Sharon Tate, in an attempt to start a race war he called “Helter Skelter.” Also murdered were coffee heiress Abigail Folger, writer Voytek Frykowski, hairstylist Jay Sebring, and 18-year-old delivery boy Steven Parent. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has fought five previous attempts to release Van Houten, but announced last week he wouldn’t combat a California appellate court’s decision to grant her parole. It’s a decision that’s been criticized by members of the victims’ families.

Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, told TMZ that it was a huge slap in the face for Newsom to back down in blocking Van Houten’s release and that she and other members of the victims’ families fear she will kill again. A family member of Jay Sebring called Van Houten a “cold-blooded killer” to CNN and said her release sets a “dangerous, pernicious precedent.”

Van Houten previously stated at parole hearings that she began hanging out with a group of misfits after her parents’ divorce at age 14, and began using marijuana and LSD. Running away with a boyfriend at age 17, Van Houten ended up pregnant in San Francisco, where she claimed she was forced to have an abortion. She later met Manson through an acquaintance at a hippie compound outside of Los Angeles.

In 1994, Van Houten admitted to her part in the killings during a prison interview with Larry King. “I went in and Mrs. LaBianca was laying on the floor and I stabbed her,” said Van Houten at the time. “In the lower back, around 16 times.”

How do you feel about her being released? Let me know in the comments.