I was in prison with Manson family killer Patricia Krenwinkel. She's changed. Why I think she should be freed

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Susan Bustamante was what she describes as a 'baby lifer' when she landed behind bars at the California Institution for Women in 1987.
Aged 32, she had been sentenced to life without parole for helping her brother murder her husband, following what she said was years of domestic abuse.
Inside the penitentiary that would become her home for the next three decades, it wasn't long before she met another 'lifer' - a notorious inmate who played a key role in one of the most shocking crimes in American history.
That inmate, Patricia Krenwinkel, and other members of the Manson family murdered eight victims across two nights of terror in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969.
But, despite Krenwinkel's dark past, Bustamante said the two women quickly became close within the confines of the prison walls.
'I was a baby lifer who needed to learn the ropes of being in prison,' she told the Daily Mail.
'[Krenwinkel] helped mentor the new lifers... She was someone who would help you get through a rough day and the reality of waking up and being in an 8-by-10 cell for the rest of your life… someone you could go to and say 'I'm having a bad day' and she would help turn your thinking around.'
Bustamante spent 31 years in prison with Krenwinkel before, aged 63, she was granted clemency by former California Governor Jerry Brown and freed in 2018.
Now, 77-year–old Krenwinkel could also soon walk free from prison.
Patricia Krenwinkel (during a parole hearing in 2011) is now fighting for her freedom after the state's Parole Board Commissioners recommended her early release
In May - after 16 parole hearings - the state's Parole Board Commissioners recommended California's longest female inmate for early release, citing her youthful age at the time of the murders and her apparent low risk of reoffending.
And as far as her former jailmate is concerned, it is time.
Bustamante said she has seen firsthand that Krenwinkel is not the same person who took part in a murderous rampage at the bidding of cult leader Charles Manson.
'She's not in her early 20s anymore. Are you the same person you were then or have you learned and grown and changed?' she said.
'That's not who she is today, and she's not under that influence today. She's her own person.'
She added: 'Six decades is long enough.'
Over their shared decades behind bars, Bustamante said she and Krenwinkel attended many of the same inmate programs, celebrated birthdays and occasions together, watched movies and hosted potlucks.
Bustamante said they were both part of the inmate dog program, where they were responsible for caring for and training their own dogs, which lived in their cells with them.
Bustamante said Krenwinkel also attended college courses and tutored other inmates.
It was Krenwinkel who was there for Bustamante when her mom and sister died, she said.
'We would go to each other for support,' she said. 'It's not easy doing time, so it's good to know there's somebody there for you.'
Bustamante refused to reveal details of her conversations with Krenwinkel about her crimes. But she insisted she has seen firsthand that she has shown genuine remorse.
'You can't do time in prison without understanding what happened, what your part in it was,' she said.
'For almost six decades, she's been going to [inmate] groups, going through therapy. You can't do that without understanding your actions, your life, your situation.
'She has done everything within her power to fix herself.'
In 55 years in prison, Krenwinkel's attorneys argue she has not faced any disciplinary issues and nine evaluations by prison psychologists have found she is no longer a danger to society.
They also argue she suffered physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of Manson, which played a key role in her crimes.
But for the victims' families and loved ones, she should never be freed.
It has now been 57 years since Krenwinkel, Charles 'Tex' Watson and Susan Atkins murdered actor Sharon Tate and four others at the Cielo Drive, Hollywood, home she shared with husband Roman Polanski back on August 8, 1969.
Tate - who was eight months pregnant - was stabbed 16 times. A rope was tied around her neck, the other end of which was tied around the neck of her close friend, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring. He had been shot and stabbed seven times.
On the lawn of the home, coffee heiress Abigail Folger was found beaten and stabbed 28 times. Folger's boyfriend, Wojciech Frykowski, lay close by with 51 stab wounds. He had also been beaten and shot twice.
The body of 18-year-old Steven Parent, who was visiting the caretaker of the estate that night, was also found outside with gunshot wounds.
It was Krenwinkel who had chased Folger across the lawn and plunged a knife into her 28 times. She testified in court that the attack was so vicious that her hand throbbed from stabbing.
The next night, the Manson family struck again.
That time, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten went to the Los Feliz home of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary LaBianca.
They stabbed Rosemary 41 times and wrapped a pillowcase over her head, tying it with an electric cord from a lamp. Krenwinkel stabbed Rosemary with a fork and scrawled 'Helter Skelter' and 'death to pigs' on the walls in her blood.
Leno was stabbed 12 times and the word 'war' was carved into his body. His killers left a carving fork and a kitchen knife protruding from his abdomen and throat.
For months, panic plagued the City of Angels before the Manson family members were eventually arrested.
Krenwinkel, who was 21 at the time of the slayings, was convicted of seven counts of murder and sentenced to death in 1971. Her sentence was commuted to life without parole the following year when the death penalty was abolished in California.
She has been held in a state prison for the last 54 years.
At her latest parole hearing in May, several of the victims' families begged the board not to let her go free.
Among them was Sebring's nephew, Anthony DiMaria, who urged commissioners to deny Patricia Krenwinkel parole for the 'longest period of time'.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, DiMaria said the 'least' Krenwinkel could do is spend the rest of her life behind bars, noting she had already 'gotten off easy' when her death sentence was commuted.
He said Krenwinkel acted with 'severe depravity', claiming eight victims - seven people and Sharon Tate's unborn son - and has never truly taken responsibility.
'She committed profound crimes across two separate nights with sustained zeal and passion. She delivered more fatal blows than Manson ever did,' said DiMaria.
'Manson didn't tell her to write 'Helter Skelter' on the wall in her victim's blood - she chose. Manson didn't force her to pick out the butcher's knife and a carving fork - she chose to do that on her own.'
DiMaria rejects the long-standing portrayal of the Manson Family as a naive hippy cult and of Manson's so-called 'followers' as helpless flower children under his spell.
In truth, he says, they were a gang of willfully violent criminals - a group with the optics of a commune but the structure and intent of a criminal enterprise.
He argues the false narrative has obscured the full scope of their crimes and allowed some of the killers - particularly Krenwinkel - to skirt responsibility by hiding behind decades of revisionism.
'They start dressing themselves up as victims of Manson, and suddenly they're the ones deserving sympathy… It's truly sociopathic,' added DiMaria.
'Meanwhile, our families are still carrying the grief, still walking into parole hearings to make sure these people stay where they belong.'
Tate's younger sister, Debra Tate, declined to be interviewed for this story.
Debra also spoke at Krenwinkel's last hearing, warning that she still presented a grave danger to society.
'Releasing her... puts society at risk. I don't accept any explanation for someone who has had 55 years to think of the many ways they impacted their victims, but still does not know their names,' she said.
'My life, the victims' families are forever affected. [Krenwinkel] has not addressed that. I have asked for the opportunity to have a sit-down meeting, possibly 19 times, but that has never been granted.
'You know who wrote me a letter, Charles Manson wrote me a letter. Interesting. For that reason, and many more, Krenwinkel is unsuitable for parole.'
Tate's close friend Ava Roosevelt - who would have been at Cielo Drive that fateful night if it weren't for a twist of fate - also told the Daily Mail that Krenwinkel is undeserving of release.
'Sharon would've lived to be 82 now had she not been brutally murdered. So, ultimately, my question is: why is this woman even still alive? Let alone potentially being free again… why is she not on death row?' she said.
'What message would that be sending to society? That it's okay to commit multiple murders, serve some time, and now you're allowed the freedom to live your life again?'
Bustamante said there is no denying Krenwinkel's crimes were especially brutal.
But she believes she has become a 'political prisoner' due to the infamy of the Manson murders.
'There's a sensationalism and stigma of being a Manson,' she said.
'Pat deserves to spend her last years in freedom but people want to keep her in because of the notoriety of the crime.'
Bustamante has stayed in contact with Krenwinkel since her own release and says she has introduced her to her children and grandchildren.
Now, Krenwinkel's fate lies in the hands of the California Parole Board, which has a 120-day deadline from the recommendation to review the decision.
After that, Governor Gavin Newsom will have another 30 days to reverse the board's decision.
It's a step he took once before when Krenwinkel was recommended for parole the first time in 2022.
Bustamante fears Newsom will once again veto her friend's release due to his own political ambitions.
'I think he wants to be president, so I worry he will let that influence his decision.'