Latest news with #HelterSkelter
New York Post
13 hours ago
- New York Post
Manson family killer Patricia Krenwinkel recommended for parole 56 years after infamous murders
One of Charles Manson's accomplices has been recommended for parole after serving decades in prison for her role in the 1969 murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in California. A state parole board has again recommended the release of Patricia Krenwinkel, who is the longest-serving female inmate in the state. Advertisement At 77, Krenwinkel is still serving a life sentence at the California Institution for Women for her role in one of America's most notorious killing sprees. She was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder in 1971. 4 A state parole board has again recommended the release of Patricia Krenwinkel. AP Krenwinkel was just 19 years old when she abandoned her life as a secretary in California to follow Charles Manson, the charismatic cult leader who has since transformed into one of history's darkest and most mysterious figures. Advertisement Drawn in by promises of love and spiritual enlightenment, Krenwinkel instead became a key figure in one of the most infamous crimes in American history. Krenwinkel personally stabbed heiress Abigail Folger multiple times and then participated in the murders of grocery store owners Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, writing 'Helter Skelter' and other phrases on the walls in the victims' blood. Convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder, Krenwinkel was originally sentenced to death. 4 Krenwinkel is the longest-serving female inmate in California. AP Advertisement But in 1972, her sentence was commuted to life in prison after California briefly abolished the death penalty. She has been incarcerated ever since. Over the years, Krenwinkel has expressed remorse and described years of psychological abuse at Manson's hands. She has stated she was under the influence of drugs and fear throughout her time in the cult. Nonetheless, her parole efforts have been repeatedly denied, with authorities citing the severity of her crimes. Advertisement In May 2022, Krenwinkel was recommended for parole for the first time, but the decision was reversed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Her most recent recommendation in 2024 now awaits approval, reigniting debate over justice, rehabilitation, and the enduring legacy of the Manson Family. 4 Charles Mason died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83. The recommendation came on Friday and must still pass several hurdles before being confirmed. It requires final approval from the full Board of Parole Hearings and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who denied a similar parole recommendation in 2022. That review process can take up to 150 days. According to state prison officials, she had previously been denied parole 14 times. Charles Mason died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83. Manson, whose name to this day is synonymous with unspeakable violence and madness, died of natural causes at Kern County hospital, according to a California Department of Corrections statement. Advertisement Manson — who exerted a form of mind control over his mainly female followers — had been in prison for four decades. In the 1960s, he surrounded himself with runaways and disaffected youths and then sent them out to butcher members of Hollywood's elite. 4 Over the years, Krenwinkel has expressed remorse and described years of psychological abuse at Manson's hands. Bettmann Archive Prosecutors said Manson and his followers were trying to incite a race war he dubbed Helter Skelter, taken from the Beatles song of the same name. The Polanski house in Beverly Hills was targeted because it represented Manson's rejection by the celebrity world and society, according to one of the Family member's statements. Advertisement Manson considered himself the harbinger of doom regarding the planet's future. He was influenced not only by drugs such as LSD, but by art works and music of the time such as The Beatles song, Helter Skelter, from their White Album. He often spoke to members of his 'Family' about Helter Skelter, which he believed signified an impending apocalyptic race war. Advertisement He preached that the black man would rise up and start killing members of the white establishment, turning the cities into an inferno of racial revenge. Manson also had a strong belief in the notion of Armageddon from the Book of Revelations and looked into obscure cult churches such as the Church of the Final Judgement. His life continues to be a point of interest several decades after his macabre dealings in 1960s California.
NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
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. The decision will now have to be approved by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who denied Krenwinkel's first parole recommendation. The governor's review process can take up to 150 days following a parole hearing. The 77-year-old is serving a life sentence in the California Institution for Women for her role in the killings of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four others in August 1969, as well as grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the following night in what prosecutors have called Manson's attempt to start a race war. 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 was previously denied parole 14 times before then. Krenwinkel was 19 and working as a secretary when she met a 33-year-old Manson at a party, leaving her life behind to follow him because she believed they could have a romantic relationship, she said in 2016 testimony. Instead, she was abused by Manson and tried to flee, but was brought back each time and was often under the influence of drugs. Krenwinkel admitted to stabbing an heiress to a coffee fortune, Abigail Folger, multiple times on the night of Aug. 9, 1969, as well as participating in the killings of the LaBiancas the following night. During the LaBianca murders, she infamously wrote 'Helter Skelter' and other phrases on the wall in her victims' blood. She, along with other participants including Manson, were convicted and sentenced to death. However, their sentences were commuted to life with the possibility parole in 1972, after the death penalty was briefly ruled unconstitutional in California. Krenwinkel is now the state's longest-serving inmate. The California governor's office and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not immediately respond to NBC News' requests for comment.
ABC News
2 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Former 'Manson family' member Patricia Krenwinkel, 77, recommended for parole over 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders
Patricia Krenwinkel, a former follower of cult leader Charles Manson who was convicted for her role in the murders of seven people during a two-day killing spree across Los Angeles in 1969, has been recommended for parole. It's the 16th time Krenwinkel has appeared before the parole board panel, and the second time parole has been recommended — the first being in 2022, before the decision was overturned by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Krenwinkel, 77, is California's longest-serving female prisoner, having originally been sentenced to death in 1971 for her role in the brutal "Helter Skelter" killings, which shocked America and shone a light on the dark side of 1960s hippie counterculture. Her sentence was commuted to life with the possibility of parole in 1972, when the state's Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was unconstitutional. In 1967, when Krenwinkel was 19, she met musician and small-time criminal Charles Manson at a party, leaving her job and apartment behind three days later to travel with him to San Francisco as she believed they might have a romantic relationship. During the next 18 months, she and several other young men and women followed Manson around the country, becoming known as "the Manson family" as they fell deeper under his influence, often with the aid of psychedelic drugs. She later said Manson abused her physically and emotionally during this time, including trafficking her to other men for sex, and she had tried to escape the group twice only to be brought back by other members of the "family". In 1969, Manson — once an aspiring pop star — convinced his followers he was receiving secret messages through the Beatles' White Album, informing him of a coming race war that his group could wait out underground, before emerging to rule the world. In what prosecutors labelled an attempt to ignite that race war, Manson instructed Krenwinkel and several other followers to enter the home of actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, and to kill anyone they found inside. His followers shot, beat and stabbed five people to death at the home that night — including Ms Tate, who was eight months pregnant at the time. The following night, Manson and his followers attacked Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at a different house chosen at random, stabbing them to death before Krenwinkel wrote "Healter Skelter" [sic], "Rise" and "Death to Pigs" on the walls with their blood. During their trial, Krenwinkel and two other young women involved in the murders drew press attention for smiling, laughing and singing as the proceedings took place, then for shaving their heads and carving the letter X into their foreheads as Manson had done. While she remained loyal to the cult leader throughout her trial and at the start of her prison sentence, over time she began to distance herself from him, going on to renounce her past actions and to speak out against his claim not to have ordered the murders. "[I'm] just haunted each and every day by the unending suffering my participation in murders caused," she told a parole hearing in 2016. The panel that recommended Krenwinkel be paroled acknowledged her perfect behaviour record over her 54 years in prison, and said she poses little risk of reoffending. Nevertheless, family members of her victims remain strongly opposed to any possible release, according to The New York Times. Debra Tate, Sharon's younger sister, told the newspaper she has been asking for face-to-face meetings with Manson family members for "many, many years" under a restorative justice framework, but "they've all refused". "They could have an opportunity to actually sit down face-to-face and say they're sorry, but they won't do it," she said. "When you refuse to talk and your victims' families are asking for it over and over again, isn't that yet another kind of torture?" The parole board panel's recommendation will not be the final word on Krenwinkel's fate. The decision will first be reviewed by the board's legal division, a process that could take up to 120 days. The governor will then be given the chance to reverse the decision, as he did in 2022, or send it back to the panel for further review. A similar decision by Mr Newsom to block the release of Manson family member Leslie Van Houten was overturned by a state appeals court in 2023, leading to Van Houten's release from prison. Krenwinkel is now one of two Manson cult members still behind bars over the 1969 killings, the other being Charles "Tex" Watson, 79, who coordinated the murders. Manson himself died behind bars in 2017 at the age of 83, having been convicted of ordering the killings.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Manson 'family' follower Patricia Krenwinkel recommenced for parole
By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A California prisons panel on Friday recommended that Patricia Krenwinkel, serving a life sentence for her role in murdering seven people in a 1969 Los Angeles killing spree by followers of cult leader Charles Manson, be released on parole. The state Board of Parole Hearings found that Krenwinkel, 77, the longest-serving female inmate in California prisons, posed little risk of reoffending based on her age and a spotless behavior record while incarcerated, according to the CBS News affiliate in San Diego, KFMP-TV. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed the finding of parole suitability, which came on Krenwinkel's 16th parole hearing, but gave no further details. The decision amounts to a proposal subject to review by the full state Board of Parole Hearings and the California governor for up to 150 days before it can become final. Even if the full board affirms the finding of parole suitability, the governor could reject it or send it back for further review. A May 2022 parole board panel recommendation to free Krenwinkel was reversed by Governor Gavin Newsom in August of that year. Krenwinkel, incarcerated at the California Institution for Women, appeared with her lawyer during Friday's four-hour hearing but did not address the commissioners, KFMP reported. Several victims' family members spoke in opposition to her release. Krenwinkel was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder in 1971 for participating in a bloody two-night rampage whose victims included actress Sharon Tate, the 26-year-old wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski. Tate, then eight months pregnant, was slain with four friends, among them coffee heiress Abigail Folger and hairstylist Jay Sebring, at the rented hillside house the actress and Polanski shared in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles. Polanski was in Europe at the time. The following night grocery owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary were stabbed to death in their home, where the words "Death to Pigs" and "Healter Skelter," a misspelled reference to the Beatles song "Helter Skelter," were found scrawled in the victims' blood at the crime scene. Although Manson did not personally kill any of the seven victims, he was found guilty of ordering their murders as part of a delusional plot to ignite a race war. He, Krenwinkel and other members of his so-called "family" of hippies, runaways and misfits, including Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins and "Tex" Watson, were originally sentenced to death. Their sentences were commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court abolished capital punishment in the state in 1972. Manson died in prison at age 83 in 2017. Van Houten was released from prison on parole in 2023 after spending 53 years behind bars. Newsom had rejected her parole recommendation but was overruled by a California appeals court. The governor could have petitioned the state Supreme Court to review the case but opted not to, deciding that further efforts to keep Van Houten locked up were unlikely to succeed. (Reporting Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by William Mallard)
Edinburgh Reporter
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Montgomery Street Helter Skelter lives on in art
A Leith artist has given a new lease of life to the Montgomery Street Helter Skelter which was removed due to safety concerns during the renovation at the play park. For more than half a century an ornate slide or Helter Skelter stood in Montgomery Street Park, and became an integral part of the community. Leithers far and wide were able to recall playing with, drawing on, or as local artist Paul Meikle has recently discovered, peeing down, the structure. Regardless of how it was interacted with, fond and priceless memories were made and it is those memories that Paul could not allow to be destroyed when Edinburgh Council decided that was its fate. When the council deemed the structure unsafe for use it was set to be scrapped alongside the decades worth of memories it holds. Paul, an artist whose work focuses on decaying environments, saw an opportunity and contacted those involved with a plan to ensure that this once local staple and its stories live on forever. The Friends of Montgomery Street Park tried to save the historic helter skelter PHOTO Alan Simpson He dismantled the slide and has since transformed it into 15 different artworks, using every piece to form the works. Its bars are used as frames, its stairs as a canvas. The slide has not only been saved but the community who remember it so fondly can now hang a piece of history on their walls. And remember it fondly they do. Paul says he has interviewed residents to ensure the art represents the local spirit and the stories it holds. He said: 'Play parks shape our existence as we grow up. Leithers have told me of the creative ways they used the Helter Skelter over the decades, creating different obstacles and reimagining it as completely different worlds. Each of them viewing it through a different lens. An enchanting place you used to play with your dad. 'Somewhere you'd go with your pals, trying to wrap the swings around the top bar for hours on end. A chute that quite a few people have peed down for some reason I couldn't see these stories go in the bin. People grew up with this Helter Skelter. My hope is that this is the Helter Skelter growing up with them.' The pieces will be on display at Sett Studios in Leith over the weekend of 30 May. This is the first solo show for the Leith-based artist. The artworks will also be shown at the Hidden Door festival which is on at the Paper Factory in Edinburgh from Wednesday 11 to Sunday 15 June. Helter Skelter by Paul Meikle Sett Studios, 127 Leith Walk. Edinburgh Opening Night: 30 May 6pm – 9pm General Viewing: 31 May – 1 June 12 – 6pm Credit. Sam McGill 2025 Credit. Sam McGill 2025 Credit. Sam McGill 2025 Credit. Sam McGill 2025 Credit. Sam McGill 2025 Credit. Sam McGill 2025 Credit. Sam McGill 2025 Credit. Sam McGill 2025 Like this: Like Related
