Leslie Van Houten reacts after hearing she is eligible for parole during a hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017 at the California Institution for Women in Corona. Leslie Van Houten was the youngest of Charles MansonÕs followers to take part in one of the nation’s most notorious killings. After a 120-day review process, the governor will have 30 days to approve, reject or do nothing on Wednesday’s decision, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. (Stan Lim, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Leslie Van Houten enters with her attorney Rich Pfeiffer before her parole board hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, at the California Institution for Women in Corona. Leslie Van Houten was the youngest of Charles Mansons followers to take part in one of the nations most notorious killings (Stan Lim, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

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Leslie Van Houten reacts after hearing she is eligible for parole during a hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017 at the California Institution for Women in Corona. Leslie Van Houten was the youngest of Charles MansonÕs followers to take part in one of the nation’s most notorious killings. After a 120-day review process, the governor will have 30 days to approve, reject or do nothing on Wednesday’s decision, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. (Stan Lim, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Debra Tate, left, a representative to the La Bianca family and Tony LaMontagne, their oldest grandson, attend the parole hearing for Leslie Van Houten on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, at the California Institution for Women in Corona. Leslie Van Houten was the youngest of Charles Manson’s followers to take part in one of the nation’s most notorious killings. (Stan Lim, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Leslie Van Houten before the start of her parole board hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, at the California Institution for Women in Corona. Leslie Van Houten was the youngest of Charles Mansons followers to take part in one of the nations most notorious killings (Stan Lim, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)



Leslie Van Houten waits with her attorney Rich Pfeiffer before her parole board hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, at the California Institution for Women in Corona. Leslie Van Houten was the youngest of Charles Mansons followers to take part in one of the nations most notorious killings (Stan Lim, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Leslie Van Houten waits for the start of her parole board hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, at the California Institution for Women in Corona. Leslie Van Houten was the youngest of Charles Mansons followers to take part in one of the nations most notorious killings (Stan Lim, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

In this Aug. 20, 1970 file photo, Charles Manson followers, from left: Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, walk to court to appear for their roles in the 1969 cult killings of seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, in Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/George Brich, File)

Dressed in jail denims, three women who are co-defendants with Charles M. Manson in the Sharon Tate murder trial, walk toward a Los Angeles courtroom, Aug. 6, 1979. The women are on their way to listen to further cross-examination of Linda Kasabian, the state’s principal witness against them. Left to right are: Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)

Three women defendants return to their cells after they were sentenced to death for the Tate-LaBianca murders, April 19, 1971. Left to right, Leslie van Houten, Susan Denise Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)



CHINO – Leslie Van Houten, the youngest of Charles Mason’s murderous followers, was granted parole by a California board Wednesday.

Van Houten, who was 19 when she killed for Manson during a series of murders that terrorized Los Angeles over the summer of 1969, appeared before a parole panel for the 21st time.

The decision now goes through a process of review in which Gov. Jerry Brown may uphold, reverse or modify the decision. He could also send the matter to the full Board of Parole Hearings, or take no action, in which case the parole decision would stand.

A similar panel at the California Institution for Women in Chino, where Van Houten is incarcerated, granted her parole last year but was overruled by the governor.

Van Houten has candidly described how she joined several other members of the “Manson Family” in killing Los Angeles grocer Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, in their home on Aug. 9, 1969.

She was not with Manson followers the night before when they killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others during a similar bloody rampage.

At her parole hearing last year, Van Houten said she helped hold down Rosemary La Bianca while another Manson follower stabbed her repeatedly. She then took up a knife herself and added more than a dozen stab wounds.

“I don’t let myself off the hook. I don’t find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself,” she said.

Since she was incarcerated more than 40 years ago, Van Houten has been a model prisoner and earned college degrees.

Members of the Tate and La Bianca families have argued repeatedly, however, against granting parole to her or any other Manson follower who took part in the killings.

None has been freed, and one, Susan Atkins, died in prison in 2009. Manson, now 82, remains behind bars.

After Van Houten was tentatively granted parole, Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, gathered 140,000 petition signatures opposing her release.

In overruling the panel, Brown said Van Houten had failed to adequately explain how a model teenager from a privileged Southern California family could have turned into a ruthless killer.

Van Houten was both the youngest and also seemingly the most unlikely member of Manson’s so-called family.

She had been a high school homecoming princess, athlete and cheerleader before dropping out of school and joining the ragtag band of ersatz hippies who considered Manson, a career con man and petty criminal, to be a Christ-like figure.

She has testified that the trauma of her parents’ divorce, her teen pregnancy and other problems led her to drop out of school, run away from home, become involved in drugs and eventually join Manson’s cult.

In an attempt to bolster her chances for release, Van Houten’s attorney put another former Manson follower, Catherine Share, on the witness stand at a court hearing in Los Angeles last week at which she testified Van Houten was so young and impressionable that she was afraid to leave the cult.

“Some people could not leave. I was one of them that could not leave,” said Share, who added Manson threatened to have her tortured and killed if she tried.

Share, who didn’t take part in the killings, added she believes Van Houten was also afraid to leave. She said she regretted encouraging her to join the cult.

AP reporter Don Thompson contributed to this report from Sacramento