A member of Charles Manson’s death cult has been deemed suitable for parole after serving more than four decades in prison.

Leslie Van Houten was 19 when she formed part of the group who stabbed to death wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in 1969.

The killing came a day after other followers of Manson murdered Sharon Tate, an actress who was pregnant, and four more people in Los Angeles.

California’s board of parole ruled Van Houten could be released following a meeting at a women’s prison in Corona. It is the third time the killer has been deemed ready to leave prison.

After a 150-day review process California’s new Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, will make the final decision on whether the 69-year-old should be released.

Former governor Jerry Brown blocked Van Houten’s release twice previously.

Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes Show all 10 1 /10 Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes "I'm nobody. I'm a tramp, a bum, a hobo. I'm a boxcar and a jug of wine, and a straight razor if you get too close to me." - Interview, 1989 Getty Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes "Maybe I should have killed four, five hundred people. Then I would have felt better. Then I would have felt like I really offered society something." - NBC interview with Heidi Schulman, 1987 Granger/REX Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes "Do you feel blame? Are you mad? Uh, do you feel like wolf kabob Roth vantage? Gefrannis booj pooch boo jujube; bear-ramage. Jigiji geeji geeja geeble Google. Begep flagaggle vaggle veditch-waggle bagga?" - NBC interview with Heidi Schulman, 1987 Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes "I've been 15 years in the nut ward, for trying to stop the trees from being cut down, from trying to rearrange the lifestyle of a bunch of people who don't want to change. But they're gonna change because a cold wind is blowing. You're gonna change or else there's going to be no life left on the planet Earth." - Interview with Penny Daniels in San Quentin Prison, California, 1989 Rex Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes "We use the word God. God hooks all the other words up. I'm the pope. I'm ten times the pope. I'm sixty times the pope. But I'm the pope in the hills and in the mountains." - Interview by Penny Daniels, 1989 Rex Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes Will of God.. whatever you wanna call it.. you call it Jesus, call it Mohammed, call it goobybob, call it nuclear mind, call it blow the world up, call it your heart. Whatever you wanna call it, it's still music to me. It's there. It's the will of life. - Interview with Geraldo Rivera (1981) Rex Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes Believe me, if I started murdering people, there'd be none of you left. - Interview, Rolling Stone (1970) Getty Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays everybody's crazy. - Interview by Diane Sawyer (1994) AP Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy. - Interview by Diane Sawyer (1994) AP Charles Manson's 10 most bizarre quotes "I was so smart when I was a kid that I learnt that I was dumb fast." - Interview on the album 'All the Way Alive' (2003) Rex

Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, attended the parole hearing on Wednesday and said that “I just have to hope and pray that the governor comes to the right decision” – keeping Van Houten behind bars.

In his decision last year, Mr Brown acknowledged Van Houten’s youth at the time of the crime, her abuse at the hands of Manson and that she had been well-behaved as a prisoner. He said she still put too much blame on her former mentor for the crimes, however.

Nonetheless, the killer’s lawyer Rich Pfeiffer predicted it would be “much more difficult” for Mr Newsom to block his client’s release this time around. ”She chose to go with Manson. She chose to listen to him. And she acknowledges that,” he added.

Van Houten was first convicted of murder in 1971, then again in 1978 following two retrials.

At her last hearing, Van Houten said she had had a troubled childhood. She was devastated when her parents divorced when she was 14, she said, and soon after she began spending time with her school’s outcast crowd and using drugs.

When she was 17, she and her boyfriend ran away to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District during the city’s Summer of Love.

She was travelling up and down the California coast when acquaintances led her to Manson. He was holed up at an abandoned movie ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles where he had recruited what he called a “family” to survive what he insisted would be a race war he would launch by committing a series of random, horrifying murders.

Van Houten said she joined several other members of the group in killing the LaBiancas, carving up Leno LaBianca’s body and smearing the couple’s blood on the walls.

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Manson died in 2017 of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence.

Earlier this month, a California parole panel recommended for the first time that Manson follower Robert Beausoleil be freed. Beausoleil was convicted of killing musician Gary Hinman.

No one who took part in the Tate-LaBianca murders has been released from prison.