Should "Life Imprisonment" Mean "Life?"
Manson Family Member, Leslie Van Houten, is Paroled
Admittedly, I never thought we’d ever see a Manson Family Member paroled. If there was ever any crime that lived in infamy that was as hyperbolic as it was deserved, it was the Manson family. Larger mass murders have happened since then, and more macabre, sensationalized murderers have received outsized attention, but the Manson Family Murders are in a category of true crime all on its own. It had it all; famous victims, cultural undercurrents, a charismatic central figure and a weird svengali like hold he had on the young women he had commit these atrocious murders.
After a trial that was part legal showcase, part circus (similar only in size and scope with the O.J. Simpson trial), Manson and three women co-defendants were all sentenced to death. When the Supreme Court struck down capital punishment as “cruel and unusual,” their sentences were commuted by the California governor to life in prison. California laws required them to receive formal parole hearings, but everyone largely took them as perfunctory; a necessary hoop you had to go through but not to be taken seriously. A Manson Family Member would never get out of jail, ever. Would they? 1
For a long time, it looked like “no” was the definitive answer. Manson came up for parole 12 times before finally dying in 2017. Patricia Krenwinkle, is still incarcerated in Chino, CA, and seems unlikely to get out. Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009. Charles “Tex” Watson, who was the only male at both the Tate and LaBianca murders and committed the most violent acts, was denied parole for the 15th time in 2016. Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was eventually paroled and currently lives in upstate New York, but she didn’t take part in the gruesome murders, she went to jail for attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.2
Van Houten’s role in the murders was a supplemental one. She did not take part in the Sharon Tate murders but was a part of the LaBianca murders the following night. Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkle did most of the gruesomeness that led to Leno and Rosemary LaBianca’s deaths. After killing Leno LaBianca, Watson went to check on how Krenwinkle and Van Houten were doing with Rosemary; when he saw Van Houten was not engaging with the enthusiasm that Krenwinkle was, he prodded her to begin stabbing Rosemary LaBianca too, of which she obliged. There was no evidence available as to whether Rosemary was dead or alive when Van Houten began stabbing her.
Van Houten, while in prison, renounced Manson and her role in the crimes. She had been a model inmate. She genuinely seemed remorseful for what she did as a member of the Manson Family. Denied parole some 20 times, with two re-trials in the 40+ years she was incarcerated, during the 2010s, the parole board actually began recommending Van Houten for parole. In their view, she was not a threat to society, she had been rehabilitated to the extent the California Penal System could take her and to keep her incarcerated was a waste of taxpayer money and resources. Thus began a series of parole board approvals and the sitting Governor rejecting the recommendation. This happened five separate times. She appealed the decision each time and each time it was upheld.
Then on May 30, 2023, following her most recent parole veto by Governor Gavin Newsome, the California Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the governor. Newsome announced he would not contest the decision to the California Supreme Court and Van Houten was effectively paroled. A Manson Family member, who committed those obscene murders all those years ago, was freed.
What are Prisons For?
This gets at the heart of the question of “What is our prison system for?” To many, the main reasons can be summed up as:
Punishment; people should pay for their crimes.
Security; violent persons, particularly murderers, should be locked up.
Rehabilitation; people with skewed priorities should be set straight and educated to the point they can get on the straight path.
In the case of Van Houten, it’s doubtful she presented a threat to society (which was the reason governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsome consistently gave to reject the Parole Board recommendations) at the age of 73. It’s also been demonstrated that she has made the most of her time behind bars mentoring others and doing her best to keep others from going the route she did. In that sense, she’s about as rehabilitated as one can be coming from the California Maximum Security Prison system. Therefore, the ONLY reason to keep her locked up is for punishment’s sake.
And its a very good reason. Had the Supreme Court not struck down the death penalty, she would have been put in the electric chair probably sometime in the 1980s. When she had her sentence commuted to life, everyone assumed that it would mean, unequivocally, “life.” The families of the victims have repeatedly spoken at her parole hearings requesting the board turn down her petitions for parole. No doubt, they wanted to see her pay for the horrific crimes she did to their loved ones. Letting her out is a slap in their faces.
And yet, keeping her in prison is just a waste of taxpayer money. Prisons are overcrowded and are full of greater threats to society than a woman in her 70s. Health care is expensive and wards of the state receive expensive health care at taxpayer cost; the older one gets behind bars, the more the state can save by just paroling them.
The fact she’s not dead or incarcerated, I hope she truly appreciates how genuinely lucky she is. It’s not often someone from death row ever gets out, barring proof of innocence (usually from DNA). I’m not entirely convinced they ever should.
PurpleAmerica’s Recommended Stories
There is only one book I can suggest related to the Manson Family murders, and it is the definitive account written by the prosecutor, Vincent T. Bugliosi, the true crime classic, “Helter Skelter.”
I read this book twice. Once in high school when my sister’s beaten up paperback seemed like an interesting book to read. The other was in law school, the summer after I took Criminal Procedure, and appreciated it on a whole different level. This book just works in a way few true crime books do. If you’ve never read it, do yourself a favor and pick it up now.
There have been two depictions of the book; one was a 1970s documentary style film called “Helter Skelter.” The other was a limited documentary series from a few years ago recalling the events and gets into much more detail. The episodes for this are online but you can see a trailer for them below.
PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day
It isn’t often people actually talk about Manson’s “Family” in the sense that he did actually father three boys.
Charles Manson was in and out of penitentiaries his whole life, including the famed “Boys Town” in Indiana. Trying to straighten himself up, he had married a waitress, Rosalie Jean Willis in 1955. His eldest child, Charles Manson, Jr. was born in 1956 while he was in prison for stealing a car. Manson and Willis divorced in 1958. She remarried and the boy took the name of his stepfather and eventually changed his name to “Jay White” after learning of who his father was. Unfortunately, as interest in him grew, White took his own life in 1993 via gunshot wound and is survived by his son, Charles Manson’s grandson, Jason Freeman.
Manson married his second wife, Leona Rae “Candy” Stevens, while in prison. From this marriage, Charles Manson’s second son, Charles Luther Manson was born. However, while he was imprisoned Leona asked for a divorce. He was raised with his mother and has remained out of any spotlight or press related to his father. Charles Luther would be in his sixties today. Little is known about him.
Soon after moving to California, one of the first women Manson met was a college librarian named Mary Brunner, originally from Eau Claire, WI. Brunner is often considered the first “Manson Family” member. Valentine Michael Manson was born in 1968. While he did spend some early formative years in California around the Manson Family, Mary Brunner was arrested before the murders for credit card fraud and the boy was sent to live in Eau Claire with his grandparents when he was only 18 months old. He eventually changed his name to “Michael Brunner.” Charles Manson wrote to him numerous times and Brunner has claimed he never once read any of the letters.
Charles Manson died in 2017, but his estate is still tied up in probate. Manson’s estate has been estimated between $500,000 and $1 million based on his memorabilia, song recordings and other particular objects he owned. The two litigants fighting over the estate are Jason Freeman (the aforementioned grandson) and a criminal memorabilia collector who claims Manson signed a will where he turned everything over to him. Michael Brunner ceded any claim to the estate and has endorsed Freeman’s claim. As of Feburary, 2023, no decision has been finalized.
PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner
Charles Manson has been depicted numerous times in pop culture. Despite the passage of time, he still has a grasp on the collective psyche of american culture.
In May of 1988, that paragon of sensationalized journalism Geraldo Rivera interviewed Manson from behind bars. The interview was one of the highest rated shows of the year.
The whole situation became a template for the movie Natural Born Killers when Robert Downey, Jr interviews the film’s antihero Mickey Knox (Woody Harrelson) behind bars. When Downey tells him his show was the second most watched of all time, losing only to Manson, Harrelson groans, “Well, it’s hard to beat the king.”
In terms of television and film, the best from my perspective was from the show “Mindhunter,” about the beginnings of the FBI’s Serial Killer Profiling Unit. Damon Harriman plays a pitch perfect Manson.
But Harriman didn’t just play Manson in the above clip. That same year he appeared in the Quentin Tarantino film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” where he plays a very different Manson.
PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject
Let’s give it to Sharon Tate’s sister:
https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/sharon-tates-sister-manson-follower-ruling-is-appalling/
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Footnotes and Fun Stuff
At this point we should note two minor characters in the Tate-Labianco murders. Linda Kasabian, the driver to the Tate murder, was given immunity and testified against all the others at the main trial and every subsequent re-trial they received. She died earlier this year. Clem Grogan was to take part in the LaBianco murders but Kasabian intentionally drove him and several others to the wrong location, since she was still rattled about what happened the night before. Grogan was convicted of a subsequent murder Manson directed, but the judge said he was too stupid and too hopped up on drugs to form sound judgment and his sentence was commuted from life imprisonment to a lesser period. He was paroled in 1985.
In terms of just sheer odd historical events, this one has to be up there.