According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Charles Manson’s follower Leslie Van Houten has been released from prison after serving 53 years for two notorious murders.
Van Houten was released on parole on Tuesday, the department said.
Her release from a Corona jail comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday that he will not ask the state Supreme Court to block parole. Erin Mellon, communications director for the governor’s office, released a statement Tuesday.
Van Houten, now in her 70s, was serving a life sentence for helping Manson and other cultists in the 1969 murder of Leno LaBianca, a Los Angeles grocer, and his wife Rosemary.
“Governor Newsom has reversed Ms. Van Houten’s parole three times since taking office and has defended her challenges to those decisions in court,” Mellon said. “The governor is disappointed by the appeals court’s decision to release Ms. Van Houten but will not take any further action as efforts to seek further appeals are unlikely to succeed.”
Van Houten has been recommended for parole five times since 2016, but Newsom and former Gov. Jerry Brown rejected all of those recommendations.
However, in May a state appeals court ruled that Van Houten should be released, citing her “extraordinary efforts at rehabilitation, insight, remorse, realistic probation plans, support from family and friends” and positive reports of behavior in prison.
“She is thrilled and overwhelmed,” said her attorney, Nancy Tetreault. “She’s just grateful that people are realizing that she’s not the same person who committed the murders.”
Van Houten will spend about a year in a transitional home learning basic life skills like how to go to the grocery store and get a debit card, Tetreault said.
It was the summer of love that was shattered by the Tate LaBianca murders. NBCLA reports the murders and the Manson family behind them 20 years later.
“She has been in prison for 53 years. She just needs to learn how to use an ATM, let alone a cell phone, let alone a computer,” her attorney said.
Van Houten and other Manson supporters killed the LaBiancas in their home in August 1969 and subsequently smeared their blood on the walls. Van Houten later described how she held Rosemary LaBianca with a pillowcase over her head while others stabbed her, before stabbing the woman more than a dozen times herself.
“My family and I are heartbroken because we are reminded once again of all the years that we didn’t have my father and stepmother with us,” Cory LaBianca, Leno LaBianca’s daughter, said in a phone interview with The on Friday Associated Press.
“My kids and my grandchildren never got a chance to meet either of them, which was a huge gap in my family,” said Cory La Bianca, who is 75.
The LaBianca murders came a day after Manson supporters killed actress Sharon Tate and four others. Van Houten was not involved in the Tate murders.
Manson died in prison of natural causes in 2017 at the age of 83 after spending nearly half a century behind bars.