All about Leslie Van Houten and her role in the Manson family murders

As Governor Gavin Newsom’s repeated efforts to keep Leslie Van Houten behind bars failed, the convicted murderer, a former follower of the Manson family, was released on parole on Tuesday.

Before Van Houten joined the cult leader Charles Manson, she was a teenager growing up in Los Angeles and came from a middle-class churchgoing family. 

Leslie Van Houten's troubled youth 

Even in the simple religious suburb of Altadena, she began using LSD and Benzedrine and smoking hashish at 15.

Her troubled lifestyle led to a teenage pregnancy at 17, following which she was forced by her mother to have a late-term abortion and bury the aborted fetus in their backyard.

The forced abortion drew a wedge between the teen and her mother and as she graduated high school in 1967, she left home and moved in with Catherine Share and Bobby Beausoleil, both of whom she had met at a commune.

How Leslie Van Houten met Charles Manson

At 19, Van Houten followed Share to Charles Manson’s commune, where she became so entranced with the cult leader that she called her mother and cut off all ties with her family, never to return home.

What followed was complete control by the “family” leader Manson. He decided when his followers would eat, sleep, and even chose their sexual partners. He administered more LSD to his followers than he took himself.

Manson ultimately led his followers to the horrendous murders of eight-month-pregnant actress Sharon Tate and the grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in 1969.

Van Houten's murderous spree

Van Houten was not included in the first murder – the gruesome killing of Valley of the Dolls actress Sharon Tate. Court documents later alleged that Van Houten felt “left out” when she found out about the murder in the news.

The next night, Manson took family members Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Van Houten on a drive in search of their next victims. After hours of driving, they randomly chose the grocer’s house as their target.

The bone-chilling events that followed as Manson left Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Van Houten to murder the couple, landed Van Houten in prison for more than 52 years.

As every member “had to get their hands dirty,” Tex told Krenwinkel and Van Houten to get knives from the kitchen as he inflicted fatal blows to the tied-up couple. Van Houten confessed to stabbing Rosemary about 16 times.

Leslie Van Houten is found guilty

Van Houten was found guilty of the murder in 1970 after she openly admitted to it in police interviews. Giggling during the court proceedings, Van Houten repeatedly denied that she committed the murder on Manson’s instructions. 

She fired three defense lawyers who alleged that her actions were directed by Manson. She even went on to say that a court-appointed defense attorney, who “had a lot of different ideas on how to get me off,” had also asked her to claim that it was Manson who ordered the killings.

In 1971, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but the California Supreme Court ruled that year death penalty unconstitutional that year, which resulted in her sentence being commuted to life in prison.

The conviction was overturned in 1976 and a second trial resulted in a jury deadlock and mistrial. Van Houten was finally convicted in a third trial of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy and sentenced to seven years to life in prison with the possibility of parole.