Nearly 60 years after the Manson family murders shocked the nation, Patricia Krenwinkel — one of Charles Manson’s most infamous followers — has been preliminarily granted parole, California prison authorities said.
Krenwinkel, convicted on seven counts of murder for her role in the killing of actress Sharon Tate — who was heavily pregnant — and six other people, has now received parole approval three times.
In previous instances, however, the state governor’s office has stepped in to reverse the board’s decision.
“All grants of parole are proposed decisions and become final only after a thorough and comprehensive review by the Board of Parole Hearings and the Governor,” officials with the prison department said in a statement.
As recently as 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom blocked her release, writing that the 78-year-old still poses an unreasonable danger to society.
Krenwinkel remains among the best-known members of the Manson family cult, and she is the longest-serving female inmate in California.
Fellow Manson cult member Leslie Van Houten was released in 2023
She was originally sentenced to death alongside Manson and other followers for the August 1969 killings, a series of murders that included the death of Ms Tate, the wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski.
That death sentence was later converted to life in prison after California declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972, a decision that nullified existing executions.
Another Manson follower, Leslie Van Houten — who admitted participating in a separate double murder the night after the Tate killings — was released in 2023.
Van Houten’s parole efforts were repeatedly rejected by governors, including Mr Newsom.
Ultimately, an appeals court overturned Mr Newsom’s final veto, pointing to Van Houten’s exemplary conduct behind bars and decades of therapy.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said incarcerated people are on average denied parole four or more times “before they are found suitable”.
Manson died in custody in 2017 at age 83.
He led an apocalyptic cult and directed his followers to carry out murders across Los Angeles as part of a distorted plan to ignite a race war.
More than half a century later, the case still looms large in the American psyche, continuing to draw grim fascination through books, songs, tourist routes and films.
