Patricia Krenwinkel, a former follower of cult leader Charles Manson who was convicted for her role in the murders of seven people during a two-day killing spree across Los Angeles in 1969, has been recommended for parole.
It's the 16th time Krenwinkel has appeared before the parole board panel, and the second time parole has been recommended — the first being in 2022, before the decision was overturned by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Krenwinkel, 77, is California's longest-serving female prisoner, having originally been sentenced to death in 1971 for her role in the brutal "Helter Skelter" killings, which shocked America and shone a light on the dark side of 1960s hippie counterculture.
Her sentence was commuted to life with the possibility of parole in 1972, when the state's Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was unconstitutional.
In 1967, when Krenwinkel was 19, she met musician and small-time criminal Charles Manson at a party, leaving her job and apartment behind three days later to travel with him to San Francisco as she believed they might have a romantic relationship.
During the next 18 months, she and several other young men and women followed Manson around the country, becoming known as "the Manson family" as they fell deeper under his influence, often with the aid of psychedelic drugs.
She later said Manson abused her physically and emotionally during this time, including trafficking her to other men for sex, and she had tried to escape the group twice only to be brought back by other members of the "family".
In 1969, Manson — once an aspiring pop star — convinced his followers he was receiving secret messages through the Beatles' White Album, informing him of a coming race war that his group could wait out underground, before emerging to rule the world.
In what prosecutors labelled an attempt to ignite that race war, Manson instructed Krenwinkel and several other followers to enter the home of actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, and to kill anyone they found inside.
His followers shot, beat and stabbed five people to death at the home that night — including Ms Tate, who was eight months pregnant at the time.
The following night, Manson and his followers attacked Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at a different house chosen at random, stabbing them to death before Krenwinkel wrote "Healter Skelter" [sic], "Rise" and "Death to Pigs" on the walls with their blood.
During their trial, Krenwinkel and two other young women involved in the murders drew press attention for smiling, laughing and singing as the proceedings took place, then for shaving their heads and carving the letter X into their foreheads as Manson had done.
While she remained loyal to the cult leader throughout her trial and at the start of her prison sentence, over time she began to distance herself from him, going on to renounce her past actions and to speak out against his claim not to have ordered the murders.
"[I'm] just haunted each and every day by the unending suffering my participation in murders caused," she told a parole hearing in 2016.
"I'm so ashamed of my actions … I am ever aware that the victims who perished had so much life yet to live."
The panel that recommended Krenwinkel be paroled acknowledged her perfect behaviour record over her 54 years in prison, and said she poses little risk of reoffending.
Nevertheless, family members of her victims remain strongly opposed to any possible release, according to The New York Times.
Debra Tate, Sharon's younger sister, told the newspaper she has been asking for face-to-face meetings with Manson family members for "many, many years" under a restorative justice framework, but "they've all refused".
"They could have an opportunity to actually sit down face-to-face and say they’re sorry, but they won’t do it," she said.
"When you refuse to talk and your victims’ families are asking for it over and over again, isn’t that yet another kind of torture?"
The parole board panel's recommendation will not be the final word on Krenwinkel's fate. The decision will first be reviewed by the board's legal division, a process that could take up to 120 days.
The governor will then be given the chance to reverse the decision, as he did in 2022, or send it back to the panel for further review.
A similar decision by Mr Newsom to block the release of Manson family member Leslie Van Houten was overturned by a state appeals court in 2023, leading to Van Houten's release from prison.
Krenwinkel is now one of two Manson cult members still behind bars over the 1969 killings, the other being Charles "Tex" Watson, 79, who coordinated the murders.
Manson himself died behind bars in 2017 at the age of 83, having been convicted of ordering the killings.
