After 53 years in prison Leslie Van Houten, one of the followers of the cult led by Charles Manson, may soon be released. The governor of California announced yesterday that he would not ask the state Supreme Court to block Van Houten’s parole. pave the way for his release after the lengthy prison sentence she was sentenced to for two notorious murders.

Van Houten, now 73, is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and other supporters in the 1969 Manson murders Leno LaBiancaa grocer from Los Angeles, and his wife, rosemary.

Now Van Houten could leave prison in about two weeks after the parole board will have reviewed her record and completed the paperwork for her release from the California Institution for Women in Coronasaid his attorney Nancy Tetreault.

After release There The woman will spend about a year in a shelter, learning basic life skills like going to the grocery store and getting a debit card, Tetreault said. “She’s been in prison for 53 years…she doesn’t even know how to use an ATM, let alone a cellphone, let alone a computer,” the attorney added. “She’s thrilled and overwhelmed,” Tetreault said. “She is grateful that people are realizing that she is no longer the same person who committed the murders.”

The LaBianca family’s reaction

“My family and I are heartbroken as we are reminded once again of all the years we didn’t have my father and stepmother with us,” she told the Associated Press. Cory LaBianca, daughter of Leno LaBianca. “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 Murder

The day after the massacre of Heaven Drivewhich took place onAugust 8, 1969 where Roman Polanski’s wife lost her life, Sharon Tate 8 1/2 months pregnant and three other people, Van Houten and other followers of Manson killed i LaBianca in her home.

Van Houten later described holding Rosemary LaBianca with a pillowcase over her head while others stabbed her, before she herself stabbed the possibly dead woman more than a dozen times.

At the massacre of Heaven Drive Van Houten did not take part, the murders, always under Manson’s direction, were committed by Tex Watson (23 years), Susan Atkins (21 years) and Patricia Krenwinkel (21 years).

Leslie Van Houten along with Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkle during the 1970 murder trial

Leslie Van Houten

Lesliand Van Houten was born on August 23, 1949 in suburban Los Angeles to a middle-class church family. He has an older brother and two adopted brothers. Her mother and father divorced when she was 14 years old. Leslie appears to have had a difficult adolescence, starting to use LSD, amphetamines and hash at age 15 and running away from home several times, but still manages to finish high school.

At 17 she became pregnant, but her mother forced her to have an abortion. This event affects his relationship with his family, from whom he begins to distance himself. He approaches the hippie culture and then the so-called Manson Family.

The “Family”, a hippie community founded in the late 1960s by Charles Manson, an aspiring musician and heinous criminal, was a cult made up of people from different social backgrounds, more or less young, those of small minds theft, robbery and donations. Manson had complete control over the parishioners. According to the reconstructions, about a hundred people took acids in large doses every day. According to Manson, “If you take LSD often enough, you reach a state of nothingness and thought.” Van Houten says she was so full of acid that she “couldn’t understand anything outside of my psychedelic reality.” I didn’t have any More control of my mind.