On August 9, 1969, Patricia Krenwinkle accompanied other “Manson Family” members to actress Sharon Tate’s Palm Springs home, where she stabbed coffee heiress Abigail Folger to death while her companions murdered Tate and three other people.
The next night, August 10, 1969, Krenwinkle accompanied Manson and others to the Los Angeles home of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary, where she stabbed both LaBiancas, although they may have already been dead from wounds inflicted by other “family” members, principally Tex Watson.
Krenwinkle was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for her participation in the Tate-LaBianca murders. In 1972, she benefited from a California supreme court decision invalidating the death penalty, and was resentenced to life in prison.
When she took part in these horrific crimes, she was only 21 years old; now she’s 74 (photo above), and “has maintained a perfect prison record” and “is active with prison programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and … taught illiterate prisoners how to read,” according to Wikipedia (details here).
Over the years, Krenwinkle was denied parole 14 times, until a 2-person board recommended her for parole in May 2022. Current California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who “agreed that she has been well-behaved in prison,” overruled the board (see story here).
Gov. Newsom justified his decision by saying Krenwinkle is still dangerous. That’s a legal fiction. He hasn’t let any of the surviving Manson killers out of prison, and he shouldn’t, as doing so would diminish the innocent lives taken. That may not be a valid reason under California law to keep them locked up, but it’s a morally sound reason.
Last week, the Parkland school shooter, Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 years old when he murdered 17 people and wounded 17 others, kept his life when three jurors decided against executing him. That understandably outraged family members of the victims, who rightly feel the sentence diminishes the lives of their loved ones.
It’s no small thing that Cruz could spend 60 or 70 years behind bars, with no hope of every getting out. But assuming this child killer isn’t taken out by his fellow inmates, who’s to say he won’t be paroled someday? Laws can change. Krenwinkle was sentenced to death, but the law changed, and only the governor’s intervention kept her from being released.
I don’t care that she’s been a model prisoner. She and Cruz should both die in prison. Some crimes are too terrible to be forgiven, and no amount of rehabilitation or remorse should earn their perpetrators society’s forgiveness.