What did Patricia Krenwinkel do? California governor blocks parole for Charles Manson follower

On Friday, October 14, 2022, Patricia Krenwinkel, a Charles Manson follower, was denied parole by the California governor. Governor Gavin Newsom said that he still considered the now 74-year-old to be too much of a public safety risk.

In May, her release was brought up for the first time by a two-member parole panel. However, Governor Newsom, who has denied parole recommendations to other followers of Charles Manson, said that Krenwinkel was an active contributor to Manson's bloody legacy. Newsom said,

"Ms. Krenwinkel fully accepted Mr. Manson's racist, apocalyptical ideologies. Ms. Krenwinkel was not only a victim of Mr. Manson's abuse. She was also a significant contributor to the violence and tragedy that became the Manson Family's legacy."

Patricia Krenwinkel has spent decades behind bars for the murder of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four others in 1969. She had also aided in the murders of grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the next night.

Apart from the terrifying cult killings, Krenwinkel also played a leadership role. Newsom said,

"Beyond the brutal murders she committed, she played a leadership role in the cult, and an enforcer of Mr. Manson's tyranny. She forced the other women in the cult to obey Mr. Manson, and prevented them from escaping when they tried to leave."

Despite her well-behaved nature in prison, a relative of Jay Sebring, one of Krenwinkel's victims, had wished against her release from prison "due to the rare, severe, egregious nature of her crimes." He further stated that her bloody actions have incited "the entire Helter Skelter legacy that has caused permanent historical scars." The cult killings also inspired at least two ritualized killings years later.

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What was Patricia Krenwinkel's relationship with Charles Manson?

Five decades after Charles Manson and his followers unleashed a reign of terror and allegedly started a race war, Patricia Krenwinkel was denied parole by the California governor. Krenwinkel has previously been denied parole 14 times.

In 1971, Patricia Krenwinkel, along with Charles Manson and another follower identified as Susan Atkins, were found guilty of first-degree murder in all seven of the Tate and LaBianca murders by the jury. Following Atkins' death in 2009, Krenwinkel became the state's longest-serving female inmate. Prosecutors believe that she played an integral part in Charles Manson's attempt to start a race war.

At a parole hearing, the now 74-year-old murderer recalled how she met Manson at the young and vulnerable age of 19, while working as a secretary and living with her older sister. Charles Manson was then 33 years old. What followed was a relationship of abuse, both physical and emotional. In a 2016 testimony, she admitted to leaving behind everything to follow Manson because she believed what they shared was a romantic connection.

He abused her physically and emotionally continuously and even trafficked her to other men. Patricia Krenwinkel claimed that she attempted to leave twice only to be brought back. She was hardly ever left alone without supervision and was usually kept under the influence of drugs.

On the night she killed La Bianca, she was allegedly told by Charles Manson and his right-hand man to do something "witchy", and so she stabbed La Bianca in the stomach with a fork and wrote phrases such as "Helter Skelter," ″Rise" and "Death to Pigs" on the walls with his blood.

While Manson's trial was ongoing, Krenwinkel and other female defendants had claimed that Charles Manson had nothing to do with the murders. She was sentenced to life in prison after initially being given the death sentence.