Charles Manson cult follower released from jail after 53 years

Los Angeles, July 12 (IANS) Leslie Van Houten, a former follower of notorious cult leader Charles Manson, has been released on parole from jail after serving 53 years of a life sentence for the brutal murders of a Los Angeles grocer and his wife in 1969, according to media reports.

The 73-year-old Van Houten was 19 when she participated in the August 10, 1969, murders of Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary LaBianca, at their Los Angeles residence, reports ABC News.

The LaBiancas were both stabbed to death and the word "war" was carved on Leno LaBianca's stomach.

The murders took place just days after the ghastly killing of actress Sharon Tate and four others at another Los Angeles home.

In a statement, he California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Van Houten was released on Tuesday to parole supervision and "will have a three-year maximum parole term with a parole discharge review occurring after one year".

According to her attorney, she is now in a "transitional living facility".

Van Houten's release comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom said last week that he would not ask the state's Supreme Court to block her parole.

"Governor Newsom reversed Ms. Van Houten's parole grant three times since taking office and defended against her challenges of those decisions in court," ABC News quoted Erin Mellon, communications director for the Office of the Governor, as saying in a statement on Tuesday.

"The Governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeal's decision to release Van Houten but will not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed.

"The California Supreme Court accepts appeals in very few cases, and generally does not select cases based on this type of fact-specific determination," Mellon added.

In an interview with ABC News in 1994, Van Houten said that Manson, who died in prison in 2017, had handed her a knife and asked her to "do something... to make sure that all of us got our hands dirty".

"And I stabbed Mrs. LaBianca in the lower back about 16 times," she added.

--IANS

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