Patricia Krenwinkel, a former follower of notorious cult leader Charles Manson, was granted preliminary parole approval while imprisoned for her involvement in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
After spending nearly six decades in prison in California, the 78-year-old was approved for parole for the third time on Tuesday, October 6, meaning she’s been recommended for release, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
It’s up to California Gov. Gavin Newsom to decide whether Krenwinkel’s parole grant will stand.
“All grants of parole are proposed decisions and become final only after a thorough and comprehensive review by the Board of Parole Hearings and the Governor,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets.
The governor’s office reversed two previous parole grants for Krenwinkel, most recently in October 2025, when Newsom acknowledged her efforts toward personal improvement in prison but ultimately decided she posed a potential risk to the public if she were released, per the newspaper.
In 1971, Krenwinkel was convicted of murder with other Manson family members in the killings of actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, Thomas Jay Sebring, Abigail Ann Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Earl Parent in August 1969. She was also convicted in the murders of Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca, his wife, who were killed the next day.
A few years before the slayings that shook the nation, Krenwinkel met Manson when she was 19 years old in 1967, becoming his girlfriend and a follower of his Mason family cult, according to a 2022 executive report on parole in California.
Krenwinkel was 21 when she and three other Manson followers drove to Tate’s home, where the Valley of the Dolls star lived with her husband, Roman Polanski, and initiated the deadly attack against 26-year-old Tate and her guests, including Folger, who she stabbed to death, the report states.
Following the Tate-LaBianca murders, Krenwinkel fled the state and was later apprehended in Alabama before she was extradited to California in 1970.
Krenwinkel was initially sentenced to death, but all state death sentences before 1972 became invalid under a subsequent California Supreme Court order, according to Patch.com. She was then sentenced to life in prison.
“She fully accepts responsibility for her actions, everything she contributed to, and every life she destroyed in 1969. Pat does not excuse or minimize that harm,” Krenwinkel’s attorney, Keith Wattley, told The Guardian.
“I have seen the depth of her remorse and the extraordinary work she has done to change her life. I firmly believe she is ready to return home,” Wattley said.
