All About Leslie Van Houten, Who Was Convicted of Killing Leno and Rosemary LaBianca as Manson Follower

A follower of notorious cult leader and killer Charles Manson was released on parole Tuesday after spending more than five decades in a California prison for murder.

Leslie Van Houten, 73, was convicted, along with other cult members, for her role in the brutal 1969 slayings of Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary when she was 19 years old. She had served 53 years behind bars.

During a two-day spree in August of 1969, Manson instructed a handful of followers — including Van Houten, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel — to kill seven people. One of the victims was 26-year-old actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. 

Also murdered were coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish writer Wojciech Voytek Frykowski, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring and 18-year-old delivery boy Steven Parent. 

Manson and his followers, including Van Houten, were convicted in 1971 and ultimately given life sentences. They were spared the death penalty after California temporarily banned capital punishment.

The killings were part of a plan by Manson to start a race war he named “Helter Skelter” after the Beatles song. The career criminal died of natural causes in November 2017. He was 83 and serving nine life sentences in California’s Corcoran State Prison at the time of his death. Though found legally responsible for the murders, he didn't personally kill any of the victims.

Now in her 70s, Van Houten is “so ready” to be out in the world, her lawyer Rich Pfeiffer tells PEOPLE.

Here are five things to know about Leslie Van Houten.

What Was She Charged with and How Long Did She Spend in Prison?

Van Houten was convicted in 1971 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the 1969 slayings of husband and wife Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

In 1969, the LaBiancas were found dead in their Los Feliz, Los Angeles home. The word “war” was carved into Leno's stomach, from which an ivory-handled carving fork protruded. “Death to Pigs” was scrawled with their blood on the living room wall.

Van Houten admitted to stabbing Rosemary LaBianca over a dozen times as cohort Patricia Krenwinkle held their victim down on Aug. 9, 1969. On that fateful night, Van Houten said she was also helping to hold Rosemary down while Charles “Tex” Watson stabbed her. Watson then told Van Houton to “do something." He passed her a knife and Van Houten stabbed Rosemary in the back around 14 times.

After the murders, Van Houten changed clothes and drank chocolate milk from the couple's fridge, according to The New York Times, citing parole records.

She was initially sentenced to death but that was overturned in 1976 when California ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. After a series of mistrials, she was eventually handed down a life sentence for her role in the murders.

Van Houten spent 53 years at the California Institution for Women in Corona before her release on July 11. 

According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Van Houten will “have a three-year maximum parole term with a parole discharge review occurring after one year.”

Van Houten was taken to an undisclosed transitional facility where she will spend a short time before being released, according to her lawyer.

“She has some computer skills from the job she had in prison,” Rich Pfeiffer told PEOPLE, noting that she has already had multiple job offers. “She has got a master’s degree. She is very bright. She has got a lot of support from family and friends. She will do just fine.”

Van Houten Went Through 3 Trials For Her Role in the Killings

Van Houten’s 1971 murder conviction was overturned in 1976 because her lawyer disappeared during her initial trial, according to past reporting by PEOPLE. Her second trial ended with a hung jury and a mistrial. 

At her third trial in 1978, she was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy and sentenced to seven years to life in prison. She was released on parole in July 2023.

She Was Denied Parole 5 Times

In total, Van Houten was ruled eligible for parole five times since 2016 but was blocked each time by the California governor’s office.

She was found suitable for parole at her 22nd parole hearing in 2020, but the decision was reversed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Van Houten appealed the decision and it was overturned on May 30, 2023, by the California Second District Court of Appeal, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Last week, Gov. Newsom said he wouldn’t fight a California appellate court’s decision to grant 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,” Erin Mellon, spokesperson for the governor’s office, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “The Governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeal’s decision to release Ms. Van Houten but will not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed.” 

She Was the Youngest Manson Follower and Met Manson Through an Acquaintance

At 19, Van Houten was the youngest of the cult killers. She is a former homecoming princess who graduated from high school in 1967 in Monrovia, Calif., according to past reporting by PEOPLE.

At a previous parole hearing, Van Houten said that her parents divorced when she was 14, after which she began hanging around a group of misfits and started doing marijuana and LSD.

She ran away with a boyfriend when she was 17, ended up in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District during the so-called “summer of love” and got pregnant, the Associated Press reported.

Her attorney said she was forced to have an abortion, and they put the fetus in a coffee can and buried it in her backyard.

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Van Houten said she later met Manson through an acquaintance at Spahn Ranch, the site of a hippie commune outside of Los Angeles.

Family Member of a Manson Victim Speaks Out Against Van Houten's Release 

Anthony DiMaria, the nephew of murdered hairstylist Jay Sebring, has spoken out against Van Houten’s release.

DiMaria told CNN on July 11 that his family and other victims’ families “strongly, vehemently disagree” with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s choice to not fight the court's decision.

“Leslie Van Houten has always kind of propped herself up as a Manson follower, but she's anything but,” he said, per the outlet. “She is a cold-blooded killer in one of the most notorious murderer rampages in United States history.”

He added to CNN, “With her release now, any other violent criminal or killer whose crimes fall beneath the bar of Leslie Van Houten’s very extreme…crimes that also have historical impact, that opens the door for them."

With additional reporting by Christine Pelisek