California’s parole board has granted Manson Family killer Patricia Krenwinkel parole for a third time, which puts her release back in the hands of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who blocked it last year.
Story Snapshot
- Krenwinkel, 78, was preliminarily granted parole at a hearing on Tuesday, October 6, and California’s prison agency confirmed it on Wednesday, October 7.
- The grant is not final: the full state parole board gets 120 days to review it, and then Newsom gets 30 days to let it stand or reverse it.
- Newsom reversed her last grant in October 2025, writing that she “currently poses an unreasonable danger to society.”
- Debra Tate, sister of murdered actress Sharon Tate, and Los Angeles County prosecutors are pushing the governor to keep her locked up.
- This was her 18th parole hearing; the board also recommended her release in 2022 and 2025, and both times the governor said no.
Newsom Holds the Final Say Again
What happens next rests with Newsom. A grant from the parole panel is only a first step. The Board of Parole Hearings, the state panel that decides whether a prisoner serving a life term is safe to release, will review the decision for 120 days. Because her case involves murder, the governor then has 30 more days to let the decision stand or reverse it. If he reverses it, she will get another hearing within 18 months.
Manson killer Patricia Krenwinkel granted parole again after nearly 6 decades behind bars
— JV (@joveg8) October 8, 2026
Newsom has been here before. When he reversed her 2025 grant on October 13, 2025, he praised her “efforts to improve herself in prison,” pointing to her college degrees and “an excellent disciplinary history.” But he concluded that, “when considered as a whole, I find the evidence shows that she currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time.” He also reversed her 2022 grant, and in an earlier decision he said she had “not developed sufficient insight into the causative factors of her crime.”
Who Krenwinkel Is and What She Did
Krenwinkel was one of the young followers of cult leader Charles Manson who carried out the August 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles. In 1971 she was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder for the killings of actress Sharon Tate and four others at Tate’s home, and of Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the next night. She testified that she chased Abigail Folger and stabbed her more than two dozen times, and that she used blood to write “Death to pigs” on a wall.
She was first sentenced to death. That sentence became life in prison after a 1972 California Supreme Court ruling threw out every death sentence in the state at the time. She was 21 at the time of the killings.
Victims’ Family and Prosecutors Push Back
Debra Tate has fought every attempt to free Krenwinkel. She rejects the claim that Krenwinkel was only following orders. “She has admitted that was not a direct order from Charles Manson or anyone else- it was her own idea,” Tate said. She also wrote, “For years this woman laughed about the murders in court and showed absolutely no remorse at all.”
An online petition Tate started in 2016 has drawn more than 100,000 signatures. “Society cannot allow this serial killer who committed such horrible, gruesome, random killings back out,” it reads. Los Angeles County prosecutors plan to urge the governor’s office to keep Krenwinkel in prison, according to reports. In 2025, the district attorney’s office backed Newsom’s reversal and said she had not fully accepted blame.
Her attorney, Keith Wattley, who founded the parole law group UnCommon Law, said, “For the third time, California’s parole board has found Patricia Krenwinkel suitable for release.” At an earlier hearing, her lawyer argued she had been abused at the time of the crimes.
Why This Fight Keeps Coming Back
Every California prisoner serving a life term with the chance of parole gets regular parole hearings. Commissioners weigh risk tests, reports from forensic psychologists, prison records, release plans and statements from victims’ families to decide whether a person is still a danger. That is why the same case can return again and again.
For Californians who already feel Sacramento is soft on crime, this case is a familiar story. Victims’ families are forced to fight the same battle every few years. The final word now sits with Newsom, and the review timeline runs into early 2027.
Sources:
nypost.com, lamag.com, en.wikipedia.org, foxla.com
