Leslie Louise Van Houten famed as Leslie Van Houten is an American convicted murderer and former member of the Manson Family. As of today, Leslie is in prison with the criminal penalty of life imprisonment with the dictation of death because of her criminal status. Her convictions are mostly stated being a murderer, robbery as well as conspiracy and mostly in the high level as the murder of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. She was convicted and sentenced to death. She was denied parole by panels of state commissioners 19 times before receiving recommendations for parole in 2016, 2017, and 2019. Later, California governor Jerry Brown overruled the board recommendations and denied parole on the first two of those occasions, and the third recommendation was overruled by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on 3rd June 2019.
Manson family member Leslie Van Houten denied parole
On 3rd June 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom denied Manson family member Leslie Van Houten's request for parole. This is the third time in three years that the California parole board has recommended Van Houten for parole. Former Governor Jerry Brown said no to the previous requests in 2016 and 2018. Van Houten is serving a sentence of life in prison for participating in the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in 1969 at Manson's direction.
What is the age of Leslie?
Leslie celebrated her 69th birthday on 23rd August as of 2018.
Where was Leslie Van Houten born?
Leslie Louise Van Houten was born on 23rd August 1949 as Leslie Van Houten in Altadena, California, the USA. Her nationality is American. Her ethnicity is White. She grew up in a middle-class churchgoing family along with an older brother and two adopted siblings, a brother and a sister, who were Korean. Her mother and father divorced when she was 14. At the age of 15, she began taking LSD, Benzedrine, and hashish. She became pregnant and was forced by her mother to undergo an abortion at the age of 17. Her religion is Christian and her horoscope sign is Virgo. Regarding her education, she attended Monrovia High School.
How tall is Leslie?
Leslie is a beautiful woman with an average height is 5 feet 4 inches. Her other body measurements and weight have not been revealed yet. Her eye color is Black and hair color is Brown.
What is the net worth and earnings of Leslie?
Within the current timing, she is able to collaborate with the net worth round thousands of American dollars which is got earned by illegal acts, not from her salary and she used to spend her amount in illegal acts.
Who is Leslie's husband?
Leslie is a married woman. She was married to William Syvin in the year 1982 and later the couple separated in the same year. As of today, she is assumed to be single.
Manson
- From an early age, Manson is a criminal and lawbreaker.
- He was released from an institution to live with relatives in a West Virginia town and there he was generally regarded as a criminal braggart, though some law-abiding people found him very likable and nice.
- Before the 10-year sentence, he had a brief marriage to "a cute popular girl".
- He requested a transfer to Leavenworth in prison.
- He completed the sentence and, protesting to prison staff that prison was his home, was released at age 32 in 1967.
- In Berkeley, he met and moved in with 23-year-old library assistant Mary Brunner.
Recruitment of Van Houten
- Van Houten met Catherine Share and Bobby Beausoleil and moved in with them and another woman during the summer of 1968.
- The four broke up after jealous arguments, and Share left to join Charles Manson's commune.
- Manson decided when they would eat, sleep, and have sex, and with whom they would have sex.
- He also controlled the taking of LSD, giving followers larger doses than he himself took.
- According to Manson, "When you take LSD enough times, you reach a state of nothing, of no thought".
- According to Van Houten, she became "saturated in acid" and could not grasp the existence of those living a non-psychedelic reality.
The Manson Family
- Manson and his followers were based at the Spahn Ranch from 1968.
- Van Houten said Manson's attitude was that she "belonged to Bobby."
- According to Van Houten, she and other Manson followers looked to 14-year-old Family member Dianne Lake as the "empty vessel".
- Manson saw himself as a musical genius who would transform mainstream society.
- He identified with the subject of the Beatles song "Piggies", through a "world-shaking" pop album he would record.
- He taught the Family that they would be joined by the Beatles and escape to a bottomless pit, which they could enter through a "hole in the ground".
- He also had involved followers in criminal activity such as auto theft and residential burglaries, and Van Houten (who burglarized her father's home twice) had been arrested and spent a few days in jail.
- Manson confronted and shot a man named Bernard "Lotsapapa" Crowe in April 1969. Later, the Crowe was survived.
Murders
- The racial nature of the motive for the murders Van Houten was convicted of was later adduced by a judge, increasing the gravity of her offense.
- Brunner was arrested for credit card fraud in 1969.
- That evening Manson ordered the deaths of everyone living at the former residence of record producer Terry Melcher, who had raised and then disappointed Manson's hopes of breaking into the music industry.
- Sharon Tate, three of her friends, and a visitor to the caretaker were all subsequently murdered at the house by a group of long-established followers personally selected by Manson.
- The group consisted of Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Tex Watson, whom Manson had placed in charge.
- On 9th August 1969, Manson again selected the same group to commit murder, this time accompanied by Van Houten, Steve Grogan, and Manson himself.
- The group searched various places in Los Angeles to find a suitable place to commit a murder.
- Later, the group stopped in a house in Los Feliz, the home of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca.
- Leno and Rosemary LaBianca's home was next to a house rented by a long-time close friend of Manson's original music industry contact, Phil Kaufman.
- He then entered the house with Watson, then left with Atkins, Grogan, and Kasabian.
- Manson sent the others to kill a Lebanese actor who had had sex with Kasabian, but she led Atkins and Grogan to the wrong address.
- Krenwinkel and Van Houten found Rosemary LaBianca in a bedroom, where she was resting, while her husband had fallen asleep while reading in the living room.
- Watson put pillowcases over Leno's and Rosemary LaBianca's heads, then tied an electrical cord from a lamp around each of their necks.
- Her husband, who had been tied up in the living room, started screaming as Watson began stabbing him.
- Rosemary grabbed the lamp and swung it at Van Houten, who fought with her and knocked the lamp away.
- Van Houten then held Rosemary LaBianca down while Krenwinkel tried to stab her in the chest, but the blade bent on LaBianca's clavicle.
- Van Houten called for assistance from Watson, who entered the bedroom and stabbed Rosemary LaBianca several times.
- He then found Van Houten, handed her the knife, and told her to "do something" (since Manson had instructed Watson to make sure everyone actively participated).
- Van Houten stabbed Rosemary's lower back and buttocks over a dozen times.
- Van Houten later told Dianne Lake that she had stabbed someone who was already dead.
- The autopsy indicated that some of the 47 stab wounds Rosemary suffered had been inflicted post-mortem.
- Later, the Family then moved to Barker Ranch, two hundred miles away in Death Valley.
- Manson was arrested there on 12th October 1969.
- Meanwhile, Van Houten and another woman stayed at Barker ranch, searching for the 'hole in the ground', before being arrested in December 1969.
Trial
- Manson was accused of orchestrating both attacks, but the only defendants at the trial whose murder charges were for actually inflicting injuries on the LaBiancas were Van Houten and Krenwinkel.
- Van Houten was not accused of the murders of Tate and her friends.
- Van Houten did not appear to take the court seriously (she later claimed to have been supplied with LSD during the trial) and giggled during testimony about the victims.
- Van Houten took the stand and admitted committing the murders with which she was charged and denied that Manson had been involved
- She was convicted of murder along with the other defendants on 29th March 1971.
- Van Houten also told the psychiatrist that she would have gone to jail for manslaughter or assault with a deadly weapon without ever meeting Manson.
- Van Houten was sentenced to be executed; she was the youngest woman ever condemned to death in California.
- The death sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court's People v. Anderson decision resulted in the invalidation of all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972.
Re-Trial
- Van Houten was granted a retrial in 1977 due to the failure to declare a mistrial when her lawyer died.
- Her defense argued that Van Houten's capacity for rational thought had been diminished due to LSD use and Manson's influence.
- It was reported in the news media that because of time already served, Van Houten could go free that year if she was convicted of manslaughter.
Second Re-Trial
- At Van Houten's second re-trial, the prosecution, who were now being aided by a specialist in diminished responsibility, altered the charges by using the theft of food, clothing, and a small sum of money taken from the house to add a charge of robbery, whereby the felony murder rule tended to undermine a defense of reduced capacity.
Parole Requests
- "Tex" Watson was denied parole for the 15th time on October 27, 2016.
- In 2013, Van Houten was denied parole for the twentieth time at a hearing.
- On 14th April 2016, a two-person panel of the California Parole Board recommended granting Van Houten's parole request, but California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the release on the grounds that: “Both her role in these extraordinarily brutal crimes and her inability to explain her willing participation in such horrific violence cannot be overlooked and lead me to believe she remains an unacceptable risk to society if released."
- Van Houten has long since renounced Manson, who died in prison in November 2017.
- Van Houten was again recommended for parole at her 21st parole hearing on 6th September 2017.
- Governor Jerry Brown again denied her parole on 19th January 2018.
- On 29th June 2018, Van Houten's parole was once again vetoed. "Unless the inmate can demonstrate that there is no evidence to support the governor's conclusion that the inmate is a current danger to public safety, the petition fails to state a prima facie case for relief and may be summarily denied," was cited by the same judge, William C. Ryan.
- On 30th January 2019, during her 22nd parole hearing, Van Houten was, for the third time, recommended for parole.
- On 3rd June 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom overruled the parole board's recommendation.
