Sharon Tate’s killer granted parole after 50 years

Published: 08:00 EDT, 8 October 2026 | Updated: 08:00 EDT, 8 October 2026

Charles Manson’s former girlfriend Patricia Krenwinkel may soon be free after a California panel granted her parole.

Krenwinkel, now 78, has been behind bars for 56 years following the murders of seven people across Los Angeles, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate and coffee heiress Abigail Folger, in 1969.

But on Tuesday, the notorious murderer was granted parole on a preliminary basis, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced.

‘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,’ it noted.

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom will now have 30 days to decide whether to reverse the decision once it is cleared by the parole board’s legal office.

He previously exercised his authority to prevent Krenwinkel from being released last year, stating that the convict had ‘not developed sufficient insight into the causative factors of her crime and her triggers for antisocial thinking and conduct [in] the context of maladaptive relationships,’ the Los Angeles Times reports.

Prosecutors with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said they will now once again encourage the governor’s office to keep Krenwinkel behind bars at the California Institution for Women.

Should Newsom decide to reverse the parole decision, Krenwinkel would be scheduled for another parole hearing within 18 months.

Krenwinkel, who is now the longest-serving female inmate in the Golden State, was just 19 years old when she joined the infamous Manson Family.

The group soon became connected to a slew of murders, including Tate, the eight-month-pregnant wife of film director Roman Polanski on August 8, 1969.

They also killed her friends including Folger, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski and teenager Steven Parent, who had been visiting an acquaintance at the estate’s guesthouse.

Krenwinkel has testified that she chased Folger before stabbing her more than two dozen times that day, and admitted she used her victims’ blood to write political messages like ‘Death to Pigs’ on the walls of the home.

The next night Manson and some of his followers including Krenwinkel struck again, this time murdering wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.

Krenwinkel was originally sentenced to death for the seven grisly murders, but after the US Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional in 1972, her sentence was commuted to life in prison.

She was then seen arriving in court along with co-defendants Leslie Van Houten and Susan Atkins with an X carved into her forehead, as Manson had once done.

Debra Tate, Sharon’s sister, has since become an outspoken advocate for keeping Krenwinkel and other former members of Manson’s cult behind bars.

She noted in an online petition back in 2016 that Krenwinkel personally carved the word ‘WAR’ into Leno LaBianca’s belly and wrote the disturbing messages on the walls.

‘She has admitted that was not a direct order from Charles Manson or anyone else – it was her own idea,’ Debra wrote.

‘For years, this woman laughed about the murders in court and showed absolutely no remorse at all,’ she continued.

‘Society cannot allow this serial killer who committed such horrible, random killings back out.’

But Krenwinkel’s attorneys claim she has participated in extensive therapy and group counseling to confront her experiences as both a perpetrator and survivor of violence, arguing she had been abused by Manson, Los Angeles Magazine reports.

They noted that she was just a teenager when she came under Manson’s influence and was searching for belonging.

Manson then ‘exploited that vulnerability through manipulation, drugs and psychological abuse,’ the lawyers from UnCommon Law said in a statement.

‘Over the decades since, Pat has worked to understand how she became capable of causing such profound harm and to take responsibility for the consequences of her actions,’ lawyer Keith Wattley said.

He went on to celebrate the parole board’s decision.

‘At a time when parole decisions are increasingly compromised by politics, this finding offers a glimmer of hope: Proof that the Board can uphold the law, recognize decades of rehabilitation and make decisions grounded in evidence,’ Wattley argued.

‘Now, the governor must respect these decisions and allow Pat to come home.’

Newsom’s choice on whether to allow Krenwinkel to go free now comes just three years after his previous decision to deny Van Houten parole was overruled by an appellate court.

‘More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal killings, the victims’ families still feel the impact,’ he lamented in a statement at the time.

Other former Manson Family members Charles Denton ‘Tex’ Watson and Bobby Beausoleil remain behind bars.

Manson, Atkins and Bruce Davis, meanwhile, have died in custody.