Leslie Van Houten Claims She Has Changed, Wants Parole

Leslie Van Houten says she no longer follows the teachings of Charles Manson, and, in her 20th parole hearing, she has asked for release.

Now 63-years-old Van Houten was the youngest follower of Charles Manson to be arrested and placed behind bars.

Speaking to the parole board, Van Houten pleaded:

“I know I did something that is unforgivable, but I can create a world where I make amends. I’m trying to be someone who lives a life for healing rather than destruction.”

Leslie Van Houten was sentenced to life in prison after she was convicted of murder and conspiracy for her role in the slayings of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca. Those murders in August 1969 occurred one night after Manson and his followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four others.

While Van Houten was not present for Sharon Tate’s murder, she traveled the next night with the Charles Manson followers and participated in the stabbing of Mrs. La Bianca. Van Houten claims she only stabbed La Bianca after she was already dead.

With surviving members of the La Bianca family in court on Wednesday, Leslie Van Houten said: “He [Manson] could never have done what he did without people like me.”

Van Houten went on to admit that what she did had an affect on so many people’s lives.

“Mr. and Mrs. La Bianca died the worst possible deaths a human being can,” she said. “It affected their families. It affected the community of Los Angeles, which lived in fear. And it destroyed the peace movement going on at the time, and tainted everything from 1969 on.”

While she was defended as the youngest and least culpable of all Charles Manson’s followers, Leslie Van Houten has none-the-less spent the last 44 years behind bars.

At today’s hearing, parole board commissioner Jeffrey Ferguson asked her, “You felt left out and you wanted to be included the next time, is that correct?”

Van Houton responded with a simple “yes.”

When Houton was asked if she had any moral compunction for what she was doing at the time; she said she did not, noting: “I twisted myself to the point where I thought this had to be done and I participated.”

The parole board then asked if she would have harmed children had she been asked to by Manson. Leslie Van Houton answered: “I can’t say I wouldn’t have done that. I’d like to say I wouldn’t, but I don’t know.”

When asked to explain her actions Van Houten added: “I feel that at that point I had really lost my humanity and I can’t know how far I would have gone. I had no regard for life and no measurement of my limitations.”

In recent times, Leslie Van Houten has been a model prisoner, even helping elderly women in the California Institution for Women where she and other Manson women have been incarcerated since being found guilty of murder and conspiracy.

Leslie Van Houten has earned two college degrees during her time behind bars.

Charles Manson’s followers have not had much luck with parole hearings. In October 2012, Bruce Davis was approved for parole but that decision was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. At the time, Gov. Brown said Bruce Davis likely has more details he has failed to share about the killings of a Hollywood stunt man and musician.

Do you think Leslie Van Houten given her work with other inmates and her desire for education should be given the chance to start over 44 years later?

[Image via CNN]