Uni Alum, Ex-Manson Follower Denied Parole Again

MARINA DEL REY, CA — A University High alum and ex-Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkle was denied parole for the 14th time Thursday for the murder of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969.

Krenwinkel, 69, who attended University High School and Westchester High School, was found to be unsuitable for release and was issued a five-year denial when she appeared before a parole board panel at the California Institution for Women in Corona.

Krenwinkel met Manson in Manhattan Beach in 1967 and became infatuated with him. She followed him, along with two other women, to San Francisco, leaving behind her car, apartment and last paycheck. Krenwinkel is the longest-serving female inmate in California prison following the death of fellow Manson family member Susan Atkins in 2009.

Krenwinkel was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder in 1971 for participating with fellow Manson family members Charles "Tex" Watson and Leslie Van Houten in the killings of the seven-months-pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Thomas Jay Sebring, Abigail Ann Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Earl Parent on Aug. 9, 1969, and grocers Leno and Rosemary La Bianca the following day.

It was Krenwinkel's 14th appearance before the parole board since her incarceration. She originally received a death sentence, but it was reduced to life in prison by a California Supreme Court ruling that invalidated all death sentences before 1972.

Her attorney argued in December that Krenwinkel had been physically abused by Manson.

City News Service contributed to this report. Photo courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation