Victim's Family Outraged by Release of Manson Member and "Cold-Blooded Killer" Leslie Van Houten

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Manson murders rocked the country. On Aug. 8, 1969, pregnant actress Sharon Tate and her friend's celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowsk, were stabbed to death in her Hollywood Hills mansion by Charles Manson and his cult members. Two days later a few members of the cult murdered supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, at their Los Angeles home. One of those convicted for the crime in 1971 was Leslie Van Houten, who joined the family at age 19. On Tuesday the convicted killer was released from her California prison, and the family of the victims are not happy about it. 

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Mary Xjimenez confirmed to CNN that Van Houten was released to parole supervision. Her parole term will be a maximum of three years, with a parole discharge review occurring after one year.

Now in her 70s, she was serving concurrent sentences of seven years to life. California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office did not challenge a state appellate court's panel ruling in May, which led to her release. 

"More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal offenses, the victims' families still feel the impact, as do all Californians. Governor Newsom reversed Ms. Van Houten's parole grant three times since taking office and defended against her challenges of those decisions in court," Erin Mellon, a spokesperson for the governor, said Friday.

"I certainly have respect for Governor Newsom and the attorney general," Jay Sebring's nephew, Anthony DiMaria, told CNN's Laura Coates on Tuesday night, that he disagrees with her release. "But our families strongly, vehemently, disagree with their decision not to file an appeal."

Her also called Van Houten a "cold-blooded killer in one of the most notorious murder rampages in United States history," and said her release sets a "dangerous, pernicious precedent."

Van Houten's attorney, Nancy Tetreault, told CNN her client has "gone through courses to confront what she did – to take responsibility for what she did," along with "40 years of psych evaluation" to gain parole. "I understand why … the family members of the victims feel emotional about this and want retribution, but that's not the law," Tetreault told Berman. "The law says she has the right to achieve parole if she meets the standard, and the standard is that she no longer poses a danger to society."

She added that Van Houten "has to, and has, accepted full responsibility for the crime." In 1994, Van Houten confessed to CNN's Larry King that she did commit the crime. "I went in and Mrs. LaBianca was laying on the floor and I stabbed her," said Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the murders. "In the lower back, around 16 times."