Who is Leslie Van Houten as the Charles Manson cult follower is released from prison?

It was 1971 when Leslie Van Houten was imprisoned for assisting Charles Manson when it came to the killing of Leno and his wife Rosemary LaBianca in their own home. Leno was a grocer in Los Angeles.

According to Sky News, “She was initially sentenced to death, but it was later commuted to life imprisonment after California abolished the death penalty.” The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations said that Leslie Van Houten had been ‘released to parole supervision’ and is expected to spend the next year in transitional housing.

As one would expect, the world Leslie Van Houten will encounter in 2023 is a very different life to the one she left behind in 1971. Whilst remaining in transitional housing, she is expected to learn such skills as buying items without cash and how to use the internet.

At the time of the murders of Leno and Rosemary,  Leslie was only 19 years of age. Along with other members of the Manson cult, she broke into their home on August 10, 1969. Only the night before, the actress Sharon Tate had been murdered by members of the cult. 

The Times reported that “Van Houten’s supporters had long argued she was under the spell of Manson, who died aged 83 in 2017, and should be shown clemency as a model prisoner. However, the gory details of the murder, which emerged in parole hearings, prompted critics to say that she should spend the rest of her life behind bars.”

The actress Victoria Pedretti was cast as Leslie Van Houten in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’ Pedretti has since gone on to star in The Haunting anthology and Netflix’s You, but her first movie role was as Leslie. 

According to the BBC, Leslie Van Houten, who was a former homecoming queen, “held down Rosemary LaBianca while someone else stabbed her. She later also admitted that she stabbed the woman after she was dead.”

The BBC also reported that “Charles Manson, considered one of America’s most notorious cult leaders, directed his followers to commit nine murders and hoped the killings would start a race war, called ‘Helter Skelter’ after a famous song by the Beatles.” In 2017, Charles Manson died in prison.