The governor of the state of California opposed Friday the parole of Patricia Krenwinkel, ex-disciple of the criminal guru Charles Manson, of which she was the accomplice during several assassinations among which that of the companion of the director Roman Polansky.
This decision increases to 15 the number of times Patricia Krenwinkel has been refused early release.
«Mme Krenwinkel fully subscribed to the racist and apocalyptic ideologies of Mr. Manson”, justified the governor of California, Gavin Newsom.
The California parole board ruled in May 2022 that Mme Krenwinkel might be released, provided the state did not veto it.
«Mme Krenwinkel was not just a victim of Mr. Manson’s abuse. She also contributed significantly to the violence and tragedy that has become a hallmark of the Manson family,” Mr. Newsom said.
Death behind bars in 2017, Charles Manson is one of the most famous American criminals, condemned to the death penalty in 1971 (the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment) with four of his disciples for the bloody massacre of August 1969 which killed seven people, including that of actress Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski, then eight and a half months pregnant.
The psychopathic “guru” who, in the 1960s, had formed a community in the Californian desert called the “Manson family”, believed himself to be the reincarnation of Christ.
Presented during his trial as a lonely madman with an impressive capacity for persuasion, he had ordered his followers to randomly kill the inhabitants of upscale and white neighborhoods in Los Angeles, in the hope of starting an apocalyptic race war whose he thought the Whites would emerge victorious.
Fifty years later, the murders perpetrated by the “Manson family” continue to haunt America and generate a morbid fascination, fueled by books, songs, tourist tours, websites and films.
