California governor blocks parole for Manson family member Patricia Krenwinkel
The California governor has signed a bill that would strip parole from Patricia Krenwinkel, the sister of Charles Manson, who was convicted for the 1969 murders of nine people at a commune near the California-Oregon border.
The bill, AB 1635, passed unanimously through the state senate in March, with bipartisan support. It would prevent parole for Krenwinkel, who was convicted in 2002 for a series of crimes including the murders of three members of her family. The bill now goes to the governor, who will likely veto it.
“Patricia Krenwinkel’s case is one of those rare exceptions to the parole process that demonstrates how the system works and that the state has a responsibility to ensure individuals who may be able to rehabilitate are not at high risk,” said state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who has argued that other convicted killers should be released on parole.
It took decades for the country to come to grips with Charles and Catherine Krenwinkel — or “Charlie and the Kid,” as they came to be known. Their crimes are as horrific as they are surprising, and they killed their victims over a period of years, in addition to their own family.
Manson’s crimes
On October 9, 1969, Charles and Catherine Krenwinkel sat down at a table in the middle of the living room of their home in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
They were the second generation of a family that had started with a young ranch hand who was killed by a drunk driver in 1965. The Krenwinkels married, had a daughter and a son, and Charles, who had started building a career as a photographer while in high school, joined the family business, a shop that sold cameras.
The two had a falling-out in the early 1980s, and Charles was fired from his photography business. Over the next six years, he and the Krenwinkels had a