[Editor’s note: Make sure to read Robert Spencer’s masterpiece contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
When Leslie Van Houten was nineteen years old, she joined the Charles Manson cult. Not long after that, she participated in the August 1969 murders of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary, around the same time that other members of the cult were murdering actress Sharon Tate and her companions. Since 1973, she has been in prison; however, now that American society has gotten far crazier than Charles Manson, Leslie Van Houten is set to be released. Once she sees how insane the world has become, she may wish she were still safely behind bars.
Fox News reports that the killer was freed on parole on Tuesday. One feature of today’s prevailing craziness is the fact that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Crime Pays), who has overseen the Third-Worldization of California as police have stopped detaining people for crimes such as theft and vandalism, has made an amazing transformation into Governor Law and Order: he “stifled several previous efforts to free Houten.”
Suddenly and inexplicably concerned about the victims of a crime, Newsom declared, “More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal killings, the victims’ families still feel the impact.” This time, however, he lost, which is not surprising since the Left has decided that essentially no crime at all, other than fed-driven “insurrection,” is worthy of incarceration. Newsom said that “although he’s disappointed, he won’t ask the state Supreme Court to block parole this year” for Van Houten.
Tough luck, Gavin! But look on the bright side: now that America is populated by the mentally ill, including those you encourage such as men who think they’re women and vice versa, Leslie Van Houten will have no trouble adjusting to freedom, even after going from the Manson cult to 55 years in the big house. In fact, as it granted her parole, the court praised her “extraordinary rehabilitative efforts, insight, remorse, realistic parole plans, support from family and friends.”
Van Houten’s attorney, Nancy Tetreault, said, “She’s thrilled, and she’s overwhelmed. She’s just grateful that people are recognizing that she’s not the same person that she was when she committed the murders.” Gee, that’s swell, but the people she helped murder are still dead. They might have been significantly different personalities now, but we will never know.
Nevertheless, now Leslie Van Houten gets to face the thrilling challenges of life in the modern world: she “could be freed in about two weeks, depending on how quickly the paperwork gets filed, and then she will go to a halfway house to learn basic life skills, such as using a cell phone, a computer, and ATM, among other new technology, according to her lawyer.”
That part will be easy, but there will be more to which she will have to adjust. Did anything she experienced at the Manson compound or in prison prepare her for the likes of Rachel Levine or Sam Brinton? Is Leslie Van Houten prepared to deal with the spectacle of Karine Jean-Pierre and Old Joe Biden competing with one another in both mendacity and incoherence?
Will Leslie Van Houten be able to deal with the shock of seeing the U.S. government determinedly argue in court that it has the right to censor Americans, First Amendment be damned? Is she prepared for the prospect of primary school teachers vociferously insisting that pornography must be kept in school libraries and made available to the youngest children and that those who wanted to protect children from this pornography were akin to Nazi book burners?
Given her background, Leslie Van Houten could have a bright future ahead, even at the ripe old age of 73. Now that the inmates are running the asylum, as a famous member of the Manson cult, maybe she should consider a career in politics. After all, if Old Joe shuffles off the stage and Gavin Newsom becomes the Democratic candidate for president in 2024, someone will need to take his place as governor of California.
A former member of a bloodthirsty cult should have no problem accepting the Left’s insane dogmas (men can become women, social workers can effectively replace the police, etc.) and idolatry of the sacrifice of children to Moloch. Will we see Leslie Van Houten for Governor? Whoever the Dems do choose to replace Newsom will be only marginally less crazy.
“Friends and family.” All decent people abandoned her back in 1969. It makes me wonder what scumbags support her now.
“Let he is without sin cast the first stone”
Last time I checked, I’ve never stabbed an innocent person to death and taken pride in it.
I don’t have that sin on my soul.
“for the wages of sin is death…..”
Van Houten should’ve been executed over fifty years ago. She’s a monster.
As per Angela Davis, she’ll probably land a job at a prestigious university to discuss the 60.s and the free love movement that led to her murders and those of millions of aborted babies. And I’m sure in this voyeuristic morbid society she’ll no doubt be asked to describe the charms of Charles Manson and make lots of blood money doing so. The death penalty should have ended it decades ago.
Sadly, you’re right.
After all, the cosseted bitch Kathy Boudin landed a teaching/indoctrination position at a university.
(I’m also hearing the the hideously repulsive Lori Lightfoot is slated for a teaching position at Harvard.)
…and don’t forget her likely “book deal” (By a ghost writer)…that will make her a millionaire and democrat donor/voter!
“You can’t rehabilitate a sociopath, and they must be locked up.” — Joseph Wambaugh
Hello Robert Spencer and all. I can’t imagine that Leslie Van Houten will do any more damage now, and I would neither have campaigned for her parole, nor against it. However, as you say, the point remains that those she helped to murder are still dead. Unlike her, they never got the chance to learn to use “a cell phone, a computer, and ATM, among other new technology,” And she robbed them of so much more…
However, she did at least serve a long long sentence, which is more than so many brutal murderers do. I hope that will be of some consolation to the families of her victims.
It is quite a thought that she might find the world she is about to step out into as mad and dangerous as the Manson cult. It is a very dangerous world system we are living in. Have you ever thought why Jesus taught – and teaches – his followers to be “no part of the world” ?
“She grew up in a middle-class churchgoing family along with an older brother and two adopted siblings, a brother and a sister, who were Korean….
On March 29, 1971, she was convicted of murder along with the other defendants. During the sentencing phase of the trial, in an apparent attempt to exonerate Manson, Van Houten testified that she had committed a killing in which she was not, in fact, involved. She told a psychiatrist of beating her adopted sister, leading him to characterize her as “a spoiled little princess” and a “psychologically loaded gun”, and was adamant that Manson had no influence over her thought processes or behavior. Van Houten also told the psychiatrist that she would have gone to jail for manslaughter or assault with a deadly weapon without ever meeting Manson. When her lawyer, attempting to show she felt remorse, asked if she felt sorrow or shame for the death of Rosemary LaBianca, Van Houten replied “sorry is only a five-letter word” and “you can’t undo something that is done.” In cross-examination, Van Houten aggressively implicated herself in inflicting wounds while the victim was living, and severely wounding the victim, severing her spine, which might have been fatal by itself. She vehemently denied acting on instructions from Manson, and said a court-appointed attorney who “had a lot of different ideas on how to get me off” had told her to claim Manson ordered the killings.
Van Houten was sentenced to be executed; she was the youngest woman ever condemned to death in California.” – Wikipedia
If appropriate justice had been carried out, we would not need to have this discussion.
Thanks for the background, THX, and thanks for not preaching your religion in it. You write intelligent comments when you steer clear of Objectivism.
According to what you quote, she is a truly appalling human being and it’s too bad she did not shuffle off this mortal coil years ago, with some help from the state.
I hope, wherever she goes, she’s hounded by everyone she sees until the day she dies! Then she can join Manson in he!! for eternity!
Yes, THX, had she been executed we would not be having this discussion, nor would the family of her victims have had to sit through numerous parole hearings. And I have not forgotten the glee those murderers showed in the immediate aftermath.
She has at least been in prison most of her life. As I said I would not have campaigned for her release, but I certainly hope she is no danger to anyone now. If she really felt the gravity and horror of what she did though, would she have campaigned to be released? The only thing she could have done for the family of her victims was to stay in prison.
You note that she grew up in a “churchgoing family”, which I assume given the time and the place would be within one of the numerous sects of Christendom. Has Christendom promoted a spirit of love and respect for life, or has it not?
“….And will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”
Take a guess where the Manson “family” are going.
Newsome doesn’t care about losing, he probably knew he would lose, but his sheep like followers now have an excuse for voting for his socially responsible and compassionate law & order.
She stuck a fork into the abdomen of the dead and pregnant Sharon Tate and wrote “pigs” on the wall in her blood.
Just a technical note here, she did not participate in the Tate murders, only the LaBianca murders.
YOu are correct! She wasn’t at Sharron Tate Polinski’s house at all. Leslie only went along for night 2 and kept stabbing Rosemary LaBiana in the back even after she was already dead.
I have read the “fork salute” was (maybe still is) conducted by Bill Ayres wife in honor of the Manson killers’ brave rebellion against……something or other. Not sure what.
When will todays tyrants see a tyrant in the mirror and realize their own fork salute could be aimed at themselves. Answer: Never.
Ayres was obama’s buddy. Never forget that!
They’re probably butt buddies.
This is par for the course. The insane are running the asylum. The times are upside down.
Could she run for elected office? Stranger things have happened. As I say to my (few) conservative friends, “Topsy-turvy world, eh?”
With job offers from some leftists run University
Yes, that worked for Ayers.
Ayers should have been Kept in Prison for Life and only leased after he was dead
Yes, released into a pig pen to be eaten and shat out.
Send her to live on the streets in San Francisco, she’ll be begging to go back to prison.
Great article!!!
Can she run for office if she can’t vote?
It hasn’t stopped any of the other criminals.
If she’s ‘rehabilitated’ … she will have to run as a Republican …
The Manson murders were horrific. Drugs were central. Van Houghton’s lack of remorse and comprehension were appalling. However, I have followed her case for the last two decades. At some point she did take responsibility and rehabbed herself getting a graduate degree in counseling. I think she would just like to fade into the background and enjoy the little freedoms she now has. I think a half a century is enough. She was a very attractive gal. Now she is elderly. If she met all the criteria of the parole board, except for the stigma of the Manson connection, then it might be time.
I see a Book Deal, a Mini TV Series or a Film in the future of this murdering bitch.
Manson was NOT of the Flower Power Movement and in fact did more to discredit the Baby Boom Generation than anybody else.
He was a two bit angry at the world loser criminal thug who knew how to manipulate young middle class girls who were lost in their own lives.
He never took the LSD with everybody else and merely used the Acid to manipulable all the others with his street jive.
She may well wish to go back to the safety of her Prison Cell when she encounters what she is walking into.
No wonder America is in the shape we are in! When the laws of Almighty God are abandoned we see the disobedience and insanity manifested! What happened to an eye for eye, tooth for a tooth, bruise for a bruise, and death for a death? God will not be mocked! Whatsoever a man or woman sows this is what they shall reap! America is reaping a whirlwind of her own choices led by the ungodly and corrupt! May The Good Lord God Almighty have mercy upon our Country in Jesus Name🙏🏼🇺🇸🕊✝️
God is Sovereign and in total control in the affairs of men.
“She’s just grateful that people are recognizing that she’s not the same person that she was when she committed the murders.” This is a bald face lie. Of course she is the same person that committed these murders. Justice would really have been served if SHE had been executed decades ago, and we would not be having this conversation today. She would already have been forgotten just like her victims have been forgotten.