Leslie Van Houten, who was a Charles Manson follower and had admitted to stabbing one person several times, is expected to get parole recommendation from a panel in California.
The California panel is expected to recommend parole as the woman is now older with shoulder-length gray hair, a wrinkled face and glasses and away from the dangerous teenager as she was when she joined the cult of Charles Manson more than 40 years ago. She helped kill a wealthy grocer and his wife and admitted to stabbing one person of the said family 14 times in 1969.
During a hearing that went on for five hours, she described how she went from having an ideal childhood to a person with psychedelic drug use and eventually joined the cult of Manson. She described him as a "Christ-like man that had all the answers" for an angry young girl. The divorce of her parents had left her angry and frustrated.
She told the panel that the girl, who murdered someone, is now a distant memory and she was now fit to be paroled. She has completed college degrees and been a model inmate. The recommendation of the panel will now undergo administrative review by the parole board and will then go to Governor Jerry Brown, who will make a decision on the case.