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How old is Leslie Van Houten today? Leno LaBianca's family calls Charles Manson follower's release 'mind-numbing and nauseating'

Leslie Van Houten was 'released to parole supervision' after serving 53 years of a life sentence for the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Leslie Van Houten, who was part of Charles Manson's cult, was released from a California jail on Tuesday, July 11, after serving 53 years of a life sentence for her involvement in two notorious killings. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Van Houten has been "released to parole supervision." She had been sentenced to life in prison in the 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in Los Angeles.

Van Houten was released a few days after Governor Gavin Newsom declared he would not appeal the state appeals court's decision that she should be granted parole. According to her lawyer, Nancy Tetreault, she was sent to transitional accommodation after her early-morning release from prison. Jay Sebring's nephew, Anthony DiMaria, told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, July 11, that her release was anticipated "but it doesn’t make it any less painful."

How old is Leslie Van Houten today?

Van Houten, who is one of the surviving Manson family members who went on a murderous rampage, is 73 years old today. She was 19 when she participated in the 1969 murder of LaBianca, a grocer, and Rosemary. Her parole requests were rejected five times in the past by various California governors, including thrice by Newsom alone. A state appeals court eventually overturned that judgment.

Van Houten, who was the youngest Manson family member, was found guilty of murder for her part in the murders. She held Rosemary down while someone else stabbed her when Manson and his coterie went on the rampage, which happened just days after the brutal murder of actress Sharon Tate and four other people. She eventually confessed that she had stabbed the victim after she had already died.

According to Tetreault, Van Houten, who will probably be on parole for around three years, wants to start working as soon as possible. While incarcerated, she completed both a bachelor's and a master's degree in counseling and worked as a tutor for other prisoners. After a hearing in July 2020, it was determined that she was eligible for parole. However, Newsom opposed her release on the grounds that she remained a danger to society.

'Mind-numbing, nauseating, gut-wrenching and painful'

The release of Van Houten was long opposed by the victims' families. Her release on parole has previously been opposed by Tate's sister, Deborah, and LaBianca's daughter, Cory.

DiMaria stated that the victims' families of the victims were worried that other Manson followers would also be released. He said, "It doesn’t lessen the blow. It’s just as mind-numbing, nauseating, gut-wrenching and painful to think that this release is real."

DiMaria added, "It’s difficult to hear when Leslie Van Houten and her attorneys state that, ‘Leslie is a changed person and she is rehabilitated.’ Rosemary and Leno LaBianca remain unchanged. They remain un-rehabilitated, unparoled. They are just as dead today as when they were killed on the night of August 10, 1969."

The LaBianca and Tate families recently spoke to Kay Hinman Martley, whose cousin Gary Hinman was murdered by Manson's followers, and they are all outraged that Van Houten is freed.

Martley remarked, "We have four other Manson killers in there, and I fear they will all get out. They are all psychopaths who have manipulated the systems. All these killers get all the help they want, but no one is doing anything for the victims’ families."