This week the youngest member of Charles Manson’s “family” of followers was recommended for early release from prison by California’s parole board.

Leslie Van Houten was just 19 when she took part in the cult’s 1969 killing spree, in which a total of nine people killed under the direction or involvement of Manson.

The decision on whether to release Van Houten, now 69, lies in the hands of California governor Gavin Newsom, whose predecessor has twice denied her bids for freedom.

Manson himself, a cult leader whose wild-eyed image became synonymous with evil across America after masterminding the murders, died in prison from natural causes in November 2017. His ashes were claimed by his grandson Jason Freeman, who said he planned to spread them “free in the air”.

This is the story of how a career conman, who had already spent more than half of his life in prison by the age of 32, came to be regarded by his followers as a Christ-like figure, for whom they would do anything.

The Manson “family”

In 1969 Manson reinvented himself as a hippie leader who, using a combination of drugs and charisma, inspired a band of young followers consisting of runaways and other lost souls to murder the heavily pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people during two bloody nights in August that terrified Los Angeles.

Manson dispatched his “family” to kill a number of LA’s rich and famous. A group including Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel obeyed his command and slaughtered five people on 9 August, 1969, at Tate’s home.

They included the actress herself, who was eight-and-a-half-months pregnant, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, Polish movie director Voityck Frykowski and Steven Parent, a friend of the estate’s caretaker. Tate’s husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski was away in Europe at the time of the murders.

Two bloody nights 

The next night, a wealthy grocer and his wife, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, were stabbed to death in their home across town.

Van Houten, who is now hoping for an early release, has told past parole hearings about how she helped hold down Rosemary while another Manson follower stabbed her repeatedly. She then seized the knife herself and added more than a dozen stab wounds.

Before leaving the scene, the killers carved “WAR” on Leno’s abdomen and used his blood to write “Rise” and “Death to pigs” on the walls. The words “Healter Skelter” – misspelled – were smeared onto the fridge. 

As yet, no one who took part in the Tate-LaBianca murders has been released from prison.

Several Manson family members were arrested shortly after the LaBianca murders, thanks to a combination of forensic evidence at the crime scenes and the confessions of those involved. 

This year, a California parole panel recommended for the first time that additional Manson follower Robert Beausoleil be freed. Beausoleil, along with Manson, was convicted of killing musician Gary Hinman but was not involved in the other notorious murders.

Hinman was tortured for three days, including an incident where Manson cut his face with a sword.

Helter Skelter

Manson and three of his followers – Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten, went on trial in June 1970. Kasabian was given immunity in exchange for her testimony against the others. 

Prosecutors said Manson ordered the killings to launch a race war he believed was prophesied by Helter Skelter, a Beatles song.

Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Manson maintained during his trial that he was innocent and that society itself was guilty.

“These children that come at you with knives, they are your children. You taught them; I didn’t teach them. I just tried to help them stand up,” he told the court.

At one point, Manson appeared before jurors having carved an X into his forehead. Some years later he adjusted it to a swastika. 

In January 1971, the jury convicted all four defendants on multiple counts of first-degree murder and that March they were sentenced to death.

Three months later, Tex Watson, who was involved in both the Tate and LaBianca murders, went to trial where he was found guilty of seven counts of first-degree murder and was also sentenced to death. 

The death sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1972, when the death penalty was temporarily banned by the US Supreme Court. 

Manson was later convicted of two further counts of first-degree murder – that of Hinman and the August 1969 killing of horse wrangler Donald Shea. 

In 2014 Manson announced he was set to tie the knot with a 26-year-old woman who had devoted nine years of her life to trying to exonerate him. 

Bride-to-be Afton Elaine Burton told media: “Yeah well, people can think I’m crazy. But they don’t know. This is what’s right for me. This is what I was born for.”

However, wedding bells did not ring for the couple, whose marriage license expired before any ceremony could take place.