Leslie Van Houten, disciple of Charles Manson, refuses parole by California Governor Gavin Newsom

California Governor Gavin Newsom canceled the decision of a parole board to release Charles Manson Disciple Leslie Van Houten on Monday announced for the third time that a governor was stopping releasing the youngest member of Manson's deadly sect. Van Houten, 69, is still a threat, Newsom said.

"While congratulating Ms. Van Houten for her rehabilitation efforts and recognizing her youthfulness at the time of the crimes, I am concerned about her role in these killings and her potential for future violence," he wrote in his ruling. "Ms. Van Houten actively participated in the assassination of LaBiancas and played an important role."

She spent nearly half a century behind bars and received reports of good behavior and testimony about her rehabilitation.

Van Houten was 19 when she and other cult members stabbed Los Angeles grocery storekeeper Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, to death in August 1969. The killings took place the day after the rest of the day. Manson, with the exception of Van Houten, and pregnant actress Sharon Tate four others in the violence that spread fear across Los Angeles and rivaled the nation.

No one who took part in the killings of Tate-LaBianca was released from prison. It was the first time Newsom refused parole for Van Houten, while former Gov. Jerry Brown refused his release two times.

Earlier this year, Newsom canceled a parole recommendation to release Manson scholar Robert Beausoleil for a murder unrelated to him. Beausoleil was found guilty of murdering musician Gary Hinman.

During parole hearings, Van Houten described a troubled childhood that led her to use drugs and attend school with pariahs When she was 17, she and her boyfriend fled to San Francisco during the so-called Summer of Love of 1967.

She then met Manson during her trip to the coast. Manson was hiding with his "family" in an abandoned movie ranch in the suburbs of Los Angeles when he had launched a plan to unleash a race war by committing a series of random and terrifying murders.

Manson and his supporters were sentenced to death in 1971, although the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment after the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972. The Van Houten case was overturned on appeal. life in prison.

Manson died in 2017 natural causes in a California hospital while serving a life sentence.