Convicted killer and Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel appeared before a California parole board this week — but state officials put off a decision whether to release her amid new claims that she was abused by the infamous cult leader, according to a published report.
In his closing remarks to the board on Thursday, Krenwinkel’s lawyer, Keith Wattley, insisted that his client was a victim of “intimate partner battery,” which is similar to battered spouse syndrome — a condition in which women suffer prolonged physical or emotional abuse at the hands of their partners, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Battered women often use the condition as a legal defense in cases where they are charged with killing their spouses.
The California Board of Parole Hearings “felt information discussed at the hearing was cause for an investigation,” the LA Times said, adding that the agency will review the matter over the next several months.
Wattley sent an email to the newspaper stating, “I pointed out that there are some things that haven’t fully been investigated (believe it or not). Can’t really elaborate at this time.”
Krenwinkel, 69, and several accomplices were convicted in 1971 for the murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate — who was married to renowned filmmaker Roman Polanski — and six other people during a two-day crime spree that garnered international headlines for its sheer brutality.
The killers all received the death penalty, but their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after California briefly abolished capital punishment in 1972.
The brainwashed lunatics were members of a late-1960s cult led by the gnome-like Manson, who ordered the executions in an effort to start a race war.
Manson was convicted for the slayings and initially given a death sentence, which was also commuted to life with parole. He is now 82 and incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison in Kings County, Calif.
Krenwinkel is serving her time at the California Institution for Women in Corona.