CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : FRONTERA : Van Houten Denied Parole for 8th Time

Leslie Van Houten, one of Charles Manson’s “girls” convicted in the savage Tate-La Bianca murders 20 years ago, was denied parole for the eighth time at a hearing at the California Institution for Women at Frontera. A three-member Board of Prison Terms panel found the 40-year-old former beauty queen unsuitable for release because of her crime, her “unstable social history” and her need for further alcohol and drug rehabilitation. Van Houten was convicted of participating in the August, 1969, murders of grocery executive Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary. The La Biancas were the sixth and seventh victims in two nights of murder, including actress Sharon Tate, who was more than eight months pregnant.