My first Great Debates Thread started ever:
The wife and I watched the DVD of the old Helter Skelter (the one with Steve Railsback’s uncanny performance as Charles Manson) movie last night, and afterwards I (being a bit of a sponge for trivia) filled her in as best I could remember in the area of “whatever happened to…” This evening I’ve been scouring the net for the lastest info on her.
Leslie Van Houten, for those who don’t know, was one of the people who killed the LaBiancas. She along with Tex Watson (and another girl) stabbed Mrs. LaBianca to death. Imprisoned since her guilty verdict (with a brief six months out while she was awaiting a retrial in '78 or '79) she has, from all appearances (and I emphasize “appearances”), accepted responsibility for her crimes, gotten a college degree, and works in prison in a variety of programs to help women there dependant on drugs, alcohol, etc.
In other words, what one would consider a model prisoner.
I recall seeing one of her parole hearings (she has had fifteen, and I think is eligible again in August '06) on Court TV back in the 90s and she came off as incredibly intelligent and regretful of her past, in other words she appears to be rehabilitated.
Yet, one wonders, is it all for show? Prison is first and foremost a place for punishment; rehabilitation is secondary.
Many things pass through my mind. She was without doubt the prettiest of the Manson “girls,” and is now a handsome middle-aged woman. I wonder if people have sympathy because compared to Patricia Kenwinkle and Susan Atkins, she is a beauty queen. Compared to them (I saw Krenwinkle ramble and bluster through a parole hearing on the same program), she is an intellectual giant.
Vincent Bugliosi always figured the women would serve fifteen-twenty years each, then all be paroled. A judge has even expressed discontent with the way the parole board continually turns her down based on the notoriety of the case, iirc.
Do you think if this had been the Smith-Whatshisname murder case from Thusandsticks, Kentucky inestead of the Tate-LaBianca case Van Houten (and many of the others) would have long since been paroled?
I’m rambling, so I’ll stop and ask for a debate.
Based on what I have seen and read, I tentatively says “Yes, parole Van Houten.”
What say you?
Sir Rhosis