Debra Tate, the sister of slain actress Sharon Tate, has spoken out for the first time since Leslie Van Houten, who spent 53 years in prison for the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, was released on Tuesday.
Van Houten is now in a “transitional living facility” after being released Tuesday on parole supervision, and “will have a three-year maximum parole term with a parole discharge review occurring after one year,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
While Manson didn’t commit the killings himself, he commanded his followers to do so. Manson died in prison in 2017.
Van Houten was 19 when she participated in the August 10, 1969 murders of Leno LaBianca, a wealthy grocer, and his wife, Rosemary LaBianca, at their Los Angeles home — which authorities later determined was under the orders of cult leader Charles Manson, who died in prison in 2017.
Manson family members and murder suspects Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle, and Leslie van Houten. (Getty Images)
The LaBiancas were both stabbed to death, and the word “war” was carved on Leno LaBianca’s stomach.
“Is she a nice girl? No. Is she an animal? I think she was then, and I fear that she still is,” Debra Tate said in a recent interview with ABC’s Nightline.
Tate’s sister, the late actress Sharon Tate, was also a victim of the Manson cult followers. One day before the LaBiancas were murdered, Manson disciples killed Tate — who was 26 years old and pregnant — and four others in the California home she shared with her husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski.
Sharon Tate circa 1968. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
While Van Houten did not participate in those particular murders, Debra Tate has publicly called for members of the Manson cult to remain behind bars.
“I prayed until I was gritting my teeth that in every kiss or every smile or every pleasurable action that [Van Houten] might have during freedom, she gets a flashback of the screams, the grunts, the blood,” Tate said.
The grave stone of Sharon Tate Polanski. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
She added that the murder of her sister has had an intense effect on her life.
“My dad retired from the military. He went out on his own quest to find the killers. My college money got absorbed into things. It affected everything I did. It had catastrophic direct effects,” Tate said.
She has also appeared at every parole hearing for every Manson cult member since the murders occurred, ABC News reported.
Sharon Tate, on the day of her wedding to film director Roman Polanski. (© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
“We’re talking about one of the most murderous cults in America,” Debra Tate said. “Is it worth giving that a free pass? There are a lot of people that I would give a free pass, but these people are not amongst them.”
Meanwhile, Cory LaBianca, the late couple’s daughter, told Nightline that Van Houten’s release from prison “may be considered legal, but to me and my family, it is ethically and morally wrong.”
Van Houten was reportedly up for parole more than 20 times before she was released earlier this week.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.