Leslie Van Houten's release from prison elicits strong reaction from public

Tonight, Manson follower Leslie Van Houten walks free—yes, she walked out of a Corona

prison

five decades after participating in a gruesome diabolical murder that shocked Los Angeles and beyond. KCAL news reporter Tom Wait is here with what's next for her and Pat groans, you can imagine this. is generating some pretty

strong

motions from both sides of this issue, so decades ago Leslie Van Houten was part of one of the most notorious murder cults in the history of Los Angeles, terrorizing and killing, but her lawyer says she is now a changed woman after decades in

prison

. under 70s ready to make a positive contribution to society after more than five decades in prison former follower of Charles Manson murder cult Leslie Van Houten is a free woman, now 73 years old she was

release

d Tuesday morning at the California Institute for Women in Corona, her lawyer said Van Houten was trying to get used to the idea that her freedom was real to her followers.

It was a surreal moment. I have been defending Leslie since I retired from the Associated Press. Retired Associated Press reporter Linda Deutsch covered Manson's arrests and trial since her own. Over the years, she established a trusting relationship with Van Houten, meeting her in prison and exchanging letters. Leslie has been the poster girl for rehab. If there was such a thing in prison, there's not much she's far above anyone else's rehabilitation she earned. She earned a bachelor's and master's degree while in prison, she participated in every self-help group they had. Van Houten's

release

came only after Gov.

Gavin Newsom decided not to challenge an appeals court ruling granting him parole, saying a challenge was unlikely to prevail in the state Supreme Court. and again to the Pearl boards, it was approved five times and the governor rejected it and said it was still a danger, even the prosecutor in the case Steve K once said he was convinced that Leslie would get out when she was an elderly Van Houten was part of the gruesome murders of Lino and Rosemary Labianca in 1969 at their home in Feliz, Van Houten held Rosemary with a pillowcase over her head and stabbed her a dozen times following the deranged orders of a mad Charles Manson .

I've been stuck in a hole for a long time. Manson spoke to CBS from prison in 1986, still spewing hate and complaining about his isolation. Me leaving that cell is a completely new experience. Van Houten's release breaks. open old wounds for the families the victims who have staunchly opposed her free her Freedom also means revisiting a dark time for country politics professor Jack Pitney for those of us old enough to remember that the 1970s were a bad time the United States was experiencing a rise in violent crime that would continue until the early 1990s we had the war in Vietnam we had Watergate uh and uh this was just a symbol of everything that seemed to go wrong in the United States uh everyone who was alive at the time remembers the Manson murders and the controversy that surrounded them, the feeling that society was in decline.

On Friday when it was announced that the governor would no longer challenge Van Houten's release, we spoke with her attorney about what he could do with the time he's been given. outside of Prison Walls she should get involved in grant writing. I think she really likes teaching, so that's one of the things she's focusing on. We reached out to the Labiancos' grandson who spoke to us in the past about his opposition to Van. After Houten's release, he told us today that he would not make any statements. Pat, okay, thanks for that, Tom and