Betty Broderick Denied Parole

I have to say that I am not surprised in the least by the news released last week that Betty Broderick was again denied parole.   Back in 2010 she was found unsuitable for release and it was stated that she had not emotionally matured nor grown whatsoever and it appears that she continues to make zero strides toward accepting responsibility for what she's done and expressing any kind of remorse.

She may feel like Dan deserved to die (I've always believed that Linda was collateral damage) but she's had years to prepare for this hearing.  Why wouldn't she at least say she realizes what she's done and how wrong it was?  I'm not advocating lying but . . . I mean, I just don't understand it.

I think Betty wants to stay in prison.  She's been incarcerated since 1989.  The world has changed a great deal while she's been in.  She won't have to adapt, learn how to live in the 2017 world.  She knows what to expect there.  More importantly, I think she may enjoy playing the wronged wife.

Interestingly, if you search around various boards and forums about this case, opinion is still as divided as it was in 1989.  Some people believe that Betty has been punished enough and should be freed.  They are offended on her behalf that she put some clown through both medical and law schools and then was dumped for a bimbo office receptionist.  Some say that while they agree that she was wronged, she still needs to pay for her crimes and should remain where she is.  Others believe that Betty is a vicious killer who deserves no sympathy.

Which Betty do you believe in?  Was she just a selfish, manipulative woman who killed out of spite?  Was she pushed to being mentally unbalanced by a cruel man who used both the legal system and his mistress to dial up Betty?  Was Betty always mentally unstable?  Does she remain any of these things?

Given that I know someone who knew both Dan and Betty, I believe that Dan was a real asshole.  I think he was fine with Betty supporting him and putting him through school but when he decided that he no longer wanted to participate in their marriage, he did not want to reimburse Betty in kind.  Greed.  And just an asshole.  I also think that Linda had a cruel streak.  I believe that she tormented Betty; by dictating the message on Dan's answering machine, by sending Betty pamphlets for weight loss; by sending Betty pictures of herself with Dan, with notes that indicated how happy they were.  Heck, at the time of their deaths Dan and Linda were sleeping under a quilt that had belonged to Dan and Betty during their marriage.  Very childish actions on an adult playground.

I think Betty may have had a twisted perception of marriage and women's roles based on her upbringing and her generation.  But, again based on what I was told by someone who knew both Dan and Betty, I believe she was a good mother, at least before Linda.   After Linda, I think she was psychologically damaged.

None of this means that she was justified in killing anyone.  I'm sad for the children, who now have children of their own that do not know their Broderick grandparents.  I'm sad that Betty herself apparently cannot recognize what she's done - - not just to Dan and Linda and her children but to herself.  

Back to the Parole Board.  In their decision to deny Betty, they gave her the longest denial possible - - 15 years.  However, she can request an earlier hearing if she meets certain criteria.

Manson Family Update: Bobby Beausoleil Denied Parole; Tex Watson Up Next

Beausoleil; Denied

As I predicted, Governor Jerry Brown's decision to deny Leslie Van Houten parole, after it was recommended by the parole board, did not bode well for fellow inmate and fellow Manson Family perp Bobby Beausoleil.

Bobby, now 68, came up for parole on Friday, October 14 and the board decided that the Family member formerly known as "Cupid" had not yet paid his debt to society for the murder of musician Gary Hinman on July 27, 1969 - - a week before the infamous Tate-LaBianca homicides.

Given that Beausoleil was initially given the death penalty, which was commuted to a life sentence (as were the death penalty sentences of the other Manson family killers), I can't be too upset about him not getting parole.  Last I checked, Gary Hinman, an innocent victim, will never get parole.

Beausoleil claimed to have been a musician and kinda-sorta actor before fucking all that up by joining Charles Manson's merry band of craziness.  If you're into that sort of thing, he has written and recorded music while behind bars.  It was reported that he was denied parole, in part, because he has been selling his music without permission of the California authorities.  He had permission from Oregon authorities, where he had been serving his sentence until last year.  (He had requested and was granted a move to Oregon in 1994 after he married a clearly unhinged Oregon woman, whom he went on to have four children with.  He was transferred back to California after his wife died and he had an infraction - - what a surprise - - in Oregon. )  He also sold suggestive drawings of children to pedophiles back in the 1980s - - nice guy.  I'm guessing he didn't exactly have permission for that.

Californians can breathe easier knowing that the man who made the statement "You'd better hope I never get out!" will not be eligible for parole again for another three years.  Here's hoping that parole attempt number 19 will be equally unsuccessful.

Watson:   He's soooo sowwwwwwy

In my search on upcoming information on Tex Watson, whose next parole hearing is scheduled for end of this month, I found an article from The Boston Tribune that claims that Manson's self-professed right hand man will be granted parole at this hearing due to his "clear and sustained rehabilitation" and a recently diagnosed health issue.

First, I can tell you his health issue. He's an asshole.  And worse, a murdering asshole.  Second, are they serious?  Watson has had a series of infractions over the years of his lengthy stay as a guest of the State of California.  Let's not forget his prison scam, where he was claiming to be a born again Christian, and minister of his ministry, which allowed his then-wife to collect monies received for said ministry in order to support herself and the four children California allowed him to spawn (yes, after he personally butchered a pregnant woman.)   Not only did he have that going on but he also had fellow inmate and fellow Mansonite Bruce Davis "working" alongside him in the prison ministry - - an absolute no no.   Perhaps the worst offense are the books Watson has written while in prison, "literary" attempts to convince the public of his Christianity and how it was all Manson's fault. Sure.  He was just some misguided kid who thought butchering absolute strangers for shits and giggles made perfect sense.  (And if he did, he was a moron and I still don't want him in my neighborhood.)

So. I'm not exactly sure how The Boston Tribune seems in the know about Watson's impending release but I'm with Debra Tate on this one.  Her older sister Sharon, over eight months pregnant with a baby boy at the time, was killed at Watson's hands. He was personally involved in the murders of at least nine people that we know of, including Sharon's unborn baby.  I'm fairly certain that I don't want to run into him at Ralph's picking up groceries so I did my part and signed Debra's petition requesting denial of  Watson's parole.  Please do the same.

Even if you buy that he's been rehabilitated -  which is a questionable prospect at best; even if you buy that he's ill and rapidly declining - - Susan Atkins was terminally ill, given very few months to live and was rightly denied, dying in prison where all Manson Family members should die; I ask that you remember this.  He's been incarcerated since 1971.  That's a total of 45 years.  Sure, that's a lot.  But if you divide that by the nine human beings he slaughtered, that's only FIVE YEARS PER VICTIM.  How is five years, for shooting, bludgeoning, hanging and viciously stabbing a living and breathing person enough time?  It's not in my world and it shouldn't be in any sane person's. Furthermore, he's had 47 years to live that he denied all of his victims.  One did not even have the opportunity to take his first breath.

Debra Tate's petition can be found here.

Should Leslie Van Houten Be Granted Parole?

Van Houten in 1970

Vincent Bugliosi predicted this, although he believed it would happen many years ago.  He did think that the Manson "girls" would be granted parole, paving the way for Tex Watson, Bruce Davis, Bobby Beausoleil and eventually Manson himself.   So this shouldn't be all that surprising.

The Manson "girls" aren't girls any longer.  Only two remain - - Patricia Krenwinkle and Leslie Van Houten - - and both are in their sixties.  (The third, Susan Atkins, died where she should have - - still incarcerated and a guest of the State of California.)

Van Houten had her twenty-first parole appearance and the Board recommended that parole be granted.

This makes me angry.  I'm a resident of California and I don't want to see Leslie Van Houten (or any of the Merry Manson Band of Murderers) at my grocery store or in my neighborhood.   I know that some have said that she is the least culpable in the group of killers but killing is killing in my book.  She can whine all she wants about how Rosemary LaBianca was already dead when Leslie took a knife repeatedly to her back and it makes little difference to me.  Leslie held her down, Leslie aided and abetted Watson and Krenwinkle at the very least.  At most, she stabbed a woman who was still alive at the time.  Coroner Thomas Noguchi said that a number of Mrs. LaBianca's wounds were antemortem, meaning they occurred before death.  There is no way to say which wounds Van Houten delivered and which were delivered at the hands of Krenwinkle and/or Watson so I think it's best to err on the side of caution and assume that Mrs. LaBianca was still breathing when Van Houten attacked her.

Van Houten today

This is a woman who laughed and joked during the criminal trial, when witnesses were talking about the brutalization of the victims, their pleas for mercy and when her own life was on the line (she and her co-defendants received the death penalty.)    She admitted she felt no remorse for the victims' deaths, their pain or their loved ones' pain.  She admitted she only thought about Rosemary LaBianca while in the courtroom.  Within her first few years of incarceration, she was found to have a woman's prison guard uniform in her cell.  Until last month, she never admitted responsibility for her actions nor any remorse.  She blamed her actions on Charles Manson, on drugs, on her parents' divorce and on an abortion she had as a teenager.

To the finger pointing, I say this - - bitch, please.  We all deal with various shit in our lives.  Some of us have more to deal with than others.  Some of us handle that shit better than others.  None of it - - no matter how much or on what level - - justifies breaking into someone's house and slaughtering them.

I don't buy Van Houten's remorse.  I think she's a sociopath and this is just a calculated act in order to leave prison in something other than a pine box.

Something else about Van Houten scares me and that's this.  Bugliosi said himself that she was the least devoted of Manson's followers (and he should know.)  Think about that.  She was the least devoted out of this ragtag group and she was willing to kill strangers on his orders?  That's frightening.  What would she have done if she was utterly devoted to him?

If you don't believe that Manson ordered those murders, that would mean that Van Houten simply thrilled in killing.  Or maybe it's both.

Her attorney claims that this "violent act" was the only one of her life.  Not only would I hope so but isn't it enough?  Her "act" resulted in the violent and horrific deaths of two people that can never again live.  She has been given more compassion and mercy than the victims were.  They begged for their lives and were met with laughter, insults and the business end of a knife.  She and the others have been given the gift of parole hearings, of education, of families and of life.  Now she wants to beg and plead?  I say let's respond to her pleas with the same denial she gave her victims.  No business end of a knife but with a resounding "no."

While it's true that no amount of punishment will ever bring back the persons that were killed, punishment is punishment, justice is justice and life should mean life.

If she is granted parole, how long before Patricia Krenwinkle follows suit?  If Krenwinkle is granted parole, the clock will be ticking on the men.

Rosemary and Leno LaBianca

None of these people should get parole.  None of them.  I hope that Governor Jerry Brown is listening to the people and thinking about justice, the victims, the victims' families and what is right.

Sharon Tate's sister Debra started a petition to keep Van Houten in prison.   Add your name as a supporter here.

Let me know what you think.  Has Leslie Van Houten served her time?  Should she be paroled?  If so, why?  If you think she should remain in prison, give me your thoughts on that.