Los Angeles, California – Charles Manson acolyte Patricia Krenwinkel, who has spent nearly six decades in prison for murder, was preliminarily granted parole, California prison authorities said.

Krenwinkel, who was convicted on seven counts of murder for her role in the shocking slayings of actress Sharon Tate– who was heavily pregnant at the time– and six others, has now been approved for parole three times.

But the state governor's office in the past has reversed the decision.

"All grants of parole are proposed decisions and become final only after a thorough and comprehensive review by the Board of Parole Hearings and the Governor," officials with the prison department said in a statement Tuesday.

Most recently, in 2025, California's Governor Gavin Newsom overruled the possibility of parole, saying Krenwinkel, now 78, still poses an unreasonable danger to society.

Krenwinkel is among the most notorious of the Manson family cult members and the longest-serving female inmate in California.

Along with leader Manson and other followers, she was originally sentenced to death for the August 1969 serial killings that included the gruesome murder of Tate, who was the wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski.

Krenwinkel's death sentence was reduced to life in prison when California declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972, which invalidated existing death sentences.

Fellow Manson disciple Leslie Van Houten, who admitted to participating in another horrific double murder the night after the Tate killings, was released in 2023.

Houten's bid for parole was repeatedly blocked by state governors, including Newsom.

But an appeals court overturned Newsom's final veto, noting Van Houten's exemplary inmate behavior and decades of therapy.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said that incarcerated people are on average denied parole four or more times "before they are found suitable."

Manson himself died in custody in 2017 at age 83. The head of an apocalyptic cult, he ordered his disciples to commit murders across Los Angeles as part of a twisted plot to spark a race war.

To this day, the shocking killing spree haunts the American psyche and stirs morbid fascination, fueled by books, songs, tourist routes and films.