Patricia Krenwinkel

• 1. Introduction

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  Patricia Krenwinkel spoke these words during her trial, describing how she stabbed a woman: "I stabbed her and I kept stabbing her." Asked how it felt, she replied: "Nothing, I mean, what is there to describe? It was just there, and it was right." Krenwinkel was an American woman born in 1947, and she belonged to the circle of followers around Charles Manson. What kind of person says such a thing? Where did she come from, and who did she follow? What became of her in the long years afterward, and why has her release been so hard to settle?

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• 2. Before the Family

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  Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel was born on the 3rd of December 1947 in Los Angeles, to an insurance-salesman father and a homemaker mother. She attended University High School and later Westchester High School, both in the Los Angeles area. Other students bullied her. She suffered from low self-esteem, and classmates teased her about her weight and about heavy body hair caused by an endocrine condition.

  At seventeen, Krenwinkel watched her parents divorce. She stayed in Los Angeles with her father until she graduated from Westchester High School. For a time she taught catechism, which is Roman Catholic religious instruction, and she considered becoming a nun.

  She chose Spring Hill College, a Jesuit school in Mobile, Alabama. Within a single semester she dropped out and moved back to California. She settled into her half-sister's apartment in Manhattan Beach and found an office job as a processing clerk. It was in Manhattan Beach, in 1967, that she met Charles Manson.

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• 3. Katie and the Family

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  To the people around Manson she was most commonly Katie, though she also went by Big Patty, Yellow, Marnie Reeves and Mary Ann Scott. Manson came into her life together with two other women, Lynette Fromme and Mary Brunner. Krenwinkel later said she had sex with him on the night they met, and that he was the first person to tell her she was beautiful. Mesmerized by his charisma and starved for attention, she left her apartment, her car and her last paycheck behind. She set off for San Francisco with him and the other two women.

  As the group grew, it spent 18 months touring the American west in an old school bus, a stretch filled with drugs and sex. Krenwinkel later gave an idealized account of those early days: "We were just like wood nymphs and wood creatures. We would run through the woods with flowers in our hair, and Charles would have a small flute."

  In the summer of 1968, Krenwinkel and fellow Family member Ella Bailey were hitchhiking around Los Angeles when Dennis Wilson picked them up. Wilson was a founding member and the drummer of the Beach Boys. He invited the two women to his home and then continued on to a recording session. They contacted the Family and told them about their new crash pad.

  When Wilson came back that evening, he found Manson and the rest of the Family eating his food and sleeping in his bedrooms. They were partying inside and outside the house. The group stayed for several months and caused financial problems for Wilson, and then Manson and his followers left the mansion.

  In August 1968, the Family persuaded George Spahn, an elderly man who was nearly blind, to let them live on his property. This was Spahn Ranch, in the hills above the San Fernando Valley. A year later, in August 1969, rumors about the murders would begin to circulate there.

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• 4. Two Nights in August

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  At 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, on the 9th of August 1969, Krenwinkel, Tex Watson and Susan Atkins murdered five people. The victims were the pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger and Steven Parent. After stabbing Folger, Krenwinkel went back inside and summoned Watson, who also stabbed Folger.

  On the night of the 10th of August 1969, Krenwinkel took part in more murders, and she did so willingly. She described that night at a parole hearing in 2016. Manson, Watson, Atkins, Clem Grogan, Leslie Van Houten and Linda Kasabian all went to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. There Krenwinkel, Watson and Van Houten murdered the couple.

  When she was questioned later, she said the only thing going through her mind was this: "Now he won't be sending any of his children off to war." Before hitchhiking back to Spahn Ranch, the three stayed for a while in the LaBianca home. They ate food, showered and played with the LaBiancas' two dogs.

  Spahn Ranch, where they returned, was about to draw police attention for an entirely different reason.

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• 5. Arrest and Trial

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  On the 16th of August 1969, one week after the Cielo Drive murders, police rounded up Krenwinkel, Manson and other Family members on suspicion of auto theft. An unrelated Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigation had spotted parts of stolen cars in and around the ranch from a helicopter. A date error later led to the search warrant being ruled invalid, and the group was released.

  The Family then began to lose members one by one. The raid frightened some, and so did suspicion about the Tate-LaBianca murders and the newly rumored murder of Spahn ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea. Manson moved the group to Barker Ranch, near Death Valley. From August through October, they spent their time converting stolen cars into dune buggies.

  On the 10th of October 1969, police arrested the group again. Krenwinkel's father bailed her out, and she went straight back to Barker Ranch. Manson had not been present at that raid. He ordered her to go to Alabama and live with her mother until he sent word. The word never came, because Manson himself was arrested at Barker Ranch on the 12th of October.

  Meanwhile, in jail, Susan Atkins began telling her cellmates Virginia Graham and Veronica "Ronnie" Howard about the Family's role in the murders. Because of Atkins' confessions and Howard's disclosure, Krenwinkel was arrested near her aunt's home in Mobile, Alabama, on the 1st of December 1969. The next day she was indicted on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.

  After her arrest, Krenwinkel claimed she had gone to Alabama because she feared Manson would find her and kill her. She fought extradition at first. In February 1970 she waived the proceedings and returned to California voluntarily. She stood trial alongside Manson, Van Houten and Atkins. Watson fought extradition from his home state of Texas without success and was tried separately at a later date.

  Krenwinkel's trial attorney, Paul Fitzgerald, suggested that although her fingerprints were found inside the Tate home, she might only have been "an invited guest or friend." Reportedly she spent much of the trial drawing doodles of devils and other Satanic figures, seemingly unfazed by the chance of a death sentence. She remained loyal to Manson throughout.

  That unity took visible forms. She walked hand-in-hand with Atkins and Van Houten, and the women sang songs written by Manson. They shaved their heads and carved an "X" on their foreheads, just as Manson was doing. The "X" can still be seen in modern photographs of some members.

  After nine months of trial, Krenwinkel was convicted on all counts. On the 29th of March 1971 she was sentenced to death. She and the other two women were transferred from Los Angeles to the California Institution for Women near Corona. Krenwinkel arrived on California's death row on the 28th of April 1971.

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• 6. Life Behind Bars

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  The California Supreme Court's decision in People v. Anderson invalidated every death sentence imposed in the state before 1972. As a result, the sentences of Krenwinkel, Manson, Watson, Atkins and Van Houten were automatically commuted to life in prison.

  At the beginning of her life sentence, Krenwinkel stayed loyal to Manson and the Family. Over time she began to break away from them. Since distancing herself from Manson, she has kept a perfect prison record. She also earned a bachelor's degree in Human Services from the University of La Verne.

  She takes an active part in prison programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. She has also taught illiterate prisoners how to read. Reportedly she writes poetry and music, plays the guitar, plays on a prison volleyball team and gives dance lessons.

  In a 1994 interview with Diane Sawyer, Krenwinkel said: "I wake up every day knowing that I'm a destroyer of the most precious thing, which is life; and I do that because that's what I deserve, is to wake up every morning and know that." She expressed her deepest remorse over Abigail Folger. Of Folger she said: "That was just a young woman that I killed, who had parents. She was supposed to live a life and her parents were never supposed to see her dead."

  In that same interview she turned on her former leader. She said Manson was "absolutely lying" when he denied ordering the murders. According to her, not one thing was done, or even allowed to be done, without his express permission.

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• 7. The Parole Hearings

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  Krenwinkel's initial parole consideration hearing was held on the 17th of July 1978, and the decades since have brought many more. At a 2004 hearing she was asked whom she would place at the top of the list of people she had harmed. She answered with a single word: "myself". One panel denied her parole because, in its words, she still posed an "unacceptable risk to public safety."

  At her January 2011 hearing, a two-member board told the 63-year-old Krenwinkel she would not be eligible for parole again for seven years. The panel said it was swayed by the memory of the crimes. It also cited 80 letters from all over the world urging her continued incarceration.

  The hearing of the 29th of December 2016 took a different turn. The decision was postponed so that the defense's claim could be investigated. The defense argued that Krenwinkel had been suffering from battered woman syndrome at the hands of Manson at the time of the murders. The hearing resumed on the 22nd of June 2017, and the 69-year-old was denied parole for the fourteenth time.

  On the 26th of May 2022, the parole board granted her release. On the 14th of October 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom reversed the decision, citing the continued threat she would pose to society if released.

  Susan Atkins died in 2009, and Leslie Van Houten was released in 2023. After those two events, Krenwinkel became the longest-incarcerated female inmate in the California penal system. Admitted to prison in April 1971, she has been continuously incarcerated for more than 50 years. In 2025 she was recommended for parole once more, and Newsom again reversed the recommendation. She remains at the California Institution for Women in Chino.

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• 8. Portrayals on Screen

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  In the 1976 made-for-TV film Helter Skelter, the actress Christina Hart portrayed Krenwinkel. In the film's 2004 remake, the part went to Allison Smith. Leslie Orr played her in The Manson Family (2003), and Kaniehtiio Horn played her in Leslie, My Name Is Evil (2009). Vanessa Zima took the role in Manson Girls (2013), and Serena Lorien followed in House of Manson (2014).

  Olivia Klaus made a documentary short about her called Life After Manson. The film was shown at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, and it included Krenwinkel's first interview in 20 years.

  Television returned to her story as well. Madisen Beaty played Krenwinkel in the 2015-16 series Aquarius, and Leslie Grossman played her in the 2017 season of American Horror Story: Cult. Sosie Bacon portrayed her in Mary Harron's Charlie Says (2018). Beaty played her again in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), where the credits list the character as "Katie."

  Her voice reached listeners through music, too. White Zombie sampled her 1994 interview with Diane Sawyer for the song "Real Solution #9."

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