Patricia Krenwinkel
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Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel (born December 3, 1947) was the third female to join Charles Manson's murderous commune, known as "The Family". During her time with Manson's group Patricia was known by various aliases such as "Big Patty", "Yellow", and "Mary Ann Scott", but to The Family she was most commonly known as Katie.
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[edit] Growing Up
Krenwinkel was born in Los Angeles, California to an insurance-salesman father and a homemaker mother. She attended University High School and then Westchester High School, both in the Los Angeles area. Not a particularly popular teen, Patricia suffered from low self-esteem and was frequently teased for being overweight and for an excessive growth of body hair due to a childhood medical problem. She spent her teen years feeling shunned and unattractive.
After her parents divorced when she was seventeen, Patricia remained in Los Angeles with her father until graduating from Westchester High. Formerly teaching Catholic Sunday-School, and having considered becoming a nun when she was younger, Patricia decided to attend a Catholic college in Alabama, where her mother now lived. Within one semester, however, Patricia dropped out and moved back to California. Moving into her step-sister's apartment in Manhattan Beach, she found an office job as a processing clerk and was increasingly becoming unhappy with her life.
[edit] A Change of Fate
It was on Manhattan Beach in 1967 where she met Charles Manson, along with Lynette Fromme (later known as 'Squeaky') and Mary Brunner, who were already known as "Charlie's Girls". In later interviews, Krenwinkel stated that she had slept with Manson the first night they met, and that for the first time in her life someone (Charles Manson) had told her she was beautiful. Mesmerized by Charlie's charisma and starved for attention, it was then that she decided to go to San Francisco with him and the other two girls, leaving behind her apartment, car, and last paycheck.
[edit] Early Years of "The Family"
As the Manson Family grew, Katie (as Krenwinkel was now known) and the others were now on a drug-and-sex-filled eighteen-month tour of the American West in an old, acquired school bus, Katie would later recount an idealized version of The Family's 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, Patricia and fellow Family-member Ella Bailey were hitchhiking in L.A. when Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson picked them up. After being invited to his home while he continued on to a recording session, Katie and Ella Bailey were able to contact The Family and tell them of their new "crash pad". When Wilson returned later that evening, he found Charlie and the rest of The Family eating his food, sleeping in his bedrooms, and partying inside and outside his home; completely uninvited. After wearing out their welcome over time by practically draining Wilson dry financially, Katie, Charlie, and the rest of The Family left the Beach Boy's mansion behind. Later that same year, Krenwinkel was arrested for possession of Marijuana in Mendocino, California, after she and some other family girls gave LSD to some local youths.
After the Summer of Love started to fade from memory in 1969, Katie and The Family decided that isolation for them all was best. After conning the blind and elderly George Spahn into allowing them to live on his property, they all converged on Spahn's Movie Ranch in the hills above the San Fernando Valley. While placing herself as a surrogate mother to The Family's several illegitimate children and babies, Krenwinkel was seen as an intense and devoted follower to Charles Manson. She was soon also to become a murderer.
[edit] The Tate-LaBianca Murders
Fully dedicated to Charlie, Patricia was a willing participant in the infamous murders of August 9, 1969 at 10050 Cielo Drive, home of actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski. After fellow Family member Charles "Tex" Watson shot and killed teenager Steven Parent in his car in the driveway of the estate, the group of three (Watson, Susan Atkins, and Krenwinkel) entered the house--surprising all inside. When mayhem ensued, Krenwinkel dragged victim and coffee-heiress Abigail Folger from her bedroom to the living room, fought with her, and stabbed her. When Folger tried to escape, Katie was said to have chased Folger as she ran outside screaming following the first round of stabbing. According to Krenwinkel, after she pinned Folger to the ground and further stabbed her, the victim pleaded with her to stop by saying, "I'm already dead." Katie continued to stab her so repeatedly and so brutally that Folger's white nightgown is reported to have appeared red to police investigators the following day. At a later date, Krenwinkel was quoted as saying, "I stabbed her and I kept stabbing her." When asked about how it felt, she replied, "Nothing, I mean, what is there to describe? It was just there, and it was right."
With Charlie's orders to do so, the following night found Krenwinkel a willing participant in more killing. Along with Krenwinkel and Manson, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan, Leslie Van Houten, and Linda Kasabian went to the home of Southern California grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. After Manson and Watson tied up the couple, Manson left, giving orders to Van Houten and Krenwinkel to join Watson and kill the LaBiancas and to be sure to "leave something witchy". Leaving Manson, Atkins, Grogan and Kasabian in the car outside, the trio proceeded to torture and kill the couple. Once again wielding a knife, Katie stabbed Mrs. LaBianca repeatedly. According to Tex Watson's book, Will You Die for Me?, he carved the word "WAR" on the abdomen of the dead Leno LaBianca, although the act is sometimes attributed to Krenwinkel. Watson further claims that while he was washing off the LaBianca's blood in their own shower, Krenwinkel repeatedly stabbed the dead Leno LaBianca and left a carving fork imbedded in his abdomen and a small steak knife protruding from his neck. In an interview, Krenwinkel admitted to stabbing Mr. LaBianca with the fork and leaving it in his abdomen. Both utensils were taken from the LaBiancas' kitchen. Krenwinkel then wrote "DEATH TO PIGS" in blood on the wall, and "HEALTER SKELTER" (sic) on the refigerator. When later questioned, Krenwinkel claimed that the only thing going through her mind at the time was that "now he won't be sending any of his children off to war." Before hitchhiking back to Spahn, the trio stayed a while in the LaBianca home - eating dinner, showering, and playing with the LaBianca's two dogs. Meanwhile, Manson, Atkins, Van Houten, Kasabian, and Grogan drove around Los Angeles looking for someone else to kill, to no avail.
[edit] On The Run
While the Los Angeles police were busy investigating any leads they could find, back at Spahn Ranch rumors of the involvement of Katie and the others in the now-famous murders began to circulate. Due to an unrelated investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, parts of stolen cars were spotted in and around the ranch by helicopter. One week after the murders on August 16, 1969, Katie, Manson and other Family members present were rounded up by police and arrested on suspicion of auto theft. Because of a date error, the search warrant was later ruled invalid and the group was released. Following this incident, The Family started to lose members one-by-one due to the raid, the possible involvement of The Family in the Tate-LaBianca murders and the newly-rumored murder of Spahn Ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea.
Because of the August 16th raid, Manson decided to move his crew to another old western-movie set, this time near Death Valley. Barker Ranch now became the home of The Family, including Patricia Krenwinkel. During their stay from August through October, the group spent their time converting cars the had stolen into dune-buggies, and it didn't take long for law enforcement to catch up with Manson and his followers. On October 10, 1969, the group was once again arrested. This time, Patricia's father Joseph bailed her out of jail, but Katie immediately returned to Barker Ranch. Upon her return, Manson (who was not present at the October 10th raid), ordered her to go to Alabama and live with her mother until he sent word for her to come home. The orders to return never came, however, because of the subsequent arrest on October 12th of Manson at Barker Ranch.
Meanwhile, still in jail, Susan Atkins began to tell all about the exploits of Katie and the others and their involvement in the Tate-LaBianca murders to incarcerated prostitute and cell-mate Veronica "Ronnie" Howard. Because of Atkins' bragging confessions and Howard's disclosure, Krenwinkel was arrested near her aunt's home in Mobile, Alabama on December 1, 1969. The following day, Krenwinkel was indicted for seven counts of first degree murder and one count conspiracy to commit murder. After her Alabama arrest, Krenwinkel claimed that she had gone to Alabama because she feared Manson would find her and kill her, hence her attempt to fight extradition to California. Finally in February 1970, she waived extradition proceedings and voluntarily returned to California to stand trial with defendants Manson, Van Houten, and Atkins. "Tex" Watson was tried separately at a later date after unsuccessfully fighting extradition from his home state of Texas.
[edit] The Trial
Patricia Krenwinkel's trial attorney, Paul Fitzgerald, offered only a weak defense. At one point, Fitzgerald suggested that although Krenwinkel's fingerprints were found inside the Tate home, she might just have been "an invited guest or friend." Seemingly unfazed by the possibility of a guilty verdict, Krenwinkel reportedly spent much of the trial drawing doodles of devils and other satanic figures. All during the trial, Katie remained loyal to Charlie and The Family. Demonstration of this unity included walking hand-in-hand with the other two female defendants singing songs written by Manson, as well as shaving their heads and carving an "X" in their foreheads, just as Manson was doing.
At the end of the nine-month trial, Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel was convicted of all counts and then sentenced to death on March 29, 1971. She and the other two women were transferred from Los Angeles to a brand new death-row facility built especially for them at the California Institute for Women (CIW) in Frontera, California.
[edit] Prison Life
The death sentence given to Patricia (as well as Manson, Atkins, and Van Houten) was automatically commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court's People v. Anderson decision resulted in the invalidation of all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972. At the beginning of her new life in prison, Krenwinkel remained loyal to Manson and The Family, but in time began to break away from them and their hold on her. In distancing herself away from Manson, Patricia has maintained a perfect prison record, received a Bachelor's degree in Human Services from the University of La Verne (California). She is active with prison programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and along with these involvements, she has also taught illiterate prisoners how to read. Reportedly, Krenwinkel writes both poetry and music, plays the guitar, and is athletic; playing on a prison volleyball team as well as giving dance lessons.
[edit] Remorse and Parole
Krenwinkel remains incarcerated; now at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California. It has been said that of the entire group of killers, Patricia Krenwinkel seems to have the most remorse about her participation in the Tate-Labianca murders. In an interview conducted by Diane Sawyer in 1994, Krenwinkel stated: "I wake up everyday 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." Krenwinkel was denied parole in 2004 because, according to the panel, she still posed an "unacceptable risk to public safety."
In total, Patricia has been denied parole eleven times with her next hearing set to take place in July, 2007.
[edit] Popular Culture
Sound-bytes from A&E's Biography on Charles Manson are heard on Heavy Metal Band White Zombie's Album Astrocreep 2000, track #1
See also: Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Charles 'Tex' Watson, Lynette Fromme
