247_acabo de matar

247_acabo de matar, a photo by willy ollero* on Flickr.

Leslie Van Houten_

In the summer of 1968, Van Houten met Catherine Share and Bobby Beausoleil in San Francisco. It was through them that she heard of Charles Manson and his community. When she met Manson, she was immediately captivated by him and the people associated with him. His way of life intrigued her, and she joined his group in September 1968, moving to the Spahn Ranch.

Although Van Houten was devoted to Manson, he was never very interested in her and treated her as if she "belonged to Bobby" since she had been Beausoleil's girlfriend when she arrived at the ranch in 1968. Manson's attitude left her with a strong need to prove herself to him and the rest of the family.

On the night of August 10, 1969, Manson drove Van Houten, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan, and Linda Kasabian to an address in Los Feliz, the home of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. Manson entered the house with Watson and handed him the ropes around his neck; he then left the house, instructing Krenwinkel and Van Houten to go inside and join Watson. The house had previously been cased in a process they called "creepy-crawling."

Krenwinkel and Van Houten found Rosemary LaBianca in a bedroom, to which she had retired while her husband had fallen asleep while reading in the living room. Van Houten put a pillowcase over Rosemary LaBianca's head, and the two women tied the electrical cord from a lamp around her neck. LaBianca started struggling; meanwhile, her husband, who had been tied up in the living room, started screaming as Watson began stabbing him. Rosemary grabbed the lamp and swung it at Van Houten, who fought with her and knocked the lamp away. Van Houten then held LaBianca down while Krenwinkel tried to stab her in the chest, but the blade bent on LaBianca's clavicle. Van Houten called for assistance from Watson, who entered the bedroom and took charge. Van Houten exited the room and stood in the hallway, staring into an adjacent empty room.

Watson then stabbed Rosemary LaBianca several times, found Van Houten, handed her the knife, and told her to "do something." Van Houten proceeded to stab Rosemary 16 times in the lower torso. The autopsy showed that several of the wounds had been inflicted post-mortem. Van Houten then wiped the premises down for fingerprints, changed into LaBianca's clothes, and took food from the refrigerator before leaving the house.

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