It was late on a summer night when 21-year-old model Ava Roosevelt found herself driving to the Cielo Drive home of her close friend Sharon Tate.
She had planned to join the actress and a group of friends for a nightcap. But as she was traveling uphill, a short distance from Tate’s home, the fuel light suddenly started flickering on the dashboard of her aging and increasingly unreliable 1955 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn. Her gas tank was almost empty.
Roosevelt looked down at her watch. It was 11.30pm. Fearful her car would break down any minute and with no gas station around for several miles she decided to turn around and head back home.
That split-second decision may well have saved her life.
Just 15 minutes later, a group of devoted followers of cult leader Charles Manson would break into Tate’s home and slaughter the heavily pregnant star along with four others in a horrifying display of ritualistic savagery. Two more victims would be claimed the following night.
The August 1969 killings, which became known as the ‘Helter Skelter’ murders, were orchestrated at the direction of Manson with the intention of triggering an apocalyptic race war.
Among those to carry out the maniac’s bidding was Patricia Krenwinkel, who, almost 56 years later, at age 77, is now on the cusp of freedom after she was recommended for parole by prison officials in California last week.
Krenwinkel’s release still needs to be approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom. But Roosevelt told the Daily Mail she believes the killer still poses a grave threat to society. She is urging Newsom to ensure she dies behind bars.
Patricia Krenwinkel, 77, has been recommended for parole by officials in California after serving 55 years of a life sentence
Ava Roosevelt (pictured left in the 1960s, right in 2012) was friends with Tate and narrowly avoided becoming a Manson victim thanks to a remarkable twist of fate
‘Sharon would’ve lived to be 82 now had she not been brutally murdered. So, ultimately, my question is: why is this woman even still alive? Let alone potentially being free again… why is she not on death row?’ fumed Roosevelt.
‘What message would that be sending to society? That it’s okay to commit multiple murders, serve some time, and now you’re allowed the freedom to live your life again?
‘I can see no benefit of prolonging this woman’s life in society… and I don’t think she deserves a second chance.’
Krenwinkel was 21 when she participated in the Manson murders.
Sharon Tate, who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant, was slaughtered in a frenzy of stabbing, shooting, and torture alongside four others: hairstylist Jay Sebring, screenwriter Voytek Frykowski, coffee fortune heir Abigail Folger, and 18-year-old Stephen Parent. The murders took place at the mansion she shared with her director husband, Roman Polanski, on August 8, 1969.
The following night, Manson’s acolytes struck again, this time at the Los Feliz home of wealthy grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, who were tied up, stabbed, and mutilated in a similarly depraved fashion.
Krenwinkel would later admit to stabbing Folger 28 times and assisting in the deaths of the LaBiancas, writing ‘Death To Pigs’ and ‘Rise’ on the walls of their home in the couple’s blood.
She was sentenced to death in April 1971 after being found guilty on seven counts of first-degree murder. However, the sentence was commuted to life in prison when the state’s death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in 1972.
Krenwinkel has remained incarcerated at the California Institute for Women ever since. She is the state’s longest-serving prisoner.
She was recommended for parole for the first time in May 2022, but Newsom blocked her release five months later over concerns regarding her ‘risk for future dangerousness.’
Krenwinkel had been denied parole on 14 other occasions before then.
Sharon Tate was more than eight months pregnant at the time of her death. She was butchered along with six others during two nights of brutal violence across LA in August 1969
Krenwinkel met Manson when she was 19 and left her job as a secretary to run off into the California wilderness and pursue a romantic relationship with him
Tate and four others were killed at the Cielo Drive home she shared with husband Roman Polanski on August 8
After her hearing last week Keith Wattley, Krenwinkel’s attorney, said in a statement that his client has squeaky clean prison record, has experienced a ‘substantial change in who she is’, and said that nine psychological evaluations over the past four decades have found she is ‘no longer a risk’ to society.
‘It’s time to make the possibility of parole a reality,’ said Wattley, urging Newsom to support the recommendation.
But Roosevelt says she is completely unconvinced by Wattley’s remarks, and issued a direct appeal to Newsom of her own, urging him to condemn Krenwinkel to a death behind bars.
‘It suits her to insist she’s wonderful now and that she’s a new person, but I don’t think a person that’s capable of committing that many premeditated murders can ever be rehabilitated, because that kind of evil is embedded in your DNA,’ said Roosevelt.
‘There needs to be some consistency in the legal system so that when you’re given life in prison, you serve life in prison.
‘I urge the governor not to parole her,’ she added. ‘Not allowing her to be free would send a message that law and order still exist in this country.’
Roosevelt also rejected any notion that Krenwinkel no longer poses a danger to society.
She continued: ‘I think she poses a financial danger because she will ultimately end up being on some form of welfare and taking benefits away from people who need it and who haven’t committed horrific crimes like she has.
‘And secondly, there’s no gauging how dangerous it could be for her to be placed in an environment where she has access to younger people she could influence… She was very proud of her crimes and she has a history of bragging about them.’
Roosevelt said she believes Krenwinkel lacks remorse and her freedom will serve no wider benefit to society.
‘She has the look of someone who is still full of hate,’ claimed Roosevelt.
‘I think it’s outrageous we’re even having this conversation.’
Charles Manson directed his followers to carry out the ‘Helter Skelter’ murders in the hope of triggering an apocalyptic race war that would reset society
Roosevelt, pictured with Roman Polanski (left), called Krenwinkel’s bid for parole ‘outrageous’
Tate was a rising star in Hollywood at the time. Roosevelt described her as an ‘angel’ off screen
Roosevelt could have been the sixth person to have been murdered by the Manson clan inside Tate’s home had it not been for that remarkable twist involving her fuel gauge, which turned out to be faulty.
Roosevelt had befriended Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski, a few years earlier after moving to LA from her native Poland in 1962 to pursue a career as an actress.
Tate took Roosevelt under her wing, and the pair quickly forged a close bond.
Earlier that evening, Roosevelt said Tate called her, inviting her to dinner with Sebring, Folger, and Frykowski.
Roosevelt declined because she had other dinner plans, but Tate urged her to swing by Cielo Drive for a drink any time after 10.30pm.
‘I’ll try,’ Roosevelt remembers telling Tate, to which the actress responded: ‘Do that darling, I love you.’
Unbeknownst to Roosevelt at the time, those would be the last words she ever heard Tate utter.
It was the faulty fuel gauge and the knowledge that she had a 5.30am call time for a modelling shoot the next day that may very well have been all that saved Roosevelt from meeting the same fate.
Krenwinkel, pictured in 2020, has previously been denied parole 15 times
Charles Manson followers, from left: Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, shown walking to court to appear for their roles in the 1969 cult killings of seven people, including the pregnant actress Sharon Tate, in Los Angeles on August 20, 1970
The next day, Roosevelt had just wrapped up on set when her manager pulled into the parking lot and approached her with an ashen face.
‘She intercepted me as I was walking and just said, “sit down.” So I did and she said, “You know they’re all dead, right?”’ Roosevelt recounts.
‘And I asked who is dead, and she told me, “They’re all dead: Sharon, all of them.”
‘I just couldn’t believe it.’
Roosevelt would later learn that Tate had been stabbed 16 times and was found lying on her living room floor with a rope wound around her neck.
Her unborn baby, a little boy, was also killed in the attack.
Found next to her was the bloodied corpse of Jay Sebring, who also had a rope around his neck and had been slaughtered in a similarly brutal fashion.
Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski were found dead in the yard, having both tried and failed to escape from the home.
Folger fled out of a bedroom door to the pool area, where Patricia Krenwinkel tackled her and stabbed her 28 times.
In court, Krenwinkel recounted how Folger pleaded with her to stop her brutal assault, crying: ‘I’m already dead.’
Frykowski suffered 51 stabs and numerous gunshot wounds.
Charles Manson, pictured in a prison photo taken August 14, 2017, was the leader of a group of cultists who engaged in a frenzy of killing in the summer of 1969, culminating in the murder of the actress Sharon Tate and her unborn child. He died of natural causes in 2017 while serving nine life sentences
Roosevelt fled LA shortly after the murders, with the Manson family’s brutality irrevocably shattering the idyllic view she had once held of tinsel town
Also killed in the rampage was Stephen Parent, a man visiting the property caretaker, who happened to be driving by the Tate-Polanski home at the time of the massacre.
The following night, the LaBiancas were brutally killed in their home, a short distance away in Los Feliz.
The sickening killings would later become collectively known as the ‘Helter Skelter’ murders, getting their name from a song by The Beatles that Manson believed contained hidden messages about an impending race war that would bring an end to civilization.
Roosevelt fled LA after the LaBiancas were killed, terrified she could be next.
Today, Roosevelt still misses Tate terribly and mourns the memories they were robbed of making together over the past five-and-a-half decades.
‘She was an angel in every respect, not speaking only about her looks, her eyes, her hair, but her kindness too. She was just an incredibly kind human being,’ said Roosevelt.
‘This was a life cut so short, completely needlessly.’
Manson is one of the the most infamous cult leaders in history. The Helter Skelter murders live on in infamy as one of America’s most shocking crimes
Krenwinkle (seen left) previously claimed her complicated family dynamics and low sense of self-esteem made her vulnerable to Manson’s manipulation
As she nervously awaits the outcome of Krenwinkel’s parole recommendation, Roosevelt envisioned what she would say to her friend’s killer if they ever came face-to-face.
‘I’d ask her why she is still alive when Sharon isn’t,’ said Roosevelt. ‘And I’d ask her how she has been able to live with herself.’
Krenwinkel is one of three Manson family members still incarcerated.
Manson died in 2017 while serving nine life sentences.
One of his followers, Leslie Van Houten, walked free in July 2023 after spending more than five decades locked up.
Krenwinkel did not speak during her hearing last Friday. But in earlier remarks, she has claimed her complicated upbringing and low self-esteem made her vulnerable to Manson’s manipulation when she met him as a teen.
‘It is countless how many lives were shattered by the path of destruction that I was a part of, and it all comes from just a simple thing as just wanting to be loved,’ she told the New York Times in 2014.
Family members of the victims strongly oppose her release.
Debra Tate, Sharon’s younger sister, has launched an online petition asking Newsom to reverse her parole, garnering more than 116,000 signatures.
‘For years this woman laughed about the murders in court and showed absolutely no remorse at all,’ Tate wrote.
‘Society cannot allow this serial killer who committed such horrible, gruesome, random killings back out.’
An attorney for Krenwinkel has not yet returned a request for comment.
