Charles Manson follower Catherine Share has told a court the cult leader threatened to have her die a painful death if she left the ranch where they lived.
The 74-year-old told a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that Manson, 82, once severely beat her and got a male cult member to vow that if she ever fled the man would hunt her down and drag her back behind a car.
Her testimony, nearly 50 years after Manson’s horrific crimes, was to support a parole bid by fellow ‘family’ member Leslie Van Houten.
Catherine Share (pictured here in 1970) revealed in court Thursday that Charles Manson threatened to have her die a painful death if she left the ranch where they lived
‘Some people could not leave. I was one of them that could not leave,’ Share said, as she later revealed she regretted coaxing Van Houten to join the cult.
‘I don’t think (Van Houten) felt like she was free to leave,’ Share concluded.
However, in spite of her testimony Share did also acknowledge that she was unsure as to whether or not Van Houten had been prohibited from leaving or not, whilst also admitting that others had left the cult unharmed.
Van Houten, now 68 and serving a life sentence for the deaths, was not expected to attend the hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The 74-year-old (pictured here in 1975) told a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that Manson, 82, once severely beat her and got a male cult member to vow that if she ever fled the man would hunt her down and drag her back behind a car
With help from her lawyer, Van Houten is attempting to show a state parole board that she was manipulated by Manson and more likely to make bad choices at the mere age of 19.
Van Houten’s plea comes after a recent change in California law that enables people who committed crimes when they were younger to seek a hearing later on in life.
The law enables those who committed crimes when they were less than 23 years old to seek a hearing and for these issues to be later discussed at a parole hearing.
Leslie Van Houten (pictured here in 2016) is attempting to show a state parole board that she was manipulated by Manson and more likely to make bad choices at the mere age of 19 – after a recent change in California law that enables people who committed crimes when they were younger to seek a hearing later on in life
She was 19 when she stabbed to death Leno and Rosemary La Bianca in 1969 with fellow cult members
She was 19 when she stabbed to death Leno and Rosemary La Bianca in 1969 with fellow cult members.
She was sentenced to death for the murders, which was later downgraded to life in prison at the California Institution for Women.
Van Houten was the youngest member of a cult led by Manson in which disaffected young people living in a commune followed his orders and were ultimately turned into killers.
Last year, Van Houten, who launched her first parole attempt in 1979 and has applied for parole 20 times, recounted her part in the killing of the La Biancas.
Charles Manson followers, Susan Atkins (L), Patricia Krenwinkel (C) and Van Houten (R)
The former homecoming princess, who described herself as ‘a hippie’ at the time of the murders, told of how she looked off into the distance until another Manson follower told her to do something before she joined in the stabbing.
She went into graphic detail at a parole hearing last year about how she held down Rosemary La Bianca and secured a pillow with a lamp cord while another member of the Manson family stabbed her repeatedly.
Her husband, Leno, was also stabbed to death before carving the word ‘WAR’ in his stomach.
Charles Manson, 74, pictured here is serving a life sentence for conspiring to murder seven people during the Manson family killings in 1969
She said: ‘I don’t let myself off the hook. I don’t find parts in any of this that makes me feel the slightest bit good about myself.’
The La Biancas were killed a day after other so-called ‘Manson family’ members murdered actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, and four others.
Manson and other followers involved in the killings are still jailed.
Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles ‘Tex’ Watson have each been denied parole multiple times, while fellow defendant Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009.
Former Manson follower Bruce Davis was approved for parole but California Governor Jerry Brown blocked his release in 2014, citing the gravity of his offenses and his refusal to fully accept responsibility for his role in the murders of a stunt man and a musician.
Manson, pictured here in 1979, is escorted through a Los Angeles courthouse by sheriff’s deputies