Board recommends release of youngest member of murderous Manson cult

The California Board of Parole Hearings recommended on Wednesday that Leslie Van Houten, the youngest of Charles Manson's murderous "family" of followers, be released early from the life prison term she is serving for her role in the cult's 1969 killing spree.

The ultimate decision on whether to grant parole to Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the slayings and is now 69, rests with Governor Gavin Newsom, whose predecessor and fellow Democrat, Jerry Brown, twice denied the board's recommendation that she be set free.