Патриция Кренвинкель: Член «Семьи» Мэнсона и самая долгосрочная заключенная Калифорнии

American mass murderer (born 1947)

Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel (born December 3, 1947) is an American convicted murderer and former member of the Manson Family. During her time with Manson's group, she was known by various aliases such as Big Patty, Yellow, Marnie Reeves and Mary Ann Scott, but to The Family, she was most commonly known as Katie. Following the 2009 death of fellow Manson cult member Susan Atkins, Krenwinkel is now the longest incarcerated female inmate in the California penal system.

Patricia Krenwinkel was born on December 3, 1947, 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. Patricia was often bullied at school by other students, suffered from low self esteem, and was frequently teased for being overweight and for an excessive growth of body hair caused by an endocrine condition. After her parents divorced, seventeen year old Krenwinkel remained in Los Angeles with her father until she graduated from Westchester High School. For a time, she taught catechism (Roman Catholic religious instruction) and considered becoming a nun. She decided to attend the Jesuit college Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. Within one semester, however, she dropped out and moved back to California. Moving into her half sister's apartment in Manhattan Beach, she found an office job as a processing clerk.

She met Charles Manson in Manhattan Beach in 1967, along with Lynette Fromme and Mary Brunner. In later interviews, Krenwinkel stated that she had sex with Manson the first night they met, and that he was the first person who told her she was beautiful. Mesmerized by Manson's charisma and starved for attention, she decided to go to San Francisco with him and the other two girls, leaving behind her apartment, car, and last paycheck. As the Manson Family grew, Katie (as Krenwinkel was now known) and the others went on a drug and sex filled 18 month tour of the American west in an old school bus. She 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, Krenwinkel and fellow Family member Ella Bailey were hitchhiking around Los Angeles when Beach Boys founding member and drummer Dennis Wilson picked them up. After being invited to his home while he continued on to a recording session, Krenwinkel and Bailey were able to contact the Family and tell them of their new "crash pad". When Wilson returned later that evening, he found Manson and the rest of the Family eating his food, sleeping in his bedrooms, and partying inside and outside his home. The group ended up staying for several months. After causing Wilson's financial problems, Manson and the rest of the Family left his mansion.

Krenwinkel was a participant in the murders on August 9, 1969, at 10050 Cielo Drive, home of actress Sharon Tate and four others. After stabbing Abigail Folger, Krenwinkel went back inside and summoned Tex Watson, who also stabbed Folger. During her trial, Krenwinkel said, "I stabbed her and I kept stabbing her." When asked how it felt, Krenwinkel replied: "Nothing, I mean, what is there to describe? It was just there, and it was right." Along with Manson, Watson, Atkins, Clem Grogan, Leslie Van Houten, and Linda Kasabian, she went to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca where she, Watson, and Van Houten murdered the couple.

While the Los Angeles police were busy investigating any leads they could find, back at Spahn Ranch, rumors of the involvement of Krenwinkel and the others in the 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, Krenwinkel, Manson and other Family members 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 raid on August 16, Manson decided to move his "Family" to another ranch, this time near Death Valley. Barker Ranch now became home for the Family, including Krenwinkel. During their stay from August through October, the group spent its time converting cars it had stolen into dune buggies, but law enforcement eventually caught up with Manson and his followers. On October 10, 1969, the group was once again arrested. This time, Krenwinkel's father bailed her out of jail, but she immediately returned to Barker Ranch. Upon her return, Manson (who was not present in the October 10 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 Manson's subsequent arrest on October 12 at Barker Ranch. Meanwhile, still in jail, Susan Atkins began to tell all about their involvement in the Tate LaBianca murders to cellmates Virginia Graham and Veronica "Ronnie" Howard. Because of Atkins' 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 of conspiracy to commit murder. After her 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. Watson was tried separately at a later date after unsuccessfully fighting extradition from his home state of Texas.

Krenwinkel's trial attorney, Paul Fitzgerald, suggested that although her 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 and a death sentence, Krenwinkel reportedly spent much of the trial drawing doodles of devils and other Satanic figures. All during the trial, she remained loyal to Manson and the Family. Demonstration of this unity included walking hand in hand with Atkins and Van Houten, singing songs written by Manson, as well as shaving their heads and carving an "X" on their foreheads, just as Manson was doing. At the end of the nine month trial, Krenwinkel was convicted of all counts and sentenced to death on March 29, 1971. She and the other two women were transferred from Los Angeles to the California Institution for Women (CIW) near Corona, California.

Patricia Krenwinkel was portrayed by actress Christina Hart in the made for TV film Helter Skelter (1976), and in the film's 2004 remake by actress Allison Smith. She was also portrayed by Leslie Orr in the film The Manson Family (2003), by Kaniehtiio Horn in Leslie, My Name Is Evil (2009), by Vanessa Zima in Manson Girls (2013) and Serena Lorien in House of Manson (2014). Olivia Klaus made a documentary short film on Krenwinkel, Life After Manson. The film was shown at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and included her first interview in 20 years. On television, Madisen Beaty portrayed Krenwinkel in the 2015–16 series Aquarius, while Leslie Grossman portrayed her in the 2017 season of American Horror Story: Cult. Krenwinkel was portrayed by Sosie Bacon in Mary Harron's Charlie Says (2018) and played once again by Beaty (listed in the credits as "Katie") in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).