Father Recalls Odd Behavior Of Girl Suspect In Tate Crime
Took Up With Strange Man
December 2, 1969
By David Larson
Times Staff Writer
Joseph Krenwinkel remembers September 12, 1967 very well.
That was the day Patricia Krenwinkel, until then a stable and conservative
girl, abandoned her car in a Manhattan Beach parking lot, quit her job without
picking up a paycheck and abruptly left town with an individual named Charles
Manson.
Both are now in custody, involved with others in the Sharon Tate and LaBianca
murder cases.
"I am convinced he was some kind of hypnotist," the girl’s father said of
Manson. "It was all so spontaneous."
Krenwinkel took time from his duties as an insurance agent in Inglewood to
reflect on the events of the last three years, which culminated with the arrest
of his 21-year-old daughter Monday in Mobile, Alabama.
Miss Krenwinkel, an attractive brunette, was graduated from University High
School, where she was an average student. Shortly afterward, she left with her
mother to live in Alabama. The Krenwinkels are divorced.
The girl attended a semester at a Jesuit College, and then returned to
California in 1967. She moved into a Manhattan Beach apartment with her
half-sister.
During the summer in the beach community she met Manson. One day she left her
job as a file clerk, got into a Volkswagen bus with Manson and some others, and
vanished.
Krenwinkel met with the half-sister that night. Until then, he had known
nothing of the man Miss Krenwinkel had been seeing.
"I soon learned he wasn't the most savory character in the world," the father
recalled.
Two weeks later he received a letter from her, postmarked Seattle. "I am
going to find myself," she wrote.
A few weeks after that, Krenwinkel got a phone call from his former wife.
Patricia had called and wanted $100. The mother gave Krenwinkel their daughter's
address in Sacramento.
Through the address, the father obtained a phone number. When he finally
talked with his daughter, he told her he would send a ticket to get back to
Alabama.
"She said no, she wanted the money," he recalled. "I said I wouldn't send
any."
Daughter Jailed
That October day in 1967 was the last time Krenwinkel spoke with his daughter
until about six weeks ago. This time it was a face-to-face chat - in the jail in
Lancaster.
"The sheriff called me and said they were holding her on suspicion of
murder," the father said "I left for Lancaster right away."
Krenwinkel apparently was not briefed very thoroughly on the nature of the
crime for which his daughter was being questioned. Indications are it had
something to do with the stabbing death of a man who had befriended some
hippies.
At any rate, Sheriff's deputies chose not to keep the prisoner in custody.
They released her to her father.
"During our drive back to Inglewood, I was concerned," he said. "Her reaction
was so unemotional. I don't think we spoke 20 words by the time we had hit the
San Diego Freeway."
They stopped to eat and the young woman started talking a little more.
Nothing significant, the father said, but just enough for the gesture so that it
appeared that all was well again.
The two of them went home. In the days that followed, she spent part of the
time in the house, some of the time visiting friends.
'No Preaching'
The father refrained from asking questions. "I'm not the kind to use the
third-degree," he said. "I didn't want to preach, 'you did wrong.' I didn't
think I could win her back that way. "
A week had past. The father got a phone call at his office. "I'd like to go
home and see mother," his daughter said. He bought her a plane ticket and she
left for Alabama.
When the phone rang Monday, it was Krenwinkel's former wife. She said the
authorities had come and taken their daughter away. She is charged with five
counts of murder.
