Leslie Van Houten, a former follower of notorious cult leader Charles Manson, has been released on parole after serving more than five decades of a life sentence for two brutal murders.
Van Houten, 73, was a 19-year old member of the "Manson family" when she took part in the murder of a Los Angeles grocer and his wife in 1969.
Five previous bids for her parole were blocked by California's governors.
That decision was later reversed by a state appeals court.
Van Houten was the youngest Manson follower to be convicted of murder for her role in the death of a California grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said that Van Houten “was released to parole supervision”.
Her lawyer, Nancy Tetreault, said that she left the California Institution for Women in Corona, east of Los Angeles, in the early morning hours and was driven to transitional housing.
Ms Tetreault said: “She is still trying to get used to the idea that this real.”
Lawyer Nancy Tetreault said her client left the women's prison in Corona, east of Los Angeles, in the early hours of Tuesday morning and taken to transitional housing, where is she expected to spend the next year.
While there, she will learn basic skills such as going to the grocery store, getting a bank card, using the internet and buying items without cash.
Van Houten was first sentenced to death for her crimes but her sentence was reduced to life in prison after capital punishment was outlawed in California in 1972.
Several relatives of the Manson victims spoke out against Van Houten's release.
'My family and I are heartbroken because we're once again reminded of all the years that we have not had my father and my stepmother with us,' Cory LaBianca, Leno LaBianca's daughter, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday.
'My children and my grandchildren never got an opportunity to get to know either of them, which has been a huge void for my family.'
Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in their Los Angeles home on Aug. 10, 1969. The words "Death to Pigs" and "Healter Skelter" - a misspelled reference to a Beatles song - were found scrawled in the victims' blood on the walls and refrigerator.
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