A woman who did the deadly bidding of one of the nation's best known sociopath-killers, Charles Manson, was denied parole Friday by a California prison board unswayed by her nearly three-decade designation as a model prisoner.

Leslie Van Houten, 52, appeared sullen but otherwise showed no emotion when a two-member parole panel decided at the end of a three-hour hearing that Van Houten has not served long enough for her role in the 1969 stabbing deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Cult leader Charles Manson is escorted by police.

The board found that the murders were committed in a "cruel and calculated" way and that Van Houten's expression of remorse during the hearing appeared to be "superficial" and insincere.

Although the board members gave Van Houten credit for having a spotless disciplinary record and for participating in self-help groups, members agreed that her progress in prison did not outweigh the seriousness of her crime.

The sensational killings came one day after other Manson followers killed actress Sharon Tate, her unborn child and four other people as part of Manson's twisted plot to ignite the race war that he deemed inevitable.

"I believed that he was Jesus Christ and that it was his view and belief that [a race war] would happen," said Van Houten, dressed in a white prison T-shirt and sweatpants for her 14th parole hearing since becoming eligible in 1978. "Part of his thing was not to have individual thinking and don't ask questions. I bought into it lock, stock and barrel."

Van Houten, a former high school homecoming princess, was sentenced to death in 1971 for her role in the LaBianca killings but the sentence was commuted to life in prison when capital punishment was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1972. Even if the parole board had granted her petition, California Gov. Gray Davis would have used his executive authority to block her release from the California Prison for Women in Frontera.

Angela and Louis Smaldino, relatives of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, killed in the Manson-inspired slayings in 1969, spoke against parole at Friday's hearing.

Parole board member Sharon Lawin started the hearing by having Van Houten once again admit to taking part in the grisly killings of the LaBiancas, who were getting ready for bed when Manson appeared in their living room holding a gun. Manson tied the couple up and left the house before ordering Van Houten, Charles "Tex" Watson and Patricia Krenwinkle to kill the couple.

As Watson savagely attacked Leno LaBianca, a Los Angeles grocer, in the living room, while Van Houten grabbed a pillowcase and pulled it over Rosemary LaBianca's head. She then tried to wrap a lamp cord around the pillowcase, but Rosemary LaBianca fought back. Unable to hold the victim down, Van Houten summoned Watson.

Rosemary LaBianca was then stabbed a total of 42 times. Van Houten told the parole board once again that she believes that she stabbed LaBianca 14 to 16 times in the lower back.

Christie Webb, lawyer for Leslie Van Houten, argues on behalf of her client.

After the killings, Van Houten wiped the house clean of fingerprints and changed into one of Rosemary LaBianca's pairs of shorts. She grabbed cheese and chocolate milk from the couple's refrigerator before the trio hitchhiked back to the ranch where the Manson family lived.

"I am deeply ashamed of it. Living with the acts of that night is difficult," Van Houten said during the hearing, which was televised by Court TV. "I take seriously not just the murders in the house but what ... made someone like myself available to someone like Manson."

Manson and five other members of his cult-like family are also imprisoned in California, but Van Houten is regarded as the most-likely of the former Manson followers involved in the two-day killing spree to ever step foot outside prison as a free person. She earned two college degrees in prison, has no diagnosed psychiatric problems and thrived in every program made available to her.

Van Houten had job offers from a fabric store and film company and an open invitation to live with a friend in Los Angeles had she been released.

"I am very proud of who I have turned myself into," said Van Houten, adding that she hoped to "live quietly" outside prison if she is ever released.

Kay, who won a conviction at Van Houten's retrial in 1978, told the board that society was fortunate that Van Houten and Manson never got away with their planned race war. He said the LaBianca killings, and the five the night before that Van Houten had no direct role in, were supposed to be just the start.

One of the original prosecutors, Stephen Kay, listens at the parole hearing Friday.

"Can you ever really have confidence that someone who believed in that motive enough that she would go out and participate in the murders of two innocent strangers, in the supposed sanctity of their own home, would ever not represent an unreasonable risk of harm to society?" Kay said. "This was not a rash and unintended act on the part of Leslie Van Houten. She knew what was going on."

Echoing statements read by relatives of the LaBiancas, Kay said Van Houten should feel fortunate she was not put to death as a jury ordered in 1971.

"She got her life when the California Supreme Court overturned the death penalty," Kay said. "She got her life. That's something the LaBianca's never will have a chance for. I think she should be happy with that and I think she should be denied parole."

Angela Smaldino, a niece of Rosemary LaBianca, and Louis Smaldino, a nephew of Leno LaBianca, both spoke against parole. The parole board noted that it received 30 letters of opposition.

Van Houten's lawyer, Christie Webb, reminded the board that the law mandates that inmates denied parole be told what issues they need to address in order to be successsful at future hearings. A state judge recently ordered the parole board to hold a new hearing, which has not yet been scheduled, to address his concern about the lack of evidence that the release of Van Houten would pose a danger to the commmunity.

Words scrawled at a Manson crime scene.

For her part, Van Houten said that is remorseful about the murders but could never fully compensate society or the LaBianca family for what she did during a period of life when she was under Manson's spell.

"Each day I wake up, I know why I'm waking up where I am," she said of her time in prison. "The hardest part about my contribution to the murders is I know there's no restitution, there's no making it right."