Charles Manson follower dies in prison

[Wino]

By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch, Ap Special Correspondent

LOS ANGELES – Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson whose remorseless witness stand confession to killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 shocked the world, has died. She was 61 and had been suffering from brain cancer.

Atkins' death comes less than a month after a parole board turned down the terminally ill woman's last chance at freedom on Sept. 2. She was brought to the hearing on a gurney and slept through most of it.

California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said that Atkins died late Thursday night. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008, had a leg amputated and was given only a few months to live.

She underwent brain surgery, and in her last months was paralyzed and had difficulty speaking. But she managed to speak briefly at the Sept. 2 hearing, reciting religious verse with the help of her husband, attorney James Whitehouse.

She had been transferred to a skilled nursing facility at the California Central Women's Facility at Chowchilla exactly one year before she died.

Tate, the 26-year-old actress who appeared in the movie "Valley of the Dolls" and was the wife of famed director Roman Polanski, was one of seven murdered in two Los Angeles homes during the Manson cult's bloody rampage in August 1969.

Atkins was the first of the convicted killers to die. Manson and three others involved in the murders — Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles "Tex" Watson — remain imprisoned under life sentences. Thornton said that at the time of Atkins death she had been in prison longer than any woman currently incarcerated in California.

Atkins, who confessed from the witness stand during her trial, had apologized for her acts numerous times over the years. But 40 years after the murders, she learned that few had forgotten or forgiven what she and other members of the cult had done.

Debra Tate, the slain actress's younger sister, told the parole commissioners Sept. 2 that she "will pray for (Atkins') soul when she draws her last breath, but until then I think she should remain in this controlled situation." Debra Tate noted that she would have a 40-year-old nephew if her sister had lived.

Atkins' prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, had spoken out earlier in favor of release, saying the mercy requested was "minuscule" because Atkins was on her deathbed.

Atkins and her co-defendants were originally sentenced to death but their sentences were reduced to life in prison when capital punishment was briefly outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s.

During the sensational 10-month trial, Atkins, Manson and co-defendants Krenwinkel and Van Houten maintained their innocence. But once they were convicted, the so-called "Manson girls" confessed in graphic detail.

They tried to absolve Manson, the ex-convict who had gathered a "family" of dropouts and runaways to a ranch outside Los Angeles, where he cast himself as the Messiah and led them in an aberrant lifestyle fueled by drugs and communal sex.

Watson had a separate trial and was convicted.

One night in August 1969, Manson dispatched Atkins and others to a wealthy residential section of Los Angeles, telling them, as they recalled, to "do something witchy."

They went to the home of Tate and her husband. He was not home, but Tate, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and four others were killed. "Pigs" was scrawled on a door in blood.

The next night, a wealthy grocer and his wife were found stabbed to death in their home across town. "Helter Skelter" was written in blood on the refrigerator.

"I was stoned, man, stoned on acid," Atkins testified during the trial's penalty phase.

"I don't know how many times I stabbed (Tate) and I don't know why I stabbed her," she said. "She kept begging and pleading and begging and pleading and I got sick of listening to it, so I stabbed her."

She said she felt "no guilt for what I've done. It was right then and I still believe it was right." Asked how it could be right to kill, she replied in a dreamy voice, "How can it not be right when it's done with love?"

The matronly, gray-haired Atkins who appeared before a parole board in 2000 cut a far different figure than that of the cocky young defendant some 30 years earlier.

"I don't have to just make amends to the victims and families," she said softly. "I have to make amends to society. I sinned against God and everything this country stands for." She said she had found redemption in Christianity.

The last words she spoke in public at the September hearing were to say in unison with her husband: "My God is an amazing God."

She spent 37 years in the California Institution for Women at Frontera. When she fell ill, she was moved to a medical unit at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. She died there.

Susan Denise Atkins was born May 7, 1948, in the Los Angeles suburb of San Gabriel. Her mother was stricken with cancer and died when she was 15. Her father, reportedly an alcoholic, sent her and her brother to live with relatives.

While still in her teens, she ran away to San Francisco where she wound up dancing in a topless bar and using drugs. She moved into a commune in the Haight Ashbury district and it was there that she met Manson.

He gave her a cult name, Sadie Mae Glutz, and, when she became pregnant by a "family" member, he helped deliver the baby boy, naming it Zezozoze Zadfrack. His whereabouts are unknown.

The Manson slayings remained unsolved for three months, until Atkins confessed to a cellmate following her arrest on an unrelated charge. Police found Manson and other cult members living in a ranch commune in Death Valley, outside Los Angeles.

Besides Tate, their other victims were celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, filmmaker Voityck Frykowski and Steven Parent, a friend of Tate's caretaker; and grocery owners Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Atkins also was convicted with Manson of still another murder, of musician Gary Hinman, in July 1969.

Atkins married twice while in prison. Her first husband, Donald Lee Laisure, purported to be an eccentric Texas millionaire. They quickly divorced. Whitehouse, her second husband, is a Harvard Law School graduate and had recently served as one of her attorneys.

[eleothegreat]

And she was able to get married twice when she was in prison?

[Wino]

And she was able to get married twice when she was in prison?

That is the state of California. Take away the fruits and nuts, all you have are flakes.

[Thaimo]

And she was able to get married twice when she was in prison?

Imagine the nut cases that would even want to marry her. And one of them is a lawyer! How would you like to be his client?

I normally would not wish death on anyone, but with Susan Atkins I am glad she's gone. I have no sympathy for her. She suffered through 40 years in prison and died a terrible death and went through the disappointment of parole refusals. Good! Now if there really is a Hell, that's where I hope she is.

[WannaGo]

Squeaky Fromme, another Manson follower who was not part of the Tate-LaBianca murders, also was recently released on parole from federal prison. She served almost 35 years for pointing a loaded gun at President Gerald Ford. Or at least, the gun was sort of loaded...bullets in the magazine, but not the chamber. She is 60 years old now, and when she was released, she was being held at a federal prison for sick inmates in Texas, so it wouldn't surprise me if she's ill and dies soon, too.

[eleothegreat]

Imagine the nut cases that would even want to marry her. And one of them is a lawyer! How would you like to be his client?

I can't imagine anyone wanting to marry her - and her lawyer too. Maybe it's the love potion hahaha.

Squeaky Fromme, another Manson follower who was not part of the Tate-LaBianca murders, also was recently released on parole from federal prison. She served almost 35 years for pointing a loaded gun at President Gerald Ford. Or at least, the gun was sort of loaded...bullets in the magazine, but not the chamber. She is 60 years old now, and when she was released, she was being held at a federal prison for sick inmates in Texas, so it wouldn't surprise me if she's ill and dies soon, too.

I'm not one to wish harm on anyone, but I am not in any way saddened by her painful death. Good luck to her soul.

---

By the way, I watched the Helter Skelter movie when I was a kid. Gave me bad dreams.

[lvdkeyes]

I was reading Helter Skelter, but couldn't finish it. It was too real and gruesome for me.

[Thaimo]

If you are interested you can find commentaries on YouTube by Vincent Bugliosi, who was the prosecutor in the Manson case.

If I recall, there were two Helter Skelter films. I have the older one starring Steve Railsback as Charles Manson on DVD. The acting is incredible. The actors were totally believable. The actress who played Susan Atkins was terrific at bringing out the frightening aspects of Susan Atkins. Steve Railsback, of course, was more like Charles Manson than Charles Manson was, with those maniacal eyes and his voice.

[eleothegreat]

I don't know what version I saw. That was on HBO. I just remembered some scenes in their hippie-village and then the murders using those big machetes and knifes and blood on the wall. Then I turned off the television.

Cults still scare me.

[smoker]

I once had a lover who would regularly write dirty letters to Manson and Bundy.

[Beer Chang]

Did Charley M write back?

[Wino]

Susan Atkins was able to get married twice when she was in prison? What's wrong with Charlie? He is probably to fond of his cellmate, Bubba.

[WannaGo]

I once had a lover who would regularly write dirty letters to Manson and Bundy.

Now there's a story I would like to hear more about. And how nervous did that make you? Ever afraid you might go to sleep and wake up with some body part severed?

Years ago, right after I got out of the service, one of my first jobs was working for a security company on the Florida State University campus. A couple of times a week, I was assigned to the Chi Omega house, where Bundy had killed two sorority sisters about 15 years earlier.

Bundy had gotten into the house through a back door the sorority girls frequently left unlocked. One of my duties was to check that back door...and wouldn't you know, girls were still leaving the damn thing open?

I don't think I ever would have lived in that house if I was a co-ed...but if I did, I'd definitely be paranoid about keeping it locked.