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Susan Atkins is dead

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Susan Atkins, who committed one of modern history's most notorious crimes when she joined Charles Manson and his gang for a 1969 killing spree that terrorized Los Angeles and put her in prison for the rest of her life, has died. She was 61.

Atkins was diagnosed in 2008 with brain cancer, which caused paralysis and the loss of one leg. She was receiving medical treatment at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and entered hospice care in recent days. She died there at 11:46 p.m. Thursday of natural causes, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

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Convicted of eight murders, Atkins served more than 38 years of a life sentence at the California Institute for Women in Corona. She was the longest-serving prisoner among women currently held in the state's penitentiaries, Thornton said. . That distinction now falls to Patricia Krenwinkle, who was convicted along with Atkins for the Tate-LaBianca murders

Although prison staffers and clergy workers commended Atkins' behavior during her many years behind bars, she was repeatedly denied parole, with officials citing the cruel and callous nature of her crimes. In June 2008, she appealed to prison and parole officials for compassionate release, but the state parole board denied the request. On Sept. 2, she was wheeled into her last parole hearing on a hospital gurney but was turned down by a unanimous vote of the 12-member California Board of Parole.

Atkins confessed to killing actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, who was stabbed 16 times and hanged; Tate's nearly full-term fetus died with her. The next night, Atkins accompanied Manson and his followers when they broke into the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and killed them.

"She was the scariest of the Manson girls," said Stephen Kay, who helped prosecute the case and argued against Atkins' release at her parole hearings. "She was very violent."

Former chief prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, who sought and won death sentences for Atkins, Manson and other followers, said Atkins would be remembered "obviously as a member of a group that committed among the most horrendous crimes in American history. She apparently made every effort to rehabilitate herself."

He added: "It has to be said that she did pay substantially, though not completely, for her incredibly brutal crimes. And to her credit, she did renounce -- and, I believe, sincerely -- Charles Manson."

It was Atkins who broke open the case when she bragged of her participation in the slayings to cellmates at Sybil Brand Institute in East Los Angeles, where she was being held on other charges; two of her cellmates told authorities of her confession. Atkins subsequently appeared before a grand jury, providing information that led to her own indictment, as well as that of Manson and others. Later, in a lurid, 10-month trial, she provided crucial testimony that fed the public's fascination with Hollywood celebrities, drugs, sex and violence.

It also left an unshakable image of Atkins as a remorseless killer, who taunted the court at her sentencing with chilling words: "You'd best lock your doors," she said, "and watch your own kids."

In 1971, two separate juries found Manson, Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles "Tex" Watson guilty on seven counts of first-degree murder. Another Manson follower, Leslie Van Houten, was convicted of two murders.

All received the death sentence, later reduced to life terms after the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972. (The Legislature later reenacted the death penalty statute.) Manson, Krenwinkel, Watson and Van Houten remain in prison.

Atkins also pleaded guilty to the murder of musician Gary Alan Hinman, who was killed in a dispute over money shortly before the Tate-LaBianca murders. She received another life sentence for the Hinman killing.

In prison, Atkins embraced Christianity and apologized for her role in the crimes. Prison staff endorsed her release at a hearing in 2005, but she was denied parole for the 13th time.

Born Susan Denise Atkins in San Gabriel on May 7, 1948, she grew up in San Jose, the middle child of three. When she was 15, her mother died of cancer. Her father sold the family home and all their furnishings to pay the hospital bills. Atkins began failing school and her father became an alcoholic who frequently left Susan and her younger brother, Steven, to fend for themselves.

Her father eventually abandoned them for good. Susan and her brother moved to Los Banos, where their grandparents lived. Susan enrolled in high school and got a job as a waitress but was overwhelmed by the stress of trying to care for her brother, work and go to class. At one point, she and Steven were in foster care. Susan dropped out of school in the 11th grade and started drifting.

Years later, she would describe her frame of mind during this period as "extremely angry, extremely vulnerable and directionless."

Of all the Manson family killers, except for Manson, Atkins "had the most unfortunate background," Bugliosi said.

The petite, dark-haired teenager hitchhiked to Washington, then Oregon, where she accepted a ride in a stolen car and was arrested on charges of car theft and concealing stolen property. She was released on probation and moved to San Francisco, where she worked briefly as a topless dancer in a North Beach bar.

In 1967 in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco's haven for hippies and other wanderers, she met Manson, an aspiring songwriter with an affinity for hallucinogenic drugs and free sex. He called himself and his followers "Slippies," who posed as peace-loving hippies while planning a hair-raising assault on society.

According to Bugliosi in "Helter Skelter," his bestselling 1974 book on the case, Atkins was instantly drawn to Manson, who seduced girls by playing on their insecurities. She testified under questioning by Bugliosi that before she met Manson she had felt she was "lacking something," but then "I gave myself to him, and in return for that he gave me back to myself. He gave me the faith in myself to be able to know that I am a woman."

Manson also gave her a new name, partly to make a joke on the establishment he loathed but also to cut her off from her past. "Tell them your name is Sadie Glutz," he told Atkins. As in all other matters, she followed his command.

By August 1969, the family's base of operations was Spahn Ranch, a 500-acre property in the Santa Susana Mountains above Chatsworth where many old westerns were filmed. They took drugs, had group sex, stole credit cards and scrounged trash bins for food. They also practiced what Manson called "creepy crawling," which involved randomly picking a house somewhere in Los Angeles and entering it while the occupants were asleep. Bugliosi called these expeditions "dress rehearsals for murder."

On the night of Aug. 8, Manson instructed Atkins and other followers -- Krenwinkel, Watson and Linda Kasabian -- to don their dark clothes and pack knives. Manson stayed at the ranch while they drove through the Hollywood Hills, winding up at the Tate residence in Benedict Canyon.

Around midnight, the nightmare began.

The first to die was Steven Parent, 18, a friend of Tate's caretaker, who encountered the murderers as he was leaving the estate. The other victims were inside the main house: Tate, 26, best known for her role in the movie "Valley of the Dolls"; Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring, 35; Voytek Frykowski, 32, a friend of Polanski, who was out of the country; and Abigail Folger, 25, a coffee heiress and Frykowksi's girlfriend.

Atkins later admitted stabbing Frykowski and Tate. She said that before fleeing the scene, Watson ordered her to leave a message in the house that would "shock the world," so she used Tate's blood to write "PIG" on the front door.

At her parole board hearing in 1993, an official asked Atkins if Tate said anything to her in her last moments.

"She asked me to let the baby live," Atkins said tearfully. "I told her I didn't have mercy for her."

The night after the Tate killings, Manson led a group that included Atkins, Watson, Krenwinkel and Kasabian on another expedition. They wound up at the LaBianca home. Manson tied up Leno, 44, and Rosemary, 38, then left the killing to Watson, Krenwinkel and Van Houten. Afterward, they took a shower and made a snack in the LaBiancas' kitchen before departing. Atkins stayed in the car.

The '60s "abruptly ended on August 9, 1969," Joan Didion wrote of the shocking crimes that closed a decade pocked with assassinations, Vietnam War deaths and other violence. The Tate-LaBianca murders made some people fear "that they had somehow done it to themselves," Didion said, "that it had to do with too much sex, drugs and rock and roll."

Atkins married twice while in prison. In 1981 she married Donald Laisure, a self-proclaimed Texas millionaire who had been married 35 times before. The marriage ended when Laisure said he planned to take his 37th wife.

In 1987, she married James W. Whitehouse, an Orange County attorney who represented her at her last few parole hearings. He survives her along with a son she gave up when she went to prison.

elaine.woo@latimes.com

Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

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imPLANTed

imPLANTed

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I'm sorry for her family. They had no part in the hell on earth she created and they shouldn't have to suffer.

She can rot in the fiery pits of hell, though.

I feel sorry for her family from the standpoint that they are her family members period. If she made her peace with God, only she and God know that. But for the rest of us here on earth, yeah, you're going to rot in prison until the day you die.

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eternal light

eternal light

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She made some extremely bad choices.

We are no longer the ones to judge her, and her fate now rests in God. May He guide her soul on the path of repentance and purification and bless the repose of the souls of her departed victims. Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

"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."

google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVkQqa3XaBX2IdtMUs8190xxVKsgD9AU8JLG0

Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:23)

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" (Romans 5:12)

"If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:10)

Jesus said: "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:5)

"And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:" (Acts 17:30)

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9) "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:10)

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)

anglicanhistory.org/misc/guild_all_souls/davidson_pimlico1892.html

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=wh3fV-2rnA4

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Mona

Mona

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I feel complete apathy for her. I'm not happy she's dead, but I'm not sad either. I am sorry for those who loved her - even the most cold hearted criminals have people who love them, you know - but for her herself I feel nothing.

She claimed to have remorse for what she did while she was in prison. I wonder what she feels when she met Sharon Tate face-to-face again in whatever afterlife awaits her.

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eternal light

eternal light

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I feel complete apathy for her. I'm not happy she's dead, but I'm not sad either. I am sorry for those who loved her - even the most cold hearted criminals have people who love them, you know - but for her herself I feel nothing.

She claimed to have remorse for what she did while she was in prison. I wonder what she feels when she met Sharon Tate face-to-face again in whatever afterlife awaits her.

These are only my thoughts, but I would imagine that He will shield Sharon Tate from her this time.

Susan Atkins is more likely to meet someone more like herself during the afterlife as part of her atonement, someone who is more of a match for her.

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Mona

Mona

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These are only my thoughts, but I would imagine that He will shield Sharon Tate from her this time.

Susan Atkins is more likely to meet someone more like herself during the afterlife as part of her atonement, someone who is more of a match for her.

LOL, that's not quite what I meant.

I'm not going to start a theological debate, but let's just say you and I don't share the same faith. I don't believe in God, and even if I'm wrong, I wouldn't be afraid of what he would have in store for me if I murdered someone. If I murdered someone and I felt remorse for it - as Susan claims to have done - I would be much more worried about meeting the person I killed face to face again. Because that would be painful, that would be looking my sins in the face. I would have to look at that person and realize again that I took their life away, that I was responsible for their death. I'm sure that if there is an afterlife, she will have to see Sharon and the others at least once, for them to confront her, to hear her atonement and apologies, to get answers from her, maybe even to forgive her.

I don't know if I'm making any sense or not. Anyway, these are just my thoughts. I didn't mean that she would be going to the same afterlife as the victims, or that she would stake them out in the afterlife. That's...a little absurd, really. I just meant that if she meets them face to face, either to apologize or as part of her punishment.

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Mona

Mona

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I get the chills when I think about Sharon Tate. I always say a prayer when I am in the Los Feliz area for heavenly protection from demons. It is said that she may haunt the place where she died. I pray for her to find rest and protection in Christ the Redeemer.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=r-fIrmWDc0s

I saw that episode, and it was the first time that the anything on the show actually sent chills down my spine.

These past few months, I feel like I've been haunted by Sharon. Not like by her ghost or anything, but emotionally. I know it sounds stupid and cheesy, but I don't know how else to explain it. I've always known a little about the Manson murders, but around the 40th anniversary I really started getting interested in it. At some point, I was just struck by how incredibly unfair and senseless it was. I feel for all of the victims, but for Sharon especially. I'm not really sure why, there's just something about her that, once you realize how truly horrendous the crime was, sticks with you.

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59LesPaul

59LesPaul

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At her parole board hearing in 1993, an official asked Atkins if Tate said anything to her in her last moments.

"She asked me to let the baby live," Atkins said tearfully. "I told her I didn't have mercy for her."

So,I don't have any for her.....absolutely none.I don't care how fucked up her childhood was......wah....

The '60s "abruptly ended on August 9, 1969," Joan Didion wrote of the shocking crimes that closed a decade pocked with assassinations, Vietnam War deaths and other violence. The Tate-LaBianca murders made some people fear "that they had somehow done it to themselves," Didion said, "that it had to do with too much sex, drugs and rock and roll."

I thought that was December 6.1969....:rolleyes:

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eternal light

eternal light

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^It's in the hands of someone greater than me now, thankfully.

I saw that episode, and it was the first time that the anything on the show actually sent chills down my spine.

These past few months, I feel like I've been haunted by Sharon. Not like by her ghost or anything, but emotionally. I know it sounds stupid and cheesy, but I don't know how else to explain it. I've always known a little about the Manson murders, but around the 40th anniversary I really started getting interested in it. At some point, I was just struck by how incredibly unfair and senseless it was. I feel for all of the victims, but for Sharon especially. I'm not really sure why, there's just something about her that, once you realize how truly horrendous the crime was, sticks with you.

It was an event where something very bad happened to someone very good.

Sharon Tate was a lovely person and never deserved anything like that kind of treatment. It was completely unjustified and a real loss.

For me it reinforces the understanding that I should be more concerned about what destroys the soul, because the body can so easily perish.

It is as if an angel came under the prey of demons, as if she had met a demonic force face-to-face, the Destroyer incarnate perhaps. As messed-up as she was, I question whether that was the kind of act that Susan Atkins would typically commit. It was as if a terrible beast had commandeered her, the acts that she committed were so extreme and unusually violent. She could have chosen not do those things and resisted the temptation, but she gave in to the Dark Lord, in my perspective.

Many people have used drugs and not murdered, so that does not explain why it happened, even if there was some diminished capacity.

If the recordings are authentic, they sound as if Sharon Tate may still be terrified. Although I respect our different outlooks, that is why I ask Christ to protect her from any further harm. It is my own firm belief that He has the power to save her if her soul remains in peril from any demonic entity that may continue to pursue her into the afterlife.

It seems that her soul may be tormented even after the fact, unless it is only her residual memory causing phenomena, that is of course if the phenomena is real and not a hoax.

It is an odd coincidence that she was said to be involved with a film about vampire killers.

May she find healing and rest in peace.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=gb-RKl0zwyA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SidDWfESBPQ&feature=player_embedded

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Mona

Mona

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^It's in the hands of someone greater than me now, thankfully.

It was an event where something very bad happened to someone very good.

Sharon Tate was a lovely person and never deserved anything like that kind of treatment. It was completely unjustified and a real loss.

No, she didn't. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment, least of all someone like her.

For me it reinforces the understanding that I should be more concerned about what destroys the soul, because the body can so easily perish.

It is as if an angel came under the prey of demons, as if she had met a demonic force face-to-face, the Destroyer incarnate perhaps. As messed-up as she was, I question whether that was the kind of act that Susan Atkins would typically commit. It was as if a terrible beast had commandeered her, the acts that she committed were so extreme and unusually violent. She could have chosen not do those things and resisted the temptation, but she gave in to the Dark Lord, in my perspective.

Many people have used drugs and not murdered, so that does not explain why it happened, even if there was some diminished capacity.

I think that part of it was brainwashing/drugs/whatever, but I think there was also a part of Susan Atkins and the others that was willing to commit that brutal sort of crime from the start.

If the recordings are authentic, they sound as if Sharon Tate may still be terrified. Although I respect our different outlooks, that is why I ask Christ to protect her from any further harm. It is my own firm belief that He has the power to save her if her soul remains in peril from any demonic entity that may continue to pursue her into the afterlife.

It seems that her soul may be tormented even after the fact, unless it is only her residual memory causing phenomena, that is of course if the phenomena is real and not a hoax.

It is an odd coincidence that she was said to be involved with a film about vampire killers.

May she find healing and rest in peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb-RKl0zwyA

I hope that it is residual. I tend to be skeptical of "intelligent" hauntings, but I believe they do happen at times. However, residual hauntings make a lot of sense, and I hope that's the case in this one.

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redrum

redrum

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Fromme did not actually kill anyone, so that is probably one reason why they released her.

I think it sends a message that any whack job can go after the president.

Same with the Lockerbie bomber. When he was getting a hug from Gaddafi I was hoping a smart bomb would have landed on both of them. <_<

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eternal light

eternal light

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She went after the President. That should earn a life-sentence, even if you don't succeed.

By MARK MOONEY, RUSSELL GOLDMAN and LAURA COVERSON

Aug. 14, 2009

In this case they allowed her release on parole. She received a life term, so they could pull her back into prison if she violates the terms of her parole. Hopefully she will adjust to life outside of prison and won't do anything too stupid. It's a big change for her. She'll probably experience culture shock.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, the would-be assasin who took aim at President Gerald Ford 34 years ago and the chief disciple of serial killer Charles Manson, was released from a federal prison in Texas this morning, said a prison spokeswoman.

Fromme, 60, had previously completed her sentence for the assassination attempt in July 2008, but was ordered to serve additional time for a 1987 prison escape.

"Lynette Fromme was released about 8 a.m. today," prison spokeswoman Maria Douglas told ABCNews.com. She had finished her term at from the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.

Douglas said that Manson's former right-hand acolyte will be supervised by the U.S. Parole Commission.

When asked whether Fromme had remained in contact with Manson, she said, ""We can't release that information, but it may be a parole stipulation" that she not contact him.

Tom Hutchinson, spokesman for the U.S.Parole Commission, declined t reveal Fromme's whereabouts but said she will have to check in with her supervising officer within 72 hours and after that at least monthly, and sometimes more often.

He said that Fromme will be on parole for the duration of her sentence, which in her case is for the rest of her life.

Fromme took aim at Ford with a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol Sept. 5, 1975. There were four bullets in the gun's magazine, but none in the chamber and an alert Secret Service agent grabbed the gun from Fromme.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/MansonMurders/story?id=8327414&page=1

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Mona

Mona

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By MARK MOONEY, RUSSELL GOLDMAN and LAURA COVERSON

Aug. 14, 2009

In this case they allowed her release on parole. She received a life term, so they could pull her back into prison if she violates the terms of her parole. Hopefully she will adjust to life outside of prison and won't do anything too stupid. It's a big change for her. She'll probably experience culture shock.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/MansonMurders/story?id=8327414&page=1

Alright, thanks. I really don't trust her, so hopefully they'll keep a close eye on her.

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eternal light

eternal light

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Technically speaking,neither did Manson.

She was never charged in the Tate-La Bianca murders.

Her conviction was for pointing an apparently unloaded gun at then President Ford.

In her case the intent to kill was an issue. She reportedly was trying to get attention over issues that involved current events, and chose a bizarre means of accomplishing that end.

Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor in the Tate-La Bianca murder case, no doubt would have charged Lynette Fromme if he had believed that she should have been charged. I often wonder what he thinks about her today.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was reportedly arrested in a case of attempted murder of witness Barbara Van Hoyt, and drew a 90 day sentence.

She probably would not have killed Barbara Van Hoyt by what she did, though, which apparently was to lace Barbara's hamburger with LSD. This was more of an assault by poison case, still criminal, but not necessarily fatal.

Fromme reportedly confessed to the killing of Ronald Hughes, but was then released after she was arrested, perhaps because the prosecutor did not believe the confession.

Squeaky is Arrested Numerous Times:

The authorities did not like Squeaky or any of the Manson family for that matter. Squeaky and others she directed were placed under arrest numerous times, often because of their actions during the Tate-LaBianca trial.

Fromme was arrested on charges including contempt of court, trespassing, loitering, attempted murder, and lacing a hamburger given to ex-family member Barbara Hoyt with an overdose of LSD.

The Ever Devout Squeaky:

In March of 1971, Manson and his co-defendants were sentenced to death, later changed to a life sentence.

Squeaky moved to San Francisco when Manson was transferred to San Quentin, but prison officials never allowed her to visit him. When Manson was moved to Folsom Prison, Squeaky followed and lived in a home in Stockton, CA with Nancy Pitman, two ex-cons, and James and Lauren Willett.

Prosecutor Bugliosi believed the Willetts were responsible for the death of defense lawyer, Ronald Hughes.

International People's Court of Retribution:

On Nov. 1972, James and Lauren Willett were found dead and Squeaky and four others were arrested for the murders. After the four confessed to the crime, Squeaky was released and she moved to Sacramento.

crime.about.com/od/murder/p/squeaky.htm

books.google.com

bookrags.com/biography/squeaky-fromme-cri/

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