Manson follower Susan Atkins denied parole

[Willow]

There is a picture of her on the website. You might have to have Comcast to be able to see it. I know she's been sick but I can't believe how puffy she looks. She has always been so thin. I wonder if it's the medication that did it.


http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20090903/US.Manson.Follower/


By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP
6 hours ago



CHOWCHILLA, Calif. — Susan Atkins, the terminally ill Charles Manson follower who admitted stabbing actress Sharon Tate 40 years ago, lost what was likely to be her last bid for freedom Wednesday.

Atkins, who suffers from brain cancer, slept through most of the four-hour hearing during which her husband-lawyer pleaded for her release and families of victims of the Sharon Tate-Labianca killings urged that she be kept behind bars until she dies.

In a dramatic moment — one of the few in which Atkins opened her eyes — Atkins' husband, James Whitehouse, led her through a recitation of the 23rd Psalm, with Atkins concluding in a strong voice, "My God is an amazing God."

Debra Tate, sister of the actress who was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was killed, told the parole commissioners that she would have a 40-year-old nephew if her sister had lived. She said of Atkins, "I will pray for her soul when she draws her last breath, but until then I think she should remain in this controlled situation."

Another of the speakers was Anthony DiMaria, a nephew of the slain Jay Sebring, who said that the trips to the parole hearing for his family members "send us back to hell year after year."

"I'm not here for Susan Atkins," he said. "I'm here for Jay Sebring. The only hatred I feel is for the crime."

DiMaria reacted angrily to a suggestion by Whitehouse that the commissioners should consider the cost to the state of housing Atkins at a time when she requires constant medical care. Whitehouse said it was costing $17,000 a month for her care.

"We are not here to balance the state budget," DiMaria said. "We are here because Susan Atkins sent nine people to their death."

Parole commissioner Tim O'Hara said that he and the other commissioner who presided over the hearing, Jan Enloe, based their decision heavily on the "atrocious nature" of the 1969 killings and said that Atkins never fully understood the magnitude of her crimes.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Pat Sequeira recounted the crimes in great detail and said: "As sad as Miss Atkins looks today, it pales against the crime scene photos. These were brutal horrible crimes."

Atkins, 61, had been expected to die of brain cancer over a year ago but continues to cling to life. She also had a leg amputated from cancer-related health issues.

She was denied compassionate release in July, 2008 after she was diagnosed and given only months to live. Wednesday's hearing at the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla was one of her required periodic parole hearings as a life prisoner. She was convicted of the seven Tate-LaBianca murders, one of the most notorious mass murders in California history.

The gruesome murders that made the Manson cult infamous were discovered on Aug. 9, 1969, when a maid ran screaming from the home shared by Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski.

Five people were killed in a ritualistic manner, including Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring. Two others were killed at another home. Polanski was not at home at the time of the slayings.

Atkins admitted stabbing Tate to death as Tate begged for her life and that of her unborn son. Atkins claimed she and other cult followers acted on orders from Manson and were on LSD.

It was Atkins who led police to arrest members of the Manson clan when she confessed to a cellmate after she had been arrested in a robbery.

At a hearing in 2000, Atkins acknowledged, "I sinned against God and everything this country stands for." She said she wanted to make amends for what she did.

Whitehouse, 46, has said his wife has made him a better person in their 21 years of marriage and should be released if for no other reason than to keep taxpayers from having to cover her hefty medical expenses.

Manson, Atkins and two other followers, Patricia Krenwinkle and Leslie Van Houten, were convicted and sentenced to death. The sentences were commuted to life when the death penalty was temporarily outlawed in the United States in the 1970s.

Although many life-term prisoners have come and gone from behind bars while Atkins has been incarcerated, none of the Manson killers has been paroled. Krenwinkle and Van Houten remain at the California Institution for Women at Frontera. They appear before parole boards every few years and ask for release. Manson, now 74, has stopped asking for parole.

O'Hara said Atkins would be not be eligible for parole for another three years.

(This version corrects parole commissioner's surname to O'Hara, not O'Hare.)

[galeane29]

Here is the thing I don't understand about people being granted a release because they are 'dying', the people they killed didn't get special treatment...they are DEAD! These people should spend their last dying breath paying their dues, in prison!

[hesnothere]

Although many life-term prisoners have come and gone from behind bars while Atkins has been incarcerated, none of the Manson killers has been paroled. Krenwinkle and Van Houten remain at the California Institution for Women at Frontera. They appear before parole boards every few years and ask for release. Manson, now 74, has stopped asking for parole.

Good.

[Willow]

I agree! I'm glad she has to remain there. She didn't care when Sharon was begging her to let her live and have her baby.

[krisharry]

There are some criminals who just should never be granted parole like Manson and his "family".

[hblueeyes]

Taxpayers pay her $17000 monthly medical expenses. Why?

Me

[pepperpot]

Taxpayers pay her $17000 monthly medical expenses. Why?

Me

She has 'rights'.....:rolleyes:

[littlebuggy]

If those aren't paid for all she, or her lawyer husband, has to do is call the aclu and they'll file a lawsuit.

[janelle]

How did she get a lawyer husband? More people than them are crazy. I doubt she knows where she is so why be so concerned about releasing her?

[MistyWolf]

She deserves to rot and die in prison just like she is doing. I have no sympathy for Susan Atkins or any other members of the family!

[ElleGee]

Former Manson cult member Atkins dies in U.S. prison

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Susan Atkins, one of the leading members of Charles Manson's notorious violent cult who carried out brutal murders at his behest in 1969, has died in a California prison, her husband said on Friday. She was 61.

Atkins, imprisoned since 1971 for her part in eight Manson-related murders, had been suffering from a brain tumor. Earlier this month, state corrections officials rejected her request to be freed so she would not have to die in prison.

"Susan passed away peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones and the incredible staff at the Skilled Nursing Facility at the Central California Women's Facility," her husband, James Whitehouse, said by e-mail.

"... Her last whispered word was 'Amen.' No one (on) the face of the Earth worked as hard as Susan did to right an unrightable wrong," Whitehouse said.

As part of Manson's following of hippies, runaways, criminals and misfits, Atkins once said he could see and hear everything she did. But during her time in prison she denounced Manson, and in 1974 became a Christian in a conversion inspired by correspondence with another former "Manson family" member.

At a 1993 parole hearing, Atkins described her time with Manson by saying, "It is almost impossible to understand insanity and that's what I was living with -- insanity."

Atkins was 21 years old when the career criminal Manson dispatched her and other followers to the Beverly Hills home of actress Sharon Tate and film director Roman Polanski on August 9, 1969, with orders to kill. Polanski was out of town but the heavily pregnant Tate and four friends were brutally stabbed, beaten and shot to death. Atkins later said she personally stabbed Tate after ignoring her pleas for mercy.

The next night Atkins and other cult members went to the home of grocery owner Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and killed them. Atkins did not actively participate in those slayings.

MACABRE TRIAL

The brutality and seemingly random nature of the murders terrorized much of Southern California and stunned the nation.

Atkins was convicted in 1970 with her guru and two other "Manson girls" -- Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel.

The trial took on a macabre air with graphic descriptions of bloody crime scenes, exploration of Manson's powerful grip on the women and their continued devotion to him. The women disrupted the proceedings with laughter, shaved their heads, carved X's on their foreheads and sang Manson-penned songs.

All four were given death sentences, which were commuted to life when a state court ruling invalidated the death penalty.

Atkins led a chaotic life before meeting Manson -- quitting high school, working as a stripper, using drugs and getting into trouble with the law at the dawn of the hippie era.

In 1967, she fell under Manson's spell when he visited her housemates in San Francisco. She became known within the cult by nicknames Manson gave her: Sadie Mae Glutz and Sexy Sadie.

Atkins' talkative nature implicated the Manson cult. She was being held as a suspect in another slaying and bragged about the Tate-LaBianca case to jailhouse acquaintances, even claiming she had tasted Tate's blood. Continued...

http://www.reuters.com/article/peopleNews/idUSTRE58O2NA20090925
=========================

Good riddance

[krisharry]

Buh bye!

[Jolie Rouge]

Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins dies
Linda Deutsch, Ap Special Correspondent
Fri Sep 25, 8:26 am ET

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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090925/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_manson_follower

[mabby89]

Former Manson cult member Atkins dies in U.S. prison

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Susan Atkins, one of the leading members of Charles Manson's notorious violent cult who carried out brutal murders at his behest in 1969, has died in a California prison, her husband said on Friday. She was 61.

Atkins, imprisoned since 1971 for her part in eight Manson-related murders, had been suffering from a brain tumor. Earlier this month, state corrections officials rejected her request to be freed so she would not have to die in prison.

"Susan passed away peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones and the incredible staff at the Skilled Nursing Facility at the Central California Women's Facility," her husband, James Whitehouse, said by e-mail.

"... Her last whispered word was 'Amen.' No one (on) the face of the Earth worked as hard as Susan did to right an unrightable wrong," Whitehouse said.

As part of Manson's following of hippies, runaways, criminals and misfits, Atkins once said he could see and hear everything she did. But during her time in prison she denounced Manson, and in 1974 became a Christian in a conversion inspired by correspondence with another former "Manson family" member.

At a 1993 parole hearing, Atkins described her time with Manson by saying, "It is almost impossible to understand insanity and that's what I was living with -- insanity."

Atkins was 21 years old when the career criminal Manson dispatched her and other followers to the Beverly Hills home of actress Sharon Tate and film director Roman Polanski on August 9, 1969, with orders to kill. Polanski was out of town but the heavily pregnant Tate and four friends were brutally stabbed, beaten and shot to death. Atkins later said she personally stabbed Tate after ignoring her pleas for mercy.

The next night Atkins and other cult members went to the home of grocery owner Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and killed them. Atkins did not actively participate in those slayings.

MACABRE TRIAL

The brutality and seemingly random nature of the murders terrorized much of Southern California and stunned the nation.

Atkins was convicted in 1970 with her guru and two other "Manson girls" -- Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel.

The trial took on a macabre air with graphic descriptions of bloody crime scenes, exploration of Manson's powerful grip on the women and their continued devotion to him. The women disrupted the proceedings with laughter, shaved their heads, carved X's on their foreheads and sang Manson-penned songs.

All four were given death sentences, which were commuted to life when a state court ruling invalidated the death penalty.

Atkins led a chaotic life before meeting Manson -- quitting high school, working as a stripper, using drugs and getting into trouble with the law at the dawn of the hippie era.

In 1967, she fell under Manson's spell when he visited her housemates in San Francisco. She became known within the cult by nicknames Manson gave her: Sadie Mae Glutz and Sexy Sadie.

Atkins' talkative nature implicated the Manson cult. She was being held as a suspect in another slaying and bragged about the Tate-LaBianca case to jailhouse acquaintances, even claiming she had tasted Tate's blood. Continued...

http://www.reuters.com/article/peopleNews/idUSTRE58O2NA20090925
=========================

Good riddance

Thanks for the post Elle.

[hesnothere]

Thanks for the update Elle, I was gonna come and post also but saw that you did already and didn't want to be redundant.

[Jolie Rouge]

Thanks for the update Elle, I was gonna come and post also but saw that you did already and didn't want to be redundant.

There was some minor additional information provided in the second article ... which is why I tagged it into the original thread. TMI :tmi for you ??

[hesnothere]

Nope, TMU for me

[Jolie Rouge]

Then put me on ignore ...

[mabby89]

Nope, TMU for me

:rofl: