• Charles Manson,  Patricia Krenwinkle,  Susan Atkins

    Charles Manson Follower Susan Atkins Has Died at 61

    Charles Manson followers Leslie Van Houton, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel

    Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins has died at the age of 61 in a prison hospital in Chowchilla, California.

    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 died at the Central California Women’s facility in Chowchilla on Thursday night, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

    Atkins, who had been receiving medical care at the prison’s nursing facility over the past year, died of natural causes, Thornton said. Sources told The Times she had been battling brain cancer. She was pronounced dead at 11:46 p.m.

    Now, finally some JUSTICE for the Tate and LaBianca families. Remember the crime scene of Sharon Tate’s murder and that of her unborn child?

    Remember Susan Atkins famously told a sobbing and begging Sharon Tate prior to her murder and mutilation, “Look bitch, I have no mercy for you.”

    Susan Atkins was convicted of eight murders and was the longest-serving prisoner among women held in California prisons. This distinction now falls on fellow Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkle who was also convicted of the Tate-LaBianca murders.

    Atkins confessed to killing actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski who was hanged and stabbed 16 times; 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. After prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty against her, Atkins 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.

    Susan Atkins has been living on borrowed time for the past 40 years. May she atone to our creator for the heinous crimes against humanity.

    Susan Atkins in 1969

    Previous:

    Charles Manson Follower Susan Atkins Denied Parole Again

    Charles Manson Follower Susan Atkins Parole Hearing Today

    Manson Family Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi on Susan Atkins Parole

    Susan Atkins Parole Hearing Rescheduled to September 2, 2009

    Susan Atkins May 29, 2009 Parole Hearing Postponed

    Elderly Charles Manson Photo Released by California Correctional Authorities

    Charles Manson Follower Susan Atkins Denied Compassionate Release


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