Susan Atkins

Susan Atkins in 2001.

Susan Denise Atkins (born May 7, 1948) is an American murderer who is currently serving a seven-to-life sentence in the California Department of Corrections following her conviction along with Charles Manson and several others for a series of murders often called the “Manson murders”, among which the most notorious are the “Tate/LaBianca” murders. In the space of five weeks in the summer of 1969, nine people were murdered at four locations. Atkins has been incarcerated since October 1, 1969, longer than any other woman in California history.

Susan Atkins swore before a grand jury that she did not stab the pregnant actress Sharon Tate to death , the act for which she is most commonly remembered.

Atkins has insisted over the years that her participation in the crimes led by Charles Manson was passive, and that before the murder spree she tried several times to leave the "Manson Family" commune, but was prevented by her inability to get to her infant son and out of fear for his life if she left. Though these claims are scoffed at by prosecutors and critics, this is exactly what Linda Kasabian -- another "Family" member with an infant child -- testified to at the trial for the Tate/LaBianca murders: that Manson held the infant children of women commune members as security and made it clear that the children's safety depended on the women not going to the police. Kasabian, like Atkins, had been part of the "crew" at both the Tate and LaBianca crime scenes, but Kasabian was granted complete immunity from prosecution.

Atkins continues to be eligible for parole.

Early life

Born in San Gabriel, California (greater Los Angeles), the middle child between two brothers, Atkins grew up in northern California, where she had a difficult childhood. Both of her parents, Edward and Jeanette, were alcoholics. Her mother died of cancer when Susan was fourteen years old. Over the next three years, her life was disrupted by the drawn out breakup of her family, frequent moves, and prematurely being compelled to earn her own living.

Up to the age of 14 she and her family lived in a middle class home in the Cambrian Park area of San Jose, California. She is remembered as a self-conscious, quiet girl, a member of her school glee club and the local church choir. One fellow choir member later recalled, "She seemed to be able to assert her personality through singing in a way she couldn't in her daily life."

In 1962 her mother became ill and was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Two weeks before the mother went to the hospital for the final time, Susan arranged for members of the church choir to sing Christmas carols under her bedroom window. After Jeanette Atkins' death, relatives were asked to help look after Susan and her two brothers. But his wife's long illness was financially ruinous to Edward Atkins; he was left with a huge bills and no money to meet them.

Susan's father started drinking more heavily, and their relationship deteriorated. Her father has told a slightly different story, one of a stable home, loving environment and a happy family life. But friends, neighbors, ministers, and teachers concur that Susan was constantly uprooted, frequently changing homes, schools, and friends as Mr. Atkins roamed around looking for work.

Mr. Atkins eventually moved inland to the small town of Los Banos, California with Susan and her younger brother Steven. He found work on the San Luis Dam construction project, and left the two children behind in town. Susan was forced to take a job during her junior year in school to support herself and Steven. A next door neighbor later said "Susan was a good kid who just needed some direction and someone who cared. She was left alone. There was no place to turn for help. We never had any trouble with her, although she would get despondent and break down and cry in my house."

Susan had been an average student in Leigh High School in San Jose, but her grades deteriorated when she entered Los Banos High. She decided to drop out and get a full time job to support herself. Her grandparents didn't have room for both her and Steven; because Steven was younger, Susan was the one to go.

Her older brother Michael had previously left home to join the navy. Susan dropped out of high school at eighteen and went to San Francisco, where she supported herself as a secretary, an office gofer, and even for six months as a topless dancer.

It was during her time as a dancer that Atkins met Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey when the dancers at the club she was working at were hired for a stage production which featured her as a vampire. Though she was invited to Anton LaVey’s home, she asked and was allowed to leave when he told her that like her he believed in God, he just didn’t worship Him.

In 1967, at the age of 19, she met Charles Manson when he came over to play guitar at the house where she was living with several friends. When the house was raided several weeks later by the police and she was left homeless, she was invited to join a group of people who were planning on traveling to Los Angeles on a summer road trip in a converted school bus they painted all black. She was given the nickname "Sadie Mae Glutz" by Manson and a man who was creating a fake ID for her at the time. Atkins later claimed to have believed Manson to be Jesus. The growing "Manson Family" settled at the Spahn Ranch in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, where on October 7, 1968, she bore a son whom Manson named Zezozece Zadfrack. Manson, however, was not the father. Atkins' parental rights were terminated once she was convicted and no one in her family would take the child in. She has had no contact with her son since her incarceration in 1969.

The Hinman Murder: Prelude to the Tate/LaBianca Murders

During the summer of 1969, Charles Manson and his commune at Spahn’s Ranch were attracting the attention of the police, who suspected them of auto thefts and were suspicious of the high number of underage runaways. In an attempt to raise money to move away to the desert, Manson encouraged drug dealing. It appears a botched drug "burn" (swindle) by Manson "Family" member Charles "Tex" Watson led Manson to confront and shoot a man by the name of Bernard Crowe. Manson believed he’d killed Crowe, and he further believed Crowe to be a Black Panther. Neither was true. Nonetheless, Manson feared retaliation from the Black Panthers and pressured his followers for more money. Possibly Manson was functioning under a mental state of hysteria and paranoia engendered by extensive drug use. During this time someone suggested that an old friend, Gary Hinman, had just inherited a large sum of money. Manson hoped Hinman could be induced into joining the commune and contributing his purported new inheritance.

Manson sent three people to meet with Hinman on July 25, 1969: Atkins, Robert Beausoleil, and Mary Brunner. Susan claimed she didn’t know a crime was going to take place (a claim the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office accepted in a plea agreement with her).

Was it only coincidence that Manson sent the only two women at that time who had infant children? The children could be used to pressure the women into not going to the police if anything went wrong. Prosecution witnesses at the trial testified that Manson kept the children isolated from their mothers in order to control the women, and that by the time of the Tate/LaBianca crimes the children were “guarded” by armed men.

When Gary Hinman insisted he hadn’t inherited any money (records confirm he hadn't), Beausoleil (apparently on Manson’s orders) beat him severely. When even this didn’t change Gary’s story, Manson himself showed up and became so infuriated he took a swing at Gary’s head with a sword, slicing his face and severely cutting his ear. Manson directed Atkins and Brunner to stay behind and tend to Gary’s wounds. Two days later, and after a phone call from Manson, Beausoleil had Hinman sign over the registrations to his cars and then killed him. Apparently also on Manson’s command, Beausoleil left a bloody handprint on the wall along with vaguely revolutionary words the culprits supposed would implicate the Black Panthers. It is assumed this was to both misdirect the police and put “heat” on the Panthers which might distract them from seeking revenge on Manson for the Crowe killing.

Manson, apparently doubting the effectiveness of these precautions, left Spahn’s Ranch and established an alibi. This lack of confidence spooked Beausoleil, who took off in Gary Hinman’s car and drove up to northern California. Unfortunately, he stopped to sleep on the side of the road, where the police found him. They ran the car's license number. Having gotten Hinman to sign over the vehicle's ownership might have saved Beausoleil, except that he was still wearing the same clothing, now blood spattered, as he had had on during the crime and he had the weapon in the trunk. He was arrested and transferred back to Los Angeles.

Manson feared Beausoleil would make a bargain with the police and implicate him. Manson also feared if he was arrested the Black Panthers would find him and kill him.

Manson sent messengers to Beausoleil telling him Manson would take care of things. He then sent Mary Brunner and Catherine Share to buy rope, apparently for an escape attempt. Both were arrested for using a stolen credit card.

It was at this point that Manson began planning additional murders.

Motives for The Tate/LaBianca Murders

The motive for these crimes is still a mystery; so too how the victims were chosen. At trial the prosecution claimed as the motive Manson’s desire to start a race war between blacks and whites. By the time of Leslie Van Houten’s third trial, prosecutors had elaborated upon this claim to attribute to Manson the following scenario. The attacks would create a war in which the blacks would kill off all the whites, during which Manson and his followers would hide in a hole in the desert which they reached by climbing down a golden rope; after the war the blacks would discover they couldn’t govern and would have to turn to Manson for leadership.

During Beausoleil's trial for the murder of Hinman, the defense, in order to discredit the prosecution’s case, argued that the crimes were copycat murders made to misdirect police suspicion away from Beausoleil. The prosecution discounted this claim.

In later years prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi admitted the murders probably had several, disparate motives, all of which served to benefit Charles Manson. Speculations as to what attitudes may have driven Manson include paranoia (whether due to organic pathology or drug induced); anger and frustration at what he dubbed “the Establishment” (a trendy 60s phrase); resentment over perceived slights; a curiosity to see how completely he could control and manipulate others; or a curiosity to see if he could actually “get away with it”.

The home where actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, were living with friends appears to have been chosen because "Tex" Watson had been there once and knew where it was, and because Manson had gone there once to meet with a record producer who had rebuffed him rather harshly. The choice also appears to have been motivated by the fact that the home was owned by Terry Melcher, another music producer, who Manson believed had made promises to him which had never materialized. The prosecutor suggested Manson may have even had a brief, disagreeable interaction with Sharon Tate the day he went there to meet the record producer.

The choice of the LaBianca’s home appears to have been random, though even here there is some evidence that Manson had stayed at the home next door when he’d first arrived in Los Angeles, so he may have known the area.

The Tate/LaBianca Murders

On the evening of August 8, 1969, Charles Manson met Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel in front of Spahn’s Ranch and told them to go with Charles Watson and do what he told them to. Though this would seem to indicate something ominous was about to happen, Manson often sent his followers out at night, either to collect produce from dumpsters or day-old bread. Atkins and Kasabian both had babies who could be used to prevent them from going to the police.

Five persons were murdered at Tate's Beverly Hills home: Tate herself (who was eight months pregnant), Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski (the prosecutor always spelled his first name Voytek), and coffee heiress Abigail Folger. (Polanski, Tate's husband, was out of town that night.) At Manson’s direction, his women wrote slogans on the walls, apparently in hopes of getting the authorities to draw a connection between these murders and the murder of Gary Hinman. But in initial news coverage of the Tate house murders, this connection was not noticed. When Manson observed this the next day while watching the TV news, he announced he’d have to take his followers out and “show them how it’s done.”

The following night, August 9, Manson called together Atkins, Krenwinkel, Watson, Kasabian, Leslie Van Houten, and Steve Grogan, and they left Spahn’s Ranch. Driving most of the night, he eventually found the home of grocery store owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in Los Feliz, an elegant older section of Los Angeles. Manson broke into the home and tied the couple up, winning their compliance by convincing them they were only going to be robbed. He then went back to the car and sent Watson, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten inside to kill the couple, once again directing them to leave writings in blood. Manson then drove Atkins, Kasabian, and Grogan to another location where Kasabian had told him a foreign actor lived. Manson dropped them off and told them to kill the actor and then hitchhike back to Spahn’s Ranch. But when Kasabian deliberately went to the wrong apartment, the three declined to follow the plan. Grogan threw the gun away and they returned to the ranch.

On August 16, 1969, Spahn’s Ranch was raided by the police in connection with auto thefts. Though the charges were later dropped and everyone was released, Manson apparently thought the raid was due to complaints by one of the ranch hands, Donald Shea. On or about August 28, Manson convened another murder party, consisting of himself and four male followers. Shea was killed and Manson’s followers were falsely told his body was decapitated and dismembered. Shea's body was not recovered until 1977, when one of murderers, Steve Grogan, provided authorities with the necessary information on the location of the remains.

Soon after the raid, Manson and his followers were finally able to move out to the desert. But the authorities out there too were suspicious of him. The new abode was raided, once again on suspicion of auto theft. Once again the charges were dropped. But Atkins was not released. A woman who had left the commune and had been picked up by the police stated that Atkins had been involved in a crime in which someone had had their ear cut off. Atkins was transferred to Los Angeles to be interviewed by detectives in connection with the Hinman case.

While in jail, Atkins was approached by two middle-aged career criminals, Virginia Graham and Ronnie Howard, who had taken an interest in her. Following direction by Manson, who’d instructed his followers that when you’re in jail you have to act tough, you have to exaggerate how bad you are, Atkins told them she was involved with the biggest crime in the news at that time –- the Tate murders. The tactic worked to the extent that the two decided to leave her alone. Unfortunately for Atkins, the two were so spooked they both went to the police.

Atkins had told these women that she’d killed Sharon Tate. The prosecution always claimed this was a confession. Atkins later claimed she’d only said this to “act tough” and to “exaggerate how bad she was”, and there are several pieces of evidence to suggest that this may well have been the case. Atkins told the two many other things, almost all of which were clearly false. Also, when the prosecutor asked Graham and Howard why they’d taken a long time to report Atkins' apparent confession, they replied they had gotten the impression she was simply putting on an act. Manson, in his autobiography, confirms he told his followers if they were ever in jail they had to exaggerate stories about themselves so they wouldn’t be preyed upon by other inmates.

Atkins' Grand Jury Testimony

Once she was indicted for the Tate murders, Susan agreed to help the prosecution in exchange for the prosecution not seeking the death penalty. Atkins testified before the grand jury as to what had transpired on the nights of August 8 and 9, 1969. The prosecutor, Bugliosi, has since admitted her version of events was essentially the same as the version given by Linda Kasabian, which was adopted by the State.

Atkins testified she hadn’t killed Sharon Tate, and had in fact not stabbed anyone. Though critics including the prosecutor insist this was a lie, and that her previous statements to Graham and Howard were a “confession”, at least one fact seems to support Atkins' claim of innocence. In 1976, Charles Watson claimed responsibility for Tate’s death, stating that Atkins had exaggerated and lied about her own part. Not only was Watson's admission so damaging to himself, but it helped no one but the one person responsible for getting him indicted.

It had been Atkins who made the authorities realize that the Tate and LaBianca crimes were connected. It was also she who told them who was involved. At the time she talked to the police the crimes were already two months old and they still didn’t have any leads. In addition, the police had already considered and eliminated Manson as a suspect. Even the prosecutor acknowledged that without Atkins' testimony to the grand jury they never would have been able to even indict Manson, let alone convict him. In addition, Atkins is the only person connected to Charles Manson who agreed to testify against him without demanding complete immunity.

In exchange for her grand jury testimony, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office issued a statement that Atkins' help had been vital to law enforcement.

Tate/LaBianca Trial

Even though her agreement with the DA’s office did not include an agreement that she testify at the trial, Manson pressured Atkins to disavow her grand jury testimony in hopes that this would allow him to move to have his indictment thrown out. When she finally did succumb to the pressure, the DA’s office simply made a deal with Linda Kasabian, in exchange for full immunity, and reinstated the death penalty indictment against Atkins.

Atkins was tried along with Manson, Van Houten and Krenwinkel. This proved a distinct disadvantage because Manson thought he could still avoid conviction if he could force the women to forgo a defense. Manson thought that because there was no physical evidence he’d been at either of the crime scenes the jury would have to convict the three young women and let him go. Yet the jury convicted all four.

Manson was keen to avoid a death sentence. For the sentencing phase of the case, he coerced the three women to “confess” they’d orchestrated the crimes without him. It was in this proceeding that Atkins again claimed she’d killed Sharon Tate. Though this constitutes a “confession under oath,” the prosecutor told the jury she was lying, that “the holes in her story where a mile wide”, and he used her sworn testimony before the Grand Jury to impeach most of her new testimony.

All four defendants were sentenced to death on March 29, 1971. Atkins was transferred to California's new women’s death row on April 1971.

The Hinman Trial

After the Tate/LaBianca trial came the Hinman trial. In a maneuver to avoid contact with Manson and her other codefendants, who all blamed her for testifying before the grand jury, she pled guilty to the charges against her. She testified she hadn’t known Gary Hinman was going to be robbed or killed. The District Attorney agreed she had not killed Gary Hinman, but nevertheless believed she was culpable in either a conspiracy or felony-murder capacity.

When the judge told Atkins she would be sentenced to seven-to-life for Gary Hinman's death, she asked if she would be serving that before or after her death penalty. The judge responded she would be serving them concurrently.

Life after Incarceration

Atkins' death sentence was automatically commuted to life in prison the following year after the California Supreme Court's People v. Anderson decision invalidated all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972.

In 1977, Atkins published her autobiography, Child of Satan, Child of God, in which she recounted the time she spent with Manson and the Family, her religious conversion, and her prison experiences.

Since 1974, Atkins has been a born-again Christian, and over the last four decades has contributed to numerous community betterment programs. She has also been given two commendations for helping save the life of other inmates. She has been married since 1987. Her husband subsequently went to law school, attaining his J.D. from Harvard in 1997, and represented her at her 2000 and 2005 parole hearings. He maintains a website dedicated to her legal representation.

During her 2000 hearing, Sharon Tate's sister Debra, read a statement written by their father, Paul Tate, which said in part, "Thirty one years ago I sat in a courtroom with a jury and watched with others. I saw a young woman who giggled, snickered and shouted out insults, even while testifying about my daughter's last breath, she laughed. My family was ripped apart. If Susan Atkins is released to rejoin her family, where is the justice?" Parole was denied.

Following this hearing, Atkins filed a writ in federal court claiming the Parole Board was deliberately violating its own rules, the law, and the U.S. Constitution. She alleged a covert intent by the Parole Board to deny her parole regardless of whether she is suitable.

On June 1, 2005, Atkins had her 17th parole hearing. At this hearing victims' family members were present and made statements, including Debra Tate and members of the Sebring family. Each expressed that they were not motivated by hatred or condemnation, and they conceded Susan's behavior since incarceration has been commendable, but all asked that she be denied parole in the name of justice.. The parole board denied her parole and scheduled her next hearing for 2009.

Notes and references==

Bibliography

• Bugliosi, Vincent and Gentry, Curt. 1974. Helter Skelter. Arrow Books Limited. ISBN 0-09-997500-9
• The Bertice Berry Show, Feb., 18, 1994, television broadcast featuring an interview with prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi.
• King, Greg. 2000. Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders. Barricade Books. ISBN 1-56980-157-6
• Deutsch, Linda. 2001. Atkins Denied Parole Again Associated Press article republished by the Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements
• Associated Press. June 1, 2005. Article available at SFGate.com. Retrieved Feb. 18, 2007.

In popular culture

The song "Sadie" by Alkaline Trio is about Susan and features the lyric "Sadie G, she's crazy, see?/ That's what the white coats say/ Now Ms. Susan A, you're losing every opportunity/ To put us all away".

The quote near the end of the song is a quote from Susan's testimony which is spoken by Heather Hannoura, the band's merchandise and artwork creator.

"He represented a God to me, that was so beautiful that I'd do anything for him. I'd do anything for God. Even murder, if I believed it was right. How could it not be right if it is done with love? I have no remorse for doing what was right for me. I have no guilt anymore."

External links

• Susan Atkins Website
• Letters From Atkins and Whitehouse to a Southern California Ministry