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Susan Atkins

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Susan Atkins
200pc
Atkins during the trial
Other namesSadie Mae Glutz
Spouse(s)Donald Lee Laisure (1982-1982)
James Whitehouse (1987-Present)
ChildrenZezozece Zadfrack
Parent(s)Jeanette and Edward Atkins
Criminal penaltyDeath, reduced by abolition of death penalty to life in prison

Susan Denise Atkins (born May 7, 1948) is a convicted American murderer who was a member of the so-called "Manson family", led by Charles Manson. Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in California, over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969. Atkins, known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz, was convicted for her participation in eight of these killings, including the most notorious, the "Sharon Tate/LaBianca" murders. She was sentenced to death, which was subsequently commuted to life in prison. Atkins has been incarcerated in California since October 1, 1969, having been denied parole twelve times.

Early life

Born in San Gabriel, Los Angeles County, California, the second eldest of three children, Atkins grew up in northern California, where she had a difficult childhood. Both of her parents, Edward and Jeanette, were allegedly alcoholics. Her mother died of cancer in 1962. Over the next three years, Atkins' life was disrupted by the gradual breakup of her family, frequent moves, and her leaving home to live independently.[citation needed]

Up to the age of 14, Atkins and her family lived in a middle class home in the Cambrian Park area of San Jose, California. She has been described by those who knew her as a quiet, self-conscious girl who was a member of her school glee club and the local church choir. [citation needed]

Two weeks before the mother went to the hospital for the final time, Atkins 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. His wife's long illness was financially ruinous to Edward Atkins; he was left with huge bills and no money to pay them.[citation needed]

By some accounts, Atkins' family life subsequently deteriorated further as her father drank more heavily and roamed around searching for work, which resulted in Atkins' being uprooted, frequently changing homes and schools.[citation needed] Her father has told a different story, one of a stable home, loving environment, and a happy family life. [citation needed]

Mr. Atkins eventually moved to Los Banos, California with Susan and her younger brother Steven. When he found work on the San Luis Dam construction project, he left the two children behind to fend for themselves. Atkins took a job during her junior year in school to support herself and Steven.[citation needed]

Atkins had been an average student in Leigh High School in San Jose, but her grades deteriorated when she entered Los Banos High School. During this time, she lived with various relatives.[citation needed]

Her older brother Michael had previously left home to join the Navy. She dropped out of high school at 18 and went to San Francisco, where she supported herself as a secretary, an office gofer, and a topless dancer.[citation needed] During her time as a dancer, Atkins met Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey when she was hired for a stage production which featured her as a vampire.

During this time, she also had contact with local law enforcement authorities. In 1966, she was arrested and charged with possession of a concealed weapon and receiving stolen property.

In 1967, Atkins met Charles Manson when he played 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, Manson invited her to join his group, who were embarking on a summer road trip in a converted school bus painted completely 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, by an unnamed father, whom Manson named Zezozece Zadfrack. Atkins' parental rights were terminated once she was convicted of the murders and no one in her family would assume responsibility for the child. She has had no contact with her son since her incarceration in 1969, when he was 1 1/2 years old. Her son was adopted and renamed "Paul".[1]

The Gary Hinman murder

During the summer of 1969, 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. Purportedly, a botched drug scam by Manson "Family" member Charles "Tex" Watson led Manson to confront and shoot a man by the name of Bernard "Lotsapapa" Crowe. Manson believed he had killed Crowe, and he further believed Crowe to be a Black Panther. Neither was true.[2] Nonetheless, Manson feared retaliation from the Black Panthers and pressured his followers for more money. 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.[citation needed]

Manson sent three people to Hinman's home on July 25, 1969: Atkins, Bobby Beausoleil, and Mary Brunner. Atkins claimed she didn’t know a crime was going to take place, a claim she made when she pleaded guilty to the murder,[citation needed] although she wrote in her 1977 book that she went to Hinman's home to get money and knew that it was possible they were to kill Hinman.

When 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 Hinman's story, Manson himself showed up, and swung at his head with a sword, slicing his face and severely cutting his ear. Manson directed Atkins and Brunner to stay behind and tend to Hinman'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. Beausoleil left a bloody handprint on the wall along with vaguely revolutionary words the culprits supposed would implicate the Black Panthers.[citation needed]

Beausoleil was arrested on August 7, 1969, when he was found asleep in one of Hinman's vehicles, still wearing the blood stained clothing he wore during the crime and with the murder weapon hidden in the tire well of the car's trunk.[citation needed]

The Tate/LaBianca murders

On the evening of August 8, 1969, Manson gathered Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel in front of Spahn’s Ranch and told them to go with Watson and do as they were told.[3]. In Atkins' grand jury testimony, she stated that while in the car, Watson told the group they were going to a home to get money from the people who lived there and to kill them.[citation needed] (Regarding Manson's real motive for the killings, see section below entitled "Motivation".)

Five people were murdered at the Beverly Hills home belonging to Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate: Tate (who was eight months pregnant), Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and coffee heiress Abigail Folger. Polanski, Tate's husband, was in Europe finishing work on a film project.

Forensic evidence indicated that the murders were brutal. Just prior to leaving the residence, Atkins wrote "Pig" on the front door in Sharon Tate's blood.[4]

The following night, August 9, Manson commented that the murders at the Tate residence had been too messy, and announced he’d have to take his followers out and "show them how it’s done." Manson called together Atkins, Krenwinkel, Watson, Kasabian, Leslie Van Houten, and Steve "Clem" 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 older section of north-eastern Los Angeles. Manson and Watson entered the home and tied the couple up at gunpoint, winning their compliance by convincing them they were only going to be robbed.[5] He then went back to the car and sent Krenwinkel and Van Houten inside to do as Tex said, once again directing them to leave writings in blood, and to hitchhike back to Spahn's Ranch. Manson then drove Atkins, Kasabian, and Grogan to Venice Beach where Kasabian said she knew a foreign actor (Saladin Nader). Manson dropped them off and told them to kill the actor, and hitchhike back to the ranch. But when Kasabian deliberately went to the wrong apartment, the three aborted the plan. Grogan allegedly threw the gun away.[citation needed]

Motivation

At trial, the prosecution stated Manson's desire to start "Helter Skelter" (an apocalyptic race war) was the motive for the crimes. Initially, Manson told the group that during this war, they would hide in a hole in the desert, and would emerge when the war was over. He said the blacks would win the war, but would be unable to govern and would turn to Manson. In the weeks prior to the murders, Manson began to say that the war wasn't starting fast enough and the group would have to start it by murdering wealthy white people. As evidence for this motive, several witnesses testified to Manson's statements regarding "Helter Skelter" and his obsession with the Beatles' music, and the individuals convicted for the murders have testified at various parole hearings that this was the motive (e.g., Leslie Van Houten testified to this at her 1993 parole hearing).[6]

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.[citation needed]

In later years, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi stated that he believed the murders had numerous, disparate motives, all of which served to benefit Manson.[7]

The home where Tate and Polanski were living with friends was known to Manson and Watson, who had been there once and knew where it was, and Manson knew that wealthy, famous people lived there.[8] One former tenant of the home was Terry Melcher, a record producer who Manson believed had made promises to him which had never materialized. Prosecutor Bugliosi suggested Manson may have very briefly encountered the eventual murder victims when he went to the home looking for Melcher and was brusquely turned away by Sharon Tate's photographer.[9]

Arrest and grand jury testimony

On August 16, 1969, Spahn’s Ranch was raided by the police in connection with auto thefts. The charges were later dropped and everyone was released. Soon after their release, Manson and his followers left Spahn Ranch for Barker Ranch, another isolated location. However, the authorities were still suspicious of the group and the new location was raided in October 1969 and the group was arrested again on auto theft charges. It would be the last time many of them would be free. Just after this arrest, another member of the group implicated Atkins in the Hinman murder and she was charged with that crime.[10]

While in jail, Atkins befriended two middle-aged career criminals, Virginia Graham and Veronica "Ronnie" Howard, to whom she confessed her participation in the Tate/LaBianca murders, for example telling the women that she stabbed Tate and that she had tasted Tate's blood. They subsequently reported her statements to the authorities.[11] This, combined with information from other sources, led to the arrest of Atkins and others involved in the Tate/LaBianca murders (Van Houten, Krenwinkel, Kasabian and Watson).

Atkins agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for the prosecution not seeking the death penalty, and she then testified before the grand jury as to what had transpired on the nights of August 8 and 9, 1969.[12].

Atkins told the grand jury that she stabbed Frykowski in the legs and that she held Tate down while Watson stabbed her. She also testified that Tate had pleaded for her life and that of her unborn child, to which Atkins replied, "Woman, I have no mercy for you." She also denied her earlier statement to Howard and Graham that she had tasted Tate's blood.[citation needed] Prior to the trial, Atkins discontinued her cooperation with the prosecution and repudiated her grand jury testimony, although years later she would state that this testimony was truthful and accurate as to what transpired in the Tate home.[citation needed]

Atkins has claimed over the years that her participation in the crimes led by Manson was passive and that she didn't actually kill anyone. However, in her grand jury testimony she admitted to active participation in the crimes.

Tate/LaBianca trial

Manson, Krenwinkel, Van Houten and Atkins went on trial on June 15, 1970. Watson was later tried separately as he was at the time in Texas fighting extradition.[citation needed]

Kasabian was offered, and accepted, immunity . As Kasabian had not played a direct part in any of the murders and never entered either residence, and by several accounts had challenged Manson over the killings, the offer of immunity to her was seen as more acceptable, particularly by the prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi who commented that he was relieved the offer was withdrawn from Atkins.[citation needed]

During the sentencing phase of the trial, Atkins testified that she stabbed Tate. She candidly stated that she had stabbed Tate because she was "sick of listening to her, pleading and begging, begging and pleading". She also denied that Manson had any role in orchestrating the murders.[citation needed]

Throughout the trial, Atkins and her co-defendants attempted to disrupt proceedings and were noted for both their lack of remorse for their victims and lack of concern for their own fates. They typically smiled and sang Manson-penned songs while being led to the courtroom. Prosecutors contended that Manson was orchestrating the defense and Atkins' behavior and 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.[citation needed]

The Hinman trial

After the Tate/LaBianca, Atkins was tried for the Hinman murder. However, she pleaded guilty to the charges against her. She testified she hadn’t known Hinman was going to be robbed or killed, although she subsequently contradicted herself on this point in her 1977 autobiography.

Imprisonment

Susan Atkins in 2001.

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.[13]

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 course of her imprisonment has been involved in prison programs. She has also been given two commendations for helping save the lives of other inmates. She was married in 1980 to Donald Lee Laisure, a Texan claiming to be a multi-millionaire who would use his resources to help secure her freedom, but Atkins ended the marriage when it was revealed that many of his claims were false. She married a second time, to a man 15 years her junior, in 1987. Her second husband, James W. Whitehouse, received a law degree from Harvard in 1997, and represented her at her 2000 and 2005 parole hearings. He maintains a website dedicated to her legal representation.[14]

During her 2000 parole hearing, Tate's sister Debra, read a statement written by their father, Paul, 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?"[citation needed] Parole was denied.

In April 2002, she told a reporter of her work to discourage teenagers from idolizing Manson and her hope of someday leaving prison to live in Laguna Beach, CA.[15]

In 2002, Atkins filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that she is a "political prisoner" due to the repeated denials of her parole requests regardless of her suitability.[16]

On June 1, 2005, Atkins had her 17th parole hearing.[citation needed] This hearing was attended by various victims' family members, such as Debra Tate and members of the Sebring family, and they requested that her parole be denied. She received a four-year denial (out of a maximum of five years). Her next hearing is scheduled for 2009.[17] [verification needed]

Compassionate release request & hearing

In April 2008, it was revealed that Atkins had been hospitalized for more than a month with an undisclosed illness, which was subsequently reported to be terminal brain cancer and one leg has been amputated. Atkins was given less than six months to live and subsequently requested a "compassionate release" from prison. Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Atkins, said he was not opposed to her release given her current condition, adding that she had paid "substantially, though not completely, for her horrendous crimes." [18] Debra Tate, the only surviving immediate relative of murder victim Sharon Tate, spoke in opposition to a compassionate release for Atkins.

Atkins' request is now before the California Board of Parole Hearings, which is conducting an independent investigation and will hear the case during its monthly public meeting. The next meeting is scheduled July 15.[19] Atkins' husband asserted that even if Atkins were released, she would likely remain hospitalized.[20]

Notes

  1. ^ Transcript of Atkins' 2005 Parole Hearing
  2. ^ Helter Skelter 473
  3. ^ Helter Skelter 350-51
  4. ^ Transcript of Atkin's 1996 Parole Hearing
  5. ^ Manson, in his own words 208, 212
  6. ^ Transcript of Leslie Van Houten's 1993 parole hearing
  7. ^ Bertice Berry Show (a TV program), transcript:10-11
  8. ^ Helter Skelter 627-628
  9. ^ Helter Skelter 229-230
  10. ^ Helter Skelter 88
  11. ^ Helter Skelter 118, 149
  12. ^ Helter Skelter 214, 216, 227, 283
  13. ^ CDCR, History of capital punishment in California
  14. ^ King 2000, 281-285.
  15. ^ OC Weekly, 25 April 2002
  16. ^ AP, June 1, 2003
  17. ^ Parole Hearing Transcript page 159, lines 10-11
  18. ^ LA Times, June 14, 2008
  19. ^ CNN, June 20, 2008
  20. ^ LA Times, June 14, 2008

References


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