Post | 06/19/2008 12:45 pm
Manson Murderess Begs for Mercy

In August 1969 she slit the throat of a pregnant woman begging for mercy. Today, she’s hoping she has better luck when asking for the same from the government.
A former member of the Manson family, Susan Atkins, 60, has requested a "compassionate release" from prison on the grounds that she is terminally ill and has less than six months to live, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton told wowOwow.
The Golden State’s longest-serving female inmate, Atkins was convicted in 1969 for the murders of actress Sharon Tate (who was eight months pregnant) and four others. Perhaps the most gripping detail from the case file was that, before leaving the crime scene, Atkins wrote "PIG" in blood on Tate’s front door.
Atkins received the death sentence, which later was commuted to life in prison at the California Institution for Women in Corona, CA, where she remained until she was hospitalized in March. She’s listed in serious condition and, while Thornton declined to comment on her illness, it’s been reported that she has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
According to Thornton, the prison did an evaluation of Atkins’s release request and found that she met the two necessary criteria — she is terminally ill with an incurable condition that would cause death in six months AND she has a supportive family with the means to care of her – to be recommended for review by the corrections department. If the corrections department makes a positive recommendation, the decision then goes to the sentencing court, which will do one of three things: deny the request, recall the original sentence and re-sentence to a lower term (which could result in a full discharge) or recall the original sentence and place her under parole supervision.
The Los Angeles Times’s op-ed says that Atkins should not be granted the release. What are your thoughts on this?
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247 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
I thought I heard on the news that the release had been approved. I remember those times so well. Strange days. Couldn’t believe what happened to those people. The Manson’s ranch was only a mile from my workplace. Then so many stories from co-workers that they had been invited to parties up there. I can’t remember if they went.
No, not approved.
Here is a CBS 1969 news report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFr4zSA_EhI
NBC News at the crimes scene 1969:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVB__5jrDds&feature=related
No, Susan Adkins did not give Sharon Tate and her unborn fetus a chance to survive. She is ill go to the hospital and maybe the supportive family can visit on visitors day.
This is the latest—the Director of CA prisons says she shouldn’t be released, and that then it goes to the parole board, and then the court that sentenced her. It’ll never happen. The people of LA wouldn’t let it. And I don’t think Gov Arnold would either. It is cruel that the victim’s families are having to go through this.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j7vEPZQEGM6Dx3WCyGTPRmyi4e…
UPDATE:
The Board of Parole asks for public opinions to be signed and mailed (ie if you use the form they provide in the link below they email you back days later with this message. So please mail a copy in with your signature:
——————————————
“Thank you for your email regarding inmate Susan Atkins. We value your input into this process. In order to ensure your comments are heard by the Board of Parole Hearings, please print out your email to a hard copy version, sign the bottom of the email and mail it to the following address:
Board of Parole Hearings, Post Office Box 4036, -Sacramento, CA 958120-4036. Your signature will validate your email and your concerns. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services toll free at 877-256-6877.
Katie James, Manager
Office of Victim and Survivor Rights & Services
Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation
(916) 341-7064
katie.james@cdcr.ca.gov
The pink dress etc of Susan Atkins in the image above is how they cleaned her up for her sentencing….she is responsible for a mss murder that exceeds by far the viciousness of most of the acts of the 650+ inmates on CA’s death row.
This is what she did to Sharon Tate 8 1/2 months pregnant and totally innocent and begging for her life as Susan Atkins laughed and told her she had no mercy for her:
Sharon Tate actual photo: http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii306/Darelene223/SharonTate.jpg
Sharon Tate’s mother, Doris, was seriously depressed for a decade after her daughter’s murder, then she went to work for the rest of her life to change victim’s rights laws. Her beautiful sister Patti Tate also took up the cause, and unfortunately died too young of cancer. She and her mother are buried with Sharon and her baby who was also murdered, Paul.
Doris Tate wanted people to see what they did to her daughter. Sharon’s sister, Debra, has continuously worked for victims’ justice too. She opposes the release of Susan Atkins and has attended every one of her 17 parole hearings.
Debra Tate, unlike her mother, does not like people having access to the photo’s of what they did to her sister. I just think that should be stated to be fair to her.
I think it is gruesome too—-but it seems that some forget that 8 innocents and a baby were murdered in those most heinous of ways and Susan Atkins deserves NO early release. This would torment the families further, and be a miscarriage of justice.
[WARNING: very distrubing image of what Susan Atkins did to this innocent woman. Susan Atkins believed she could don the pink dress, play the little girl, fool people and get out in 7 years…her words, and they were in writing.]
http://crimeshots.com/TateAutopsy1969R.jpg
Also—-wOw—-I would have selected a picture of the mass murdered the way she was shown when arrested not how they cleaned up her image for court….and made that small in a corner with the larger pictures of ALL of her victims. And/or a more complete report of what she did.
Here’s the real susan atkins: haved head, x-craved into her head, unbowed after mass murdering 8 innocent victims and a baby. In another photos laughing, having repeatedly mocked the victims and their families and bragging about what she did. She went back to the ‘ranch’ after the three separate muderous events and danced and laughed. Leaving behind over 100 devastated family members of her victims.
The relatives, especially of Sharon Tate….to this day…have been forced to relive the massacre and relive all their pain and loss at each and every separate parole hearing for 35 years for all the murderers in an effort to keep them behind bars, and where they belong.
Susan Atkins has repeatedly lied, bragged at how fun it was to kill, and said she began stabbing Sharon Tate because she was ‘tired of listening to the begging and pleading, and pleading and begging. She was sentenced to death and instead got a cushy campus-like one story dorm style prison with park-like shady grounds and where she had a life.
Sharon Tate and her baby about to born were saved til last to hack to death so that she watched and heard, terrorized, as her three close friends viciously murdered first—for sport. Where she is right now is too good for her.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-Manson_girls_shaved2.jpg
http://www.dc.k12.mn.us/MSchool/8th%20Grade/Sparboe/ilp/mansonfollowers….
Keep her in. In my opinion, she’s getting a much easier “way out” than her victims did…I think she should have been put to death long ago. I believe in the death penalty with a little personal addition…I believe the murderers should be put to death EXACTLY the way they killed their victims. Lethal injection is far too humane, so is the electric chair and the gas chamber. Oh, and people who harm or kill children? They should be put in a locked room, naked and handcuffed…with the Mother of said child…who would be armed with a spoon or melon baller….so she could take her time.
J B………My daughter was murdered and two grandchildren kidnapped (1977)
I would not want to be the Mother as you say ‘armed with a spoon or melon baller’
To stoop to the low level of a killer would totally demoralize me. I say stay in Prison. That’s where people like her belong.
When you lose a child or children there is nothing that can make up for that lose……To seek vengence only hurts those who are already in so much pain……..I speak from experience. I almost destroyed my own life for years holding in hate. It was such a blessing when I was able to let go…….and as they say ‘Let God’
I think she’s right where she belongs.
Dona, maybe you and people who have been through that sort of thing are the only people who should speak to this issue. The light must love you so to have brought you through the tunnel to peace.
“only people who should speak to this issue.”
1) It isn’t an “issue” it is the mass murder of 7 completely innocent people including a baby.
2) We citizens have a right to speak, not only here, but also to address the parole board and the court, and the director of prisons, and letters to the editor and whatever else we need to do to help the families keep this murderer of their loved ones in prison.
3) google the crime scene photos and then use the word “principled” in chastising us with more of your moral sanctimony.
4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwsDn3lVg_I Here is Sharon Tate’s sister who has her entire life destroyed by the ghastly, murder of her dead sister and baby.
5) Here is the sweet, beautiful Sharon Tate so excited about her baby, butchered by those animals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZaRDlcPJ2I
I am searching for the email address of the Director of California Prisons so those of us who are still sane can email the woman in charge with our comments and also post the email elsewhere and encourage others to email her too and ensure this mass murderer who stabbed and hung, while she was still alive, this beautiful expectant mother and her baby to death for sport and entertainment and fun….will stay in prison where she belongs for the rest of her life.
I post the email address as soon as I locate it. Thank you for those of you who have respect for these poor victims and the victims families.
EMAIL FORM TO PRISON VICTIM SERVICES FOR YOUR OPINION RE SUSAN ATKINS RELEASE;
http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Victim_Services/ovss_contact_form.asp
Please also Buzz this story so more will come and sign the form and email it to others.
As it stands tonight, the Director of California Prisons has overruled the Corona Facility.
The prisoner’s attorneys will undoubtedly try to go to the Board of Parole and possibly the Court.
Your opinion is taken seriously by the Parole Board and the Court. Please take the time to fill out the form and pass it along.
Thank you.
Dona -I thank you for writing about your loved ones and for explaining what it took for you to reach the place you’ve come to. You have given me the answer I was seeking to this question. Yes, Susan Atkins is right where she belongs but not because of revenge. Because of justice. In prison or out, she will reach the end of her life knowing that she could have spared two others. There is nothing to be gained for anyone by releasing her now.
Maurine, I am so happy to see the issue of justice vs. revenge raised. Eloquently stated.
Maurine you are right that she is where she belongs. Slight correction though, she is in a hospital near the prison and has been since March. And she was convicted of 1st degree murder of 8, not 2, and back then her 8 1/2 month fetus about to be born, and already named Paul, wasn’t counted as a person. Sharon Tate’s mother helped change victims justice and rights laws, as did her sister Patti, and now with both of them dead, Debra Tate carries on. As a result of their work, fetuses are included in murder counts today.