Susan Atkins has died of brain cancer in the Chowchilla, California prison. She died on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 11:46 pm. She was 61-years-old. The notorious ‘Manson Girl’ was thought by many to have been the most cold blooded member of the Mason Family.
Susan Atkins
May 7, 1948 - September 24, 2009
Susan Atkins was originally sentenced to death for her participation in the Tate-LaBianca murders during the summer of 1969. In 1972, the California Supreme Court ruled the state’s death penalty unconstitutional and her sentence was converted to life in prison. Yesterday, she finally completed both sentences when she died in prison from brain cancer.
Susan Denise Atkins was known as Sadie Mae Glutz within the Mason Family. It’s a name given to her by Charlie Manson. She was imprisoned in 1971 making her the longest-serving female prisoner in California after being convicted of eight murders. She served 38 years in prison. Now that she has died, her fellow Manson Girl convicted of the same murders, Patricia Krenwinkel, holds that position.
While traveling around the country, Susan gave birth to a baby boy. Manson named the boy Zezozose Zadfrack Glutz. He would be 41-years-old now. Fortunately, he was adopted and his name was changed when she was put in prison and he was just one year old. She had no contact with him after that.
During her time in prison she claimed to have found Christ, as many prisoners do. She published a book about her life and conversion to Christianity in 1977 titled, ‘Child of Satan, Child of God’. She married Donald Laisure in 1981. He had been married 35 times before and that marriage didn’t last long. In 1987 she married James W. Whitehouse, who represented her in her later parole hearings and attempted to plea for a ‘compassionate release’ when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. He was unsuccessful in any attempts to have her released from prison.
Atkins was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008 and admitted to the prison’s medical facility in May 2008. The doctors gave her about six months to live at the time. She applied for compassionate release shortly after that, but was denied. She was moved to the facilities hospice a few days ago when it became apparent that her death was imminent.
Various members of the Manson Family have been reported to be ‘longing for freedom’. The woman who most people see as the most dangerous and scary of the Manson Women has finally gotten out of prison.
Now, she will have to answer to a higher authority for the crimes she committed. Perhaps God will have more mercy on her soul than she showed to her victims.
At her parole board hearing in 1993, an official asked Atkins if Tate said anything to her in her last moments.
“She asked me to let the baby live,” Atkins said tearfully. “I told her I didn’t have mercy for her.”
You can read her biography here.
Susan Atkins - Video
September 26th, 2009 at 11:30 am
It seems incredibly obssessive compulsive and stingy on the part of our law and order society to insist on making this dying person die in one of its prisons versus the compassionate release crippled to a bed after serving nearly 40 years in prison. sounds like the kind of sentence Stalin would have imposed on a political enemy. most people convicted of 1st degree murder, as far as I know, average 7 year terms. I guess the message is don’t mess with Hollywood.
September 26th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Brian - you’re right. They should have released her to your house and let her live with you. You’d have taken care of the little sociopath, I’m sure.
For that matter they should release Charlie Manson - he’s spent almost his entire life in prison - he was born in prison. HE should come live with you or next door to you.
September 26th, 2009 at 11:57 am
man, its so easy to judge others and keep flogging them. I am a law and order person but I see some very antidemocratic dangerous trends. well she had a husband and a few others to take care of her and she was bedridden with only a few months left to live. The state of california punished her for 40 years and kept her out of sight. even the warden agreed. well I don’t see much reason to release him as he hasn’t requested and he is in a whole different dept. But the whole idea of a parole board is to assess each applicant “individually” in its due process and due diligence. They let gang banger murderers out in under a decade, so….again I guess the message is, don’t mess with Hollywood.
September 26th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
She died in prison as she should have. She was already shown compassion when her sentence was changed to life. It does not matter that she was no longer a danger, it would have been an insult and a injustice to the victims and their families. None of them should ever be released.
September 26th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
man You Americans are so obssessed with judging others and punishing others, without regard to reason or compassion, that I really do think you have a mean condition which in my book doesn’t amke you much different from them. you just look for legal ways to inflict your pain and tortures. they didn’t. morally thats about the only difference. but you both sought out the vulnerable to punish for your own demons. grow up a little and maybe become a little bit evolved. nobody should be tormented.
September 27th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Brain,
You are so ate up with your own B.S. intellectualizing about such things as “judgement” and “compassion” but for those of us who lived through this it is not an intellecual excerise. Real people died and real lives were destroyed. I realize that Susan Atkins as well as the other women seem to have salvaged something worthwhile out of thier lives. I commend them for doing so, however they should only be allowed to do so within the confines of a prison. So again I say, none of them should ever be released.
Mike
September 27th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Don’t use lame right wing humiliation tactics with me. that’s retarded as it gets. The reason that you see a “need” to keep them in prison forever doesn’t speak well of you or your soul. Why are you americans so mean. what is this intense need you have to imprision the entire world? its not healthy. And why do you have a dishonest parole process that doesn’t really offer the true possibility of parole to “certain select” prisoners who give you everything you demand of them in prison. Have you people no honor? honorable people keep their word in an honest society.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:32 am
“Right wing humiliation tactics” you lost me there. I am not talking about the entire world. I am talking about those responsible for the Tate-La Bianca murders. A few points to consider
1. These people may indeed be changed people. However there was something inside of them that allowed them to commit those crimes. I never bought the “Manson mind control thing” . Mansons influence was a componet yes, but as Mnason himself said “they only did what was in them already to do”. So in the same way a sober alcoholic is still an alcoholic there is still something dangerous in these people.
Also they know that their only hope for parole is to have “changed” they are not dumb. By the way I have spent some time in the California prison system (yes, as an inmate) so I know the game.
2. These people were originally sentenced to death. That was what they desered. Just because the state of California changed their sentences to life with the possibility of parole that doesn’t make it right. They should of been executed. At a minimum they should of got life without parole, but they were not so now we have go through this ritual of parole hearing every few years. Also you are correct the parole board are political appointments so the potentail for corruption does exist. However that does not change the fact that for whatever reason they are denied parole they still should not be released. A corruption parole system is a different conversation.
3. Evan in the case of Atkins who was clearly not a danger in her condition, her life was spared and she was given the opportunity to make right her relationship with God. That was more than her victims ever had a chance to do. She needed nor deserved any further “compassion”.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:56 am
It is a corrupted parole system as its predetermined who will get out and who won’t. Its very clear to them at the time of their appointment and if you watch the youtube videos of parole hearings with the three woman still in you can see they are total pawns. Violence is in us all or you could not train average citizens to be dedicated soldjiers who kill on command in time of war. They are in a different cluture than the girls were, but its really not so different. violence as many star trek shows highlighted is in all of us and we all have a dark side, except many ignore it, and most deny it. therefore its easy to project that dark side on a convienent victim, a witch, a criminal, a politically different person, a hippie, a homeless, a different race, or country or whatever. the average person fights their own demons in other people unfortunate to be targeted. that is what they did, that is what society is doing to them. But in the end our prison system reflects us and whether as a society we have integrity. the parole board is running a hoax as frankly these girls are smart enough to deliver pretty much what it wants as far as following through on its requirements to achieve parole. these girls were not the masterminds, but impaired 20 year olds under careful mindwashing control at the time. they lacked judgement. normal first murderers in california are all released by now, so you know there is a political decision to imprison their bodies and souls till they expire. that is extremely sadistic and makes a mockery of everything. Its just about who controls the keys, not about who maintains their integrity. The families have recieved plenty of justice at this point, but to relentlessly keep torturing people who have followed thru on their parole requirements is dishonest. what good is a dishonest prison system>? If you truely believe one or more of them is not fullfilling the parole requirements that is a different issue.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Brian, where is your compassion for the victims of these crimes? Have you no compassion? Have you no heart? What does that say about your soul that you have no feeling for the victims of the crimes.