Susan Atkins
Susan Denise Atkins was an American convicted murderer who was a member of Charles Manson's "Family". Manson's followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in California over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969. Known within the Manson family as Sadie, Sadie Glutz, Sadie Mae Glutz or Sexy Sadie, Atkins was convicted for her participation in eight of these killings, including the most notorious, the Tate murders in 1969. She was sentenced to death, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment when the California Supreme Court invalidated all death sentences issued prior to 1972. Atkins was incarcerated until her death in 2009. At the time of her death, she was California's longest-serving female inmate, since surpassed by fellow Manson family members Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel.
Early life
Atkins was born on May 7, 1948, in San Gabriel, California. She was of English, Irish, Scottish, and German descent. The second of three children, she grew up in northern California. According to Atkins, her parents, Jeanne and Edward John Atkins, were alcoholics. Her mother died of cancer in 1964. Over the next three years, Susan's life was disrupted by the gradual breakup of her family, frequent relocations, and her leaving home to live independently. Until she was 13 years old, Atkins and her family lived in a middle class home in the Cambrian Park area of San Jose, California. She was described by those who knew her as a quiet, self-conscious girl who belonged to her school's glee club and the local church choir. Two weeks before her mother was hospitalized for the final time, Susan arranged for members of the church choir to sing Christmas carols under her bedroom window. After Jeanne Atkins's death, relatives were asked to help look after Susan and her two brothers.Edward 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, Edward left the two children behind to fend for themselves. Susan took a job during her junior year in school to support herself and Steven. 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.
In December 1966, Atkins asked two classmates to go to San Francisco with her over the Christmas school break. In early 1967 she was working as a stripper in Los Angeles, and Anton LaVey hired her for a performance. Later in 1967, Atkins met 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 Atkins 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 nicknamed "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 was Jesus. The growing "Manson Family" settled at the Spahn Ranch in the San Fernando Valley in southern California, where, on October 7, 1968, Atkins bore a son by Bruce White, whom Manson called Zezozose Zadfrack Glutz. Atkins's parental rights were terminated once she was convicted of the murders, and no one in her family would assume responsibility for the child. Her son was adopted and renamed from the time of her incarceration in 1969. She had no further contact with him.
Murder of Gary Hinman
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 Family member Charles "Tex" Watson led Manson to confront and shoot a man named Bernard "Lotsapoppa" Crowe. Manson believed he had killed Crowe, and he further believed Crowe was a Black Panther. Neither was true. Nonetheless, Manson feared retaliation from the Black Panthers and pressured his followers for more money.During this time someone suggested that Family acquaintance Gary Hinman had just inherited a large sum of money. Manson hoped Hinman could be persuaded to join the commune and contribute his purported new inheritance.
Manson sent Atkins, Bobby Beausoleil, and Mary Brunner to Hinman's home on July 25, 1969. When Hinman said that he had not inherited any money, Beausoleil beat him severely. When Hinman still insisted that he had no inheritance, Manson showed up in person 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 fatally stabbed him twice. Beausoleil left a bloody hand print on the wall along with the words "Political Piggy" reportedly placed there in hopes of implicating the Black Panthers. Beausoleil was arrested on August 7, 1969, when he was found asleep in one of Hinman's vehicles. He was still wearing the bloodstained clothing he wore during the crime. The murder weapon was hidden in the tire well of the car's trunk.
Sharon Tate and 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 Charles "Tex" Watson and do as they were told. In Atkins's 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.On the night of August 10, 1969, Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, Watson, Linda Kasabian, Leslie Van Houten, and Steve "Clem" Grogan, went to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Manson and Watson entered the home and tied the couple up. He then went back to the car and sent Krenwinkel and Van Houten inside to do as Watson said.
Atkins wrote "PIG" on the front door in Sharon Tate's blood.
Motivation
In later years, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi stated that he believed the murders had numerous, disparate motives, all of which he believed served to benefit Manson. Atkins stated that she wanted to commit a crime that would shock the world.Arrest and jailhouse confession
On August 16, 1969, the police raided Spahn's Ranch 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, raided the new location in October 1969, and arrested the group again on auto theft and arson 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.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. They subsequently reported her statements to the authorities. This, combined with information from other sources, led to the arrests of Atkins and others involved in the Tate/LaBianca murders.
Virginia Graham and Ronnie Howard later received the bulk of the $25,000 reward offered by Roman Polanski for solving the murder case. Their testimony was corroborated by extensive forensic evidence, the testimony of Linda Kasabian, and the grand jury testimony of Atkins herself.
Grand jury testimony
Atkins agreed to testify for the prosecution, in exchange for the State of California not seeking the death penalty against her. Atkins appeared before a grand jury, and provided extensive testimony concerning the events on the nights of August 8 and 9, 1969.When asked if she were willing to testify, knowing that she was not being given immunity, and might incriminate herself in her trial testimony, she responded, "I understand this, and my life doesn't mean that much to me. I just want to see what is taken care of."
Atkins's grand jury testimony was extremely lurid, and provides remarkable details concerning the Tate murders. Atkins told the grand jury that she stabbed Frykowski in the legs and held Tate down while Watson stabbed her. She also testified that Tate had pleaded for her life and that of her unborn child. In response, Atkins replied, "Woman, I have no mercy for you." She told the grand jury that her words were intended to reassure herself, and not addressed to Tate. Atkins also denied her earlier statement to Howard and Graham that she had tasted Tate's blood.
Prior to the trial, Atkins repudiated her grand jury testimony in a written statement filed with the court, and discontinued her cooperation with the prosecution. As a result, the State of California sought the death penalty in her case.
Atkins alleged that the reason that she repudiated her grand jury testimony was that "Manson sent his followers to suggest that it might be better for me and my son if I decided not to testify against him".
There is an ongoing debate as to the exact details of the killings, and the accuracy of Atkins's grand jury testimony. In the book, Helter Skelter, the prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi wrote that he viewed Atkins's testimony as "substantially truthful," with a few omissions concerning the events of the second night.
However, Atkins herself later gave a slightly different account of the crimes. In a 1976 interview, after she had become a born-again Christian, Atkins claimed that she did not actually stab anyone during the Tate murders, and that Watson was responsible for the murder of Sharon Tate. In his 1978 memoir, Watson declared himself responsible for all of Tate's injuries, characterizing Atkins's initial confessions as exaggeration, jail house bragging, and a bid for attention.
From the early 1970s onward however, Atkins had told parole boards that her original grand jury testimony was truthful and accurate as to what transpired in the Tate home; however, it didn't completely match the forensics and autopsy reports.