Rumor has it that Susan Atkins is dying

[simpilotswife]

Don't know if anyone mentioned this but there was a movie that I watched years ago. It wasn't Helter Skelter (I don't think) but was a documentary about the Manson family. They had interviews with the girls of the group who were holding rifles. It was very creepy.

 

[Todd&Copper]

SHe has been in the hospital for a month and rumor has it it's brain cancer .
I don't care what anyone thinks, but I hope she dies a slow painful death. What goes around comes around I say .


BTW, Susan Atkins is a Mason murderer..The one that Sharon Tate begged to let her and her baby live...Atkins said *****, I don't feel a thing for you..You're gonna die and you'd better be ready..She then helped stab Sharon to death and tasted her blood.

I guess my age (or lack their of) is showing: My first thought on hearing "Susan Atkins" was -is she the widow of the diet doctor?

My wish has always been for people like that to be brutally assaulted every day in prison. Or, that we should use them for medical experimentation.

 

[mom2rb]

Don't know if anyone mentioned this but there was a movie that I watched years ago. It wasn't Helter Skelter (I don't think) but was a documentary about the Manson family. They had interviews with the girls of the group who were holding rifles. It was very creepy.

I saw that one. I think it was called " The Family ". It was filmed during and after the trial and was about the members that weren't in jail. The had so many babies and it freaked me out that they were raising their kids this way.

 

[mickaholic4077]

Actually,I think Dr Atkin's widow's name is Veronica.

BTW, I agree with Jenny. I hope Susan Atkins dies a slow.peinful death.

 

[Pooh Girl 71]

I am usually not one who wants people to die but good riddance I say!

I have been fascinated with Charles Manson and the Family since I was in high school. Manson and Hitler have a lot in common. Both are short statured men, both have these hypnotic eyes that you can even see in pictures and both weren't sure who their fathers were. Hitler thought his dad might be a Jew and Manson thought his dad might be black. Manson had spent almost all of his formative years in prison and actually begged them to keep him there. They had to release him and then the whole Family thing happened and all the murders. They are a sick bunch.

 

[dis ms.]

People here are outraged and sickened reliving what happened over 40 years ago and there's much gnashing of teeth[/B] in speaking about how they're glad this person is dying in a painful way. And here I am. Calm, cool, collected, almost catatonically mellow, with no stomach pains or tenseness in the shoulders upon hearing of this news.

Susan Atkins has done nothing to me. She made a horrifying mistake 40 years ago and has been paying for it ever since. The victims have long since started their new lives elsewhere. The only person I'd be harming by getting all angry, vindictive or even vengefully glee-filled over her further misfortune is myself.

I have more respect for myself than to allow this peaceful easy feeling to ebb away over a blip on the screen that had nothing to do with my life 40 years ago and still has nothing to do with my life today.

I can change nothing in Susan's or her victim's lives. I can, however, impact my own life. I make the everyday choices that allow me to live in a serene state.

Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back. Judging from your obvious lack of knowledge about this case, I'd describe you as calm, cool, collected and ... clueless. I guess ignorance really is bliss.

A horrific mistake?! Give me a break! A nurse giving a patient a fatal dose of the wrong medicine is a horrific mistake. A parent going to work and leaving a baby in the hot car because they forgot it was their day to do drop off is a horrific mistake. Those people caused harm but they lacked intent. Susan Atkins actually intended to kill. See the difference?

I haven't read all the responses, but surely someone has clued you in that Susan's victims are dead. I wouldn't call that getting on with their lives.

Did you seriously just call the Manson murders a "blip on the screen?" To me, your insensitivity and indifference over such a heinous crime is far worse than the anger others are expressing.

 

[SueM in MN]

I have read this book many times over the years and highly recommend it. Don't go by what you saw in the "movie". Bugliosi was the Deputy District Attorney in the Manson trials and gives a thorough accounting of the way Charles Manson controlled his "family" through drugs, brainwashing, and intimidation.

Every aspect of their lives was controlled by Charlie, very much in the way we see today with the polygamists in Texas. As with these people and many other cults, they TRULY believed in everything they were being told and did not dare to question.

Charles Manson believed that the Beatles were messengers from God and that they were communicating to him through their music. They told him that the "black man" was going to start a race war and that they would kill all the white people in the world but that they would be unable govern. They told him that the black people would seek him and his family out in the desert and hand over the reins of power. He preached this dribble constantly, in combination with drugs and brainwashing in the seclusion of a ranch in the desert. Followers were not allowed contact with any outsiders or family. He even renamed everyone. He also threatened to kill followers who tried to leave and some did disappear (Bugliosi speculates that they were either killed or a few managed to escape). What is known is that some simply vanished, never to be seen or heard from again. Many children were born into the family during this time and were moved to different spots to be raised by other followers. Charlie tore these children away in order to control and manipulate their parents. After some time, he became impatient for the war to begin and ordered the killings. He tried to make the murderers look gang related. He thought that the crimes would be blamed on blacks and would "spark" the race war.

For some of his followers, after years in prison, I think his control over them wore off and they began to realize the horror of what they had done. So many lives destroyed on both sides because of Manson. Most of the children born into the family were put up for adoption and their records sealed.

I have watched interviews over the years with several of the woman and do believe they have remorse.

With that said, do I think they should be ever be paroled? Absolutely not!

But I don't think I will be dancing on anyone's grave either.

JMHO.

I read the Helter Skelter book many times and was young (but old enough to know what was on the news) when the murders and trials actually happened. It was a really scary time. No one knew if these were just the isolated murders ordered by a very charismatic crazy man or the start of something much bigger.
So, besides the obvious murder victims and their families, people in general who had no relation to the 'physical victims' were also victims. Kids like me and my friends were afraid that someone might come during the night and murder us in the same random way that those people were murdered.

The 1976 made for TV movie was very faithful to the book (and very scary). Much of the courtroom dialog was actually taken from court transcripts.
I haven't seen the 2004 movie, so I can't speak for how accurate that one was. i'd highly recommend the 1976 movie if you can find it.

 

[mylilnikita]

I was a baby when the murders happened and lived in another country. But I have seen Helter Skelter the 1976 version. What is funny is that "Tex" Watson has been able to have congecal-sorry for the spelling visits, what is up with that?
As for Charles Manson he grew up in the jails so it wasn't a big deal for him to get put back in.
I remember every once a while watching the news when one of them comes up for parole, as if they would get it.
Squeaky Cromwell a Manson follower tried to take out Gerald Ford years ago.
I think the Sharon Tate has been torn down and a new house placed there, but still Abigail Folger and a couple others were killed outside. Then there is the guy who was in the pool house?
I think there has to be something down deep in you to be able to do that and maybe Charlie just brought it out.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I read Helter Skelter in '79, and I remember being so freaked out by it. My parents had kept the news from us when I was younger, and I'm glad they did. I spent weeks looking at people's foreheads to see if they had X's on them (I guess I was naive).

What they did was horrible, and though I don't wish ill on anyone, I won't feel any remorse for Atkins, either.

 

[Cool-Beans]

A horrific mistake?! Give me a break! A nurse giving a patient a fatal dose of the wrong medicine is a horrific mistake. A parent going to work and leaving a baby in the hot car because they forgot it was their day to do drop off is a horrific mistake. Those people caused harm but they lacked intent. Susan Atkins actually intended to kill.

Amen.

I'm so tired of people saying someone "made a mistake" when they didn't. Repeatedly stabbing someone isn't a mistake. She didn't say, "Oops" when she was done.

I'm not happy she's suffering. I'm not crying into my pillow over it, but it doesn't make me happy, either. I did read Helter Skelter but its been 24 years since I read it, so I don't remember much about the case other than they were all nuts and did some vicious stuff.

That "mistake" business always ticks me off, though.

 

[TDC Nala]

The definitive book on the Manson case is "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi (he was the prosecutor on the main trial). The movie some have mentioned is based on that book.

Knocking off at least 8 people (most likely more than that) doesn't sound like it was a mistake.

Squeaky Cromwell a Manson follower tried to take out Gerald Ford years ago.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was caught aiming a gun at President Ford in 1975.

 

[agnes!]

...I remember every once a while watching the news when one of them comes up for parole, as if they would get it.
Squeaky Cromwell a Manson follower tried to take out Gerald Ford years ago. ...

I thought it was Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme?

agnes!

 

[mylilnikita]

It could be, I get names mixed up. Just remember the Squeaky part.lol

 

[SueM in MN]

I thought it was Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme?

agnes!

 

[old lady]

That is too good of a death for her but I heard she became religious and blames everything on Mason.

 

[TDC Nala]

For those who don't know who she is, Susan Atkins was one of four persons (the others were Charles Manson, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten) convicted of the murders of actress Sharon Tate and four others (Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger and Steven Parent) in Los Angeles on August 9, 1969, and the similar murders of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca on August 10. The murders were carried out by what I guess we’d now call “home invasion.;” the victims were repeatedly shot and stabbed. A fifth person, Charles “Tex” Watson, was tried separately after he fled the jurisdiction and fought extradition; a sixth, Linda Kasabian, turned state’s evidence and testified against the rest. Atkins also pleaded guilty to the earlier murder of Gary Hinman, an acquaintance of Manson and his group whom Manson had been trying to shake down for money. Although Manson was not present when any of the murders occurred (he was present prior to the murders at the La Bianca and Hinman residences) he was convicted on the strength of the evidence that he was able to send his followers to do his dirty work.

The former members of the Manson group come up for parole occasionally and none of them have ever achieved it. There's been some talk of possible success in the case of Leslie Van Houten, who participated in two murders, is said to express remorse, and is described as a model prisoner, but the nature of those murders has kept her from getting paroled.

 

[Planogirl]

Does anyone understand why Leslie Van Houten (yes, her again!) was convicted of all the murders when she didn't go to the La Bianca house? I always puzzled over that.

 

[themilesfamily]

Just wanted to add -- it was on the news yesterday that the ranch the Manson "family" lived on is being closed to investigate further for human remains.

They interviewed a man who was on the ranch at that time -- he said that a girl in the family "fell out of favor" with Charlie. The last he saw of her, two family members were leading her away from the ranch buildings -- and when they returned she was gone, never to be seen on the ranch again. He believes she was murdered.

 

[TDC Nala]

Does anyone understand why Leslie Van Houten (yes, her again!) was convicted of all the murders when she didn't go to the La Bianca house? I always puzzled over that.

She did go to the La Bianca house. She stabbed Mrs. La Bianca although she stated that she thought Mrs. La Bianca was already dead when she did it.

She did not go to Sharon Tate's house but she was not convicted of those murders. She was charged and convicted in the La Bianca murders only. She was tried at the same time as Manson, Krenwinkel and Atkins but it was stipulated by both sides in court that evidence in the Tate case was not relevant to the charges against her. (I think that was part of the reason, along with the disappearance of her lawyer in mid-trial, that she got a retrial later on in which she was reconvicted - something about it being prejudicial to her case that she was tried alongside the Tate murderers.)

According to Bugliosi's book, the Tate murders were carried out by Watson, Krenwinkel and Atkins; Linda Kasabian drove them to the house; Manson told them where to go and what to do. The La Bianca murders were carried out by Watson, Krenwinkel and Van Houten. Manson selected the La Bianca house (apparently because it was next door to a house where he'd once attended a party) and made the initial entry, then left. Kasabian was again the driver. Susan Atkins was along with the party but she did not enter the house; she left in the car with Manson and Kasabian. He apparently intended to send Atkins to commit another murder that night but it didn't happen.

 

[christineann]

Those who opine that the murders were "horrific mistakes" should read the book by Vincent Bugliosi. I attended a speech by Mr. Bugliosi when I was in college in the late 1970's, and it was frightening. I also attended a speech by Truman Capote, who interviewed Manson in prison and when asked about it, he paused for what seemed like an eternity to us and said that Manson is "a waste of human tissue."

As long as none of the murderers are never released from prison, I'm comfortable leaving the rest up to God!