Susan Denise Atkins was an American convicted murderer who was a member of Charles Manson's "Family".
40 Facts About Susan Atkins
2.
Susan Atkins was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment when the California Supreme Court invalidated all death sentences issued prior to 1972.
3.
Susan Atkins was born on May 7,1948, in San Gabriel, California.
4.
Susan Atkins was of English, Irish, Scottish, and German descent.
5.
Susan Atkins 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.
6.
Two weeks before her mother was hospitalized for the final time, Susan Atkins arranged for members of the church choir to sing Christmas carols under her bedroom window.
7.
Susan Atkins took a job during her junior year in school to support herself and Steven.
8.
Susan Atkins had been an average student in Leigh High School in San Jose, but her grades deteriorated when she entered Los Banos High School.
9.
In December 1966, Susan Atkins asked two classmates to go to San Francisco with her over the Christmas school break.
10.
In 1967, Susan Atkins met Manson when he played guitar at the house where she was living with several friends.
11.
Susan Atkins was nicknamed "Sadie Mae Glutz" by Manson and a man who was creating a fake ID for her at the time.
12.
The growing "Manson Family" settled at the Spahn Ranch in the San Fernando Valley in southern California, where, on October 7,1968, Susan Atkins bore a son by Bruce White, whom Manson called Zezozose Zadfrack Glutz.
13.
Susan Atkins's son was adopted and renamed from the time of her incarceration in 1969.
14.
Susan Atkins was still wearing the bloodstained clothing he wore during the crime.
15.
Susan Atkins wrote "PIG" on the front door in Sharon Tate's blood.
16.
Susan Atkins then went back to the car and sent Krenwinkel and Van Houten inside to do as Watson said.
17.
Susan Atkins agreed to testify for the prosecution, in exchange for the State of California not seeking the death penalty against her.
18.
Susan Atkins appeared before a grand jury, and provided extensive testimony concerning the events on the nights of August 8 and 9,1969.
19.
Susan Atkins told the grand jury that she stabbed Frykowski in the legs and held Tate down while Watson stabbed her.
20.
Susan Atkins testified that Tate had pleaded for her life and that of her unborn child.
21.
Susan Atkins denied her earlier statement to Howard and Graham that she had tasted Tate's blood.
22.
Susan 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".
23.
Manson, Krenwinkel, Van Houten, and Susan Atkins went on trial on June 15,1970.
24.
Susan Atkins stated that she had stabbed Tate because she was "sick of listening to her, pleading and begging, begging and pleading".
25.
Susan Atkins claimed " told us that we were going to have to get on the stand and claim we had deliberately and remorselessly, and with no direction from him at all, committed all the murders ourselves".
26.
Susan Atkins was transferred to California's new women's death row in April 1971.
27.
Susan Atkins testified she had not known Hinman was to be robbed or killed, although Atkins subsequently contradicted herself on this point in her 1977 autobiography.
28.
In 1977, Susan 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.
29.
From 1974 onwards, Susan Atkins said she was a born-again Christian after seeing a vision of Jesus Christ in her cell.
30.
Susan Atkins became active in prison programs, teaching classes and received two commendations for assisting in emergency health interventions with other inmates, one of which was a suicide attempt.
31.
Susan Atkins became Laisure's 35th wife, but the two divorced after he sought to marry yet again.
32.
Susan Atkins married a second time, in 1987, to James W Whitehouse, a graduate of Harvard Law School who was 15 years her junior who represented Atkins at her 2000 and 2005 parole hearings.
33.
Susan Atkins maintained a website dedicated to her legal representation.
34.
In 2003, Susan Atkins filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that she was a "political prisoner" due to the repeated denials of her parole requests regardless of her suitability.
35.
On June 1,2005, Susan Atkins had her 17th parole hearing; this resulted in a three-year denial.
36.
Susan Atkins was given less than six months to live and subsequently requested a "compassionate release" from prison.
37.
On September 24,2008, Susan Atkins was transferred back to the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California, to the facility's skilled nursing center.
38.
Susan Atkins died on September 24,2009, at the Central California Women's facility in Chowchilla.
39.
Susan Atkins was portrayed by Nancy Wolfe in the 1976 made-for-TV film Helter Skelter, and by Marguerite Moreau in that film's 2004 remake.
40.
Susan Atkins was played by Maureen Allisse in The Manson Family, by Anjelica Scannura in Manson, My Name Is Evil, by Devanny Pinn in House of Manson, by Ambyr Childers in the 2015 TV series Aquarius, by Sarah Paulson in American Horror Story: Cult, by Kristine Hayworth in Prettyface, by Marianne Rendon in Charlie Says, and by Mikey Madison in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.