Susan Atkins and her husband James Whitehouse
From the Associated Press:
Susan Atkins, the terminally ill Charles Manson follower who admitted stabbing actress Sharon Tate 40 years ago, lost what was likely to be her last bid for freedom Wednesday.
Atkins, who suffers from brain cancer, slept through most of the four-hour hearing during which her husband-lawyer pleaded for her release and families of victims of the Sharon Tate-Labianca killings urged that she be kept behind bars until she dies.
[…]
Atkins, 61, had been expected to die of brain cancer over a year ago but continues to cling to life. She also had a leg amputated.
She was denied compassionate release in July, 2008 after she was diagnosed and given only months to live. Wednesday’s hearing at the Central California Women’s Facility at Chowchilla was her regular parole hearing as a life prisoner.
Jeralyn Merritt disagrees with the parole board:
She is dying of cancer, paralyzed and several years ago had a leg amputated. She’s no threat to society. Susan Atkins was sentenced to life with parole — not life without parole. They are not the same thing.
Well boo-fucking-hoo:
She stands convicted of the seven Tate-LaBianca murders, one of the most notorious mass murders in California history.
[…]
Atkins admitted stabbing Tate to death as Tate begged for her life and that of her unborn son.
I don’t believe in the death penalty but I do believe in life in prison. There is no question of Atkins’ guilt and she should die behind bars along with Charlie, Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie Van Houten and Tex Watson . She is not a nice little old lady, she is a mass murderer and she forfeited her right to freedom.
BTW – Atkins is staying at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, California. That’s about 20 minutes south of my hometown.
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The Confluence 
Murder is the big kahuna. It should be a one-way ticket to the Gray Bar hotel.
Let’s not forget that Jeralyn considered Troopergate a major offense.
Let’s not forget that Jeralyn considers being conservative while having a vagina a major offense as well. Once you go off the deep end with such unbridled insanity like she’s exhibited, you have no credibility in anything else.
I completely agree with you, myiq. Die behind bars, girl!
The one I find most haunting is Patty Krenwinkle. While attending one of the toniest high schools in the L.A. area (University High kids had, and probably still have, a rep for being snobs), she was routinely derided for having too many pounds and too much body hair. She runs into Charlie, who takes her out for donuts and tells her that she’s beautiful.
That’s all it took. Everyone talks about Charlie as a master manipulator. But it was all just a matter of donuts and compliments.
From Wiki:
Something else had to be going on there though–most likely in her family.
I’m very happy that Atkins didn’t get out. Let her die in prison for what she did. I think it’s terrible that Watson has children her fathered in prison! I’m totally against releasing Leslie van Houten too, even though she has charmed some prominent people like John Waters into advocating for her.
Remember when Norman Mailer and his pals managed to get Jack Henry Abbot out of jail? Six weeks later, he stabbed and killed someone.
I’m not worried about Atkins committing another murder. I just think anyone who commits a crime like that should never get out of prison alive.
I agree. I didn’t mean to suggest that she would be able to murder someone else. But once you’ve crossed that line, I don’t think you should be freed just because you got sick.
I was just comparing John Waters’ advocacy for Leslie van Houten with what Norman Mailer did. I don’t care what anyone says, I still don’t see any real remorse from van Houten. If she wants to do some good things in prison, that’s fine. I just don’t want her to get out of prison.
Someone who was genuinely remorseful wouldn’t want out.
You all seem to be under some misapprehension that she actually stabbed Tate – or anyone to death. At the grand jury, after her son was adopted in 72′ and up till now she told the truth that she never stabbed Tate. Only at trial under duress of Manson did she say on oath that she stabbed. Retracted soon after under oath – so its back to the grand jury version. Corroborated by co-offender Tex Watson taking full responsibility for Tate in hid 78 book, and the turn up of forensic evidence in 92 – her knife that had been lost at scene and tested negative for blood. She did not do the crime of the century, no kill, no rape, no child molest etc etc, just guarded victims for the real killers, yet many worse murderers have been released by Calif. the last 40 years. Moral of the story is leave Hollywood royalty alone or you’ll never get out at your due date.
If she can appeal and the case is made and proved, then she’s only guilty of aiding and abetting and other related crimes. Then I’d say she has a good case for getting out on parole. But that hasn’t happened. So until that happens, I tend to believe her and everyone else’s first testimony. My fish stories change as the years go by too, you want to remember the first one usually.
Respectfully, I disagree. So does Vincent Bugliosi who prosecuted the case.
Forty years ago, Sexy Sady was a drugged up little monster but this dying woman threatens no one and we should show some compassion to one who did not.
Too bad Atkins couldn’t dangle some oil contracts to Auhnold, that might have been her ticket to the hospice.
Anyway, that’s my ten cents (inflation)
I disagree with most here. What she did was despicable and deserves incarceration. However, she is no threat. She’s costing us many bucks in prison. Let her out on the condition that she (includes family members) gets no money for her story or she loses her parole.
It wouldn’t be “sending a message” one way or another. Let her husband take care of her.
When do we let Charlie out too?
When I was a teenager I was being trained as many do even today to work in the medical field as an entry way into what may hold your interest. On my first day of inservice training my two trainers sent me in to answer a little Ole ladies call button. There were three ladies in the room as is the custom in large facilities.
When I went in, she spoke very quietly and I couldn’t hear her. She gestured for me to get closer, and I did. At that point she grabbed my neck and proceeded to choke me, at which point the two trainers walked in laughing. I was very small, weighed no more than 104 lbs at the time and if it weren’t for my horrid trainers I wouldn’t have been able to have released myself from her grip.
The experience left me shaken and those trainers never saw me smile ever in their presence. Today they would have been brought up on charges of abuse of a minor. As it turned out, after they saw I was not laughing, they explained that she was a released murderer and there she was in a convalescent hospital with all the other seniors and disabled patients that hadn’t a clue as I.
The laws have changed since then, and violent criminals aren’t supposed to be in the general population in facilities. I frankly believe that violent prisoners need to remain with people that understand their behaviors, albeit in a humane fashion.
The experience so affected me, that even today I won’t get close to people I meet out and about, as I lost that trust.
She is a violent criminal…I do believe that is why they lock up violent people, because their psychology doesn’t change just because they are physically ill. Just look at the photo, there is a guard there while the other lady is assisting her…there was no guard present when I got close to hear the criminal years ago, as she requested, only to be choked.
What an awful experience.
I agree that getting old and/or sick doesn’t usually change a person for the better. On the contrary, being in pain can bring out negative behavior in even well-socialized people, how much more in violent people.
I don’t believe in the death penalty but I do believe in life in prison. There is no question of Atkins’ guilt and she should die behind bars along with Charlie, Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie Van Houten and Tex Watson . She is not a nice little old lady, she is a mass murderer and she forfeited her right to freedom.
Ditto. Years ago Atkins became a born-again Christian. Why is it that so many of these types think that it is their “get out of jail free” card? Life in prison, means life in prison. Render unto Caesar and all that.
I believe in the life plus 1 day prison sentence.
She had many more years of life then the victims. Whether or not she did the actual stabbing by guarding them she helped in their deaths.
There has to be accountability for actions.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
I looked at that picture and thought: This incarcerated woman who butchered a pregnant woman and other innocents is allowed to get married but I can’t because I’m gay.
Jerilyn Merrit loves perpetrators. They keep her employed.
Good point. If there was ever a good example of the complete insanity of marriage laws and customs, this is it.
Jeralyn crosses the line in terms of the sympathy she has for murderers. What really bothers me is that she attacks victims’ families when they are only seeking justice.
I bet Jeralyn also agreed with the release of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie Pan Am bomber, who killed 103 in the sky. That’s why I didn’t see her opinion on the matter when it was headline news a few weeks ago. She probably knew that if she gave her honest opinion tons of reasonable people would’ve left her site in anger.
She’s ridiculous.
“Life in prison” should mean just that – the person will stay in prison until they die.
That implies that the person will one day be old and sick.
“the release of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie Pan Am bomber, who killed 103 in the sky. ”
Actually, there’s very strong evidence that he was innocent, which is why the Scottish courts released him. We still don’t know who really committed that crime.