Tag: Susan Atkins

The Associated Press reports that Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson whose remorseless witness stand confession to killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 shocked the world, has died. She was 61 and had been suffering from brain cancer.

Atkins’ death comes less than a month after a parole board turned down the terminally ill woman’s last chance at freedom on Sept. 2. She was brought to the hearing on a gurney and slept through most of it.

California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said that Atkins died late Thursday night. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008, had a leg amputated and was given only a few months to live.

For the second time in as many years, a state parole board voted unanimously Wednesday to deny one of Charles Manson’s fiercest followers her request for a “compassionate release” so that she can die at home.

Former Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said it was time for the state to show Atkins mercy.

L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and other prosecutors are urging the state parole board to deny a ‘compassionate release’ to the Charles Manson follower who has terminal brain cancer.

Atkins and other members of Manson’s cult were convicted in seven murders during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area over two nights in 1969. Actress Sharon Tate, the wife of film director Roman Polanski, was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she and four others were killed at her hilltop home in Benedict Canyon.