Susan Atkins, Charles Manson cult member, dies in jail
Atkins was imprisoned in 1971 for her part in eight murders by the cult including the most not rious killing of actress Sharon Tate.
The former stripper was 21 when Manson sent her and other followers to the Los Angeles hom e Tate shared with director Roman Polanski having ordered them to kill.
Polanski was away but the heavily pregnant Tate and four friends were brutally stabbed, beate n and shot to death.
Atkins, who Manson called “Sexy Sadie”, later said she personally stabbed Tate after ignorin g her pleas for mercy and boasted of tasting the actress’s blood.
She was convicted with Manson and two other women - Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwi nkel.
In a macabre trial which fascinated America for 10 months the “Manson girls” shaved their h eads, carved Xs on their foreheads and sang songs Manson had written.
Atkins told the court: “You'd best lock your doors and watch your own kids.”
>>1つづき All four were given death sentences which were later commuted to life.
During her 38 years in jail Atkins renounced Manson and became a Christian.
At a 1993 parole hearing she described her time with Manson by saying: “It is almost impossib le to understand insanity and that's what I was living with - insanity.”
She had been suffering from brain cancer which had caused her to be paralysis and the amput ation of one of her legs.
Three weeks ago she was wheeled into a parole hearing but prison officials rejected her reques t to be freed so she would not have to die in prison. She died at the Central California Women's facility in Chowchilla.
Her husband James Whitehouse, a lawyer who represented her, said: “Susan passed away pe acefully surrounded by friends and loved ones. Her last whispered word was 'Amen'. No-one on the face of the Earth worked as hard as Susan did to right an unrightable wrong.”
Stephen Kay, who prosecuted Atkins, said: “She was the scariest of the Manson girls. She wa s very violent.”