THE MARRIAGE OF SUSAN "HONEYBEAR" ATKINS

My first interests in true crime and serial killers began about 15 years ago after walking into the Museum of Death when it was located downtown in San Diego, California. I was a barber in the Navy at the time and I had just been stationed on 32nd street on a small Frigate and did not know anyone in the area. I was unfamiliar with San Diego and I would often wander around downtown when I was on liberty looking for excitement. It was an easy destination to go to and I didn't have any fear of getting lost in the city as I knew where the trolley stops were to get back.

The experience for me when I entered the museum would probably be best described like dropping acid for the first time.  It changed me. It made me aware of things around me that I never used to pay that much attention to. Death was in the air. I could smell it and feel it everywhere. I learned that the building had once been used as a mortuary. There used to be dead bodies stored where I was standing.  In the hallway, I examined a picture of a couple who had decapitated the woman’s husband and had taken pictures of themselves posing and laughing with the head. There was a prison shirt on display of someone who had been executed by the electric chair and it was stained with what looked like mustard. The antique embalming equipment made me shudder and cringe. I walked around a corner to discover a crazy collection of artwork done by serial killers. The collection included a drawing by Richard Ramirez of a refrigerator full of body parts. Most of the artwork looked like it had been done by a bunch of very disturbed and demented 4th graders. I spent a lot of time in there and got lost in reading all of the letters.

I began visiting the museum often after that first visit. It later expanded and then moved up to Hollywood in which it was terribly depressing to see it go. As it moved on, much of my interest did too at the time.

Years later, last Christmas to be exact, my wife gave me a piece of artwork by Charles Manson that she had obtained somehow. I freaked. My mind went nuts and it fired my interest up all over again. We both spent days together having fun watching videos on Youtube and trying to read as much as we could about "Helter Skelter" and the Manson trials. Each video and transcript would lead to another with more characters and questions, as we wondered to ourselves what really happened. It was like watching the Wizard of Oz for the first time... only more challenging with having to go on a wild goose chase to find all the parts to watch.

Amongst our searching we came across some old news footage of Susan Atkins first marriage and it was there that we both nearly flipped our lids. On September 9th 1981, Atkins married a self proclaimed Texan millionaire by the name of Donald Lee "Flash" Lai$ure. He was so rich and eccentric that the guy signed his name with a dollar sign. Donald claimed to have met Susan while taking pictures beside a California freeway in 1965. He said that Atkins drove up in a Corvette Stingray and said "God, you're a beautiful man”. Donald Lee Laisure experienced love at first sight and started communicating with Susan with ESP.

"Only God could possess the creativity to produce the beauty that is the ultra-beautiful incomparable Susan "HoneyBear" Atkins", Laisure told the local newspaper. Donald was 52 years old, while Susan was 33 at the time. 

On the day of the wedding, larger than the state of Texas and bigger than life,  Donald drove up to the California Institute for Women in a slick shiny rust-brown Fleetwood Cadillac equipped with multiple short wave sets, CB radios, and two mobile telephones. The interior of the car was gold plated with pictures of various women including Atkins and the words "Susan Denise Atkins aka Sadie Mae Glutz, 21 - murderer" lining the windows. His bumper stickers read "Filthy rich Oil Lai$ure", "Billionaire" and "Honey Bear Atkins."  He wore an orange leisure suit, a huge gold belt buckle, and a western cowboy hat. He waved a giant Texas flag with a cigar dangling from his mouth and sported a fat money clip of hundred dollar bills. It was reported that he designed the French blue satin gown that Susan wore at the ceremony with a price tag of $6,000 in 1981.  It was sewn together by a lady in New Jersey. Susan Atkins wore a crucifix with crosses in her ears.

"I would gladly face a firing squad without a blindfold if the state would release my bride to be", Donald told the cameras.

"Susan is not the girl she was before. She's a different woman. She's changed…and besides... she's not guilty. She's not guilty in the eyes of God. She's not guilty in the eyes of me, because I know she's innocent… but even if she was guilty, it doesn't make any difference to me because I love her.”

Donald Laisure described himself as an oil rich unemployed millionaire with "999 million plus and seven times that in foreign countries".

When asked if he was a billionaire by a reporter, his response was quite frank.

"I don't know. You take 999 million and you add about a million to it and what do you got?"

"A billion. Do you have a billion?"

"Well, I'd hate to stop short even at a billion. I think I can cover that easy".

"You think you can write a check for a billion?"

"I don't write checks, sir. No sir. Depending on who you are and I show that kind of money, you would have to be somebody who I owed that kind of money to. A cash transaction like Howard Hughes would make at the airport... in the middle of the night."

Inside the prison, Susan Atkins disavowed her former confession of the five murders she claimed to have committed.

"God knows in my heart. He knows I did not kill anybody and Donald Lee Laisure Sr. knows in my heart. He knows I did not kill anybody and that's all that matters to me", she explained to reporters.

Donald Lee Laisure boasted that he had enough money and political connections to win a pardon for Susan Atkins, “even if it means going to the White House".

He had claimed that he had more than a dozen prominent lawyers nationwide working on the case and read her psychic readings. He was convinced she did not commit the murders. He vowed to "spend 50 million" to get her out of prison and had started to make plans to build a 12 million dollar solar house near the prison while awaiting her release.

"It's just a love story and I'm gonna be with her to the end of time."

"I personally don't think she is guilty of anything. I know when she is getting out. It's going to be a whole lot sooner than anybody thinks. It's going to be a pardon. You can quote me on that”, he explained with his psychic ability.

The private wedding ceremony lasted nearly an hour and began at 2:55 pm on September 9, 1981 at the California Institute for Women in Frontera, California. Donald gave Susan a diamond ring that was 3.9 carats, while his diamond ring was reported to be 12 carats. The Texas Flag was hung in the background with additional pictures of the two taken while holding it. Donald had been married 35 times prior and Susan Atkins was his 36th wife. The day of the wedding, he said that the couple received a wedding gift from his "good friend" Fidel Castro. Donald insisted that “the last thing she and I wanted was publicity."

"If you want to be nice to me, just stress the love part of it... This is definitely, absolutely the last one."

Three months after their marriage, Susan learned that Donald Laisure did not have the wealth he claimed to, nor was she aware of all of his previous marriages and had decided to divorce him.

What happened during their conjugal visits after they got married seems to be a mystery to date. In the book "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi, it mentions that during the visits at the Prison Family Living Unit Apartments she told him to "go back to Texas", concluding that "the marriage was a drastic mistake", and that a year later Laisure filed for divorce. The word "visits" seems to imply that he was there for more than just one visit. Other sources from the Correctional Institute, point out that she gave him the boot after the first conjugal visit due to being sleep deprived after listening to his constant ranting. A few years later, Donald Lee Laisure appeared on a television talk show and said that during the honeymoon at the prison on the fourth day, he had been stabbed by her and that he had the scar to prove it. He then lifted his shirt for everyone to see on national television.

"My rib deflected it. It's the only thing that saved me", he confessed. "I never brought this to the attention of the authorities all this time. In fact we covered it up. I didn't want to hurt her chances at parole..." He later went on to explain that Susan told him how she had stabbed Sharon Tate with violent stabbing motions he made in the air on the show.

"At the time, the situation was different; but over the years I've learned. She's strictly a cold blooded killer and that is exactly what she is.”, he told the audience.

Donald filed for divorce in Hunt County, Texas. He also claimed to have obtained a Cuban divorce in February 1982, personally signed by Fidel Castro. Three months later he announced he had plans to marry an Albuquerque flight attendant.  

Susan Atkins explained to the prison staff that she had made a mistake and had a lack of judgment.  She stopped writing to pen pals for a few years after that. At age 39, Atkins married again to 24 year old James W. Whitehouse in 1987.

In September of 2009, Donald Laisure gave an interview to the Houston Press and explained that he had also met Susan at an airport where he kept a private jet. He later said that he was an heir to an oil business, as well as a retired General Officer of the U.S. Marine Corps. 

Two months prior, in July of 2009 the Marine Corps Times published an article about Donald Lee Laisure, stating that "Donald Laisure Sr. has a biography that could wow nearly anyone".

His name was listed in the 2009 Marine Corps Association Directory as a retired four-star General earning the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, and an Air Medal. His 54 year long career included service in Vietnam, Panama, and the Persian Gulf. He then became the CEO and chairman of the board at Laisure Oil Refinery & Production Company in Greenville, Texas.

"It's a great story of a self-made man making it big..."

"Too bad it's not true."

Donald was questioned about his past military history and insisted it was all legitimate. After being pressed, he later stated that he was never an officer and served less than a year active duty as a Private.

"I've always admired the Marine Corps and I hope I've done no harm", he explained.

"I guess I just wanted to be something I wasn't."

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Additional artists note.

Within the painting of Donald Laisure and Susan Atkins, I included Susan Atkins wearing a modern formal white gown. No disrespect to Mr. Laisure and his design of the original satin blue gown he made for his bride. I just could not bring myself to paint a picture of her wearing it. Perhaps it was the 1980's style or maybe the angle of the camera, but it looked god awful.