WHAT LED SUSAN ATKINS TO KILL?

Article BY Charlotte Gledson - Art by SIONA MORROW

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It was an unbelievable event that quaked and disturbed the history of modern America leaving a nasty scar within the psyche of its people and around the world.

The motiveless ghastly killings carried out by those that advocated the principles of free love and communal living, contradicting the original message, in the most obscene manner helped America to rapidly change the general social attitude.

The activities of Charles Manson and his ‘family’ marked the end of a naïve period of history and forced the nation to accept the harsh realities of racially and class motivated crimes.

The ‘Manson Murders’, were the most brutal and talked about crimes of the 1960’s.

In the early hours of August 9th 1969, Sharon Tate, wife of film director Roman Polanski, and her friends Jay Sebring; a successful hairstylist, Abigail Folger; a wealthy coffee heiress and her boyfriend, Wojciech Frykowski, were viciously slain.

Teenager Steve Parent was also another innocent victim of this hideous crime.

The elaborate estate at 10050 Cielo Drive, in which Sharon and her friends were staying, belonged to record producer Terry Melcher (son of Doris Day).

Melcher had leased the property out to Roman Polanski who at the time of the massacre was away in London filming.

Previously Terry Melcher had connections with an eccentric and budding musician named Charles Manson, who had hoped to make a record on Melchers’ final approval.

Melcher declined, leaving Charles Manson bitter and enraged.

One afternoon in March 1969, five months before the murders, Manson called looking for Melcher to talk about resurrecting his potential record contract.

Melcher was not present as by this time he had leased the estate to Polanski and Tate. Manson was greeted by photographer Shahrokh Hatami who was at the property to photograph Sharon Tate before her departure for Rome. Gazing from a window Sharon had watched Manson talking to Hatami, feeling unnerved at the sinister visitor who she described as ‘a creepy looking guy’.

Manson felt incensed. He ordered members of his ‘Family’ to go to 10050 Ceilo Drive and to “totally destroy everyone inside, as gruesome as you can." 

On that fateful night in August 1969, four members of ‘The Family’ on Manson’s instruction drove to the property with the intent to kill and rob.

The visitors that night were Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins – also known as Sadie Mae Glutz. Linda Kasabian also accompanied the trio to the property. The agreement had been that she would act as lookout and driver.

High on acid, they walked towards the tall embankment which they climbed in order to avoid the high security gates. Watson scaled the telegraph pole and systematically cut the wires. The four of them then walked down the dimly lit driveway where they met their first victim.

Steve Parent was sitting in his car. He had just visited his friend, groundskeeper William Garretson, who lived in the guest house within the property.

As he revved his engine, Steve was greeted by Watson who was brandishing a gun. He uttered,

“Please don’t hurt me! I won’t do anything!” but it was too late; Watson slashed him with a knife and shot him four times at close range.

With stealth, the killers wandered around the property.

Sharon’s friend Abigail Folger was in her bed at the time reading. She waved at the figure, who was Susan Atkins, as she passed her window, thinking she was one of Sharon’s guests; little did she know how quickly the final innocent and precious moments of her life were passing by.

Watson then slit the screen of the back door, crawled in, and the girls followed.

Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring were sitting talking in another bedroom.

Wojciech Frykowski slept on the sofa in the living room. As Frykowski slept, Watson kicked him in the head. When he abruptly awoke, Frykowski asked who he was and Watson replied ‘I am the Devil. I am here to do the Devils work’.

Shortly after midnight, Susan Atkins entered the bedrooms with a buck- knife in hand. She instructed Sharon, Jay and Abigail to congregate into the living room.

Once gathered Watson tied a rope around Jay's neck, looped it over the ceiling beam, and then tied it around Sharon's throat. Abigail and Wojciech’s hands were tied with towels by Atkins.

The terrified household complied reluctantly, fear now penetrating each of the victims mind. The four of them were tied and lined up in front of the fireplace.

Watson armed with a .22 calibre buntline revolver; Susan with a knife, demanded money. Abigail then went to the bedroom and handed over $70 from her purse and returned to the living room, Krenwinkel at her heel.

Once Abigail was back in the living room, Watson instructed the friends to lie face down onto their bellies. Jay protested to this demand as Sharon being 8 ½ months pregnant would find this very uncomfortable.

As a result to his objection, he was shot at point blank range. Everyone screamed and struggled as they tried to release themselves in the terrifying scenario that was unravelling before them.

Wojciech was the first to struggle free, but he was attacked by Atkins. She brutally stabbed him in the legs whist Watson hammered his head with the butt of his revolver.

Krenwinkel managed to stab Abigail numerous times as she struggled free before she finally fled down the hallway, heading for the pool area.

Determined to live, Wojciech escaped into the garden, leaving the others inside.

Here he was finally found and shot, bludgeoned then stabbed to death by Watson and Krenwinkel. The lookout girl Linda Kasabian watched from the afar terrified at what she had witnessed.

Abigail also managed to run into the garden, when Krenwinkel had finally caught up with her. She stabbed Abigail 28 times on the lawn. Abigail’s final words were,

“I give up, you've got me. I'm already dead.”

Meanwhile Susan Atkins was still in the living room with Sharon, who sobbed and pleaded for her freedom. The actress begged for them to abduct her so she could have her baby. She was willing to die in order for her baby to live.

Akins however showed no mercy, she felt nothing as she watched and taunted Sharon.

Watson then joined Atkins. In spite of her pleas, Atkins coldly said, “Look bitch, I don't care about you. I don't care if you're going to have a baby or not. You're going to die and I don't feel anything about it.”

Watson and Atkins stabbed her 16 times as she cried out for her mother.

“Oh mother… oh mother…” were her final words.

On Manson’s order to leave something ‘Witchy’, Atkins, picked up the towel that was used to tie Wojciech’s hands and then smeared the word ‘PIG’ in Sharon’s blood on the front door.

She tasted Sharon’s blood saying it was ‘hot and sticky’.  After the horrific slaughter, they finally exited 10050 Cielo Drive, leaving the resident’s bodies within the brutal massacred estate.

But what made a sweet attractive woman, like Susan Atkins kill so cold heartedly?

Susan Denise Atkins was born in San Gabriel, California on May 7th, 1948.

During her early life she grew up in Santa Clara, California. Life had been challenging for the young teen.

She had nursed her mother Jeanette, who was dying with cancer, for many years. Susan worshipped her mother and as she was dying, Susan gathered the church choir with whom she was a member, to stand under her bedroom window to sing Christmas carols. Susan was described as a quiet, self conscious and a kind hearted child.

After her mother’s death in 1963, when Susan was 14 years of age, she and her two brothers moved from relative to relative as her father fell into more debt. Her father was now an alcoholic which caused a lot friction and tension within the family.

Surviving many rows with her drunken father, Edward, and having to hold the family together, plus the molestation from her eldest brother, Susan finally left home.

She found a job as a telemarketer in San Francisco, and rented a room. Here she felt isolated and lonely. Depression soon swamped Susan, but at least she had escaped from the tension and stress that was engulfing her within the company of her family.

Quitting her job she found employment as a waitress in a coffee shop where she developed a friendship with two escaped convicts.

The three engaged in petty crimes and eventually were caught in Oregon for stealing cars.

After serving three months in jail she was released. Heading back for San Francisco, she found a job as a topless dancer, where she danced in a show called ‘The Witches’ Sabbath’. The owner of the club where she worked had dabbled in Satanism.

In 1967, now 19 years of age, Susan Atkins was staying with friends, it was here that she met Charles Manson. He played guitar and impressed her, and many others, as his personality was vibrant, influential and addictive.

Seeing that she was naive and homeless, he invited her to become part of his cult, to become a member of ‘The Manson Family’. She gladly accepted, in awe of the dominant and captivating man.

She and ‘The Family’ travelled around in an old school bus practising in LSD and free love with both sexes. Manson also created a fake ID for her. She was now known as ‘Sadie Mae Glutz’ to Manson and the rest of ‘The Family’ members.

Susan finally settled and lived with Manson and ‘The Family’ in an isolated area known as Spahn Ranch, in San Fernando Valley, Southern California. It was here that Susan fell deeply and devotedly in love with ‘Charlie’. With LSD and free love dominant, Susan was living a very different life from the one she left behind in California.

In 1968, Susan had a baby naming himZezozose Zadfrack Glutz. Manson was not the father.

‘Crazy Sadie’ as she was sometimes known, enjoyed going on Manson’s creepy missions. They ventured into houses in the dead of night and stalked around the sleeping residents stealing and rearranging ornaments and articles. Susan believed that she was taking things that were justifiably hers. She was having fun and living life carefree and uninhibited.

Susan had faith in ‘Charlie’s’ philosophies. The core of his main philosophy was a form of ‘Racial Reckoning’. This was initially inspired by the music of the Beatles, especially their song ‘Revolution’ and ‘Helter Skelter’. The Beatles were looked upon as prophets in Manson’s eyes, so their words had to be obeyed. He believed the lyrics implied that the Beatles wanted an uprising and it was time for one to start.

With his interpretation of the Beatles songs as inspiration, Charlie predicted and preached that the black society were going to rise up and start killing the whites and turn the cities into an inferno of racial revenge. The black race would win the war, but wouldn't be able to hang onto the power they seized because of innate inferiority.

Charles Manson’s revolution was about to commence and it was at the point for his ‘Family’ to start a civil war against the black race.

Susan believed in his teachings, feeling safe that Manson and ‘The Family’ would be saved by digging a tunnel in the desert as they indeed were the chosen ones.

Manson managed to convince his ‘Family’ that this was necessary. In order to become one of the chosen ones and to survive the racial apocalypse, they had to do brutal tasks in order to be saved.

Necessary killings.

Susan’s first encounter with Manson’s aggressive methods with those he had grievances with, was in July 1969, a month before the Tate Murders.

A music teacher known as Gary Hinman knew Bobby Beausoleil, a fellow ‘Family’ member. Manson was aware that Hinman had recently inherited money and due to a dubious drug deal, decided that Hinman owed him money. Manson rallied family members and visited Hinman’s residence to demand payment.

With Bobby Beausoleil and Mary Brunner in tow, Susan accompanied them to confront Hinman who refused to submit the cash. The following day Manson came to visit and using a sword, he viciously swiped for Hinman’s head slicing off an ear.  

This was Susan’s first bloody incident, witnessing Manson’s powerful and daring tactics. Excitement and power enthralled her, she knew she wanted to impress the man she had fallen for.

Manson finally left, stealing Hinman’s car. Beausoleil, Brunner and Atkins remained for another two days, tormenting and torturing Hinman. The girls tried also to stitch Hinman’s ear back on with dental floss. On the final day and without any surrender from Hinman, Beausoleil, Brunner and Atkins stabbed and smothered Hinman to death.

In his final moments Hinman desperately chanted a Buddhist mantra as he clenched his prayer beads desperately in his hands.

Susan had her first taste of Manson’s massacres and madness.

Here the words ‘Political Piggie’ and a paw print were left on the wall smeared in Hinman’s blood. This was done in an attempt to make the authorities think that ‘The Black Panther’s’ - a small body of militant Black rights activists- were responsible. This revolutionary organization was formed to promote the black power and self defence through acts of social disturbances that was surfacing within the white community.  

This tactic was used again in the Sharon Tate massacre a month later.

Beausoleil was arrested some time after, after having been found lying asleep in one of Hinman’s stolen cars, still wearing his blood soaked clothes.

Susan however was happy to go along with the killings of high society types in order to spark off the conflict, so that the black community would be blamed, enabling herself to be saved come the day of Armageddon.

And to stay in Manson’s favor.

She was the perfect disciple, a devout believer in Manson as a leader and as a man. She even proclaimed him to be Jesus Christ and claimed that there was ‘no limit to what she would do for Manson, the only complete man that she had ever met.’

Her love for Manson was blind; she would do anything for the man that made her feel like a woman, even if it meant causing catastrophic carnage, with no conscience at all. She was fulfilling a prophecy and pleasing the man she adored. She was taught by Manson that there was no value in human life. To kill another was not a sin.

After the vicious slaying at the Polanski-Tate residence, Susan and the rest of the family piled into their Ford van and headed back to their hideout at Spahn Ranch.

Here Manson greeted them where Watson enthusiastically told his leader in detail about recent events. Manson was unhappy about the messy style in which the victims were executed.

To continue his reign of terror and to carry out his own prophecy, he instructed Watson, Krenwinkel, Clem Tufts and Leslie Van Houten to carry out yet another bloody deed. On the 10th August 1969, Manson went with them to make sure the task was carried out as he had instructed. Susan Atkins was not present at the Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murders in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Instead she was with Linda Kasabian and fellow clan member Steven Grogan (who had sung on a recording of Manson songs made at the Spahn Ranch with mobile recording equipment supplied by Dennis Wilson). The three of them were cruising around Los Angeles at the time of the killings.

Three months later, after the police raided Spahn Ranch, Atkins was charged with a car theft and imprisoned. Reported incidents of car theft and underage runaways had led the police to Manson.

In jail Susan boasted about her knowledge regarding the LaBinaca murders.

She also openly admitted that she was responsible for Sharon Tate’s murder and incriminated her fellow ‘Family’ members, including Charles Manson, calling him a ‘beautiful cat’.

Susan without any remorse bragged about how Sharon had begged for her life, and how she showed no mercy. She even described the clothes Sharon was wearing on the night, - a bikini bra and panties.  Susan even gave the inmate a list of names of other high profile celebrities that’ The Family’ were intending to slaughter. Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were amongst the list.

The fellow inmate, Virginia Graham, aired her qualms to another inmate, who then informed the L.A.P.D.

Around the same time, Al Springer, a member of the ‘Straight Satan Biker's’ who had connections with Manson told police about his suspicions. This information alongside Atkins’ confession and bullets found at Spahn Ranch led the police to raid the property once more.  

However Manson was not arrested for the murders, but was still under suspicion of housing weapons and stealing vans. Due to a misdate on the warrant for arrest, Manson and 24 other members of the family were not immediately taken into custody.

Eventually, after more witnesses and incriminating evidence surfaced, Manson and ‘The family’ fled to a new location.

 In 1970, Manson was eventually found hiding inside a kitchen cupboard at his latest hideaway by police at Barker Ranch, on the edge of Death Valley. His VW van was littered with Nazi literature.

Susan, still behind bars confessed to detectives that she was involved with the Hinman murder; she implicated Manson as the ringleader. As Susan sat in jail, fingerprints were found in the Tate and LaBianca residences. Krenwinkel, Watson and Leslie Van Houten were taken in for questioning.

On June 1971, the trial began, and it was the lookout, Linda Kasabian’s testimony that finalised Manson, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel and others to be charged for the brutal events that took place in 1969.

The female defendants, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten, whist in custody, carved an X on their foreheads and shaved their heads to show their solidarity with Manson, who had similarly carved an X on himself. The three devoted followers of Manson were heard singing songs of unity, totally unfazed regarding their predicament. Manson constantly disrupted the courtroom throughout the hearing.

He orchestrated the whole trial, causing a media circus loving all the attention as only a sociopath could wish for.

Many times he would stare at Kasabian as she testified, running his finger across his neck in a threatening manner.

When it came for Susan to stand trial, she was extremely irregular with her statements. When Manson was present she praised him and his beliefs, condemning the political situation and justifying his actions. However, when Manson was not present, Atkins blamed her role on her irresponsible sense of faithfulness she felt towards Manson and the family. Throughout the trial, Atkins never showed any remorse. She candidly stated that she had stabbed Tate because she was "sick of listening to her, pleading and begging, begging and pleading." She also denied that Manson had any role in orchestrating the murders. She explained why she followed Manson’s mission by plainly saying,
“Hegave me the faith in myself to be able to know that I am a women…I gave myself to him."

The death penalty was originally passed, but due to new Californian regulations this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Susan Atkins is still behind bars to this day. Her life and attitude have changed dramatically. She has become a born again Christian, clearly seeing that Manson was indeed NOT Jesus Christ. In 1974 she claims she experienced a visitation from the real ‘Jesus Christ’ who entered her cell, telling her to conform to the truth. In 1977 she penned her autobiography, ‘Child of Satan, Child of God’.  In the manuscript, she described how in September 1974, her cell door opened and ‘a brilliant light poured over her’.

Atkins believed the light was Jesus, bearing forgiveness.

She also admitted that at the time of the butchery at the Tate’s residence, she was unhinged, mentally ill and delusional. The amount of LSD she had consumed blinded her, marring her judgment.

In 1981 she married Texan Donald Lee Lasuire, her pen friend who stated that he was a millionaire, in truth he was a habitual liar, broke and had been married 35 times. The marriage was annulled. Her close friends criticized her bad judgment yet again with decisions regarding men, stating that she was easily led and gullible.

During her incarceration she has achieved many qualifications and excelled in organizing her own Christian ministry. Susan also developed her own manicure business within the prison. Wanting to work with drug addicts, she fought to make a stand in drug awareness and the dangers one encounters with substance abuse.

She married again to a Harvard law student, Jim Whitehouse in 1987 who has represented her at most parole hearings.

At one of her many parole hearings in 1985 she quoted,

“How can you ask somebody to forgive you for something that is almost impossible to forgive?”

Asked in a televised interview in 2002 if she had been in contact with her son Zezozose Zadfrack Glutz after he was put up for adoption subsequent to the Tate killings, she simply said,
“No I have not. All I know is that he has lived his life unscathed; he has not been touched by this…”

Susan now at 60 years of age and dying with terminal brain cancer has been denied parole for the twelfth time.  Her illness has left her paralyzed and with an amputated leg. Does she have the right to freedom with only months left to live?

Susan Denise Atkins tried to turn her life around. Turning from a lonely, vulnerable, cold hearted killer into a remorseful born again Christian.

But what made her kill?

She was clearly highly impressionable and desperately needed a strong figure to impress and to respect; her father sadly didn’t offer these qualities, though Susan and her father did mange to build a bond in the final years of his life.

Without the stability of a father figure and the security of a normal family life, Susan dived into Manson’s lair with open arms, a sick parody of the family life she sadly lacked.

Within the Manson’s fold she felt loved, albeit drugged induced and conditioned.

Manson provided Susan freedom and respect within the boundaries of his world as long as she if she followedand supported his convictions.

Drugs were ubiquitously used. Susan nevertheless had embraced her new life.

However Manson was programming her and the rest of ‘The Family’ to kill for his own personal gain. Manson had found power, using his ‘Family’ to reap in the thrill of the kill and the authority to control his flock.

Manson felt he was the chosen one, chosen to follow his own beliefs and to create his own fantasy conflict against the black and privileged community.

In spite of his beliefs that possibly were influenced by the drugs and music of the time, Manson was born with a dark heart, he sought popularity and esteem by nurturing young runaways to craft his warped dream of cultural domination.