Manson follower dies after parole is denied

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’s death comes less than a month after a parole board turned down the terminally ill woman’s last chance at freedom on September 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 on Thursday night. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008, had a leg amputated and was given only a few months to live.

She underwent brain surgery, and in her last months was paralysed and had difficulty speaking. But she managed to speak briefly at the hearing, reciting religious verse with the help of her husband, attorney James Whitehouse.

She had been transferred to a skilled nursing facility at the California Central Women’s Facility at Chowchilla exactly one year before she died.

Tate, the 26-year-old actress and wife of director Roman Polanski, was one of seven murdered in two Los Angeles homes during the Manson cult’s bloody rampage in August 1969.

Atkins was the first of the convicted killers to die. Manson and three others involved in the murders — Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles “Tex” Watson — remain imprisoned under life sentences. Thornton said that at the time of Atkins death she had been in prison longer than any woman currently incarcerated in California.

Atkins had apologised for her acts numerous times over the years. But 40 years after the murders, she learned few had forgotten or forgiven what she and other members of the cult had done.

Debra Tate, the slain actress’s younger sister, told the parole commissioners on September 2 that she “will pray for [Atkins’s] soul when she draws her last breath, but until then I think she should remain in this controlled situation”. Debra Tate noted that she would have a 40-year-old nephew if her sister had lived.