Dying Ex-Manson Disciple Atkins Denied Release

Parole board refuses Susan Atkins' request for mercy
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 3, 2009 2:10 AM CDT
Dying Ex-Manson Disciple Atkins Denied Release
Susan Atkins talks to reporters in 1969.    (AP Photo)

California yesterday rejected Susan Atkins' plea for compassionate release, the Los Angeles Times reports. The former Charles Manson family member—California's longest-serving female inmate—has brain cancer and likely has just months to live. Atkins was busted in 1969 for participating in the murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others.

Tate "asked me to let her baby live,” Atkins said in a 1993 parole hearing where she admitted stabbing the actress 16 times. “I told her I didn’t have mercy for her." (More Susan Atkins stories.)

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