Member-only story
The Death of Susan Atkins
“I Have No Mercy On You”
Susan Atkins was convicted of first degree murder for the deaths of six people: Gary Hinman, Stephen Parent, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Sharon Tate. Susan was sentenced to death in the gas chamber in 1971, but that sentence was overturned a year later when the California Supreme Court (temporarily) abolished the death penalty. Atkins, along with her codefendants, then had her sentence changed to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Susan Denise Atkins was born May 7, 1948 in San Gabriel, California. Her parents, Edward John Atkins (born 1920 in South Dakota) and Jeanne Francis Jett (born 1923 in Missouri) were drunks and their home was filled with volatility. Susan had one older brother (Jon Michael Atkins) and one younger brother, Steven. During her childhood, she was molested by her older brother. Susan’s life was further turned up-end at 14 when her mother died of cancer. Jon was in the Navy when her mom died, and Susan was expected to act as the ‘mother’ within the family.
Later, she began to dabble in recreational drugs. A frightening LSD trip in her teens did not deter her from continuing to numb herself with pharmaceuticals. When her father moved out of town, Susan was shuttled between relatives. She relocated to San Francisco and got involved with petty criminals, drug dealers, Satanists, all while putting herself in difficult personal situations. She hopped from man to man, always seeking someone who would take care of her.
In the autumn of 1967, she and her friend Ella Jo Bailey were living with two men in an apartment at the intersection of Oak and Lyon. Janis Joplin lived just a few doors away and sometimes they heard her sing the blues from their kitchen. That season, Susan attended a party where she saw a short man with prison tattoos on both his forearms playing guitar. She drifted to him like a moth to a flame.
Two days later, she again encountered the man, 32-year old Charles Manson and followed him home where he took off her clothes, placed her in front of a full-length mirror, told her she was beautiful and made love to her.
