WEBVTT

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I'm a convict I'm an Outlaw I'm a rebel

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I'm not a Sunday school teacher I look

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in the mirror and I find it difficult to

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believe that I was ever involved in

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something like that convicted killer

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Susan Atkins spent four decades behind

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bars for her role in the Manson family

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mtis spre Susan Atkins is without a

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doubt the most dangerous uh female

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criminal that I have met in 19 years in

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the Los Angeles County District

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Attorney's office she was arguably the

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most infamous member of Charles Manson's

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cult known for her chilling lack of

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remorse and direct participation in the

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murders I wasn't instructed to show any

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Mercy the Manson family murders date

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back more than 50 years 1967 was the era

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of free love mind openening drugs rock

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and roll and civil rights this created

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an ideal backdrop for convicted felon

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Charles manid to build what he called

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his family I cut people and I shoot them

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and I I do whatever I have to do to

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survive in the world I live in Susan

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Atkins grew up in at a troubled home

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with alcoholic parents and was described

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as quiet self-conscious girl I didn't

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have a what you would call an ideal

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upbringing she dropped out of school

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before meeting Charles Manson in 1967

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there is a balance of uh good and evil

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there's good and there's evil and then

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there's a dance in between and then

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there's the fourth Road the one I walk

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on under his influence she became a

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devoted follower believing he was the

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second coming of Christ sometimes he

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would reenact the crucifixion when we

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were on LSD psychedelic drugs were a

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major part of Manson's control he often

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preached while his followers were high

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using LSD as a tool to manipulate them

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it was just like a tool in the hands of

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the devil is the only way I can put it

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by the summer of 1969 Manson had

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convinced his followers that an

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apocalyptic race war which he called

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helter Scala was coming they wanted to

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start a race war between blacks and

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whites he instructed them to prepare by

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learning survival skills and stockpiling

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food but then his orders turned more

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Sinister I was an empty shell of a

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person that was filled up with Manson

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rhetoric Manson ordered Atkins and other

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family members to the Hollywood Hills

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and to the home of director Roman

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palansky and his wife Sharon Tate

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instructing them to kill everyone inside

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you know and I certainly wouldn't tell

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nobody to go in and do nothing to

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anybody that I wouldn't want done to me

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five people including Tate were brutally

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murdered according to testimony it was

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Atkins who murdered the heavily pregnant

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actress it's a fact it happened and I

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was a part of it Atkins reportedly even

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drank Sharon Tate's blood the next night

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she joined the group that carried out

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the lanca murders leaving behind a blood

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soaked crime scene I feel that there are

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eight lives that had I not been involved

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they may still be alive today the Manson

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family was arrested later that year at

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trial Atkins showed no remorse she

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laughed sang songs with her codefendants

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and made chilling statements about the

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murders

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she was sentenced to death but when

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California overturned the death penalty

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in 1972 her sentence was changed to life

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in prison I look in the mirror and I

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find it difficult to believe that I was

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ever involved in something like that

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behind bars Atkins underwent a dramatic

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transformation she claimed to have found

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religion becoming a born- again

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Christian and she began denying her

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confession and participation in the

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murders I lied at the Grand Jury I lied

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at the trial and said that I killed

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people that I in facted not Atkins was

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denied parole 18 times in 2008 she was

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diagnosed with terminal brain cancer

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paralized and unable to sit up she

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requested compassionate release but it

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was denied I know the pain and the

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suffering that I caused Susan Atkins

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died in prison in 2009 at the age of 61

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her last word was reportedly amen