I'm a convict I'm an Outlaw I'm a rebel
I'm not a Sunday school teacher I look
in the mirror and I find it difficult to
believe that I was ever involved in
something like that convicted killer
Susan Atkins spent four decades behind
bars for her role in the Manson family
mtis spre Susan Atkins is without a
doubt the most dangerous uh female
criminal that I have met in 19 years in
the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's office she was arguably the
most infamous member of Charles Manson's
cult known for her chilling lack of
remorse and direct participation in the
murders I wasn't instructed to show any
Mercy the Manson family murders date
back more than 50 years 1967 was the era
of free love mind openening drugs rock
and roll and civil rights this created
an ideal backdrop for convicted felon
Charles manid to build what he called
his family I cut people and I shoot them
and I I do whatever I have to do to
survive in the world I live in Susan
Atkins grew up in at a troubled home
with alcoholic parents and was described
as quiet self-conscious girl I didn't
have a what you would call an ideal
upbringing she dropped out of school
before meeting Charles Manson in 1967
there is a balance of uh good and evil
there's good and there's evil and then
there's a dance in between and then
there's the fourth Road the one I walk
on under his influence she became a
devoted follower believing he was the
second coming of Christ sometimes he
would reenact the crucifixion when we
were on LSD psychedelic drugs were a
major part of Manson's control he often
preached while his followers were high
using LSD as a tool to manipulate them
it was just like a tool in the hands of
the devil is the only way I can put it
by the summer of 1969 Manson had
convinced his followers that an
apocalyptic race war which he called
helter Scala was coming they wanted to
start a race war between blacks and
whites he instructed them to prepare by
learning survival skills and stockpiling
food but then his orders turned more
Sinister I was an empty shell of a
person that was filled up with Manson
rhetoric Manson ordered Atkins and other
family members to the Hollywood Hills
and to the home of director Roman
palansky and his wife Sharon Tate
instructing them to kill everyone inside
you know and I certainly wouldn't tell
nobody to go in and do nothing to
anybody that I wouldn't want done to me
five people including Tate were brutally
murdered according to testimony it was
Atkins who murdered the heavily pregnant
actress it's a fact it happened and I
was a part of it Atkins reportedly even
drank Sharon Tate's blood the next night
she joined the group that carried out
the lanca murders leaving behind a blood
soaked crime scene I feel that there are
eight lives that had I not been involved
they may still be alive today the Manson
family was arrested later that year at
trial Atkins showed no remorse she
laughed sang songs with her codefendants
and made chilling statements about the
murders
she was sentenced to death but when
California overturned the death penalty
in 1972 her sentence was changed to life
in prison I look in the mirror and I
find it difficult to believe that I was
ever involved in something like that
behind bars Atkins underwent a dramatic
transformation she claimed to have found
religion becoming a born- again
Christian and she began denying her
confession and participation in the
murders I lied at the Grand Jury I lied
at the trial and said that I killed
people that I in facted not Atkins was
denied parole 18 times in 2008 she was
diagnosed with terminal brain cancer
paralized and unable to sit up she
requested compassionate release but it
was denied I know the pain and the
suffering that I caused Susan Atkins
died in prison in 2009 at the age of 61
her last word was reportedly amen