Finally, a person-of-note’s death that doesn’t make us teary. Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins, who was denied parole earlier this month, has died in jail from brain cancer. Atkins was a teen runaway when she met Manson and became a key member of his cult. One night in August 1969, Manson sent her and several other followers to a house in Los Angeles and commanded them to “do something witchy.” That they did. They killed four people, including Sharon Tate, a 26-year-old actress and the wife of director Roman Polanski who was 8 and 1/2 months pregnant at the time. Atkins gave a chilling confession to killing Tate in her trail. “I was stoned, man, stoned on acid,” she said. “She kept begging and pleading and begging and pleading and I got sick of listening to it, so I stabbed her. [I feel] no guilt for what I’ve done. It was right then and I still believe it was right. How can it not be right when it’s done with love?” Though Atkins claimed to have found God in jail and to be seeking redemption for her actions, none of the victims’ families bought it, nor did a parole board. [NY Times]
