When she died of brain cancer on Sept. 24 at 61, Susan Atkins was in a women's prison in California, serving a life sentence for eight of the most horrific murders in the annals of American crime. Atkins, a Los Angeles native, was 15 when her mother died; soon afterward, she left home to become a topless dancer in San Francisco. In the hippie mecca of Haight-Ashbury she met cult leader Charles Manson, who seduced her and his other young followers into believing that he was the second coming of Christ--and that the way to bring about a new social order was to commit mass murder and frame blacks, which would ignite an apocalyptic race war he called Helter Skelter. When Manson dispatched his "family" to kill actress Sharon Tate and others on two hot August nights in 1969, the murders drew the world's attention--and marked the end of the '60s mantra of peace, love and sharing. In prison, Atkins was able to begin a new life. She became a model prisoner and a born-again Christian. She also renounced Manson, though she said she still prayed for him.
Bugliosi prosecuted the Manson murders