Chowchilla, CA —She was the dean of California’s incarcerated women having been locked up longer than any other woman in the Golden State’s prison system. Yesterday Susan Atkins finally died of brain cancer. Her 1969 crimes were an orgy of nasty killings that left at least seven dead. Susan Atkins seemed to have eventually come to her senses and embraced remorse, regret and resignation for the horror she so willingly helped unleash in Los Angeles. Atkins not only participated in the destruction of the victim’s lives but she destroyed her own along the way. She and her co-killers beat a well deserved death sentence but living the rest of their lives as a caged wild animals may have been much worse than a quick death in San Quentin’s gas chamber. Atkins death has not ended the suffering or sense of loss of the Manson family victim’s loved ones. Closure by punishment is not the victim’s Nirvana that prosecutors claim. There may be a tiny measure of satisfaction at the idea of justice be...

Chowchilla, CA —A parole hearing was held here for former Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins who was present on a hospital gurney. Terminally ill from cancer, Atkins has lost a leg and lays permanently paralyzed. Atkins confessed to participating in a depraved orgy of stabbing, cutting, killing and horror of 40 years ago in what has been called the Tate-Labianca murders . Atkins has since rejected her former life and became a model prisoner. Atkins has been incarcerated longer than any other woman after her death sentence was vacated by the US Supreme Court, in Furman vs Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). I’m lost on the benefit of continued imprisonment of this pathetic and helpless killer. Atkins will never survive to see the parole board ever again. The only question that remains is can Atkins find redemption and salvation after the monstrous acts of a crazy, drugged kid under the influence of a maniac? Forgiveness has never surfaced for Atkins from the living that are related to th...