Susan Atkins
- How she joined the cult: Susan first met Manson in 1967 when he was playing guitar at a house she was staying at with her friends. The house was eventually raided a few weeks later, and with no where else to go, she accepted Manson's offer to join his family. On Oct. 7, 1968, Susan gave birth to a son with a college student named Bruce White, who she met in New Mexico while travelling with the rest of the Manson family. Her son was eventually adopted and renamed following her incarceration in 1969.
- Which crimes she committed: During the Summer of 1969, Manson sent Susan, Bobby Beausoleil, and Mary Brunner to the home of Gary Hinman in hopes of persuading him to join the cult and obtain his newly inherited money. However, when he denied that he had any money, Manson came in and sliced his face with a sword and instructed Susan and Mary to tend to the wounds. Two days later, Bobby forced Gary to sign over the registrations to his cars before fatally stabbing him. That same year, Susan was one of the many family members who partook in the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends on Aug. 8. Though it's unclear if she was responsible for killing any of the victims, she did stab Voytek Frykowski and Sharon, and wrote "PIG" on the front door of the home in actress's blood. On Aug. 9, Susan was part of the group who went to Leno and Rosemary LaBianca's house, but she didn't go inside or participate in the murders.
- What her sentence was: On Aug. 16, 1969, Susan was charged during the police raid at Spahn's Ranch. Though she was eventually let go, she was arrested again that October for another auto theft related charge. Shortly after, one of the Manson family members implicated that she was involved in the murder of Gary Hinman, and she was charged with the crime. While in jail, Susan let it slip to two of her jail mates that she participated in the Tate-LaBianca murders. Her jail mates reported this to the authorities, which eventually led to the arrest of Susan and other members of the Manson family. On March 29, 1971, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, which was eventually commuted to life in prison following the California Supreme Court's People v. Anderson decision. She married twice in prison, first to a man named Donald Lee Laisure in September 1981, and a second time in 1987 to a Harvard Law School graduate named James W. Whitehouse, who represented her at her 2000 and 2005 parole hearings. After suffering from brain cancer, Susan died on Sept. 24, 2009 from natural causes.
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