Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sadie Doesn't Stop

Manson follower's latest compassionate release request denied




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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, July 22, 2008
By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY and PAIGE AUSTIN
The Press-Enterprise

A Los Angeles County judge has turned down the latest bid by former Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins to get a compassionate prison release before she dies from brain cancer while under guard at a Riverside-area hospital.

The state parole board declined last week to urge a discharge for Atkins, 60. Her attorney had filed a petition with the judge seeking the same relief.

Atkins was convicted of killing eight people during a bloody murder spree in the summer of 1969.

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One of her victims was actress Sharon Tate, 8 ½ months pregnant, who begged Atkins to spare the life of her child before Atkins stabbed her to death.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza cited the parole board's decision in issuing his one-page denial on Monday.

"This court is without authority to grant a compassionate release unless there is a positive recommendation by the secretary (of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) or Board of Parole Hearings," Espinoza wrote.

Calls seeking comment from Atkins' attorney Eric Lampel were not returned Tuesday. Calls also were not returned from Atkins' husband James W. Whitehouse, who has acted as her attorney as well.

"We are in agreement with the judge's decision," LA County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira said Tuesday. Sequeira testified on behalf of his office against compassionate release for Atkins at last week's Sacramento hearing.

Atkins, who spent decades incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino, was hospitalized March 18 and was receiving care at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley, Lampel said last week.

Atkins' medical care has reportedly cost the state $1.15 million. Additionally, guarding her has cost $308,000, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Atkins has been denied parole 13 times since her first hearing in 1976. Her most recent hearing was in 2005.

Atkins was one of the top members of the murderous "Family" led by Manson in Southern California.

She is serving a life sentence on her murder convictions linked to the cult of young men and women who followed Manson's orders to commit mayhem that Manson called "Helter Skelter," after a Beatles song.

Atkins has long claimed she reformed during her years in prison.

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The Col has some thoughts----


1- The very fact that Sadie keeps doing EVERYTHING possible for an early release shows me at least that she doesn't deserve one.
2- I wonder how much of this is a lie- that once she got out she would be "AHA, now I am free" and then live to 75.
3- Why does the press repeat things like the expenses when one, they don't sound true to me and two, they don't matter anyway? I meanif they mattered we could say "It costs $xxx to keep Charlie in jail, let his old ass out."

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Denial not just in Egypt Anymore







Parole panel denies compassionate release for Manson follower Susan Atkins

She has served 37 years for killing actress Sharon Tate and others in 1969. Now doctors give her only months to live.
By Hector Becerra and Andrew Blankstein
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

July 16, 2008

SACRAMENTO -- — A state parole panel today unanimously denied "compassionate release" for terminally-ill Manson follower Susan Atkins after hearing emotional testimony both for and against her release.

The 12-member State Board of Parole Hearing, as is customary, did not release any explanation for its decision.

Atkins, 60, played a central role in the 1969 slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and others in a bloody two-night rampage in the Los Angeles area. She has served 37 years in prison, longer than any other female prisoner, officials said.

Now ill with brain cancer and with one leg amputated and the other paralyzed, Atkins has only months to live, doctors have said.

The petition for Atkins' release had ignited debate about when mercy is appropriate, particularly considering the grisly crimes for which she was convicted. With the rejection by the panel, the process is effectively over, making it highly likely that she will die in custody.

Those backing her release argued unsuccessfully that the cost of keeping Atkins in prison, which is estimated at $1.4 million for medical care and security just since March, should be a factor in favor of releasing her because it would save the state substantial amounts of money.

At the hearing today, Atkins supporters spoke first to the 12-member State Board of Parole Hearing.

"She has without a doubt, she has paid her debt to society," said her niece Sharisse Atkins, 17. "You see her as a part of the Manson family I see her as a part of our family. I hope you can find it in your heart to do the right thing."

Her supporters drew attention at the hearing to former Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's support for Atkins release. In an e-mail this week to Atkins' attorney, Bugliosi wrote that it was wrong to say "just because Susan Atkins showed no mercy to her victims, we therefore are duty-bound to follow her inhumanity and show no mercy to her."

Opponents of Atkins' release disagreed. They spoke today of their memories of learning of the murders and the effects of the killings on their families.

Tate, the wife of film director Roman Polanski, was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she and four others were killed at her hilltop home in Benedict Canyon. The actress, who was stabbed to death, had begged Atkins for her for her life.

"She asked me to let her baby live," Atkins told parole officials in 1993. "I told her I didn't have mercy for her."

At today's hearing, Pam Turner, Tate's cousin, sobbed, recalling being a child "so sick with grief that I wished I too could die."

Turner said she remembers the actress' mother "howling like a wounded animal" after hearing the news of the murders.

"My aunt's pain was palpable. She once put her hands on my pregnant belly and she cried," said Turner, alluding to the fact Tate had begged for the life of her unborn child. "She didn't say what she was crying about, but I knew."

Anthony DiMaria, whose uncle, Jay Sebring, was killed at the Tate's home, brought up news reports that Atkins' husband had called it "ridiculous" to spend so much money guarding his wife, who cannot even sit up in bed.

"To sum up these murders in terms of cost efficiency trivializes the victims' lives, and the lifelong impact on the victims' families," DiMaria said.

"There's discussion of dying with dignity.... the notion of dying with dignity is not determined by circumstance, but determined by choice," he told the panel. "Mrs. Atkins should die with dignity while serving out her sentence. My uncle died with dignity in the worst possible situation."

In addition to the testimony today, the board received about 100 letters, most opposing her release.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley was among those opposing the release, saying Atkins' "horrific crimes alone warrant a denial of her request."

Suzan Hubbard, director of California's adult prisons, had previously expressed her opposition.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas also wrote the director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation saying Atkins should remain behind bars and away from Orange County, where her husband lives.

The hearing today before the state Board of Parole Hearings is the third in a four-step process that allows inmates to seek compassionate release.

She cleared the initial steps when officials at her prison in Chino found that her case met the criteria for compassionate release review, a determination seconded by officials at corrections headquarters in Sacramento.

In addition to testimony, the board received information including Atkins' medical records, recommendations from state corrections officials and her criminal history as well as information related to her behavior while in prison and an assessment of whether her release would pose a risk to the public.

Even if the panel had decided to recommend compassionate release, Atkins would have awaited a final determination by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Manson Girls Continues


So the Col hears that the director and producer continue to try to make the Manson Girls movie. You know- the one we provided exclusive script excerpts from that made everyone laugh quite heartily. Lindsay Lohan walked away from this piece of shit, and these guys tried to spin it the other way. And I hear that they added another producer, one that was successfully sued a few years ago for $50 million plus dollars. It's sounds like the dream team- I mean after all, the director was removed from his last film- you don't get better talent than that, right?

Now we hear that rather than risk a lawsuit, the Dream Team has found Nancy Pitman and hired her as a consultant. I mean of all the immoral, evil fucking things I have ever heard. What will the credits say? Nancy Pitman, Convicted Murderess (accessory) (TWO DEATHS) and White Supremacist (Aryan Brotherhood member) who was dancing naked with Manson when the killers returned from slaughtering Sharon Tate - Special Advisor...

There is a good idea for an honest version of this story out there, but making it Nancy's POV is just wrong. Paying her is....sickening.

---------------
Excerpt from that Screenplay- did you know that Nancy had four kids to atone for all the killings?

EXT. NANCY/BRENDA’S HOUSE – DECK - DAY

FIFTY FIVE YEAR OLD, NANCY PITTMAN (BRENDA) sits at a table talking to her FOUR CHILDREN; aged from their teens to their 20’s, listening to her in silence.

NANCY (BRENDA)

I try not to dwell on these things I’ve done in my

life, because I know there’s nothing I can do to

change them… Tears are useless… I have to

look ahead...

(beat)

You’re my children… And you’re the means by

which I’ve tried to atone for the things I’ve done

and the choices I made back when I was a girl…

The kids look at one another in a state of total shock.

NANCY (BRENDA) cont.

And now you know who I am… I hope you won’t

judge me too harshly…

FADE TO:


EXT. SPAHN RANCH – NIGHT (FLASHBACK)

Brenda and Charlie dance in the moonlight.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

SORRY But NO


Let Me Die in Laguna Beach
Tony Rackauckas wades into the battle over Manson family killer Susan Atkins’ dying wish


It’s rare for Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas to agree with the Los Angeles Times editorial board on anything. Credit Susan Atkins, the imprisoned former Charles Manson family member whose crimes shocked the nation in the summer of 1969, for allowing these ideological enemies to stumble onto common ground.

California’s Board of Parole will meet on July 15 to decide if Atkins, 60, qualifies for “compassionate release” from prison. The parole program is available to inmates who, like Atkins—an exemplary prisoner for nearly four decades—have six months or less to live or to those in a coma or vegetative state. In March, doctors were unsuccessful in attempts to remove Atkins’ brain tumor. They’ve also amputated one of her legs.

It’s anyone’s guess what the politically appointed board will do. It has rejected Atkins’ parole requests 11 times in 37 years. This time, however, she finally has won the support of famed Manson Family prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter, which chronicled the gang’s crime spree.

But Atkins gained an even bigger critic. After learning of the special parole request, the Times published a June editorial, “No Mercy.” It advised the parole board to keep her locked up, even while acknowledging she no longer poses a threat to society. “Atkins gravely wounded our collective peace, and society has a right, even the obligation, to exact vengeance,” the state’s largest daily newspaper opined. “For some criminals, including Atkins, the crime is so great that the price should be imprisonment until death.”

The vengeance line infuriated Eric P. Lampel, the veteran Irvine-based defense lawyer representing Atkins. He wrote to the Times, ridiculing the paper’s attitude and demanding corrections. The paper declined to cooperate. In a two-page letter to the paper, Lampel listed ways he claims the Times botched facts to reach its conclusion. They include:

.Atkins’ current sentence is seven years to life with the possibility of parole, not a life sentence.

.Atkins didn’t initiate the compassionate-release request; prison doctors did based on her rapidly declining condition.

.Although a co-conspirator, Atkins did not stab pregnant actress Sharon Tate to death; it was Charles “Tex” Watson, another Manson family member.

I’m not sure it is advisable for Atkins to minimize her role in the deaths now, but Lampel is determined to confront what he sees as a smear attack on his client in her final days.

“The Times terribly minimizes Susan’s efforts in her 37 years behind bars to apologize to the victims and their families, work toward helping herself and then others, paying restitution, and all the other honors and accomplishments she has received while incarcerated,” Lampel wrote in his letter titled, “No Mercy for Idiot Editors at the LA Times.” “You may not like [Atkins’] sentence and may disagree with it, but it is what it is, and she should have the right to be considered for parole—should have been out decades ago because she was the epitome of a model prisoner.”

Lampel also sent a June 16 letter to Arnold Schwarzenegger, asking him to have the courage to support the release and reminding the governor that he has met Atkins “several times” over the years at the women’s prison in Corona and “knows her as a person, not the media personification.”

“Susan is the longest-serving woman prisoner in the state of California, and her record is not merely immaculate, it is superhuman,” Lampel told the governor. “I beg you to show compassion for Susan’s family and allow them to care for her and to say goodbye to her in her final months.”

The governor’s office did not return my calls seeking comment.

In mid-June, I wrote a blog post that mentioned developments in the case and reminded readers what Atkins told me when I spoke to her six years ago (see “All In the Family,” April 26, 2002). If ever released from prison, she’d like to live in Laguna Beach. “It’s a beautiful place,” she said.

One of my readers was Rackauckas, who has often taken a no-mercy stance with convicted felons—especially killers. He sent a letter to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“I am adamantly opposed to the release of prisoner Susan Atkins,” Rackauckas wrote on June 25. He also summarized the brutal murder of Tate (who was eight months pregnant) and noted his view that Atkins had already been granted mercy in 1972 when the state supreme court overturned all death sentences, including hers.

But if parole-board members release Atkins, Rackauckas doesn’t want her living in Orange County. He says state law suggests that paroled inmates be returned to the county of their last legal residence, which—in Atkins’ case—may be somewhere in the California desert, where she lived with Manson in the 1960s.

“It would be a grave miscarriage of justice to burden the citizens of Orange County by paroling her [here], where she can enjoy the comforts of her husband, home and mercy she did not show Sharon Tate, her unborn baby and seven others,” wrote Rackauckas.

Lampel described the DA’s stance as “his typical uninformed blabbering.”

“Rackauckas makes it sound as if Susan is going to be shopping at South Coast Plaza, dining at the Ritz-Carlton and enjoying picturesque sunset walks on the beach,” he said. “Her left leg has been amputated. She has a brain tumor. She’s dying. She has a couple of months to live. If he’d bothered to check, he would know that even if she’s granted release, she’ll be stuck in a hospital bed.”

Husband James Whitehouse, an attorney who lives in San Juan Capistrano, also scoffs at what he sees as cheap political posturing that ignores another reality: two taxpayer-paid guards watch Atkins around the clock at an undisclosed hospital in the Inland Empire.

“[Her release will] benefit the state of California by eliminating the incredible costs of guarding and treating a person who can no longer even sit themselves up in bed, and for Susan’s family who will otherwise not get the chance to say goodbye to her,” he argues.

“Sorry, but no,” says Susan Kang Schroeder, public-affairs counsel for the DA’s office. “Certain crimes are so heinous you can’t put a cost on punishment. Sharon Tate and the rest of her victims didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones.”

We Missed The LA Times Editorial on Sadie


No mercy for Tate murderer

Susan Atkins seeks release from prison because she is dying. But she deserves her sentence.
June 18, 2008

To allow Susan Atkins to die at home would be an act of mercy -- but not of justice. By the terms of justice, she forfeited her claim to freedom on an August night in 1969 when she murdered Sharon Tate. Tate begged for her life; Atkins slit her throat and then wrote "PIG" on the front door in the slain woman's blood. For her part in that and other ghoulish sprees as a member of the Manson family, Atkins was sentenced to die, only to be spared in 1972 when the state Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. Now, facing her own mortality, she seeks compassionate release. Her case thus frames two competing imperatives of the penal system -- the right of society to demand justice and the desire of humans to grant mercy.

As readers of this page know, we oppose the death penalty under all circumstances. Over the years, that conviction has led us to oppose the executions of many vile men and women, with one glaring exception -- that of Timothy McVeigh, whose punishment we welcomed in 1997. We now regret that editorial and have since returned to our steadfast opposition to state-sanctioned murder.

To oppose capital punishment, however, is not to oppose the notion that some people deserve to die in prison. Atkins has spent 37 years in custody, longer than any other woman in California's system. After so much time, the horror of her deeds as a young woman has given way to her own slow demise. She lost a leg and now suffers from terminal brain cancer. Given her fate, Atkins has attracted the sympathy of some who once actively condemned her crimes, notably Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted the Manson family. He and others argue that it is pointless -- a burden on taxpayers and an act without penal significance -- to allow Atkins to deteriorate and die behind bars.

Our system of justice attempts three noble aims: punishment, protection of society and deterrence (some would add rehabilitation). Atkins poses no physical threat to society. Her sentence and time in prison undoubtedly have sent a deterrent message to any would-be Mansonite still lurking out there. And she may well have been rehabilitated: While serving her sentence, Atkins has written a book, explored religions, taught classes. Has she been punished? Yes, of course; 37 years is not trivial. But Atkins gravely wounded our collective peace, and society has the right, even the obligation, to exact vengeance. For some criminals, including Atkins, the crime is so great that the price should be imprisonment until death.

Atkins rejected Tate's plea for mercy and now asks for ours. We do not support the government's right to kill her, but we would not grant her mercy either.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

That's More of a Hearing Than Sharon Got


State Parole Board to hear Atkins' case for compassionate release




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10:00 PM PDT on Monday, July 7, 2008
By LAURIE LUCAS
The Press-Enterprise

The case for releasing Susan Atkins, the terminally ill follower of Charles Manson who killed actress Sharon Tate almost 40 years ago, will be heard by the state Parole Board in Sacramento on July 15.

The board will allow the public to address the board before the closed session begins.

No matter what the Parole Board of Hearings decides, the case will go to the original sentencing court in Los Angeles County, where a judge's decision would be final.

Officials at the California Institution for Women near Corona had recommended that Atkins, 60, an inmate, who is being treated at a hospital, be released because she meets the criteria of the state's compassionate release program. She has fewer than six months to live, no longer poses a threat and has a family to support her.

Atkins has brain cancer. Her attorney last month said doctors have given her two to three months to live.

The director of the state's adult prisons recommended that Atkins not be freed, but would not disclose her reasons because of confidentiality.

The Inland prison officials' bid to free Atkins has fueled a public outcry.

Tate, who was pregnant, and four others were murdered on Aug. 9, 1969, at the actress' home in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles.

During a 1969 summer killing spree, the members of the Charles Manson family cult killed eight people. Atkins was convicted for her role and has been imprisoned for 37 years. She has been denied parole 12 times.



Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy Fourth Of July



--Monkeyboy Jim, having accomplished nothing with his blog is picking up the pieces of his sad life and moving on in three weeks. We hope he keeps the blog open as a monument to delusion and confusion. We'd like to point to it in the future as an example of mental illness.

-- Since Monkeyboy did NOT follow through on his promise to burn Sharon's photo or to piss on Leslie's photo, we have decided to kiss the photo of Sharon in a bikini. You can too.

-- 40 years ago today everything was cool on Spahn Ranch. Everybody was young and carefree with their lives ahead of them.

-- THIS blog will never close as long as BUG'S lie passes for the truth.

-- Vote NO on Helter Skelter!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Go get a Coconut from Rio


So Sadie is dying and people are up in arms about releasing an unrepentant murderess from jail. Big surprise right? I mean I am glad she has found love and all but did she seriously expect to find forgiveness after her grand jury testimony? If anyone was watching the game she played they could see that she made every single move wrongly that she could. First boasting in prison. Then testifying while not in her right mind (look at the photos) . Then she HAD a deal with the DA. She wasn't going to walk but she WAS going to get out eventually. And she saw Charlie rubbing the sore ass she gave him and she flipped it away. So then she ends up indicted and in prison for life.

I have spent time in maximum security prisons, albeit male, albeit on the other side of the bars. There is NOTHING nice about them. Her life has been hard and fucked up. But then, thanks to her, over a half dozen lives are no more.

The point isn't about letting her out. Debra Tate is doing nothing to keep her there except gathering TV face time. She was NEVER getting out- none of them are.

The point is, if Susan gave a shit about what she has done- TELL SOMEONE THE TRUTH that you know about what happened- you have had almost four decades to reflect on this. Tell someone the truth. If it dies with you that is yet another sin against society.