Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins dies
Eds: CORRECTS that Tate was one of seven murdered, sted six. FIXES
typo in 15th graf.
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LOS ANGELES — Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, whose remorseless witness-stand confession to killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 shocked the world, has died. She was 61 and had been suffering from brain cancer.
Her death comes after a parole board turned down the terminally ill woman’s last chance at freedom Sept. 2. She attended the hearing on a gurney and slept through most of it.
California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said that Atkins died late Thursday. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008, had a leg amputated and was given only a few months to live.
Tate, the 26-year-old actress who appeared in the movie “Valley of the Dolls” and was the wife of famed director Roman Polanski, was one of seven murdered in two Los Angeles homes during the Manson cult’s bloody rampage in August 1969.
Atkins was the first of the convicted killers to die. Manson and three others involved in the murders — Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles “Tex” Watson — remain imprisoned under life sentences. Thornton said that she had been in prison longer than any woman currently incarcerated in California.
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