Susan Atkins - Arrest and Grand Jury Testimony

Arrest and Grand Jury Testimony

On August 16, 1969, Spahn's Ranch was raided by the police in connection with auto thefts. The charges were later dropped and everyone was released. Soon after their release, Manson and his followers left Spahn Ranch for Barker Ranch, another isolated location. However, the authorities were still suspicious of the group and the new location was raided in October 1969 with the outcome that the group was arrested again on auto theft charges. It would be the last time many of them would be free. Just after this arrest, another member of the group implicated Atkins in the Hinman murder and she was charged with that crime.

While in jail, Atkins befriended two middle-aged career criminals, Virginia Graham and Veronica "Ronnie" Howard, to whom she confessed her participation in the Tate/LaBianca murders, for example telling the women that she stabbed Tate and that she had tasted Tate's blood. They subsequently reported her statements to the authorities. This, combined with information from other sources, led to the arrest of Atkins and others involved in the Tate/LaBianca murders (Van Houten, Krenwinkel, Kasabian and Watson).

Atkins agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for dropping the death penalty, and she then testified before the grand jury as to what had transpired on the nights of August 8 and 9, 1969. When asked if she was willing to testify knowing that she was not being given immunity, was not being freed of any of the charges, and that she might incriminate herself in her trial testimony, she responded, "I understand this, and my life doesn't mean that much to me, I just want to see what is taken care of."

Atkins told the grand jury that she stabbed Frykowski in the legs and that she held Tate down while Watson stabbed her. She also testified that Tate had pleaded for her life and that of her unborn child, to which Atkins replied, "Woman, I have no mercy for you." Her explanation to the grand jury was that this was talking to (convince) herself, and not addressed to Sharon as "I was told before we even got there no matter what they beg don't give them any leeway". She also denied her earlier statement to Howard and Graham that she had tasted Tate's blood.

Prior to the trial, Atkins discontinued her cooperation with the prosecution and repudiated her grand jury testimony. From the early 1970s onward however, Atkins told Parole Boards that her original grand jury testimony was truthful and accurate as to what transpired in the Tate home.

Atkins alleged that the reason that she repudiated her grand jury testimony was that "Manson sent his followers to suggest that it might be better for me and my son if I decided not to testify against him". She told her 1985 parole board that her son was legally adopted in either 1972 or 1973.

Atkins claimed over the years that her participation in the crimes led by Manson was passive and that she did not actually kill anyone. In his 1978 memoir, Watson declared himself responsible for all of Tate's injuries, characterizing Atkins' initial confessions as exaggeration, jail house bragging, and a bid for attention.