Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkel giggled through their trial in 1971. In 1969, through the power of a Svengali-like influence, Charles Manson turned 5 attractive, intelligent young women into vicious criminals.
Sandra Good, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia “Katie” Krenwinkel will forever be known as the Manson Women.
“These are your children,” Manson would later say. “You threw them out and I took them in.”
Only 3 of the women participated in the Tate and LaBianca murders, but the other 2, Fromme and Good are possibly the most disturbed and the most dangerous. Atkins, Van Houten and Krenwinkel have all denounced Manson, expressed remorse for their crimes, and will possibly be behind bars for the rest of their lives. But Fromme and Good are potentially still as dangerous as ever.
Sandra Good, master of the thousand-yard stare. (mansonfamilytoday.info)
Neither Fromme, nor Good have ever denounced Charles Manson. Sandra Good was imprisoned for nearly 10 years for sending death threats to corporate executives she believed were polluting the earth. But she’s been free since 1985, and before she disappeared from the media radar, she helped maintain a Web site (atwa.com, defunct since 2001) devoted to Charles Manson.
For her part, Fromme is still in prison for attempting to assassinate then-President Gerald Ford in 1975. Fromme, now 60 is scheduled to be released from prison in August, 2009.
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme in 1976. (mansonfamilytoday.info)
For an idea of how frightening the Manson Women really are, see the videos from their trial. Atkins, Van Houten and Krenwinkel appear in child-like dresses and hair styles, each with an X carved in her forehead just like Manson at the time. The three sang songs and giggled during the trial. Alternately, Atkins testified at one point that when Sharon Tate begged for her life and the life of her unborn child, Atkins showed no mercy.
“Look, bitch, I don’t care a thing about you,” she said. “You’re going to die and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
