The world was outraged when Manson Family murderer Leslie Van Houten was granted parole in 2016 — with California Governor Jerry Brown finally stepping in to keep her in prison. That was after The National ENQUIRER exposed that law-enforcement experts were convinced that she was still under the influence of Charles Manson. In a bizarre twist, though, Leslie was also once part of the homicidal hippie cult’s plans to disgrace the memory of actress Sharon Tate.
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The world was outraged when Manson Family murderer Leslie Van Houten
was granted parole in 2016 — but that wasn't the only reason that she had her freedom pulled by California governor Jerry Brown!
Photo credit: Getty Images
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Photo credit: Getty Images
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On August 8, 1969, Manson ordered his disciples
Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel to go to the house where the would-be rock star had first met record producer Terry Melcher (son of Doris Day) and "totally destroy everyone in [the house], as gruesome as you can." Atkins would later make the front page of the
Daily News alongside her evil guru.
Photo credit: Getty Images
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Hollywood star Sharon — who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant — was renting the estate and holding a dinner party that evening. Her husband, "Rosemary's Baby" director
Roman Polanski, was out of town. The killers came in to find Sharon with hair stylist Jay Sebring, screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski and coffee heiress Abigail Folger.
[WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES...]Photo credit: Getty Images
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Everyone in the house was slaughtered, with "RISE" and "DEATH TO PIGS" written in blood on the walls. (Steven Parent, who had been visiting the estate's caretaker, was also murdered — as was coffee heiress Abigail Folger, seen here.)
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Atkins stabbed Sharon repeatedly while ignoring the pregnant actress' pleas to spare her unborn child. (The actress' body is seen here next to Sebering's.) Atkins ended up behind bars — only to plot to get pregnant in jail and name a daughter after her famous victim!
Photo credit: Files
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Leslie Van Houten had also been jailed for following Manson's orders to kill Rosemary LaBianco and her husband Leno (pictured) in another senseless slaughter. Then the ENQUIRER revealed in 1991 that Atkins had asked her "sister" Van Houten to be the godmother of her own Baby Sharon!
Photo credit: Files
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In a perversion of justice, Atkins — who admitted that she tasted Tate's blood during the grisly 1969 murder — was being allowed to have sexual relations with her husband James Whitehouse. (Fellow killer cult member
Charles "Tex" Watson also had children while behind bars.)
Photo credit: Getty Images
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The state of California allowed the couple to spend 72 hours together in a private apartment in Frontera Prison every 90 days. Atkins, then working as a prison chaplain's clerk, revealed that she was trying as hard as she can during those visits to become a mommy! "I'm desperate to get pregnant," confided Atkins — who had left a bloody footprint at the Sharon Tate crime scene.
Photo credit: Files
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Atkins had even taken up knitting baby clothes while behind bars, the source told The ENQUIRER. Her husband also confirmed the story, telling The ENQUIRER: "We very much would like to have a family. Susan has never been more ready or capable of bearing the responsibility of a child."
Photo credit: Files
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Atkins asked Van Houten to be her baby's godmother over breakfast, revealed the prison source: "There were tears of joy in Leslie's eyes when she told Susan: 'Of course I will, Susan. It will be an honor.'" But nothing shocked the source as much as the name Atkins said she had picked for the planned baby. "'If the baby is a girl, I'm going to call her Sharon in Sharon Tate's honor!' she told me."
Photo credit: Getty Images
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"I want to show how sorry I am for what I did and that I'll never cause suchpain and suffering again," Atkins added. "I really am a completely changed person and I know I can be a good mother.'" The killer didn't seem aware of how that "honor" would affect family members like Debra Tate, who spent decades fighting against parole for any of the Manson murderers.
Photo credit: Files
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Atkins' fellow inmates also doubted that the Manson Family murderer was ready to become a wife and mother. "Susan insists she's a born-again Christian," said the source at the time. "But the other girls said she's just trying to fool the parole board into letting her go free!"
Photo credit: Getty Images
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charles manson murders susan atkins leslie van houten sharon tate 11
If she had become pregnant while in prison, said an official there, Susan would have had her baby in a community hospital — with the infant later taken from her and raised by relatives or placed in a foster home. Atkins, however, continued to hope for her own spawn.
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"Every night," she told the source, "I dream I'm holding my baby in my arms." Fortunately, the murderer (seen here on her deathbed) didn't get to fulfill her maternal desire. She died in prison from brain cancer on September 24, 2009, at the age of 61. James Whitehouse said that she "passed away peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones" — adding: "Her last whispered word was 'Amen.'"
Photo credit: YouTube
The world was outraged when Manson Family murderer Leslie Van Houten
was granted parole in 2016 — but that wasn't the only reason that she had her freedom pulled by California governor Jerry Brown!
Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images
On August 8, 1969, Manson ordered his disciples
Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel to go to the house where the would-be rock star had first met record producer Terry Melcher (son of Doris Day) and "totally destroy everyone in [the house], as gruesome as you can." Atkins would later make the front page of the
Daily News alongside her evil guru.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Hollywood star Sharon — who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant — was renting the estate and holding a dinner party that evening. Her husband, "Rosemary's Baby" director
Roman Polanski, was out of town. The killers came in to find Sharon with hair stylist Jay Sebring, screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski and coffee heiress Abigail Folger.
[WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES...]Photo credit: Getty Images
Everyone in the house was slaughtered, with "RISE" and "DEATH TO PIGS" written in blood on the walls. (Steven Parent, who had been visiting the estate's caretaker, was also murdered — as was coffee heiress Abigail Folger, seen here.)
Atkins stabbed Sharon repeatedly while ignoring the pregnant actress' pleas to spare her unborn child. (The actress' body is seen here next to Sebering's.) Atkins ended up behind bars — only to plot to get pregnant in jail and name a daughter after her famous victim!
Leslie Van Houten had also been jailed for following Manson's orders to kill Rosemary LaBianco and her husband Leno (pictured) in another senseless slaughter. Then the ENQUIRER revealed in 1991 that Atkins had asked her "sister" Van Houten to be the godmother of her own Baby Sharon!
In a perversion of justice, Atkins — who admitted that she tasted Tate's blood during the grisly 1969 murder — was being allowed to have sexual relations with her husband James Whitehouse. (Fellow killer cult member
Charles "Tex" Watson also had children while behind bars.)
Photo credit: Getty Images
The state of California allowed the couple to spend 72 hours together in a private apartment in Frontera Prison every 90 days. Atkins, then working as a prison chaplain's clerk, revealed that she was trying as hard as she can during those visits to become a mommy! "I'm desperate to get pregnant," confided Atkins — who had left a bloody footprint at the Sharon Tate crime scene.
Atkins had even taken up knitting baby clothes while behind bars, the source told The ENQUIRER. Her husband also confirmed the story, telling The ENQUIRER: "We very much would like to have a family. Susan has never been more ready or capable of bearing the responsibility of a child."
Atkins asked Van Houten to be her baby's godmother over breakfast, revealed the prison source: "There were tears of joy in Leslie's eyes when she told Susan: 'Of course I will, Susan. It will be an honor.'" But nothing shocked the source as much as the name Atkins said she had picked for the planned baby. "'If the baby is a girl, I'm going to call her Sharon in Sharon Tate's honor!' she told me."
Photo credit: Getty Images
"I want to show how sorry I am for what I did and that I'll never cause suchpain and suffering again," Atkins added. "I really am a completely changed person and I know I can be a good mother.'" The killer didn't seem aware of how that "honor" would affect family members like Debra Tate, who spent decades fighting against parole for any of the Manson murderers.
Atkins' fellow inmates also doubted that the Manson Family murderer was ready to become a wife and mother. "Susan insists she's a born-again Christian," said the source at the time. "But the other girls said she's just trying to fool the parole board into letting her go free!"
Photo credit: Getty Images
charles manson murders susan atkins leslie van houten sharon tate 11
If she had become pregnant while in prison, said an official there, Susan would have had her baby in a community hospital — with the infant later taken from her and raised by relatives or placed in a foster home. Atkins, however, continued to hope for her own spawn.
"Every night," she told the source, "I dream I'm holding my baby in my arms." Fortunately, the murderer (seen here on her deathbed) didn't get to fulfill her maternal desire. She died in prison from brain cancer on September 24, 2009, at the age of 61. James Whitehouse said that she "passed away peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones" — adding: "Her last whispered word was 'Amen.'"