Early Life
Born in San Gabriel, California, the second of three children, Susan Atkins grew up in Northern California. Both her parents, Edward John and Jeanette, were, according to her, alcoholics. Her mother died of cancer in 1963. Over the next three years, Susan's life was disrupted by the gradual breakup of her family, frequent moves, and her leaving home to live independently. Until she was 13 years old Atkins and her family lived in a middle-class home in the Cambrian Park area of San Jose, California. She was described by those who knew her as a quiet, self-conscious girl who belonged to her school's glee club and the local church choir. Two weeks before her mother was hospitalized for the final time, Susan arranged for members of the church choir to sing Christmas carols under her bedroom window. After Jeanette Atkins' death, relatives were asked to help look after Susan and her two brothers.
Edward Atkins eventually moved to Los Banos, California, with Susan and her younger brother Steven. When he found work on the San Luis Dam construction project, he left the two children behind to fend for themselves. Susan took a job during her junior year in school to support herself and Steven. Atkins had been an average student in Leigh High School in San Jose, but her grades deteriorated when she entered Los Banos High School. During this time, she lived with various relatives.
In 1967, Atkins met Charles Manson when he played guitar at the house where she was living with several friends. When the house was raided several weeks later by the police and she was left homeless, Manson invited her to join his group, who were embarking on a summer road trip in a converted school bus painted completely black. She was nicknamed "Sadie Mae Glutz" by Manson and a man who was creating a fake ID for her at the time. Atkins later claimed to have believed Manson to be Jesus. The growing "Manson Family" settled at the Spahn Ranch in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, where, on October 7, 1968, she bore a son by Bruce White, whom Manson named Zezozose Zadfrack Glutz. Atkins' parental rights were terminated once she was convicted of the murders and no one in her family would assume responsibility for the child. Her son was adopted and renamed from the time of her incarceration in 1969. She had no further contact with him.
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