Susan Denise Atkins ( May 7 , 1948 – September 24 , 2009 ) was a convicted American murderer who was a member of Charles Manson 's " Family " . Manson 's followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in California , over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969 . Known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz or Sexy Sadie , Atkins was convicted for her participation in eight of these killings , including the most notorious , the Tate murders in 1969 . She was sentenced to death , which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment when the California Supreme Court invalidated all death sentences issued prior to 1972 . Atkins was later incarcerated until her death in 2009 . At the time of her death , she was California 's longest-serving female inmate
Tate murders
Tate murders
Susan Atkins