Manson Follower Won't Go Free

A California parole board today refused to grant a compassionate release for Susan Atkins, a follower of Charles Manson who admitted murdering Sharon Tate 40 years ago, the AP reports. Atkins, 60, is dying of brain cancer, and the parole board listened to impassioned pleas from both sides in a 90-minute hearing before unanimously rejecting her release.

At her long-ago trial, Atkins denied her guilt but then admitted the grisly murder during the penalty phase. "She kept begging and pleading and begging and pleading and I got sick of listening to it, so I stabbed her." At today's parole hearing, Atkins' husband and doctors said she is paralyzed on one side, had one leg amputated, and has only a few months to live. (More Susan Atkins stories.)