In the days shortly after the Tate-LaBianca murders, on a visit to family in Eastern North Carolina I felt as though I was on trial. My hair was long, because that's the way I wanted to wear it and because I sang rock'n'roll. Today, bald rockers are cool, at least I am...I think. Dunno, being cool is not like my top priority any more.
I had some cousins who didn't want to try to understand all of this as if I represented Charlie Manson and the antics of John Lennon and his new wife that most everyone thought of as a bit strange.
Years later, I read a book called "Child of Satan-Child of God" authored by Susan Atkins who admitted to being the one who killed Sharon Tate in her partly drug-induced fog partly being under the control of Charlie and largely being deceived by the Evil One. Susan did horrible things unforgivable to the natural born, but not out of the reach of the One Who forgives and casts sins into a sea of forgetfulness, the One Who purchased Susan two thousand years before she was born.
Susan's story is one of an "all American girl" who ran away and got up with the wrong crowd, to say the least. Charlie had signs and wonders in his bag of tricks, including actually walking through her. Yeah, scary. But Susan's story doesn't end with committing murder and going to prison for life. Her story is one of redemption and of ministry in her final days right there in prison.
I, as a young Christian, was impacted greatly by Susan's book and wrote her. I got a hand-written answer from her mentioning that she was married (ha ha) and that she'd be glad to help me in any way with my spiritual walk. Susan passed away from brain cancer, I believe in 2009. Her letter and even more her book inspired me to keep on keeping on.
There are some pretty horrible people in this world that in my SELF, I would be tempted to give up on, but the Word of God says that "His mercy endures forever." If you haven't read Susan's book, I gurarantee it.
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