Response to commenters on Sharon Tate’s murderer’s possible release… June 16, 2008
Posted by Mrs Flipphead in Sharon Tate, Things that **** me off!, victims.trackback
The main problem that I have with ANY murderer being released for any reason is that anyone who is capable of the murder of a total stranger for no particular reason is not someone with a conscience. That person is a sociopath. A sociopath does not have the capability to be rehabilitated, “saved” or whatever. They can learn to function in society, side by side with people who do have consciences. But they are incapable of feeling true remorse. They are fantastic actors and are usually highly intelligent and manipulative.
In order for a person to be saved, in the Christian faith, they must first be capable of being truly sorry for what they have done. I don’t believe that she is actually capable of that. I don’t even have to know her to make that judgement. If it was a crime of passion or even a hate crime, I could think that she might have come around or even been mentally ill and treated with the right medication, may have seen the error of her ways. I’m not buying that.
Maybe she should have picked a religion that you can acheive salvation by “good works”. But last time I checked, that isn’t the case with Christianity. So her claim of being a changed person, doesn’t really fly for me. I realize that many may not agree with me on this. That’s o.k.
The bottom line is that in a state with the death penalty, she would already be dead and it wouldn’t have cost the taxpayers a bundle to keep her alive all these years (good point, Carla). She was given life in prison instead. I don’t care what she has done since then, or how much she has changed. The penalty for what she did, to her victims, was to give up her life of freedom for the (at least 3) humans that she killed. I don’t think that even begins to cover it.
She does not deserve to be released from prison, under any circumstance. Why should her life and “compassion” for her be put above the victims families and what they have had to suffer with the loss of their loved ones? (Carl, “Pig” and David: my sentiments, exactly!)
I don’t feel bad that I don’t feel bad for her. I’m not going to apologize for that. No one else should have to either (I would question the sanity of anyone who could just blythely forgive her, Dolores, so don’t feel bad). It’s not our job to feel bad for her.
My father died from cancer. I can tell you from first hand experience that if she is really too sick to harm anyone else before she dies, then her quality of life won’t be dramatically improved whether she is in a prison hospital or a regular hospital. Why should she have any more comfort or peace in her death than Sharon and the other victims did? If she’s really a born again Christian, then she’ll find peace in the next life and that is enough as far as I’m concerned.
If anyone needs to relieve their conscience about showing no compassion for Sadie Mae (Susan Atkins) or any of them, I suggest you read “Helter Skelter”. I stomached my way through it some how. The author’s name escapes me, but it has in it actual crime scene photographs. Definitely not for the weak of heart or stomach. I can’t even begin to explain the horror of the photographs. The unimaginable pain and suffering those poor people experienced before they died…. NO CLEMENCY!!!!
What this woman is now facing is what we Buddhists call Karma. Karma is so much more than what goes around comes around, it is directly related to your actions. When you take a life, be it that of a small creature as an ant or a person, your own health will be effected. You can become simply sick, or like this woman, cursed with cancer. The way you fix it is to realize what you did and work to correct it through helping others who are sick or dying.
This woman took many many lives that weren’t hers to take and she took them for no reason other than pleasure. This is the Universe’s punishment for her. I feel sorry for her only in that she will never understand why she is sick and really be remorseful for her actions. I am suspicious of “born again” convicts as it is easy to say what other people want you to hear just to get your way.
All I can hope for is that she will learn her lesson in her next life and choose to be better for it.
Carla-In total agreement with everything you said.
Sandy-Aha! That explains why no, “I’m a born again Buddhist”!
Interesting responses – and I agree with Carla. I also read “Helter Skelter” and it was very scary to see how the killers’ minds seemed to work, and how the women could all be so devoted to Manson.
*goosebumps*
I agree with you regarding sociopathic personalities. Only a sociopath could ever do what they did to those poor victims. They were not in a drug induced state, for they can recall in detail every event from that night. They are still able to recall the events and I have even heard an interview with Susan where she said she “felt nothing for her victim, even when she was pleading for her baby’s life”. Only someone who had already lost their soul could say that.
I believe that she has probably found faith in Christianity, in the same way she found faith in Charles Manson. It is not far fetched to think she would latch onto another belief offered to her…and if released, what if she did get better? How can we know without a doubt that she would not get influenced by another belief?
I believe that the families of the victims deserve enough respect to keep her and the others “imprisoned”. I am sure that it must already be hard enough for them to deal with the fact that they have been making lives and families for themselves while in prison, and probably still do not have any nightmares over the horrors they brought to their victims and their victims families. It has nothing to do with forgiveness…it has to do with doing the right thing and letting her complete her LIFE sentence. Far many more people died in prison for doing far lesser crimes.