Former Manson family member Susan Atkins has requested a "compassionate release" from prison because she has less than six months to live, a California prisons spokeswoman said Friday.

Atkins, 60, was convicted in the 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and four others. She had been incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Frontera, California.

But Atkins has been hospitalized since March 18 and is listed in serious condition, state corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. Because of privacy laws, Thornton would not disclose the nature of Atkins' illness.

But Atkins' husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, was quoted as saying she has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, according to a blog called Manson Family Today. She also has had a leg amputated, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday, citing sources close to the case.

The compassionate release request has been approved by the prison, which conducted an evaluation, and is under corrections department review, Thornton said.

If the department approves, the Board of Parole Hearings and the sentencing court in Los Angeles also must sign off on the request. There is no timeline for a decision to be made, Thornton said.

Read the full article here.

There is a new article by Ingrid Pitt where she shares her memories of Sharon. The article is very sweet and personal. An excerpt and link to the article is below.

A photograph which was particularly poignant was a small picture of me with Sharon Tate, standing in a hotel lobby, making a telephone call. I remember the evening well.

I was in Rome to audition for Frederico Fellini. Very exciting! Get a Fellini film and the world was your crustacean. The meeting didn't go well. He said I was too thin and wanted me to fatten up if he was to consider me for a part. It didn't appeal.

Back at the hotel I was introduced to Sharon Tate by the manager. She was so fragile and beautiful it brought out the mothering instinct in me. She had been invited to dinner that evening by a friend of her husband. She asked me if I would like to join her. It suited me. Her husband, film director Roman Polanski, was hot at the time. When we got to the restaurant there was half a dozen blokes with attitude, ready and waiting. Typical macho Italians. They instantly went into mating mode and made a lot of noise and swilled back the wine like storm drains. Very wearisome. By about eleven Sharon and I had had enough. On the pretext of 'powdering ' our nose, we grabbed our coats and rang for a taxi. We were spotted by a journalist who grabbed a picture.

For the next couple of days we 'did' Rome. Sharon was enthusiastic but didn't have a lot of stamina. It was an enjoyable few days. When Sharon left she made me promise that next time I was in Los Angeles I'd call her. The opportunity came sooner that expected. A couple of weeks later I rang Sharon to tell her that I had been invited to a sportscar race in Laguna Seca in Monterey and I asked her if she would like to join me. She didn't fancy it but suggested that I should spend a few days at her home in Benedict Canyon. That suited me. It would give me another chance to meet her husband.

Read the full article here.

Today would be Sharon's 65th birthday!

Although unrelated to Sharon, I'm here to write with great sadness that 28-year-old actor Heath Ledger was found dead today in his Manhattan apartment at approximately 3:30pm EST. The cause of death has not been confirmed but reports indicate a possible accidental overdose on sleeping pills. Sharon has been listed in several articles about his death, as another rising star who passed away in their 20's. I am sure all Sharon fans will be empathetic to this tragedy. I'd like to send my condolences to Heath's friends and family, and may Heath rest in peace.

I've created a new message board dedicated to Sharon as part of the site. You can visit it at http://s1.zetaboards.com/sharontate. You must register before you can see the full board and take advantage of all the cool features, so head on over, join, and start posting! The site is undergoing a make-over and will soon have new layouts on both the main site and gallery. I have been adding pictures throughout the last couple of weeks, although I hadn't updated about them here, so if you haven't checked the gallery in a while, make sure to look through the last uploads.

I've added 95 new pics today. Its mostly clippings but there's a bit of everything. There's some really rare pics included in them. I can't list all of the updated albums but check out the last uploads section for all the newest additions!

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, who has filmed many tragic stories over the years, will soon see his own dramatic life brought to the big screen in an unauthorized biopic.


"Polanski" will include passages about the director's childhood in Poland during the Holocaust; the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by followers of Charles Manson in 1969; and his 1977 conviction of statutory rape. Polanski fled the United States rather than go to prison.


Read More / Source: Reuters, Hollywood Reporter

I've added 2 new photoshoots, Session 40 and Session 41, and I've added a new pic to the E. Graham photoshoot. There's a new pic of Sharon and Roman at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival and a candid of them in Cannes. I've also added a new Fearless Vampire Killers movie still. Last but not least, there's new clippings from Amori Vip, Quick, and Screen Japan. Enjoy! There will be alot more updates to come.