For the first time, the three convicted women—Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten—took the witness stand. One by one, they explained their roles in the murders, absolving Manson of any complicity and proclaiming their utter lack of remorse. The families of the victims looked on in stunned silence as the women described their loved ones’ final moments in clinical detail. To kill someone, the women explained, was an act of love—it freed that person from the confines of their physical being.
