SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 8 – The father of Susan Atkins, the 21-year-old woman who turned informer on the “Manson Family” last week, said Sunday he doesn’t believe her story she was under “hypnotic influence” during the Sharon Tate slayings.

“I think she is just trying to talk her way out of it. She’s sick and she needs help,” said Miss Atkins’ father, who agreed to talk only if promised anonymity.

Miss Atkins claims Charles Manson, leader of the hippie family, could “conjure up a vision.” Her attorneys said she was kept under the “hypnotic influence” during the killings, which she admitted taking part in.

Susan’s father said she and at least two other members of the cult now charged with murder in Los Angeles stayed at his home for 10 days in September, 1968.

“I thought they were just a slap-happy bunch of kooks, dumb hippies — not killers,” he said. “And now the horror has come. And I know where she’s been. Everywhere people died when they were there. I am afraid she must be involved.”

The father blamed his daughter’s involvement with drugs and the leniency of the court system for her eventual escapade with the nomadic cult. He said he tried for three years to have various courts keep his rebellious daughter “off the streets.”

“She needed help,” he said. “She should have been put away somewhere where help could be given, not turned back out on the streets to go through It all again.”

Despite his criticism, the father said he wished he had a second chance to direct Susan’s life. He told newsmen:

“I should have been more firm, demanded more. I loved her…and still do. She once did some very beautiful things, but that was a long time ago. I don’t know what went wrong. I guess I never will.”