Vincent Bugliosi (1934–2015)

The Book of Books about one of the most shocking crimes ever committed. Written in simple, clear, almost surgical language, it demands the reader's full attention and leads us right into the hell of one of the most evil minds to have walked this Earth, the mind of Charles Manson.

Although everyone knows the particulars of the massacres committed by the Family, the lack of remorse, the sheer power of all the brain-washing done to the Girls of Manson's sect never fails to shock me and amaze me. show more How easy it is for a human being to turn into a beast under the influence of drugs, sex and the vague promise of a self-proclaimed ''Messiah''.

It is not an easy read. Far from it. It requires the right mentality, it requires us to stay calm and try to let ourselves unaffected as the Helter Skelter unfolds in front of our eyes... show less

Amazingly enough (especially considering my interest in the macabre), I had never before picked up this classic true crime account of the Manson Murders. I’m pleased to say that I have rectified that deficiency, and that I was not disappointed in the least.

Bugliosi (who was also the lead prosecutor of Manson and his co-defendants) begins the 600+ page book with the Tate murders themselves. We follow the housekeeper as she enters the property to begin her day, the trauma of the bodies being show more discovered, and the movements of the police who first entered the scene. We are next led along to the LaBianca murder scene (the murder of an elderly couple also committed by Manson’s “Family”). From these two bloodbaths, Bugliosi takes the reader along through the (occasionally horribly bungled) police investigation, letting us walk along with investigators as they try to make sense of such seemingly senseless killings.

As I said earlier, Bugliosi was the lead prosecutor of the case (and occasional investigator). This is certainly in evidence as Bugliosi approaches “Helter Skelter” like a trial in and of itself. Physical evidence, witness statements, and paper trails are carefully presented and thoroughly dissected for the reader. The sheer weight of evidence eventually brought together against Manson and his family is presented here in largely chronological order, and shows just how completely Bugliosi throws himself into his work. There is a good reason why Helter Skelter is considered one of the best true crime books written (easily up there with Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood).

So, grab this book and read it. For such a hefty tome, it goes by very quickly. Bugliosi’s style is intense, but highly readable. Any one who is interested in true crime will obviously love this book, but even if that isn’t your usual genre, this is a compelling read about a charismatic madman and the incredible influence he had, not only on his followers, but on the country as a whole. show less

I should have watched the 'major motion picture' adaptation instead, at least that would have been a different medium. I have read Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi's account of the Manson murders, and The Death of a President by William Manchester - and never the twain should meet, quite frankly. I don't know why Bugliosi thought he would be able to silence the 'conspiracy theorists' by poking through old notes and sucking up to the Texas Police, but he didn't convince me. I don't know about show more 'magic bullets' and the grassy knoll, but there was something decidedly hinkey going on in the 1960s - JFK, and then his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, RFK, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers. Yeah, sure. All completely unconnected.

Anyway, Bugliosi's book is completely unnecessary, and far from objective. I didn't like the way he dedicated more pages to the bumptious police officers and detectives in Texas - with names like Lumpkin and Captain Fritz - than the death of Kennedy himself. At least Manchester was invested in the personal aspect of the assassination. And he's so keen to 'resolve, beyond every reasonable doubt, what happened in Dallas and who was responsible' that his own opinion regularly creeps into the familiar path of events. If he were in court, the defense would be entitled to claim that he was leading the witness/reader. His contempt for Oswald crawls off the page, for one, whereas the Dallas cops are beyond reproach - they 'have done an incredible, some would even say a near impossible job', and 'amassed evidence against him that is destined to withstand years of scrutiny' ... All the while letting the press take over the building to the point where Jack Ruby was able to slip inside and kill Oswald. And don't get me started on how 'insane with grief' he insists Ruby was when he was allowed to silence the assassin - weeping and wailing and just 'not himself' when he heard about Kennedy's death. Sure, Jan.

Bugliosi can grandstand all he wants, a lot of details about Dallas will never add up. I believe that Oswald killed JFK, but he wasn't acting independently, and actually, the only part of that fateful day that I really want to read about is the devastating loss of such an inspiring, larger than life man. Read Manchester's authorised account for a more human account of Kennedy's death. show less

I am not, by any stretch, a true crime aficionado, but I started reading up on Sharon Tate before going to watch Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood last year and fell a little bit in love with her and Jay Sebring. Most of my research has been into their lives, but who can avoid reading about the horrific way in which Sharon, Jay, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowski, Steve Parent, and later Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, had their lives stolen from them? I dithered for a while, but eventually show more decided to read the definitive account of the murders by Vincent Bugliosi, the man who put the killers behind bars.

Covering the murders, investigation, killers' arrests, trial and sentencing, this is a long and detailed history of the 'Manson Family' murders. Perhaps too long. Bugliosi, however, does a good job at balancing truth with tension, to the point where, if I didn't already know the outcome of the trial. I would have felt sick that Manson and his acolytes were going to evade justice! I did feel that the victims were sidelined after the description of the murders, to the point where 'Tate-LaBianca' became simply the name of the trial, and I had to remind myself that the whole point of the year long battle in court was to get justice for Sharon, her friends and the LaBiancas. Manson, Susan Atkins, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten should never be regarded as anything but the vicious murderers they are - I can't believe there are people who would even try to glorify, excuse or sympathise with them! The only names worth remembering are those of the victims.

Apart from the suffering inflicted on those who died, I was also shocked by the ineptitude of the LA Police Department (one officer wiped out a fingerprint on the gate release, evidence was lost, the detectives on the initially separate murder investigations wouldn't talk to each other, and a young boy and a TV crew found the discarded weapon and clothes from the Tate murders!) and the almost comic turn of the trial, with Manson's lawyer trying to turn the proceedings into Jarndyce vs Jarndyce. This was the biggest murder trial of the time, and Bugliosi's withering narrative makes the whole process sound like a parody of Law and Order. At least justice prevailed in the end.

After wading through 700 pages on Kindle, there are some photographs of the crime scene at the end, but the victims bodies have been censored (worse can be unwittingly found online!) show less