The Myth Of Helter Skelter

The true story of the Manson murders.

This book presents a counter-point to the book Helter Skelter. Susan Atkins, a member of the group involved in the Charles Manson murders of 1969, attempts to demystify the crimes and show them for what they really were.

A Manson insider's take on the famous murder case

A journalist's twenty-year fascination with the Manson murders leads to "gobsmacking" (The Ringer) new revelations about the FBI's involvement in this "kaleidoscopic" (The New York Times) reassessment of an infamous case in American history. Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. With no mercy and seemingly no motive, the Manson Family followed their leader's every order -- their crimes lit a flame of paranoia across the nation, spelling the end of the sixties. Manson became one of history's most infamous criminals, his name forever attached to an era when charlatans mixed with prodigies, free love was as possible as brainwashing, and utopia -- or dystopia -- was just an acid trip away. Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom O'Neill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up behind the "official" story, including police carelessness, legal misconduct, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents. When a tense interview with Vincent Bugliosi -- prosecutor of the Manson Family and author of Helter Skelter -- turned a friendly source into a nemesis, O'Neill knew he was onto something. But every discovery brought more questions: Who were Manson's real friends in Hollywood, and how far would they go to hide their ties? Why didn't law enforcement, including Manson's own parole officer, act on their many chances to stop him? And how did Manson -- an illiterate ex-con -- turn a group of peaceful hippies into remorseless killers? O'Neill's quest for the truth led him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned spies, from San Francisco's summer of love to the shadowy sites of the CIA's mind-control experiments, on a trail rife with shady cover-ups and suspicious coincidences. The product of two decades of reporting, hundreds of new interviews, and dozens of never-before-seen documents from the LAPD, the FBI, and the CIA, Chaos mounts an argument that could be, according to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Steven Kay, strong enough to overturn the verdicts on the Manson murders. This is a book that overturns our understanding of a pivotal time in American history.

Charles Manson and other members of his so-called family were convicted of killing actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area during two August nights in 1969. Since that night "Charles Manson" has become a household name. Over 40 years later we will revisit the gruesome crime scene and the carnage of that deadly night. And then we will visit each one of the "Family members" to see where they are today. Warning: THIS BOOK DESCRIBES THE MURDERS IN GRAPHIC DETAIL, AND SHOWS VERY GRAPHIC CRIME SCENE PHOTOS. IF YOU THINK THIS WILL UPSET YOU DO NOT READ.

Millions met Susan Atkins in "Helter Skelter." She was young and attractive, but desperate to find happiness. Alcohol, drugs, and promiscuity didn't satisfy her.... She was looking for more. When she met Charles Manson, she felt she had met the world's savior. Here is her eye-witness account of life and death with the Manson "family." Condemned to die, rejected by society, she found life on death row - a miraculous rebirth as real as a resurrection.

“Gives us a portrait close to the truth” of the man responsible for the Tate-LaBianca murders that changed Hollywood and ended the sixties (The New York Times Book Review). This astonishing book lays bare the life and the mind of a man whose acts have left us horrified. His story provides an enormous amount of new information about his life and how it led to the Tate-LaBianca murders and reminds us of the complexity of the human condition. Born in the middle of the Depression to an unmarried fifteen-year-old, Manson lived through a bewildering succession of changing homes and substitute parents, until his mother finally asked the state authorities to assume his care when he was twelve. Regimented and often brutalized in juvenile homes, Manson became immersed in a life of petty theft, pimping, jail terms, and court appearances that culminated in seven years of prison. Released in 1967, he suddenly found himself in the world of hippies and flower children, a world that not only accepted him, but even glorified his anti-establishment values. It was a combination that led, for reasons only Charles Manson can fully explain, to tragedy. Manson’s story, distilled from seven years of interviews and examinations of his correspondence, provides sobering insight into the making of a criminal mind, and a fascinating picture of the last years of the sixties. “A glimpse of part of the American experience that is rarely described from the inside . . . It compels both interest and horror.”—The Washington Post “Provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a truly dangerous human being.”—Los Angeles Herald Examiner

The Untold Story of the Manson Family Murders from Manson's Final Interviews "I didn't have anything to do with killing those people. They knew I didn't have anything to do with it. They didn't want to hear it..." For 50 years the legendary Manson Family murders have fascinated and mortified that such brutal acts of cold-blooded murder could have taken place and with women playing a key role in those murders. Manson was an enigmatic drifter who drew a group of people into his web of deceit and evil that eventually led to the brutal Tate, and then LaBianca murders. The prosecution would go on to spin what was considered the de-facto theory behind the murder spree and the world bought into the "Helter Skelter" racial war conspiracy. Now for the first time, documentary film producer and author James Buddy Day takes readers through a more rational and believable set of reasons for the murders. James Buddy Day was the last person and author to have interviewed Charles Manson. The reader will be intrigued on Manson's perspective on how the prosecution convicted him for murder when he was forty miles away when both the acts were committed. The book will appeal to readers searching for facts and truths about the most iconic mass murder in the 20th century. You will get to know Manson through the pages of this book. Descriptions and interviews are very graphic, and the material may not be suitable for all readers.