crime and criminals

I had this book since I was sixteen and have read and re-read and watched the movie. This book is what got me into studying Serial Killers (and how they became what they were). I've studied the Manson case extensively and come away with different opinion of them each time (all of them not good).

Essentially, all the Manson Family was, was a bunch of kids aged 15-28, all runaways that joined up with and let themselves be brainwashed by 5'2" Charles Manson. I think Susan Atkins once said he had the voice of an angel.

Between 1967-1969 Charles was preaching to his followers how he wanted to start a race war ... his version of "Helter Skelter" and that the Beatles were urging him to do it through the White Album. (How demented is this man?)

In 1969, Manson got tired of waiting and told his followers that the population needed a little help in starting Helter Skelter. So he sent out Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle and Linda Kasabian (the only one with a valid driver's license and snitch) to a house he knew about in the Hills (10050 Cielo Drive).

There in the early morning hours, Sharon Tate's "Love House" (rented from Doris Day's son Terry Melcher and owned by director Rudi Altobelli) went from "Love House" to Slaughterhouse as Sharon and each of her 3 friends and a bystander (Folger, her boyfriend Frykowski, Sebring and Parent) were brutally and horrifically killed. Sharon was 8-1/2 months pregnant with her first child from her husband, director Roman Polanski.

The next night, Charles said it was too messy and he went along and brought along Leslie Van Houten. There a couple who owned a grocery store chain were killed in the same horrific way. In both residences the "Family" printed words on the walls and doors, including misspellings, with towels with the victims blood.

"Helter Skelter" is the story written by the Prosecuting Attorney, Vincent Bugliosi. He and his assistant investigated, and tried the four murderers in a California Federal Court and got the death penalty for each one for the Tate-LaBianca killings.

Today, the main people in the Manson Family (including the 1st in command Squeaky Fromme for trying to kill President Ford). In 1972 the death penalty in California was abolished and the Manson Family's sentences got commuted to Life. The Death Penalty was reinstated in 1973 or '74. Every now and then you'll hear about a Manson Family member come up for Parole and being denied. Most recently as (5/23/2002) Leslie Van Houten (participated in LaBianca murder) has come up for Parole and been denied, and now she thinks she has been unjustly denied Parole after all these years. The woman stabbed a person 13 times! And she wants a parole! Current California Governor Gray Davis won't allow it.

Whether or not you know anything about the Tate-LaBianca murders, you should read "Helter Skelter," an amazingly thorough account of the killings, the events leading up to and after the events, the completely deranged fantasies of Charles Manson, how he converted a legion of sheltered, middle-class kids into his lackeys and (in many cases) killers, and how they were convicted and sent to Death Row (sentences later commuted to life imprisonment). Though Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's high-minded moralizing can get a bit annoying (but when has a prosecutor not been shrill and annoying?), one can only marvel at the sheer volume of work put into compiling the difficult-to-obtain evidence against Manson and the other killers. They should have had Bugliosi prosecute O.J. After you read the book, try to hunt down "Manson," a 1972 documentary film about the Family that was nominated for an Oscar. It's out of print, but more off-beat video places may have it in stock.

I first read "Helter Skelter" the same summer I read "In Cold Blood." Both books left indelible images in my psyche and ensured I would never look at the world of crime and investigation the same again.

I've never read a book quite like HS since. Bugliosi and Gentry have written a taught and gripping blow-by-blow account of the two seemingly unconnected streams of events, the Tate/La Bianca murders and Manson's cult, how they horribly intersected and the breathtaking resolution.

Bugliosi's reminiscences provide both the personal anguish that the investigation caused him and his family and the urgent immediacy that gripped him and the community to see that justice was finally done.

Unforgettable and unflinching, "Helter Skelter" forces us to look into the eyes of evil and learn more about ourselves.

See also my reviews of the "Helter Skelter" TV movie and the audio book version.