Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry


I like reading about murder. I love mysteries, I love true crime, and I love reading about the psychology of the murderous mind. It’s not terribly unusual, lots of people are like me, which partially explains why Helter Skelter is the best-selling True Crime book of all time.

Of course, there are a few other reasons why the book is so popular. The Manson Family murders are some of the most atrocious we have ever seen. It’s a fairly recent crime, and the perpetrators are just off-the-wall enough to beg curiosity. I think even part of it might be the fact that Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor of the case, is a very effective writer who takes you through the murders, the hunt for the killers, the investigation, the trial, the sentencing, and the aftermath with a well-written and well-documented story.

This true crime book is up there with Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Bugliosi doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to delving into the layers of all the parties involved in the murders, from the perpetrators of the crimes, to the outlying parties, the witnesses, and even the investigators. In fact, it’s a miracle they ever caught the Family after reading about the inter-office politics involved in the Los Angeles police departments. He covers: the cast of characters, the nights of the Tate and LaBianca murders, how the Manson Family was originally caught for car theft, how it was discovered through inmate confessions about the murders, how he gets assigned to the case and begins his investigation, how he discovers motive for the murders in Charles Manson’s philosophy, the discovery of witnesses formerly part of the Family, the trial itself and sentencing, and the murderous intents of the Family still on the outside, who were intent on breaking out Manson and the girls and hiding out in the desert. In the Epilogue, he explains how the related murders were handled, how the Manson Family madness was shared, and how they dealt with the aftermath of Charlie’s conviction. Since this version was re-printed in the mid-nineties, Bugliosi also gives us an afterward that tells where the Family is now, and how the witnesses in the trial and the remaining families of the victims are. It’s a nice conclusion to an engrossing and disturbing look at the end of the era of Free Love and Peace.