In literature, a murder scene is often likened to a picture puzzle. If one is patient and keeps trying, eventually all the pieces will fit into place. Veteran policemen know otherwise. A much better analogy would be two picture puzzles, or three, or more, no one of which is in itself complete. Even after a solution emerges - if one does - there will be leftover pieces, evidence that just doesn't fit. And some pieces will always be missing. - Vincent Bugliosi.
To read a true crime story, I believe one has to approach it with a clean slate, in other words, you must have no prior knowledge of it, period. I am doing just that. I want to approach it like a novice. I want to see for myself how the events unfolded. I want to form my own opinions and my own observations. I want to ask my own questions. Nevertheless, my intuition tells me that the story of the Charles Manson murders is not an easy one to decipher let alone comprehend. It is dubbed "the most infamous and chilling mass murder case in the annals of American crime". A cold-blooded case that is infused with cultism and satanistic rituals. This is the first I have heard or read about it. It is not pretty. One can only wonder at the barbaric nature of a select few human beings and wonder why.
On 9 August 1969, seven people were found shot, stabbed and bludgeoned to death in Los Angeles.
On 18 November 1969, Deputy district attorney Vincent Bugliosi is assigned the (Sharon) Tate case and the related homicides of supermarket owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. For months, Bugliosi collects and sifts through the grisly evidence, listens to the chilling testimony of murderers and accomplices. Slowly, he puts the puzzle pieces together - and emerges with a complete and horrifying picture of the man who ordered the killings, the girls and young men who carried them out, the motive for the seemingly incomprehensible crimes.
Helter Skelter (1974) became a bestseller and subsequently won a 1975 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. It also became the basis for two television films released in 1976 and 2004 by CBS. Helter Skelter was originally the title of a song by The Beatles which the killer (Manson) interpreted as a term associated with war and prophesied for an apocalyptic race war between the blacks and the whites.
If you are interested in true crime, trials and convictions, I would recommend any Vincent Bugliosi book. His writing is detailed, precise, comprehensive, justified and analytical. You cannot ask better than that of a book.
About the authors:
Vincent Bugliosi, American attorney and author, is a two-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the best true crime book of the year category for his No 1 New York Times bestsellers, Helter Skelter (1974) and Till Death Do Us Part (1978). In his career at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials and his most famous trial was the Charles Manson case, which became the basis of his bestselling book Helter Skelter (1974). He lives with his wife in Los Angeles.
Curt Gentry, co-author, was born in 1931 and is an American writer.
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