Helter Skelter

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Overview

About the Authors

VINCENT BUGLIOSI received his law degree in 1964 from U.C.L.A. law school, where he was president of his graduating class. In his career as a prosecutor for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including twenty-one murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial was the Charles Manson case, which became the basis of his true crime classic, Helter Skelter, the biggest selling true crime book in publishing history. But even before the Manson case, in the television series The DA, actor Robert Conrad patterned his starring role after Bugliosi.

Bugliosi has uncommonly attained success in two separate and distinct fields, as a lawyer and an author. Three of his true crime books, Helter Skelter, And The Sea Will Tell, and Outrage, The Five Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder, reached number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. No other American true crime author has ever had more than one book that achieved this ranking.

And as a trial lawyer, the judgment of his peers says it all. "Bugliosi is as good a prosecutor as there ever was," Alan Dershowitz says. F. Lee Bailey calls Bugliosi "the quintessential prosecutor." Harry Weiss, a veteran criminal defense attorney who has gone up against Bugliosi in court, says: "I've seen all the great trial lawyers of the past thirty years and none of them are in Vince's class." Robert Tanenbaum, for years the top prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's office, says, "There is only one Vince Bugliosi. He's the best." Perhaps most telling of all is the comment by Gerry Spence, who squared off against Bugliosi in a twenty-one hour televised, scriptless "docutrial" of Lee Harvey Oswald, in which the original key witnesses to the Kennedy assassination testified and were cross-examined. After the Dallas jury returned a guilty verdict in Bugliosi's favor, Spence said, "No other lawyer in America could have done what Vince did in this case."

With the recent compilation CD he produced, Greatest Latin Love Songs Of The Century, which the incomparable Chilean, Lucho Gatica - whom many believe to be the greatest singer of boleros Latin America has ever produced - calls "the best album of Latin love songs I have ever heard," Bugliosi seems to be launching yet another career.

Bugliosi lives with his wife in Los Angeles and is working on a book about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

CURT GENTRY is the author of twelve other books, including J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets, The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California and Operation Overflight (with U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers).

He lives in San Francisco and is currently working on a history of the mob in Las Vegas.

Taking a look at the man, the method and the madness, this revised audiobook reveals what really happened in the murders carried out by the Manson family. Abridged. 5 CDs.

Editorial Reviews

Chicago Sun-Times

“One of the best crime stories ever written.”

Chicago Sun-Times

One of the best crime stories ever written.

More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews

New Republic

[A] social document of rare importance.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780393322231
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 12/28/2001
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 736
Sales rank: 48,963
Product dimensions: 5.60 (w) x 8.30 (h) x 1.30 (d)

Meet the Author

Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor of Charles Manson and author of Helter Skelter, Outrage, and other #1 best-selling books, lives in Los Angeles, California.

Curt Gentry, an Edgar winner, is the author of J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets and Frame-Up: The Incredible Case of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings.

Read an Excerpt

Saturday, August 9, 1969

It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon.

The canyons above Hollywood and Beverly Hills play tricks with sounds. A noise clearly audible a mile away may be indistinguishable at a few hundred feet.

It was hot that night, but not as hot as the night before, when the temperature hadn't dropped below 92 degrees. The three-day heat wave had begun to break a couple of hours before, about 10 P.M. on Friday - to the psychological as well as the physical relief of those Angelenos who recalled that on such a night, just four years ago, Watts had exploded in violence. Though the coastal fog was now rolling in from the Pacific Ocean, Los Angeles itself remained hot and muggy, sweltering in its own emissions, but here, high above most of the city, and usually even above the smog, it was at least 10 degrees cooler. Still, it remained warm enough so that many residents of the area slept with their windows open, in hopes of catching a vagrant breeze.

All things considered, it's surprising that more people didn't hear something.

But then it was late, just after midnight, and 10050 Cielo Drive was secluded.

Being secluded, it was also vulnerable.

Cielo Drive is a narrow street that abruptly winds upward from Benedict Canyon Road. One of its cul-de-sacs, easily missed though directly opposite Bella Drive, comes to a dead end at the high gate of 10050. Looking through the gate, you could see neither the main residence nor the guest house some distance beyond it, but you could see, toward the end of the paved parking area, a corner of the garage and, a little farther on, a split-rail fence which, though it was only August, was strung with Christmas-tree lights.

The lights, which could be seen most of the way from the Sunset Strip, had been put up by actress Candice Bergen when she was living with the previous tenant of 10050 Cielo Drive, TV and record producer Terry Melcher. When Melcher, the son of Doris Day, moved to his mother's beach house in Malibu, the new tenants left the lights up. They were on this night, as they were every night, adding a year-round holiday touch to Benedict Canyon.

From the front door of the main house to the gate was over a hundred feet. From the gate to the nearest neighbor on Cielo, 10070, was almost a hundred yards.

At 10070 Cielo, Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Kott had already gone to bed, their dinner guests having left about midnight, when Mrs. Kott heard, in close sequence, what sounded like three or four gunshots. They seemed to have come from the direction of the gate of 10050. She did not check the time but later guessed it to be between 12:30 and 1 A.M. Hearing nothing further, Mrs. Kott went to sleep.

About three-quarters of a mile directly south and downhill from 10050 Cielo Drive, Tim Ireland was one of five counselors supervising an overnight camp-out for some thirty-five children at the Westlake School for Girls. The other counselors had gone to sleep, but Ireland had volunteered to stay up through the night. At approximately 12:40 A.M. he heard from what seemed a long distance away, to the north or northeast, a solitary male voice. The man was screaming, "Oh, God, no, please don't! Oh, God, no, don't, don't, don't …"

The scream lasted ten to fifteen seconds, then stopped, the abrupt silence almost as chilling as the cry itself. Ireland quickly checked the camp, but all the children were asleep. He awoke his supervisor, Rich Sparks, who had bedded down inside the school, and, telling him what he had heard, got his permission to drive around the area to see if anyone needed help. Ireland took a circuitous route from North Faring Road, where the school was located, south on Benedict Canyon Road to Sunset Boulevard, west to Beverly Glen, and northward back to the school. He observed nothing unusual, though he did hear a number of dogs barking.

There were other sounds in the hours before dawn that Saturday.

Emmett Steele, 9951 Beverly Grove Drive, was awakened by the barking of his two hunting dogs. The pair usually ignored ordinary sounds but went wild when they heard gunshots. Steele went out to look around but, finding nothing out of place, returned to bed. He estimated the time as between 2 and 3 A.M.

Robert Bullington, an employee of the Bel Air Patrol, a private security force used by many of the homeowners in the affluent area, was parked in front of 2175 Summit Ridge Drive, with his window down, when he heard what sounded like three shots, spaced a few seconds apart. Bullington called in; Eric Karlson, who was working the desk at patrol headquarters, logged the call at 4:11 A.M. Karlson in turn called the West Los Angeles Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and passed on the report. The officer who took the call remarked, "I hope we don't have a murder; we just had a woman-screaming call in that area."

Los Angeles Times delivery boy Steve Shannon heard nothing unusual when he pedaled his bike up Cielo Drive between 4:30 and 4:45 A.M. But as he put the paper in the mailbox of 10050, he did notice what looked like a telephone wire hanging over the gate. He also observed, through the gate and some distance away, that the yellow bug light on the side of the garage was still on.

Seymour Kott also noticed the light and the fallen wire when he went out to get his paper about 7:30 A.M.

About 8 A.M., Winifred Chapman got off the bus at the intersection of Santa Monica and Canyon Drive. A light-skinned black in her mid-fifties, Mrs. Chapman was the housekeeper at 10050 Cielo, and she was upset because, thanks to L.A.'s terrible bus service, she was going to be late to work. Luck seemed with her, however; just as she was about to look for a taxi, she saw a man she had once worked with, and he gave her a ride almost to the gate.

She noticed the wire immediately, and it worried her.

In front and to the left of the gate, not hidden but not conspicuous either, was a metal pole on the top of which was the gate-control mechanism. When the button was pushed, the gate swung open. There was a similar mechanism inside the grounds, both being positioned so a driver could reach the button without having to get out of the car.

Because of the wire, Mrs. Chapman thought the electricity might be off, but when she pushed the button, the gate swung open. Taking the Times out of the mailbox, she walked hurriedly onto the property, noticing an unfamiliar automobile in the driveway, a white Rambler, parked at an odd angle. But she passed it, and several other cars nearer the garage, without much thought. Overnight guests weren't that uncommon. Someone had left the outside light on all night, and she went to the switch at the corner of the garage and turned it off.

At the end of the paved parking area was a flagstone walkway that made a half circle to the front door of the main house. She turned right before coming to the walk, however, going to the service porch entrance at the back of the residence. The key was secreted on a rafter above the door. Taking it down, she unlocked the door and went inside, walking directly to the kitchen, where she picked up the extension phone. It was dead.

Thinking that she should alert someone that the line was down, she proceeded through the dining room toward the living room. Then she stopped suddenly, her progress impeded by two large blue steamer trunks, which hadn't been there when she had left the previous afternoon - and by what she saw.

There appeared to be blood on the trunks, on the floor next to them, and on two towels in the entryway. She couldn't see the entire living room - a long couch cut off the area in front of the fireplace - but everywhere she could see she saw the red splashes. The front door was ajar. Looking out, she saw several pools of blood on the flagstone porch. And, farther on, on the lawn, she saw a body.

Screaming, she turned and ran back through the house, leaving the same way she had come in but, on running down the driveway, changing her course so as to reach the gate-control button. In so doing, she passed on the opposite side of the white Rambler, seeing for the first time that there was a body inside the car too.

Once outside the gate, she ran down the hill to the first house, 10070, ringing the bell and pounding on the door. When the Kotts didn't answer, she ran to the next house, 10090, banging on that door and screaming, "Murder, death, bodies, blood!"

Fifteen-year-old Jim Asin was outside, warming up the family car. It was Saturday and, a member of Law Enforcement Unit 800 of the Boy Scouts of America, he was waiting for his father, Ray Asin, to drive him to the West Los Angeles Division of LAPD, where he was scheduled to work on the desk. By the time he got to the porch, his parents had opened the door. While they were trying to calm the hysterical Mrs. Chapman, Jim dialed the police emergency number. Trained by the Scouts to be exact, he noted the time: 8:33.

While waiting for the police, the father and son walked as far as the gate. The white Rambler was some thirty feet inside the property, too far away to make out anything inside it, but they did see that not one but several wires were down. They appeared to have been cut.

Returning home, Jim called the police a second time and, some minutes later, a third.

There is some confusion as to exactly what happened to the calls. The official police report only states, "At 0914 hours, West Los Angeles Units 8L5 and 8L62, were given a radio call, 'Code 2, possible homicide, 10050 Cielo Drive.'"

The units were one-man patrol cars. Officer Jerry Joe DeRosa, driving 8L5, arrived first, light flashing and siren blaring.1 DeRosa began interviewing Mrs. Chapman, but had a difficult time of it. Not only was she still hysterical, she was vague as to what she had seen - "blood, bodies everyplace" - and it was hard to get the names and relationships straight. Polanski. Altobelli. Frykowski.

Ray Asin, who knew the residents of 10050 Cielo, stepped in. The house was owned by Rudi Altobelli. He was in Europe, but had hired a caretaker, a young man named William Garretson, to look after the place. Garretson lived in the guest house to the back of the property. Altobelli had rented the main residence to Roman Polanski, the movie director, and his wife. The Polanskis had gone to Europe, however, in March, and while they were away, two of their friends, Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski, had moved in. Mrs. Polanski had returned less than a month ago, and Frykowski and Folger were staying on with her until her husband returned. Mrs. Polanski was a movie actress. Her name was Sharon Tate.

	Illustrations	9
	Cast of Characters	13
Part 1	The Murders: August 9-October 14, 1969	21
Part 2	The Killers: October 15-November 17, 1969	111
Part 3	The Investigation--Phase Two: November 18-December 31, 1969	163
Part 4	The Search for the Motive: The Bible, the Beatles, and Helter Skelter January-February 1970	283
Part 5	"Don't You Know Who You're Crucifying?" March-June 14, 1970	341
Part 6	The Trial: June 15-November 19, 1970	401
Part 7	Murder in the Wind: November 19, 1970-January 25, 1971	505
Part 8	Fires in Your Cities: January 26-April 19, 1971	541
	Epilogue: A Shared Madness	599
	Afterword	637
	Index	671

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Fuampa

Posted March 8, 2011

Almost Perfect on Nook

Great read. Would have given 5 stars if the Nook would show the images. "Images in this book are not displayed owing to permissive issues" That is frustrating.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Mary_T

Posted September 13, 2010

more from this reviewer

EBOOK OMITS PHOTOS

I acknowledge that this story is horrific enough without the photos, but I was surprised when my ebook edition omitted them. I could understand the technological issues attendant with including color photos, but the pics in the "dead tree" version are in black and white, so I don't understand why they weren't included in my ebook version. I checked out the paper book while at Barnes and Noble. The photos are not grotesque. Certain aspects of the crime scene photos are prudently obscured. But what I found fascinating were the photos of the young women who committed the murders. Fresh-faced teenage girls smile out from the pages. Manson looks like a feral leprechaun and one wonders why anyone would follow him anywhere much less murder for him. The inclusion of the photos in the (not inexpensive) ebook version would have made this a better product.

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted September 6, 2011

Great Book

I would recommend this to anyone that is into detective based novels or interested in psychological thrillers. Very chilling everytime I read the words that come from the manson family. Horrifying that this crime actually happened.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted April 6, 2009

Morbid yet Fascinating

Usually nonfiction books don't keep my interest, but Helter Skelter was a real page turner. It described the Manson Family in great detail, not to mention the murders they committed. Charles Manson was an incredibly twisted character, and manipulated the minds of his followers. The author, Vincent Bugliosi, was one of the members the prosecution. His vivid imagery makes you feel like you're really at the scene of the crime. As if imagination isn't enough, Helter Skelter contains pictures of the victims, where they were found, and those who took their lives. It was eerie looking back through the photos of the killers after reading their responses in interviews with investigators. The one that stood out to me the most was Susan Atkins. She bragged about the murders. Atkins talked about how good it felt to stab people after describing how she murdered pregnant actress, Sharon Tate. If you enjoy crime stories, this one's a must read.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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PhxKevin

Posted February 5, 2012

A must read for any true crime fan

Helter Skelter is about Charles Manson who in 1969, along with his family of followers struck fear in the heart of all America. The darker side of the hippie movement the sixties were known for. Vincent Bugliosi does a great job leading you through the events and subsequent trials. Be aware though that the NOOK version of this book does not include any of the photographs, maps etc. that the book version does. These are important to the story and i was very disappointed to find them not available.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted October 13, 2010

Fascinating, yet sloppy

While the subject matter of this book is very engrossing, and all of the pertinent elements are presented in a concise and cogent manner, the author has some rather annoying habits. First, he is not consistent in the use of names of people. Sometimes he uses first names and other times he uses last names. To further confuse the reader, he sometimes uses their true names and other times he uses their aliases. Since their are a very large number of individuals involved in this vastly intricate plot, this can be very aggravating.

Despite these fairly minor infractions, however, I was highly entertained and would recommend it to anyone.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Elaine_M

Posted May 16, 2010

Great introduction to a chilling and bizarre mass murder led by a 'right-wing hippie'

If you only know the name Charles Manson by vague associations with a shaggy beard, creepy eyes, and the notion of evil, this book might surprise you. Indeed, before Manson was any of that, he was a hippy father figure for many wayward youth -- mostly women -- in late 1960s California, and he was a man who was pretty close to not being convicted of anything more than auto theft. Bugliosi, the prosecutor in the Manson trial gave one of the first accounts of the Manson murders following the conviction of Manson and his followers. Bugliosi's tale is indeed told like a district attorney uncovering evidence. The advantage of this for the reader is being privvy to all of the ins and outs of the investigation and trial: the pain-staking evidence gathering that was often hindered by LAPD's lack of internal communication and drawn-out courtroom proceedings that were often hijacked by Manson's obstructionist attorney, the three women in their early 20s who killed for Manson (Susan Atkins, Leslie van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel) and Manson himself. Although it seems a given now that Manson was responsible for mass murders, it was hardly expected that he and "the girls" would be convicted for killing actress Sharon Tate (Roman Polanski's wife), her friends, a grocery store chain owner and his wife, and a young man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The biggest drawback of this book is that it does not go in depth into the motives of Charles Manson and his followers. We get that they at some point accepted him as a religious figure, as is what happens in cults, but we don't get how these young women and men became so dissolute that they could kill for Manson, at least not in anyway that seems convincing. 'Helter Skelter' is a great introduction to the events that led to these horrific murders, as well as to this period in history. (It is said that these murders put an end to the hippy era because of Manson's association with the movement, marginal though it was. Bugliosi refers to Manson at one point as a "right-wing hippie," because of his authoritarian inclinations combined with the hippie lifestyle this ex-con adopted in the late '60s). But reading the book leaves so many questions in the reader's head--maybe as many as it answers. Did the victims really not know the killers? How much responsibility did Manson have for the murders? Why on earth would people believe him when he said there would be a race war called Helter Skleter (were they just that drugged out)? What motivated young women and men from middle class families to uproot and live with Manson? i.e. How bad could their family lives have been that a gnomish bearded man who insisted on directing them in orgies seemed like a better life choice than going to college and leading a "normal" life? Bugliosi's book is a great introduction to this truly gruesome and unparalleled point in history, but you will finish it wanting to learn a whole lot more.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Amanda-Katherine

Posted May 19, 2009

Wow!

This book goes into great detail about the Manson murders during the 60s/70s. It starts off with the Tate and LaBianca murders, and the reasons for why it took so long to connect the murders, let alone solve them. The first time I took a look at the book and didn't want to pick it up because it was over 400 pages. But then I started to read it and could not put it down! I read it in 2 days. I recommend this book to anyone wanting some thrill, as well as information reguarding Manson and his crazy thinking.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted February 3, 2006

True Crime At Its Best

This is the most complete true crime novel ever written. It takes you inside the murders and the lives of everyone involved. Usually in books like this, the portions about the court procedings are slow and boring. That's not the case here. The trial is very interesting to read about. A great book all around!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted January 16, 2002

One of the best true crime books ever!

While many non-fiction books are written from second hand information this book was written by one who was actualy a major character int he case and who was responsible for helping end the reign of terror by one of the evilest men in history. Bugliosi's book was wonderful and I'd recommend it for anyone interested in a 'scary as hell' story (just like the warning in the beginning of the book) and a lesson in police and prosecution procedures. Warning: Do not read this book at night. Every few minutes I would get up to make sure the my windows were locked.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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FunComesFirst

Posted February 29, 2012

Cool!

I was prepared to have nightmares while reading this book but it was actually ok! I enjoy fiction trial books and the fact that this one was about a real case made it that much more cool. :) I am hoping to do more reading on Charles Manson in the future - he's scary and fascinating all at the same time!
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Anonymous

Posted February 17, 2012

Could not put it down

This book is great from start to finish, and I had a hard time putting it down. The author is very detailed regarding the events that took place giving the reader a feeling of actually being there. I don't think it could have been written any better.
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Anonymous

Posted February 7, 2012

Great book

This is a must read for anypne!! But its fraky because it reeally happened, but he diddnt realy kill the people girls did
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Anonymous

Posted February 7, 2012

Page Turner

I never write reviews. I have to say, this book is unbelievable. It is "real" not fiction and written by the actual prosecuter. So, it's so interesting. It's fascinating beyond belief.....excellently written too. Only thing is that the pictures aren't available with the Nook version.
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Nickiieeee

Posted January 19, 2012

Best crime book ever!

This book was by far the best book I have read. I love that it is written by someone who was actually involved in the whole thing and not someone who just heard about it. I chose this book because ever since I found out about these murders, I have always wanted to know more about them. And it just so happened that I had a book project assigned in my English class after I purchased the book. I find this book 10 times better than any TV show or anything else about Charles Manson because like I said, it was written by somebody involved in the trial and everything else. I cannot really compare this book to any other crime book I have read. This was such a thrilling and suspenseful book. The book had so much information , It actually felt like you were a detective in the 1960’s trying to solve the case. Even after reading the 600+ pages, I am still stuck with the same question every other person who has read the book is. What kind of sick people do something like that and end up so happy about it? I still do not understand why people do such cruel things. I think this book has a huge ability to make the reader keep turning the pages. It seems like every time you find out something that happened, you want to know more and more about it. I do find it confusing though how every time they committed a murder, they didn’t get caught within the next couple days. They left so many hints, and so many obvious things. What I love most about the book is Bugliosi and Gentry’s style of writing. They make sure that you know just as much as they do about the murders. The part of the book I enjoyed the most would have to be when Bugliosi and Gentry interviewed Danny DeCarlo. Danny was the club treasurer from the Straight Satans motorcycle gang. He gave the police most of the information they would find out about the murder. He also gave them a tour of Spahns Movie Ranch. That is where Charles Manson and his “family” lived. The creepiest and craziest family member in my opinion, would have to be Susan Atkins. She is the one who said she enjoyed killing people. And that it felt so good stabbing somebody. There is one good thing that she did though, while she was in jail on drug charges, she bragged about the killings she had done to a cell mate. That cell mate ended up telling a LAPD officer what Susan had told her. And that is how the Manson Family got caught for all the murders. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of reading it.
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Jiru_Barentain

Posted December 3, 2011

Why are most disturbing things fascinating?

When I first began to read this book, I thought it would take me forever to read because it wouldn¿t catch my attention like other books seem to have done. I chose it because the reviews looked good and I enjoy reading crime books to learn about what happened¿even if it is dull. When I begin a book, I follow it to the end no matter how boring and endless it may seem. This was not the case with this book. From the very first page I was entranced and soon finished this book in a few days. I¿m used to the violence and human brutality from reading and watching true crime novels, but this book was so descriptive. It never left anything to the imagination no matter how tiny the fragment was. You¿re practically placed in the scene as the murders occurred watching helplessly as this gruesome act of violence is played out.
I never really knew too much about the Manson family murders so I wanted to find a book that would tell me some information. And who better to learn from than the prosecutor of the Charles Manson case? I got the story I wanted to learn, but after reading this book I feel like I know more than I wanted to. Never the less, I had an amazing time reading this book because it was just so descriptive. I even had to put the book down a few times because I had to stop and just assure myself that I was okay and that I could continue reading. This is a truly haunting book.
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mdybas59

Posted November 30, 2011

more from this reviewer

True Crime Lovers, Highly Recommended

This book tells the story of the Manson murders in great detail. I have read this book multiple times over the years and still am amazed at the story!! The depth of the evil that went on was amazing!! Any true crime lover will make this a staple of their reading. This author was intimately involved in the trial and was able to give very graphic details.
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Anonymous

Posted November 16, 2011

Not a good read

Was excepting more of the accuall account of the murders
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9708020

Posted October 3, 2011

Very engrossing

Really a good and entertaining read.
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mboersch

Posted October 22, 2009

I Also Recommend:

Wow! That was scary and intense

The first half of the book will make you feel a little paranoid, given the brutality of the Manson murders and the pure randomness of them as well. It's a long book, but extremely fast paced, and Bugliosi does a good job of keeping the reader gripped. Manson is an infamous icon, and this is his legacy, for better or worse...
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Helter Skelter

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