Helter Skelter is probably the definitive volume that sheds light on the crimes masterminded by Charles Manson in 1969 which resulted in the brutal slayings of several people, including actress Sharon Tate. Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor of Manson in the subsequent trial of him and several of his so-called Family, wrote the book alongside Curt Gentry.

Bugliosi’s account of his investigation and gathering of the evidence needed to secure the convictions is pretty compelling. He and his co-author do a decent job of laying out the facts of the case and Bugliosi’s impressions of Manson and the insanity of his Family’s motivations to commit their heinous murders.

The book is a tough read, but there was a lot of facts and issues that needed to be presented. The account is quite thorough, but it does drag a little at times. That is probably not really the authors’ fault though since there was so much going on with putting the case together.

The book is also a pretty good lesson on what some prosecutors have to go through to put a case together. It was instructive to have Bugliosi’s perspective as he relates how he gathered and organized the evidence.

It was a bit of a chore to get through, but it was worth the effort. The murders planned by Charles Manson was a huge media sensation starting in 1969, and it is quite interesting to get an inside account of the personalities involved and the trial preparation.

I don’t know if saying I enjoyed this piece is all that appropriate, but I am glad to have read it. Bugliosi and Gentry do a pretty good job of laying out the details of a what turned out to be a terribly complicated case.

Next up, I am going to dig into Andrew Klavan’s A Woman Underground.