Reviews - Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

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Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

Vincent Bugliosi

4.05 AVERAGE

hannahgilhamjones's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

andrewjara's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

I think if you’re interested in the murders this is your bible.

lisacunningham's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

Still reading -- not a book that I can read in a few sittings. Going to take awhile. Read this in high school as well.

morgod's review against another edition

4.0

Wow. This was weird. I went into this knowing very little about the Manson murders or Charles Manson himself. This was not what I expected. First of all, there is a lot of information in here. The author, who happens to be the prosecutor on that case, did a lot of research. He had to! I learned a lot about how trials work, what lawyers have to do (in some cases, things they should NOT do), and what it is like to live through a murder trial, particularly a weird one the like of which the world had never seen before. That's where the normalcy stops, because the rest of the book is a freaky story about people who were seemingly deranged working together to commit atrocities. I think the trial itself was an odd one because they were trying to prove that a man who was not at the crime scene committed the crime, to simplify it. They were trying to prove that Manson ordered the murders, that he had total power and domination over his followers, his "Family". That, plus the whole "Helter Skelter" thing in general, was very strange and unusual, I think, when it came to trying to get a conviction. The actual term Helter Skelter was talked about a lot. I had no clue what it meant beforehand, but in Charles's mind, it meant that black people were going to take over the world and kill all the white people in authority; meanwhile Charles and his Family would be living in a bottomless hole in the desert waiting it out, until they could increase their population enough to become a "master race", and then they would emerge and take back the power from black people. That is some of the craziest shit I've ever heard. And these people believed it wholeheartedly! That may have been the craziest part of the book to me, that or how the women who followed him parroted his every act, like carving the X on his head or shaving his head. Just crazy.
Overall, this was a really good book, though very information-heavy. It brings up this question of belief and just how far humans will go because of it. It also, I think, makes it clear that, for whatever reason, there are some very messed up people in the world. Charles himself said our society created him. It does make one wonder.
Also, another note, the author included an Afterward, about 25 years after the trial, to give an update on the people involved. Most of Charles's followers had rejected him by then. There were still a few that were hardcore believers, but most had totally forsaken him, and they even took on Christianity. That may seem like a huge jump, but I don't really think it is. Before you get any wild ideas about me, I think it is because some people truly need a very strong religion in order to keep them going. They need that faith in order to survive, they need it to drive them. Christianity definitely fits the bill and, honestly, would fill the hole that Charlie left. Both of these "religions" (in quotes because of the Family part of it) have a very strong belief system, with sets of rules they have to follow, things they should and should not do, and a strong leader behind it. It really is not such a huge jump for these people to go from believing in the Family and Charles Manson (self-proclaimed Jesus Christ), to Christianity and following the teachings of the original Jesus. It does make sense that they would go there once realizing the "error of their ways". On that note, I'm not totally convinced that all it took was a couple of years in prison for them to realize Charlie was in the wrong and their whole lifestyle was wrong. But I guess you never know! Stranger things have happened.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. I did enjoy this book and I learned a lot from it. I don't think I ever want to read anything like this again, but it was very interesting.