Reviews with content warning for Murder - Chaos: The Truth Behind the Manson Murders

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Chaos: The Truth Behind the Manson Murders by Tom O'Neill

14 reviews

scubtle's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative slow-paced

4.0

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mmccombs's review against another edition

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dark informative slow-paced

3.5

An incredibly detailed and interesting look at a moment in history we all know about but don’t really know about. At first I was like uh nice try buddy, this is totally outlandish. And then by the end I was like… okay you got me this seems suspicious! At the very least, this book has further convinced me that police and government agencies are completely inept, at its worst, this book has convinced me that all our government does is violence and then shoddy coverups and then gaslighting. I do feel like he often undermined his own legitimacy by constantly being like “lol I know this feels like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory!!” He seemed self-conscious about what he was attempting, and I just think he could have just confidently shared everything he learned instead. I also think this was maybe not best experienced via audiobook, I felt very lost on names and threads of ideas almost immediately, I think reading it physically would help at least a little. All in all, I leave this feeling wowed by just how nuts this story is, even beyond the nuts story we already know.

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miniemay's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

2.0

Look. This is a tough topic. And maybe this just isn’t a book that’s for me.

I was struck by the writer’s callous descriptions of terrible acts. Did I know going in that this was going to be a difficult read, yes. Did the tone of the book lead me to believe that the author has become numb to the atrocities, immensely so. I was incredibly disappointed in the way he talked about women especially.

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elfsteel's review against another edition

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dark informative tense slow-paced

2.5

this book was really interesting, but it felt like the whole book was building up to a climax that just… never happened. there was no conclusion to speak of, no “here’s what i think happened”, no closure at all.

lack of a real ending meant the whole book just read like one big infodump, the author telling us all about his work and research without actually weaving a cohesive narrative.

say what you will about vince bugliosi’s “helter skelter” (which the author does EXTENSIVELY), but at least bugliosi told an actual story with conclusions and an ending, even if his evidence was semi-manufactured and the conclusions politically motivated.

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gilroi's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

4.25

Recently, I watched American Graffiti with a friend. Afterward, both us found the film dissatisfying for a number of reasons. Discussing it, my friend pointed out that it had been released not long after the date it takes place in-universe; the action happens in 1962, and the film was released in 1973. Ten years feels like a very short period of time to hang a nostalgia picture on. What changed so much between the early 60s and the early 70s?

I posited: not much in reality, but the intervening decade required white people to reckon with the idea that America was not pure, and politics were inherent to every action one takes. Of course, this lesson is hard to stick with; isn't it easier to pretend there was a mythical time when the world was innocent, and nothing was political? To misquote a peddler of this misery: A softer, gentler time.

If you want to read a book that will tell you what really happened in the Manson murders, or the secret truth of the Manson trial, this book will not help you. Tom O'Neill refuses to twist facts to suit theories, and this is to his credit. His research is in-depth, he doesn't make definitive connections where he lacks the evidence, and he doesn't make knowing assertations to the very notable coincidences and connections he uncovers, either. O'Neill does his best to humbly and without bias report what his findings uncover, and he mostly succeeds where matters of humility and bias are concerned. He succeeds completely in his in-depth research of anything and everything related to the Manson Family before and after the murders, regardless of where his research takes him.

There is a nonzero chance that the Warren Commission, the Manson trial, and MK Ultra, have some limbs in common in a centipede of government corruption happily swept up and hidden by the US Government. There is a nonzero chance Manson was some kind of government informant, and this was actively covered up during the trial. There is a nonzero chance Manson was not actually some kind of master puppeteer, and really just drugged his followers to the gills to get their compliance and manufacture their consent. There is a nonzero chance that Charles Manson was actually a competent musician and / or lyricist. There is a nonzero chance Vincent Bugliosi is a lying sack of shit.

But can the book prove these things definitively? Tom O'Neill wisely admits that no, he can't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. He shows us his research-- his incredibly in-depth and informative research-- and ultimately lets us decide. (Well, he can and does prove that Vincent Bugliosi is a lying sack of shit, but those are my words, not his.)

So what does this book definitively prove? It proves that America before 1970 was not a world of innocence and dreams. Things were neither softer nor gentler. The CIA was a deeply corrupt organization that seems to have spent half its time covering up its own villainy; the FBI was just as bad; police forces were happy to help them when they weren't busy falling over their own shoelaces in displays of staggering incompetence. People in power knew they were in power, and would do whatever they liked to hide that fact.

This book will teach you about the horrifying abuses of the 60s, and how they interlocked because government was an atrocious boy's club that would not have blinked an eye at the murder, rape and abuse Manson trucked in, if he'd only been a government employee.

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