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kathryn2211 's review for:
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
by Vincent Bugliosi
We have all heard of Charles Manson, we all think we know the story but until I read this I had no idea how truly bizarre it all was.
The book looks at Charlie's sad childhood, an absent Father and a Mother who couldn't care less. Following which his teenage years he spends in and out of juvenile detention centres. In the 1960's he travels to California, it's the summer of love and his dream is to be a rock star which could have happened!!
When alas it didn't he turned his hand to gathering teenagers and twenty somethings convincing them to go and live with him in the desert. Whilst they spend their days pretty much doing nothing all the while Charlie is becoming more and more obsessed with The Beatles White Album and in particular the song Helter Skelter. This, according to Charlie, is about how there will be a race war where blacks will murder whites and take over. By living in the desert they will be saved and as he is the second coming he will save them all, taking over and making himself the new savour of the free world.
In order to start a race war however you need to do something shocking and this means murder. Terry Melcher had upset Charlie previously so the plan, I assumed reading between the lines, was to get back at him. Charlie knew where he lived and sent out some of 'The Family' to go and see to him. However Terry was no longer living at the address lucky for him. Unfortunately living there at the time was amongst others Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and some of her friends. Following this another home was hit the La Bianca residence. The Family set out to make it look like the group the Black Panthers had done the heinous deeds.
The Family was made up of mainly teenager girls or women in their early twenties who had no remorse, no compassion and showed the most extreme loyalty to Charlie from holding protests outside court, shaving their heads and marking xs into their own faces to prove their devotion.
Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor in the proceedings, writes an unbelievable account into the shocking crimes.
Yes it may be a long read but it is definitely one which will not disappoint, you won't read a better account into Charles Manson 5/5.
The book looks at Charlie's sad childhood, an absent Father and a Mother who couldn't care less. Following which his teenage years he spends in and out of juvenile detention centres. In the 1960's he travels to California, it's the summer of love and his dream is to be a rock star which could have happened!!
When alas it didn't he turned his hand to gathering teenagers and twenty somethings convincing them to go and live with him in the desert. Whilst they spend their days pretty much doing nothing all the while Charlie is becoming more and more obsessed with The Beatles White Album and in particular the song Helter Skelter. This, according to Charlie, is about how there will be a race war where blacks will murder whites and take over. By living in the desert they will be saved and as he is the second coming he will save them all, taking over and making himself the new savour of the free world.
In order to start a race war however you need to do something shocking and this means murder. Terry Melcher had upset Charlie previously so the plan, I assumed reading between the lines, was to get back at him. Charlie knew where he lived and sent out some of 'The Family' to go and see to him. However Terry was no longer living at the address lucky for him. Unfortunately living there at the time was amongst others Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and some of her friends. Following this another home was hit the La Bianca residence. The Family set out to make it look like the group the Black Panthers had done the heinous deeds.
The Family was made up of mainly teenager girls or women in their early twenties who had no remorse, no compassion and showed the most extreme loyalty to Charlie from holding protests outside court, shaving their heads and marking xs into their own faces to prove their devotion.
Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor in the proceedings, writes an unbelievable account into the shocking crimes.
Yes it may be a long read but it is definitely one which will not disappoint, you won't read a better account into Charles Manson 5/5.