Illuminating Bugliosi's 1969 "Helter Skelter" is now seen as almost science fiction

[MrMickeysMom]

Last edited Sat Mar 8, 2014, 09:19 AM - Edit history (2)

Both Vince Bugliosi's book and the movie, "Helter Skelter" were a big hit. Everyone seemed to have wanted it. Today, it's almost a joke and perversion of fact. Leslie Van Houton and Susan Atkins shouldn't have been in jail nearly as long as they did (Atkins in fact died in jail). And what is odd is that 8 out of the nine days of the murder, the insane Charles Manson wasn't even anywhere in the vicinity of the murders. Yet, to read H-S, Vince's "theory" was based on a motive of the Manson Gang based on passages of the Bible and The Beatles. Based on what was never proven and what was concocted in that book, it was imagined. Manson liked other genres and thought the Beatles were basically "yeah, yeah, yeah" music for screaming girls. He actually wrote two songs for the Beach Boys in those days, and lived with Dennis Wilson for a while.

I am of reminded of how it's more important to write something that sells than do investigative work. An excellent interview with Jim DiEugenio reviewed a book that might just blow away Bugliosi's Helter Skelter http://www.blackopradio.com/pod/black668a.mp3.

Hey, I'm all for a good read, but H-S is more fiction than anything in it's "THEORY" of murder motives.

The actual murderers, Tex Watson and Krenwinkle did the murders, and the LAPD, who at that time would not have been so interested in the connection with drug burns going bad, turned deaf ears on the drug connection. In the Tate/Polanski neighborhood of 1969, much of that connection was swept away of how Manson, who wanted to get into the music business mingled with these celebs and connected with a lot of the music scene. But, nobody wants to talk about Cass Elliot and John Phillips' connection to who many in the industry dealt in drugs, much less Steve McQueen the Beach Boys. It was common practice in the Southern California of 1969 that just like the rest of America, there was a lot of mescaline, MDA, quaaludes, LSD dealt. Also, was a well understood need to cover anything that could have been connecting the murders with the drug scene, so not much of this was covered in the "investigation" of Bugliosi. It's as if the book mentions this so lightly to address it and sweep it aside.

Here are the highlights from that interview:
Famous cases, Peverler/Cromwell, the Tate/LaBianca murders
Aaron Stovitz was removed from the case, he never bought the 'Helter Skelter' angle
Two trials, four convictions resulting in the death penalty, then commuted to life
7 million copies of the co-written Helter Skelter (Bugliosi/Gentry 1974)
As Jim read the book, his sharpened senses left him agape with the problems
Manson did not commit the murders, 'vicarious liability', conspiracy
Double standard, LA police work, poor, Dallas police work, good
Pre-trial publicity convicted these people, no change of venue
Very poor legal defense team, no defense was presented
Manson, the Beatles, the 'White Album', the Book of Revelations
Bugliosi, innate excitability and flair for hyperbole
Helter Skelter was not the only possible motive for the crimes
A lot of drugs were found at the Tate scene
Jay Sebring would distrubute cocaine to his customers
Wojciech Frykowski had been offered the franchise for selling MDA in LA
The LAPD does not bust Hollywood celebrities for drugs
Dennis Wilson, Cass Elliot, Terry Melcher, music/drugs
Manson had been at the Cielo Drive house when Melcher lived there
The Labianca phone line was tapped by the FBI
Copy-cat aspects of the murders, writings on the wall
Bugliosi made his named on that case, as a prosecutor
In the Kennedy assassination, he is not a good investigator
Bugliosi was indicted for perjury in the leaking of a transcript
Bugliosi's three failed runs for elected office
Bugliosi, his son, his wife, and Herbert Weisel - the Milkman
Van de Kamp, Bugliosi ran a dangerous and reckless campaign
The Family (Sanders), The Manson File (Schreck 1988)
Manson in His Own Words (Emmons 1988)

[William Seger]

1. ... sez historical fiction author and Bugliosi hater Jim DiEugenio, but...

Last edited Sat Mar 8, 2014, 07:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Former Manson follower Catherine Share, in a 2009 documentary called Manson, for Cineflix Productions et al., claimed:

When the Beatles’ White Album came out, Charlie listened to it over and over and over and over again. He was quite certain that the Beatles had tapped in to his spirit, the truth — that everything was gonna come down and the black man was going to rise. It wasn’t that Charlie listened to the White Album and started following what he thought the Beatles were saying. It was the other way around. He thought that the Beatles were talking about what he had been expounding for years. Every single song on the White Album, he felt that they were singing about us. The song "Helter Skelter" — he was interpreting that to mean the blacks were gonna go up and the whites were gonna go down.[17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Skelter_%28Manson_scenario%29#cite_note-17

[Kablooie]

2. A woman I worked with several years ago told me a story about this book.

Her cousin said he was reading the part of Helter Skelter where Manson and his gang were driving up Sunset Boulevard and he tells Linda Kasabian to stop next to the white sports car up ahead because he was going to kill the driver.

He suddenly remembered a time when he had stopped at a red light on a lonely part of Sunset Boulevard at night ... in his white sports car. A car filled with kids stopped next to him and a scruffy guy got out and walked towards his car. Just then the light changed and he sped away.

Bugliosi writes that “Another potential victim, unaware to this day how close to death he had come."

That may not be true anymore.

[wildbilln864]

3. bugliosi!?