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Now Is The Only Thing That's Real: A re-examination of the Manson murders, motives and mythos
What's myth and what's fact in the story of Charles Manson? What were the true motives behind the murders and who was really involved? There are many books covering this topic, yet very few have broken through the 'official' tale told by the trial's prosecutors and the news media at the time. This book includes hundreds of hours of research into court and police documents, witness statements, media reports and interviews with those involved. This book examines the current theories surrounding the case and appraises their likelihood against a timeline of events and the words of Manson himself. The prosecution case promoted by Vincent, Bugliosi, the Process Church influence as endorsed by Ed Sanders and David McGowan, the robbery scenario as spoken of by Nikolas Shreck and William Scanlon Murphy and the possibility of MK Ultra mind control as discussed by Adam Gorightly are all examined and tested.
How do Terry Melcher, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Jane Fonda, the Mamas and the Papas, Michael Caine, Dean Martin, Angela Lansbury, Peter Sellers, Warren Beatty, Yul Brynner, Peter Falk, Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Nancy Sinatra, Ronald Reagan and Debbie Harry fit into the tale? What Hollywood secrets did the industry, the police and the prosecution strive to keep hidden? Were the victims really chosen at random by a crazed cult of serial killers, high on a mix of LSD, Satanism and the music of the Beatles? Read on to uncover the secrets of the Manson family, their trial, the main players in the case and the murky world of Hollywood.
The book contains 564 pages, 200,000+ words containing a complete history of the life of Charles Manson.
A detailed examination of the Hinman, Shea, Tate and LaBianca murders, appraisal of all the most prominent theories surrounding the case, explanations of the coded confessions revealed in interviews with Manson.
Stories of celebrity encounters, facts about Manson’s relationship with the music industry, details of organised crime connections, faults with the prosecution’s case, troubling indications about the motives and character of Vincent Bugliosi, examinations of further murders and other criminal activity possibly connected to Manson.
Revelations about the main players involved in the case, embarrassing secrets of the Hollywood elite, suggestions of police ineptitude, signs of a cover-up, bizarre coincidences, strange occurrences, salacious gossip, radical political movements, riots, the Black Panthers, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, cults, religion, sex, drugs and murder.
How do Terry Melcher, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Jane Fonda, the Mamas and the Papas, Michael Caine, Dean Martin, Angela Lansbury, Peter Sellers, Warren Beatty, Yul Brynner, Peter Falk, Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Nancy Sinatra, Ronald Reagan and Debbie Harry fit into the tale? What Hollywood secrets did the industry, the police and the prosecution strive to keep hidden? Were the victims really chosen at random by a crazed cult of serial killers, high on a mix of LSD, Satanism and the music of the Beatles? Read on to uncover the secrets of the Manson family, their trial, the main players in the case and the murky world of Hollywood.
The book contains 564 pages, 200,000+ words containing a complete history of the life of Charles Manson.
A detailed examination of the Hinman, Shea, Tate and LaBianca murders, appraisal of all the most prominent theories surrounding the case, explanations of the coded confessions revealed in interviews with Manson.
Stories of celebrity encounters, facts about Manson’s relationship with the music industry, details of organised crime connections, faults with the prosecution’s case, troubling indications about the motives and character of Vincent Bugliosi, examinations of further murders and other criminal activity possibly connected to Manson.
Revelations about the main players involved in the case, embarrassing secrets of the Hollywood elite, suggestions of police ineptitude, signs of a cover-up, bizarre coincidences, strange occurrences, salacious gossip, radical political movements, riots, the Black Panthers, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, cults, religion, sex, drugs and murder.
594 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 12, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 12, 2018
Detailed in-depth account of the whole story of the Manson group and all the players. Shows the official "Helter Skelter" story to be a bullshit story invented by Bugliosi. (The Bug). Shows all the corruption that went on in the case. Talks about how embroiled in drugs (using and selling) the Hollywood scene was, including the victims. What the author says really happened sounds fairly plausible. Why were entire paragraphs of this long book repeated word for word in different chapters---2 or 3, maybe 4 times? I would like to ask the author this question because it beats the shit out of me. I read it in e-book form, so maybe the paper version doesn't have this puzzling repetition? Many typos and misuse of words, but otherwise well-written. One word he keeps on misusing is "jibe"---he uses it as disagreeing with instead of agreeing with. The poor grammar takes away from the book somewhat, but still there is so much of interest here.
February 22, 2018
Extraordinarily lucid.
Sanders flips the table on the shell game of Manson Family mythology.
Sanders flips the table on the shell game of Manson Family mythology.
June 28, 2019
WOW - some real eye-openers in this one. Makes everything in 'Helter Skelter' By Bugliosi look like a pack of lies.
If you are interested in true crime you MUST read this,
If you are interested in true crime you MUST read this,
June 18, 2020
Damn...what a ridiculously long book. I will finish my review soon.
May 20, 2023
Kinda overlong, especially for those who are well familiar with the official story. Very repetitive in it's nature, but it does a good job in exploring the drug angle. One important question it raises was what happened to the stash of drugs delivered to Cielo Drive earlier that day.
On the other hand, this book repeats lots of the same stories we've heard before, despite most of them being nothing but rumors-the home movies for example- and in many instances doesn't add anything new to the canon.
The Manson Myth, which can be found online, covers the same ground in a more concise manner. I don't know which came first, it could be a summary of the main points of this book, but if you are already familiar with that doc there is little use for this book.
One last thing. If there were indeed victims still alive between the two visits at the Polanski villa, shouldn't there have been someone left behind to guard them while the rest of the team was away?
All in all, this is a more accomplished effort than the Tom O Neil book, but it would have benefitted more by some trimming.
On the other hand, this book repeats lots of the same stories we've heard before, despite most of them being nothing but rumors-the home movies for example- and in many instances doesn't add anything new to the canon.
The Manson Myth, which can be found online, covers the same ground in a more concise manner. I don't know which came first, it could be a summary of the main points of this book, but if you are already familiar with that doc there is little use for this book.
One last thing. If there were indeed victims still alive between the two visits at the Polanski villa, shouldn't there have been someone left behind to guard them while the rest of the team was away?
All in all, this is a more accomplished effort than the Tom O Neil book, but it would have benefitted more by some trimming.
August 29, 2021
Thorough and exhaustive takedown of the mainstream myth surrounding the Manson case. If you have never been exposed to the never talked about facts surrounding these events, this book covers pretty much everything in extensive detail and will completely change your mind about what actually happened here. My only complaint with the book is it often goes into lengthy detail about tangentially related aspects which should really be shortened up, and often repeats certain facts at various points in the book. Still, probably the best overall book you can read on the subject aside from Schreck's which is quite hard to obtain.
December 5, 2023
What a great book to read if you want to know more about Manson and his “Family”. I highly recommend this book because it goes in depth into their lives, their background and also has a lot of dialogue from interviews and court, which I found very interesting.
I read a review on here about there being a lot of misspellings in this book. There actually were none. The author lives in the UK, and the UK has different standards of spelling than the US. For example, we spell it like “color”, while they spell it like “colour”. A simple Google search of these “misspelled words” would yield great results.
Overall, this is an awesome book to read and had so much information. I ended up wanting more!
I read a review on here about there being a lot of misspellings in this book. There actually were none. The author lives in the UK, and the UK has different standards of spelling than the US. For example, we spell it like “color”, while they spell it like “colour”. A simple Google search of these “misspelled words” would yield great results.
Overall, this is an awesome book to read and had so much information. I ended up wanting more!
July 11, 2023
Very interesting book. The more you read about this case, the more bizarre it gets. This one makes a case for some very plausible alternate scenarios about what went down during the murders. He does not consider Manson to be some kind of a guru, or to be symbolic of the ‘60s so the establishment needed to take him out snd end the counter-culture. Rather, this one explores the drug, Hollywood, and criminal underworld connections. Well worth picking up.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews