Erin ’s Reviews > Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties > Status Update

"I was starting to figure out that Bugliosi had sifted so many stories out of Helter Skelter to make his narrative easier and cleaner."

In the mid-60's with the war in Vietnam escalating, Berkeley became a hotbed of antiwar activity.

COINTELPRO had been activated throughout the 60s often to vilify civil rights leaders.

The Family spent their days smoking dope and listening to Charlie strum the guitar. The girls made the meals, did the laundry and slept with the men on command.

LAPD believed the Tate murders were a drug deal gone wrong and they refused to look in any other direction

"I decided I need to focus on the most perplexing figure in the case Terry Melcher".

Bugliosi didn't mention in his book that he stalked his milkman and beat up his mistress.

When Manson was released from prison at age 32, he'd spent more than half his life in the care of the state.

Manson would isolate his followers from the world beyond the ranch, giving them daily tasks to support the community and forbidding them from communicating with family and friends.

Roman Polanski had an established pattern of abuse, emotional and physical.