Review of books on Charles Manson

[Benjamin Frank]

There are two books that are generally considered to be the definitive stories on Charles Manson, Vincent Bugliosi's (with Curt Gentry) 'Helter Skelter' from 1974 and Jeff Guinn's 'The Life and Times of Charles Manson' from 2013.

There are two other books that are also part of the 'cannon.' Ed Sanders' The Family which actually preceded the publishing of Helter Skelter and is considered more authorative because it isn't written by a 'partisan' but I've never been able to get a copy, and, for the more conspiracy minded, 'CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the 1960s' by Tom O'Neill from 2017. There is also, read by some Mansonfiles, an unpublished manuscript written by the Tate murders police investigators called 'Five Down on Cielo Drive.'

There are many valid criticisms of Helter Skelter and Jeff Guinn's book helps correct some of those things. Jeff Guinn's book is like that of a scientist whose research doesn't overturn the existing scientific consensus but adds to it and modifies it.

His book covers three major areas not really covered in Helter Skelter.
1.Charles Manson's Youth. Guinn was the first journalist who got relatives of Manson's real family to speak to him. His niece, for instance, said when she first heard Manson was charged with the murders 'that sounds like something he would do.'  She basically claiimed he was the laziest person she had ever met (More on that.)

The book also provides much more detail on Manson's mother (and father) and their nexus living right around the connected border of West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky (it could be a lawless area given the entangled jurisdictions.)

Guinn doesn't dispute that Manson had a tough childhood, but certainly disputes that it was anywhere near as tough as Manson claimed. Manson just had an extreme sense of entitlement even at a young age that nobody could hope to satisfy.

2.The life and times of Manson in Northern and Southern California in the 1960s. Given just one paragraph in Helter Skelter, was the year that Manson spent in and around San Francisco after getting out of jail in 1967. It was here where Manson first started The Family.
Tom O'Neill's book makes much more of Manson's time in Northern California.

Bugliosi says somewhere in his book that he didn't want to revictimize the victims or the innocent. However, many would argue he went too far. Bugliosi minimizes the extent of the connections Manson made with A list musicians in Los Angeles. Neil Young at one time said something like 'every musician in Los Angeles knew Charles Manson.'

As part of that, Bugliosi greatly minimized the extent to which Terry Melcher (and Gregg Jacobson) hung around with Manson. Even more than that, Bugliosi greatly altered the reality of Terry Melcher. As Jeff Guinn points out in his book, Melcher and Jacobson (along with Dennis Wilson) referred to themselves collectively as 'The Golden Penetrators.'  The 'penetrator' part being literal. As Jeff Guinn pointed out, the Los Angeles police had a deal with the city to not hurt the Los Angeles economy, which meant not doing anything to annoy celebrities, which meant letting them get away with all crime but pretty much murder.

So, the 'Golden' part of 'Golden Penetrators' was a reference to that: the three of them were immune from prosecution. Jeff Guinn's book mentions how Melcher and Wilson initiated Jacobson into the group (around 1965) by driving him to some street with street lighting and the three of them getting out of the vehicle with a gun, and Melcher and Wilson taking turns shooting out the street lights. When the police arrive, Jacobson expects to be arrested, but the cops merely take the gun, while saying 'Terry and Dennis, the gun will be waiting for you to pick up at the police station tomorrow.'

While it's disputed whether Melcher broke any other laws (there are credible claims he committed statuatory rape) by the time he met Manson, he was a wild partier and adulterer. In Helter Skelter, though, he's portrayed as basically a serious music executive.

3.Helter Skelter portrays Manson's control The Family as static. Jeff Guinn argues it was much more fluid with Manson concerned at times that his cult would mass desert him (more on that.)

4.The final major area of criticism of the book is Bugliosi's near constant criticism of both the police and the legal system. In the first reviews of the book, Bugliosi's attack on the police especially was mentioned as much as anything else. Ivor Davis, a British journalist who covered the Manson trial (and also traveled with The Beatles), once referred to Charles Manson as something like 'that person who Vincent Bugliosi single handedly investigated, captured and prosecuted' in disgust of 'Helter Skelter.' Davis later wrote his own book on Manson published in 2019.

There are two undisputed valid criticisms of the police investigation though:
1.That a news crew found the clothing thrown out by the Manson family murderers after the Tate murders.
2.That the police weren't aware for several months that they already had the murder gun in their possession.

There are other smaller somewhat valid criticisms: the police officer who was given the gun initially didn't use proper police procedures in handling it, but covered over any possible finger prints. To be fair to him, he didn't know at the time it was involved in a crime.

And the person who didn't take anywhere near enough blood samples at the Tate House and didn't test for subtypes. I can't excuse the failure to test for subtypes, but the guy probably would have had to have been on the scene for a week to get samples of all the places where there was blood.

The final area of criticism to do with 'Helter Skelter' isn't necessarily to do with the book per se, but Bugliosi's view that Helter Skelter was the motive for the murders. Jeff Guinn argues that Manson was motivated by both the 'copycat motive' to free Bobby Beausoleil from jail for the murder of Gary Hinman, as well as by using 'Helter Skelter' as a way to keep his Family loyal to him so that they wouldn't desert him but would continue to serve his every need.