by Tom O'Neill
First published 2020
Tom O'Neill takes on what seemed like a routine magazine assignment in 1999: cover the thirtieth anniversary of the Manson murders. The facts appear settled. Charles Manson directed his young followers to kill seven people in 1969, and they obeyed without question. But O'Neill discovers gaps in prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's account from Helter Skelter. The motive doesn't add up. The police investigation looks sloppy. Two decades later, O'Neill emerges with hundreds of fresh interviews and previously hidden documents from the LAPD, FBI, and CIA. His findings suggest law enforcement had multiple opportunities to stop Manson but didn't act. Hollywood connections run deeper than anyone admitted. Intelligence agencies may have been watching. The peaceful hippies who became killers raise questions about mind control experiments. O'Neill traces a path from the Summer of Love to CIA facilities, uncovering a web of cover-ups that could challenge the original verdicts. His investigation reveals how California in the 1960s mixed idealists with con artists, where both enlightenment and manipulation seemed equally possible.
Genres: history, 20th-century, crime, non-fiction, 21st-century, true-crime
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: California, LAPD, FBI, CIA
Period: 1960s, 1969, 1999
521 pages · Paperback · Back Bay Books