Matthew’s Comments (group member since Mar 08, 2015)

Matthew’s comments from the Reading List Completists group.

Listening to The White Album - gotta see if I hear what Manson heard . . .

Ev wrote: "I was flying through the parts after the investigation. Just wait until you get to the Beatles part. You won't listen to the White Album the same."

That is where I am!

And, I don't think I encountered any of the same issues Medhat and Ginger mentioned - it has seemed like the same book to me throughout.

Yeah, but in America (view spoiler)[you can have a criminal red handed, all the evidence very clear, 50 witnesses, the guy pleads guilty, begs for the chair and he will still sit on death row for 27 years! (hide spoiler)]

When he tells the story of Manson (view spoiler)[I got worn out - I feel lazy compared to him! He went to every town, commited every crime, married/bedded every woman, had at least one kid, and then Bugliosi is all like "then the next year when he turned 19 . . ." Holy crap! (hide spoiler)]

I will say this, too, Los Angeles in the late 60s sounded pretty bad overall!

Also, I was curious and looked this up, the murders took place about a week before Woodstock.

I finished today and thought it was pretty good!

Click here for my review

Glenda wrote: "I'm pretty stingy when it comes to giving 5 stars to any book, but I really think this one deserves it. I don't have much experience with the medical field, but this story had me thinking about tho..."

It got me thinking the same thing about consent - I mention in my review that I recently had surgery where tissue was removed. Wonder where that might be now and what they are using it for!?

Ev wrote: "Matthew wrote: "So, these Manson family people [spoilers removed]"

For a while they were invincible as evidenced by the incompetence in the LAPD and LASO. They got away with it for longer than the..."

Indeed! You would have thought they had it together by the time they got to the Simpson trial!

Yes - 49 years! Might add a bit more to the book when reading it today.

So, these Manson family people (view spoiler)[as we mentioned before - arrogant. But now, as I see all the crimes they were committing, they were also very, very reckless. It was just a tidal wave of crime throughout the Los Angeles area, and they were just leaving evidence of every kind all over the place. Did they think they were invincible? They might as well have bought a billboard saying - hey, it's us! (hide spoiler)]

Jessica wrote: "That's interesting Matthew, I also work in health care. Mostly research. And indeed whenever I curse the monitoring board for yet another very strict interpretation that makes me write yet another ..."

HA! When they started talking about HIPAA, I was like "Yup, sounds about right!" Also, knowing what I know of current policies, I was quite shocked about the apathy regarding consent early on.

I work in healthcare and feel like a lot of our current policies are a result of the story in this book.

Here I am thinking they will never figure it out and (view spoiler)[ Sadie offers it all up on a platter! (hide spoiler)]

It's amazing how arrogant the Manson family was (view spoiler)[ if they had kept their mouths shut, they probably would have gotten away with it. But, they had to brag. (hide spoiler)]

Learning about locations and the people involved. Google Maps, Wikipedia, and IMDb look to be my contact companions throughout this one!

Ginger wrote: "I finished up day August 9th, 1969.
[spoilers removed]"

And (view spoiler)[The gate button! (hide spoiler)]

At the beginning (view spoiler)[jumps right in to the aftermath of the Tate murders. Seems to be a common thing in non-fiction to jump into the details from the middle of the story and then go back to get the relevant build up information. I can only imagine that we are going to learn a whole lot more about before (hide spoiler)]

Wow - fascinating from the very beginning!

After spending an hour last night finding a better audiobook player for the MP3 I bought of the book, I think I am finally ready to go!

Per my discussion with Scarlett - and to avoid the confusion of the many covers that are out there.

If you want to read the full version:
The paperback and hardcover are 650 to 775 pages (First edition hardcover appears to be 520 pages - must have been small print!)
Audiobook is between 26 and 27 hours
Kindle/eBook - 700 to 770 pages

I hope this info helps! :)

Scarlett wrote: "The Helter Skelter audiobook is only a bit over 5hrs 🤩 Will try to join in if time permits."

Woah - you must have found an abridged copy! Mine is 26 hours and 29 minutes!