Helter Skelter
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Was it really scary?
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message 101:
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Linda
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rated it 4 stars
Jan 06, 2014 02:26AM
Oh maybe throw in sick and disturbing as well!
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Dachokie wrote: "Wow ... I'm not alone in thinking this book is scary. I remember my mother reading it when it was first released and (like an idiot) I started looking at the pictures inside and even brought it to..."I'm a bit late on this, but I agree - it is the best true crime book ever written and I found it horribly gripping from start to finish.
This book is probably the ultimate true crime book. It is rich in facts, courtroom drama and really teaches a new-to-crime book reader the American justice system. Vincent Bugliosi is not only a top-notch lawyer but also a brilliant writer. I have been reading true crime for over thirty years and still pick this book up again every so often
I agree with your assessment, Janet. This one is at the top of my list.
Claire wrote: "I agree with your assessment, Janet. This one is at the top of my list."I also have re read it a number of times. It certainly is an education about the American justice system and also makes one utterly astounded at the number of mistakes made in the investigation and grateful for the combination of hard work and providence which brought it to its conclusion.
So true, Jim. Glad the persistence of some paid off.
I just saw an ad today for a book coming out about Sharon Tate written by her sister, Debra Tate. Lots of photos are included. Roman Polanski wrote the foreword. Here's the page on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sharon-Tate-Rec...I really liked the book "Restless Souls" that came out a year or so ago. It was filled with diaries kept by Sharon Tate's family after her murder including some interesting info written by her father, Col. Paul Tate.
You have to remember that the book was written by a lawyer. Since when have lawyers written anything that was NOT dry? :-) But seriously, this is a true crime book that really happened. It turned my stomach when I read how these sickos just brutally massacred innocent people just for the hell of it! Manson deserves to rot in jail along with the rest of his cult!
I first read Helter Skelter when I was 15 & it has stayed w/ me for the past 30yrs. There have been other serial killers, some w/ more victims & some even more violent. But the difference between the events of H.S. & the others: Charles Manson. My dad had to take the book away from me when I first read it because it affected me so deeply. I had nightmares, I sleepwalked & I acted as if I fell into a deep depression. To this day I can not look at his pictures or watch any of the specials featuring him. All those ppl died & CM didn't raise a hand. His ability to persuade Patrcia Krenwall & the others is absolutely terrifying to me. I wasn't much different from them when they committed their crimes & I couldn't help but wonder if the places were traded, would I have been strong enough to resist? Haven't you wondered? I can stand up & say I absolutely would have NEVER. But I'm sure they did before the murders as well. I've never tried to read it again & I have no desire to.
Isn't it crazy how some books affect you so much? I too was around 15 when I read Helter Skelter and I remember reading like a person possessed - couldn't put it down. That's when I knew I was always going to be fascinated only with True Crime. Charlie is pure deviant and there are many more like him unfortunately. He had the perfect storm brewing there with the upheaval going on in the late sixties - Vietnam was pissing people off and the kids of that era were busting at the seams to change the rules of society. Charlie was easily able to manipulate these suburban naive kids into whatever he needed them to be. He is "crazy like a fox" and is where he should be. I don't believe his tactics would work with this generation but then again, Charlie, being the con that he is, could change his game without missing a beat!!
Alana wrote: "Every October I ready scary books for Halloween. This past October I picked up Helter Skelter cause I heard it was super scary. But I only got through like 20 pages. It was just so dry and from ..."The scary part is that it actually happened.
This book is very scary. Why? Because this is a true story, these are real people. The thing I'm the most afraid of is man's inhumanity to man, people who have no souls, like Charlie Manson and his family. That is what is scary, not some creature in a movie, but reality.
What is also inherently disturbing is the collision between Manson's nihilism/delusional self belief and the after the fact attempts to rationalise and make some kind of sense of his actions by the justice system. The complete obscenity of the murders - visceral, immersive and banal (for the killers) - versus the attempts at cataloguing the moment to moment actions and decisions in order to build a case are the heart, I think, of this book, whether or not Bugliosi intended it to be so or not. Between the lines it is basically saying that these things will happen and being able to label someone as a psychopath or a sociopath or even simply a nutcase will not help you in the least if they come crawling through your house in the middle of the night. And that, I think, is the frightning thing about this book.
My fascination with Manson, with true crime, with serial killers, sociopaths, what-have-you lies in the incredible ability to manipulate. To identify those who can be manipulated, and to orchestrate things so as to completely possess others. How does this work? Who is susceptible? Could I be susceptible? Could I be a manipulator? These are things that fascinate me endlessly. Bugliosi lays it out well in Helter Skelter. I see how Charlie could find these people in that time, place, and culture. I see how they could be manipulated. I will never understand how a man with what is obviously a high degree of social intelligence could come up with and believe the whole Helter Skelter theory.
Psychopathology. Huh.
Mare wrote: "My fascination with Manson, with true crime, with serial killers, sociopaths, what-have-you lies in the incredible ability to manipulate. To identify those who can be manipulated, and to orchestra..."I presume you're talking about Manson and not Bugliosi...
I think this is one of the best true crime books also. This was co-written by Bugliosi, a lawyer, so the beginning is dry in the sense of collecting and analyzing evidence, etc. But I found the real drama to be Bugliosi being able to convict Manson even though he wasn't at the scene of the murders. Of course, Manson didn't help his own case, but still...Other books similar to this that I would recommend is Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi (they made the film "Goodfellas" out of this); Columbine, about the 1999 mass killing in Colorado; and Newtown by Matthew Lysiak about the more recent mass murders in Connecticut.
Jim wrote: "Mare wrote: "My fascination with Manson, with true crime, with serial killers, sociopaths, what-have-you lies in the incredible ability to manipulate. To identify those who can be manipulated, and..."Laughing here. Yes, referring to Manson, but now I'm wondering if there's something I should know about Bugliosi. Hmmmmm.
Mare wrote: "Jim wrote: "Mare wrote: "My fascination with Manson, with true crime, with serial killers, sociopaths, what-have-you lies in the incredible ability to manipulate. To identify those who can be mani..."Could be - because it could be argued that it WAS Bugliosi who 'came up with the whole Helter Skelter theory'...(!)
Tammy wrote: "It really is THAT scary!"Tammy, the only way to find out if it is scary for you is to read it!
First off, I did not find this book boring at all, even though I began getting tired of reading it toward the end.As I stated in my review, this would have scared me had I read it when it was first written,* but I know so much about the murders and murderers now, that it lost that. However, it's still scary that there are people capable of doing these crimes and saying how good it feels to stab someone! I'm just glad they are all still in prison--Beausoleil and Tex too! (I just looked them up.)
*I read IN COLD BLOOD around the time the movie was made (and I was very young) and it scared me to death, so much that I still think about it.
I think as time passes for this era, people born in another time can feel this was not that scary, but I think this is a very scary book, because this really happened. It can not be dismissed as a "sixties thing".
I lived in L.A. at the time of these murders. I was 10 or so years old. Seeing it on the news every night completely freaked me out. I was scared for years. When the book came out of course I read it. And was scared all over again!!
I don't know what it is about the Manson case that was so chilling ... I was in 4th grade when my Mom brought the book home (it was the hot book to read at the time) and I thumbed though those eerie pictures in the middle of it. Now, some 40 years later, it still sends a chill up my spine when I think about it and I really can't explain why ... Mainly that LIFE picture that they magnified so it covered the whole page sticks in my mind; it's simply powerful ... In a bad way. I live in a college town that within in a year or two had an unsolved double murder of two college students, a grad student behead a female grad student in a restaurant, a neighbor's friend kill a security guard and a sheriff's deputy and a student kill 32 others and himself in Norris Hall. Still, the 40 year Manson case rankles me the most. Don't know why, none of the participants are by any means fearsome, especially the 5' 2" Manson ... The case just has an aura about it that hits a nerve.
Dachokie wrote: "I don't know what it is about the Manson case that was so chilling ... I was in 4th grade when my Mom brought the book home (it was the hot book to read at the time) and I thumbed though those eeri..."Wow. Rough neighborhood.
Yeah, it was a rough period for Blacksburg
Dachokie wrote: "Yeah, it was a rough period for Blacksburg"Of course. Sorry - didn't mean to sound so flippant.
No need to apologize, I didn't take it that way at all ... Most people don't associate so many of those events happening in a rural college town.
I don't know. Some of the murders I remember the most happened in college towns. Mr. Bundy certainly used them to his advantage. I had the same experience with the In Cold Blood murders, being by myself at home and looking at the killers' faces in Life magazine. Chilling.
Something about the most horrendous cases fascinates us yet horrifies us too. One of the scariest to me was Richard Speck. I feel so much safer when these killers die.
Hell, yes, it's scary. I read this book over 20 years ago (and again about 5 years ago), and the images of what happened at the Tate and LaBianca residences stay with me forever. Also, the depravity of these killers was beyond almost anything I've seen in fiction.
No its not scary in my opinion .. its a compelling read and a true crime. Its a piece of history.I read it in 1996, its factual not scary. Its a fantastic book
Enjoy reading it :)
Yes, I find this one of the scariest true stories I have read. I find many things that occurred in the Holocaust scary, even though they are true.
Yes it is scary because it really happened and the fact that those young people went along with it!! They were just wandering around like vagabonds and were capable of all that bloodshed. It was a very well-written book and I will never forget that it actually happened.
Alana wrote: "Every October I ready scary books for Halloween. This past October I picked up Helter Skelter cause I heard it was super scary. But I only got through like 20 pages. It was just so dry and from the..."It depends on the perspective. The book is massive but not in a single page I find it dry and bore. Definitely one of the best books concerning True Crime. The book describes Bugliosi's attemp to prove and convict, using real facts and as the lead prosecution attorney, one of the most fascinating deranged minds in the annals of the XX century. Excellent book!
I think the scariness of this book must put into context. When the first edition came out in the mid 70s, Starsky and Hutch was deemed a cop drama on TV ... the images and videos of violent death were not available like they are today and reading books like Helter Skelter left each reader imagining the horror. The whiting-out of the bodies even led readers to believe the carnage was too graphic to show. Fast forward 40 years ... 24/7 access to pics and videos revealing the most graphic imagery of death and mutilation has DESENSITIZED the population to the Manson murders. Even R rated horror movies from the 70s and 80s is more likely to trigger eye-rolls and laughs nowadays. But, for those of us who read it way back then, it was scary/disturbing. Kind of like trying to convince a video gamer today how much fun Pong was when it first came out ... you had to experience it back then to understand and appreciate it.
I actually found this to be the scariest true story I have read.
No I read this book when I was in the 6th grade, it was a bit goorey. But I was captivated to the craziness of Charles Manson, he was really diabolical from a kooky stand point. And to see the trial and all of the women being true to him for all those years. He did not physically kill these people he planned the whole thing and his followers carried out the killings.A well written book...
OMG, I loved this book. I can see a lot of people thought it was dry. It could be because I listened to the audible book version. It was one of the scariest reads I listened to, mainly because I realised that everything the books would talk about was true. So maybe not scary, but truely horrifying. The scenes it paints. gahh...
Helter Skelter is just bullshit. A ridicule and far-fetched theory devised by the cunning mind of a crooked and ambitious man, crazy for fortune and fame. The jurors who convicted Manson were a bunch of stupid people that for being so fool to the point of believing Bugliosi's made-up absurd theory deserved to be put in jail instead of him. Poor Charlie was used as a stepping stone sothat a greedy and unscrupulous district attorney achieved his shady goals.
