Goodbye Helter Skelter: A New Look at the Tate-LaBianca Murders

This is a bunch of disjointed gibberish. I made it 150 pages in, and I can't take it anymore. It's like walking into a scene of COPS where about five people are arguing, and you have to make sense of it all. Manson can't talk in coherent English, so if you enjoy wading through 300+ pages of that nonsense, then this book will be heaven.Also I stopped taking the author seriously when within the first few pages he told how he requested that Manson send him a lock of his hair. This is just the disjointed pasting together of scant "evidence" of a Manson fanboi.I had such high expectations from this book based on interviews I saw on some talkshows. What a waste of time this was. Don't buy this book. I'm glad I'm calling it quits 150 pages in.

The tv movie Helter Skelter aired when I was in the 5th grade. I watched the first 15 minutes and was terrified for days. Now in my 50s I sat down and read Helter Skelter. It was frightening for sure. But understanding the time that this took place having parents that were extremely conservative. (If you smoke the wacky tobaccy you will go insane.) Its understandable how the majority of the country looked at Manson. Some where near the end of Helter Skelter. I started questioning a lot that was written. So really a 5 ' 4 " man not exactly super handsome guy is released from prison in 1967 and in 2 years has a herum of women and men, he brainwashed into going on a killing spree. Ya BS. The author is so pompous and egocentric. So proud he took down Manson. The epilogue though seemed to me a justification of the authors own conscience. Vicent Bugliosi I'm sure there is a special place for you. Maybe heaven is a padded cell.Goodbye Helter Skelter is refreshing and honest. The author makes no claims to Charles Manson being a perfect man or good man nor was he evil. He was very very human. A very interesting one at that. Charles Manson did not have a good life. I'm sorry I didnt read all of this sooner. I suggest people do the same. Read all of it. Form your own opinion. This is a must read.

The only thing I agree with in this book is that the motive for the killings was not to start a race war, but more about trying to get their friend out of jail by doing copycat killings.........but also, I believe, more than likely some anger that Charles Manson had. The author filled page after page trying to prove that Manson was innocent of any crime. This seems pretty absurd. Manson may not have killed anyone with his own hands, but he was certainly guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.Most of the book was boring. It was difficult to get through it. Several pages were missing because some pages were duplicated.

I first questioned the "official" version of the Tate-LaBianca murders when I heard Manson's amazing music. The official story said that Manson was a mediocre musician/songwriter. I thought if they lied about his music, why not about other things? Stimson asks only that the reader start with an open mind, and I was able to do that because of the music and a few other things I'd read. Using logical arguments based on objective evidence, Stimson shows that it's quite possible Manson was wrongfully convicted of murder. Although the main focus of the book is Charles Manson, the author includes a summary of US culture in the 1960's. Without looking at the culture as a whole, one cannot hope to understand Charles Manson and his friends. I'm grateful to Stimson for writing and publishing this book and recommend it to anyone interested in the 1960's.

You can read better stuff for free on internet. Has some good pictures though.

This is writen very well. It has to be, it's a book about a nazi bonehead and his murdering friends.

Amazing read. First book I have read that wasn't based on the "Helter skelter" theory. If I could I would give it more than 5 stars.

Good book. Presents a more plausible rationale for the murders than the one offered at the trial.

A very well-written and interesting take on the Tate-LaBianca murders. A real page-turner. That said, I’m not sure I entirely agree with the book’s Manson-as-victim slant. Stimson makes the point that it’s in the interests of Manson’s co-called followers, who committed the crimes, to hype up the Helter Skelter motive, plus Manson’s so-called brainwashing, because that’s what their respective parole boards want to hear. But he fails to address the point that members of the Family who aren’t in jail also say Manson was a very, very bad dude who ordered the murders and believed in an impending race war. Dianne Lake’s book springs to mind and I think Paul Watkins made the same point. The quotes from Manson, conducted during Stimson’s jail interviews, seem much, much too lucid, given Manson’s rambling speech. Overall, I’d say if the 1974 book, Helter Skelter, went to one extreme in presenting the race war theory, this goes to the other end of the extreme in attempting to debunk it. It’s my guess the truth lies somewhere inbetween