Suzanna's Reviews > Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

This is one of the scariest things I have ever read--it kept me up a few nights, to be sure. However, it was really cool (and oddly reassuring) reading how the prosecuting attorney helped the LAPD close in on these people and bring them to justice. After reading this I understand why people often say that the Manson killings for them represented the death of the hippie era of peace and love. Despite the fact that the Manson Family was not comprised of hippies, people were much more fearful and suspicious after August of 1969, and the fact that Manson bore even a passing resemblance to the long-haired vagabonds of Haight-ashbury (which by that time was in decline) didn't help.
I have to say I was severely disappointed in Trent Reznor after reading this book--the author mentions in his epilogue to the book (written much later than the original publication, in 1994) that Nine Inch Nails recorded their seminal album "The Downward Spiral" in the old Tate residence. When questioned about it, Reznor claimed that his real estate agent had failed to tell him that the house had been the site of the Manson murderers, but that smacks of dishonesty to me...especially because Reznor collaborated with Marilyn Manson on projects at that time, and shortly thereafter Marilyn Manson recorded "Portrait of an American Family" at the Tate residence as well! It's also sickening that despite his ludicrous, paranoid philosophy and blatant hatred for African Americans that Charles Manson is still widely regarded by young people in the United States and the UK as some kind of pop hero--or at least he was in the early 90s, as Bugliosi demonstrated through various examples. Apparently t-shirts with his image are still widely circulated, and he profits personally from their sale (only 10 cents a shirt, but I wouldn't give him a penny considering what he has done and convinced others to do!)
It's remarkable that a sketchy little guy like Charles Manson was (and probably still is) capable of. He believed women to be good for only two things--producing offspring and serving their men--and yet he managed to convince many young women (and some men) to do anything for him.