Chaos

A book of conspiracy bolstered by rigorous and transparent historiographical work. This book focuses on the many holes and contradictions in Bugliosi’s court and book constructed “official” story and the confounding threads that spread from them. I was skeptical and then entirely enraptured by this book. I’m sure my roommates are glad I’m finished with this one because for days I’ve burst into rooms with information just tumbling out of me. I applaud O’Neill for his passion but I respect him for his persistence.

very entertaining, completely annihilates the case for the prosecution, but as with all of these things re: FBI malfeasance, the debauchery of the rulling class the evidence trail starts to run out so he starts riffing around MK-ULTRA, COINTELPRO and the CIA, which was all of course real and should be taken seriously, but the connection to the case isn't there and if you're already familiar with these subjects, and books which actually established these chains of evidence it can get a bit tedious.

This was a fascinating book as it covered the struggle of a journalist who got obsessed with finding out the real story of the Manson case. It is clear that there is more to the case than the official story but what is true is probably lost to the mists of time.