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black & grey 1/2 cloth hardcover 8vo. (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. vg+ cond. binding square & tight. covers clean with bit of sunfading. edges clean with small nick in top edge. contents free of markings. dustwrapper in fair cond. rubbed & scratched, missing large piece at top of spine & front cover. not price clipped no price listed). nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking, underlining, remainder markings etc~. 7th printing (#7 in # line). book club edition. (square indent rear cover bottom near spine). xvii+502p. cast of characters. approximately 75 b&w illustrations. index. true crime. american history. history of california. secret societies. conspiracy theory. ~ One of the most baffling and horrifying murder cases of this century began on the night of August 9, 1969, with the brutal killing of actress Sharon Tate and four others at her home in the hills above Hollywood. It continued the next night with the equally cold~blooded murder of a Los Angeles supermarket owner and his wife, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. It ended, or so it seemed, with the conviction of Charles Manson and his co~conspirators, three young women and a youth known as an "All~American boy." Their guilt was proved but the guts of their story remained untold. Seemingly, it was murder without purpose, committed by killers scarcely past the age of innocence, murder which gained the murderers no profit, no aggrandizement ~nothing discernible. As the prosecutor in this long, complicated, fascinating trial says in this book, it is not necessary to show a motive to get a conviction; he could not rest, however, until he discovered not only who did it and how, but also why. Why did these very young women, refugees from comfortable, middle~class families, carry out at least seven horrible murders at the direction of a small, poorly educated, would~be pop singer of little talent? What was the nature of his power over them and over so many others like them~a power that continues even after his imprisonment? What was his purpose in planning and directing the seemingly mindless selection of victims and the gruesome details of the killings ~ killings, which, Bugliosi reveals, may account for as many as thirty five victims to date? Why were the phrase "helter skelter" and the word "pig" written in blood at the scene of the murders? Was there, in fact, any reason at all? As Vincent Bugliosi reached down into the depths of the feelings and convictions of these young, murderers, it all emerged. The detective story with which it begins, the intimate inside view of a complex murder trial as the prosecutor saw it, the revelation of what actually happened at Sharon Tate's house that night, the realization of what sort of philosophy the young killers lived by make a book that is compulsive reading on all its levels. Finally, the tragedy of the young lives involved on both sides of the murders gives us a new insight into a segment of American society that is not unique~just unexplored. The Manson case is the most voluminously documented murder case in legal annals. It was the longest trial in American history. The jury was sequestered longer than any jury before or since. The case was an international press, radio, and television spectacular for more than a year. But until this book, the real story could not be told. The one man capable of telling the whole story now has done so. Its narrative is enthralling; its importance as a document of our time is great. Seller Inventory # 5122101
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