Summary and Analysis of Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

Based on the Book by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry

• Publisher: Worth Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781504043557
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Study Guides

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Helter Skelter tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Genry's book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader. This summary of Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry includes:

• Historical context
• Section-by-section overviews
• Detailed timeline of events
• Analysis of the main characters
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

About Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry's Helter Skelter: In the bestselling true crime book Helter Skelter, lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi provides a meticulously detailed account of the murders committed by the Manson family and their trial—one of the most sensational criminal cases of the century. From the police investigation of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and Sharon Tate, to the arrests, the courtroom antics, and the personalities and motivations of Charles Manson and his followers, Helter Skelter offers a haunting look into the horrific repercussions of cult mentality on a violent rampage. The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.

Summary

Part 1: The Murders

The scene is 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, the residence of director Roman Polanski and his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate. On the morning of August 10, 1969, the Polanskis’ housekeeper, Winifred Chapman, arrives to discover a cut phone line and, once inside the gate, two bodies on the lawn and another in a vehicle parked in the driveway. These were Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger Coffee fortune; Voytek Frykowski, her boyfriend; and Steve Parent, a friend of William Garretson, the caretaker living in the guest house.

When police arrive and enter the home, they find the bodies of Tate and her ex-boyfriend, Hollywood hairdresser Jay Sebring, along with marijuana, methamphetamines, and the word “pig” written in blood on the door. The murders were savage; the victims had been beaten, shot, and stabbed repeatedly. There is wild speculation by police and the press, suggesting a drug-fueled party, orgy, or ritual sacrifice gone awry. William Garretson is an obvious suspect, being the only person left alive on the premises, but he is ruled out after a polygraph test.

In a house across town the next night, teenager Frank Struthers returns home from a camping trip to find all of the curtains drawn. Sensing that this is unusual, he calls his sister. The two of them, along with the sister’s boyfriend, enter the house and discover the bodies of their parents, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, both of whom had been brutally stabbed, choked, and beaten. The word “war” is carved into Leno LaBianca’s stomach, the words “healter skelter [sic]” are written on the refrigerator in blood. Though Manson knew someone who lived in the LaBianca’s neighborhood, their house was chosen completely at random.

A sergeant from the Sherriff’s Department alerts the Los Angeles Police Department to similarities in the Tate case and another recent murder: that of music teacher Gary Hinman, where the words “political piggy” had been written in blood. This information is ignored. The similarities between the Tate and LaBianca cases are also disregarded. The LAPD circulates fliers seeking the gun used in the murders, unaware that it is already sitting in a precinct evidence locker in Van Nuys, having been found by a child in Sherman Oaks and turned over to police. Complicating matters further is a rivalry between investigators assigned to the Tate case and those assigned to the LaBianca case. The former are “old guard,” the latter, “young upstarts” who are more willing to think outside the box.

About a week after the murders, police arrest twenty-six members of a hippie commune located at Spahn Ranch in the San Fernando Valley for auto theft. Spahn Ranch was an abandoned movie set created for Hollywood Westerns, whose owner, George Spahn, was allowing the hippies to squat there in exchange for labor and female companionship. After he visited, Bugliosi described it as “a very strange place.”

Part 2: The Killers

Investigators working on the LaBianca case finally check in with the Sheriff’s Department and learn more about the murder of Gary Hinman. The Sherriff’s Department raids Barker Ranch in Death Valley, a nearly inaccessible enclave in the desert surrounded by rocky terrain, where the aforementioned hippie commune members, released on bail, had fled. Twenty-four arrests are made.

These hippies are members of the “Manson Family,” named after their leader, Charles Manson. Manson had conned his followers into believing he was a messiah or Christ figure, preyed on their weaknesses, and made them completely dependent on him. Many were female teen runaways or prostitutes with nowhere else to go. Manson used many methods to control his disciples, from threats, to flattery, to drugs and sex. He had a grifter’s natural ability to spot weakness in people and exploit it.

During the raid on Barker Ranch, one Manson Family member, Susan Atkins, is implicated by another in the Hinman murder.

Upon being remanded to jail, Susan Atkins tells fellow inmate Ronnie Howard about being present for the Tate murders. Howard informs the police. At the same time, LaBianca detectives interview Al Springer and Danny DeCarlo, members of a motorcycle gang who had visited Spahn Ranch and heard details about the Tate and LaBianca murders, and other crimes, from Charles Manson.

DeCarlo implicates several other Family members, including Tex Watson and Steve Grogan (a.k.a. “Clem Tufts”), and provides the motive: Manson was hoping to pin the murders on the Black Panthers and instigate a race war. Faced with a multitude of crimes, confessions, and aliases, it becomes increasingly difficult for investigators to piece together identities and the actual order of events.

Part 3: The Investigation

Vincent Bugliosi is assigned as prosecutor and begins his own investigation, visiting Spahn and Barker Ranch to collect evidence. He outlines the raid that had occurred in October of 1969, naming Family members Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel, “Clem Tufts,” and Manson himself as four of the people arrested at Barker.

Bugliosi and coauthor Curt Gentry provide a lengthy bio and criminal history of Manson, born Charles Milles Maddox. As an “illegitimate” child of a sixteen-year-old mother, Manson spent his youth in and out of correctional institutions, committing his...