Audiobook Review: Helter Skelter The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
By Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry
Narrated by Scott Brick
There’s just something about cults, real and fictional, that keeps people returning to them, and the allure of reading about real life cults never truly goes away. Especially when they implode, to some degree, when members or leaders commit horrific acts that fully cement them as part of history and, by some degree, pop culture. The Manson Family – and Manson himself – have been examined, re-examined, referenced, and held up as the end of an era. It’s hard not to be drawn in to wanting to know more, always. To look at the murders from different angles and try to understand how a group of young people could be so under the sway of a single man they go and commit horrific acts. Then again, at the time of writing this we are only two months removed from the events in early January, so maybe now is the time to look at these ‘cults’ again in a new light.
We all know the story. We’ve all seen the documentaries, and most people have probably read Helter Skelter. Some of us have seen the more obscure films such as the stop-motion animated Live Freaky Die Freaky which, yes, remains one of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen, featuring a cast full of mid-oughts pop punk and punk rock names (with Billie Joe Armstrong playing Manson). Information about events like these gets filtered and watered down, amended for fictionalised accounts, so sometimes it is worth going back to sources such as Helter Skelter to see the very real damage inflicted not just on the Manson Family murder victims, but on those who worked the case, too.
The book was originally written in 1974, only a few years after the murders themselves. And it’s one of the most comprehensive accounts of the trial, with Bugliosi going into great detail about the case, the search for the murders, and the rollercoaster of a trial that followed, with defendants changing minds and lawyers, seemingly at the word of Manson.
There’s a lot to unpack, and some of the accounts are very detailed, making this a little difficult to listen to at times. As is to be expected, it also lacks some of the knowledge gained since the murders happened, about Manson and the others as well as cults in general, but is the closest thing we’ll get to a ‘front row seat’ of the capture of the group and the trial itself.
Because this is an audiobook, a quick comment on the narration. Scott Brick does an excellent job drawing you through the details, without being too sensational. His voice matches really well with the book itself, though he does talk quite slowly. I never listen to audiobooks or podcasts sped up, but I found for this, a 1.5 speed was best for me.
The interest in Charles Manson and the Manson Family has increased in recent years since his death, but if you don’t know many of the facts, there are worse places to start than Helter Skelter.
Grade: A
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Helter-Skelter-Story-Manson-Murders-ebook/dp/B00LI55EK2/
Bookshop UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/helter-skelter-the-true-story-of-the-manson-murders-9781787461185/9781787461185
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
I purchased this audiobook via Audible.
