Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by O'Neill, Tom. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780316477550.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NOW A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY A journalists twenty-year fascination with the Manson murders leads to "gobsmacking" (The Ringer) new revelations about the FBIs involvement in this "kaleidoscopic" (The New York Times) reassessment of an infamous case in American history. Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. With no mercy and seemingly no motive, the Manson Family followed their leaders every order -- their crimes lit a flame of paranoia across the nation, spelling the end of the sixties. Manson became one of historys most infamous criminals, his name forever attached to an era when charlatans mixed with prodigies, free love was as possible as brainwashing, and utopia -- or dystopia -- was just an acid trip away. Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom ONeill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up behind the "official" story, including police carelessness, legal misconduct, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents. When a tense interview with Vincent Bugliosi -- prosecutor of the Manson Family and author of Helter Skelter -- turned a friendly source into a nemesis, ONeill knew he was onto something. But every discovery brought more questions: Who were Mansons real friends in Hollywood, and how far would they go to hide their ties? Why didnt law enforcement, including Mansons own parole officer, act on their many chances to stop him? And how did Manson -- an illiterate ex-con -- turn a group of peaceful hippies into remorseless killers? ONeills quest for the truth led him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned spies, from San Franciscos summer of love to the shadowy sites of the CIAs mind-control experiments, on a trail rife with shady cover-ups and suspicious coincidences. The product of two decades of reporting, hundreds of new interviews, and dozens of never-before-seen documents from the LAPD, the FBI, and the CIA, Chaos mounts an argument that could be, according to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Steven Kay, strong enough to overturn the verdicts on the Manson murders. This is a book that overturns our understanding of a pivotal time in American history.