Manson

March 1, 2014

True crime aficionados will welcome this well-written and well-read account of the 1969 Manson murders, especially since there aren't as many books about the topic as one might expect. Listeners get more background on Manson's childhood than in Vincent Bugliosi's classic Helter Skelter, and Guinn (Go Down Together) focuses on Manson's eagerness to get a recording contract (it seems that in Guinn's view, the whole "inciting a race war" thing played second fiddle to Manson's musical ambitions). Particularly evocative are Guinn's depictions of Manson's predatory presence in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury area during the Summer of Love, which was the genesis of his "family." Listeners truly get a sense of the aspirations of those traveling to San Francisco (peace and free love) and the reality (frequent rape, filth, and eating from dumpsters). Jim Frangione's unobtrusive narration carries the compelling story forward. VERDICT Recommended.--Victoria A. Caplinger, NoveList, Durham, NC

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Starred review from May 13, 2013
The notorious mastermind of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders emerges as an all-American ghoul in this riveting biography. Journalist Guinn (Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde) tells how an ex-con distilled California's effervescing counterculture into the Manson Family freak show, recruiting a following of rootless teen waifs who worshipped him as Jesus Christ and did his bidding without question, whether in LSD-fueled orgies or killing sprees. The author's richly detailed but well-paced narrative fleshes out the demented logic behind the crimes: prompted by misfired drug deals, Manson conceived new murders in order to deflect attention from his involvement in previous crimesâand to instigate the "apocalyptic race war" he had prophesied to his followers. But Guinn, who unearths eerie photos of his subject as a clean-cut bridegroom, teases apart the twisted strands of normalcy in Manson's sociopathic charisma, which honed itself on fundamentalist Christianity, Dale Carnegie precepts, and starry-eyed self-promotion. (Manson's main goal, which brought him into the orbit of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, was to score a record deal.) Guinn's portrait is an absorbing true crime saga and a searching exploration of the anomie, broken homes, and crazed hopes that led lost souls to mistake Manson for the answer to their prayers. 16 pages of b&w photos. Agent: Jim Donovan, Jim Donovan Literary.