Simon SchusterProduct DescriptionThe New York Times bestselling authoritative account of the life of Charles Manson filled with surprising new information and previously unpublished photographs: A riveting almost Dickensian narrative&four stars (People).
More than forty years ago Charles Manson and his mostly female commune killed nine people among them the pregnant actress Sharon Tate. It was the culmination of a criminal career that author Jeff Guinn traces back to Mansons childhood. Guinn interviewed Mansons sister and cousin neither of whom had ever previously cooperated with an author. Childhood friends cellmates and even some members of the Manson family have provided new information about Mansons life. Guinn has made discoveries about the night of the Tate murders answering unresolved questions such as why one person near the scene of the crime was spared.
Manson puts the killer in the context of the turbulent late sixties an era of race riots and street protests when authority in all its forms was under siege. Guinn shows us how Manson created and refined his message to fit the times