Quotes from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“For a lawyer to do less than his utmost is, I strongly feel, a betrayal of his client. Though in criminal trials one tends to focus on the defense attorney and his client the accused, the prosecutor is also a lawyer, and he too has a client: the People. And the People are equally entitled to their day in court, to a fair and impartial trial, and to justice.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“I may have implied on several occasions to several different people that I may have been Jesus Christ, but I haven't decided yet what I am or who I am.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Since we place so much value on human life, why do we glorify, in a perverse sort of way, the extinguishment of life? The answer to that question, whatever it is, is at least a partial answer to why people continue to be fascinated by Hitler, Jack the Ripper—Manson.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Charlie said that death was beautiful, because people feared death.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“All the stories had a common thread—that somehow the victims had brought the murders on themselves…”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“No sense makes sense.” Charles Manson”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“the prosecution witnesses. Skrdla also testified: “I have seen individuals who have taken it several hundred times and show no outward sign of any emotional disturbance while they are not on the drug.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“I could understand if the detectives had other duties, but they were assigned full time to the case.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Hurkos later told the press: “Three men killed Sharon Tate and the other four—and I know who they are. I have identified the killers to the police and told them that these men must be stopped soon. Otherwise they will kill again.” The killers, he added, were friends of Sharon Tate, turned into “frenzied homicidal maniacs” by massive doses of LSD. The killings, he was quoted as saying, erupted during a black magic ritual known as “goona goona,” its suddenness catching the victims unawares.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Apparently Fitzgerald hoped to soften the harshness of her reply when he asked her: “Have you killed anybody to get someone out of jail?” With a strange little smile, Cathy turned her head and, looking directly at the jury, replied: “Not yet.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“On the wall in the living room, not far from Hinman’s body, were the words POLITICAL PIGGY, printed in the victim’s own blood. Whiteley also told Buckles that they had arrested a suspect in connection with the murder, one Robert “Bobby” Beausoleil, a young hippie musician. He had been driving a car that belonged to Hinman, there was blood on his shirt and trousers, and a knife had been found hidden in the tire well of the vehicle. The arrest had occurred on August 6; therefore he had been in custody at the time of the Tate homicides. However, it was possible that he hadn’t been the only one involved in the Hinman murder. Beausoleil had been living at Spahn’s Ranch, an old movie ranch near the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth, with a bunch of other hippies. It was an odd group, their leader, a guy named Charlie, apparently having convinced them that he was Jesus Christ. Buckles, Whiteley would later recall, lost interest when he mentioned hippies. “Naw,” he replied,”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Linda had been at Spahn Ranch a little over a month when, on the afternoon of Friday, August 8, 1969, Manson told the Family: “Now is the time for Helter Skelter.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Including the jury? I wondered, realizing that if Manson put on the mask of the peace-loving hippie at the trial, I’d be able to use Gregg’s remark to unmask him.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“someone has sat down and programmed people to go out, let’s say, and commit armed robberies, burglaries, assaults? Do you know of any such instances?” A. “Yes. In one sense, that is what we do when we program soldiers in a war…The Army uses a peer group technique and the patriotic ideals that are instilled in citizens of a particular country to bring about this pattern of behavior.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“On the fifth day the jury sent a note to the bailiff, requesting NoDoz for themselves and sleeping pills for Mr. Kanarek.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Charlie interpreted the song to mean that the Beatles were telling blackie to get guns and fight whitey.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“You can convince anybody of anything if you just push it at them all of the time. They may not believe it 100 percent, but they will still draw opinions from it, especially if they have no other information to draw their opinions from.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“She is the best wife a guy could want. I didn’t realize how good she was until I got in here. I beat her at times. She writes to me all the time. She is going to have a baby.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Manson maintained, because he was completely paranoid. Being frightened of everything, he missed nothing.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“During the first few days a total of forty-three officers would visit the crime scene, looking for weapons and other evidence. In searching the loft above the living room, Sergeant Mike McGann found a film can containing a roll of video-tape. Sergeant Ed Henderson took it to the Police Academy, which had screening facilities. The film showed Sharon and Roman Polanski making love. With a certain delicacy, the tape was not booked into evidence but was returned to the loft where it had been found.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“cash a forged U.S. Treasury check for $37.50 in Ralph’s, a Los Angeles supermarket. According to the arresting officers, Manson told them he had stolen the check from a mailbox. Two more”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“Manson returned to Death Valley on December 31, 1968, he told the group, according to Poston, “Are you hep to what the Beatles are saying? Helter Skelter is coming down. The Beatles are telling it like it is.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“other motion-picture stars, many of whom had promised to invest in his new corporation, Sebring International. While keeping his original salon at 725 North Fairfax in Los Angeles, he planned to open a series of franchised shops and to market a line of men’s toiletries bearing his name. The first shop had been opened in San Francisco in May 1969, Abigail Folger and Colonel and Mrs. Paul Tate being among those at the grand opening.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“They also knew something else the credit company investigators had never discovered. There was a darker side to Jay Sebring’s nature that surfaced during numerous interviews conducted by the police. As noted in the official report: “He was considered a ladies’ man and took numerous women to his residence in the Hollywood hills. He would tie the women up with a small sash cord and, if they agreed, would whip them, after which they would have sexual relations.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“explanation was that Manson had gone to the guest house that afternoon, found no one there (Altobelli was out most of the afternoon, making arrangements for his trip), then returned that evening. This was supported by Hatami’s statement that Manson had come back up the path after “a minute or two, no more,” which hardly left time for his conversation with Altobelli.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“blackie’s fuzzy head and kick him in the butt and tell him to go pick cotton and go be a good nigger, and we would live happily ever after…” The Family, now grown to 144,000, as predicted in the Bible—a pure, white master race—would emerge from the bottomless pit. And “It would be our world then. There would be no one else, except for us and the black servants.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“chosen people were the Family, Charlie said. He would lead them to the desert, where they would multiply until they numbered 144,000. He got this, Poston said, “from reading things into the Bible, from Revelations.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“But I can tell you this, without question. She took no drugs at all, except for pot, and not too much. And during her pregnancy there was no question, she was so in love with her pregnancy she would do nothing. I’d pour a glass of wine and she”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“by Sergeant McGann, Deemer went to Massachusetts. A check of the time cards at the auto company in Sheffield revealed that Pickett’s last workday was August 1, eight days before the homicides. Moreover, though two stores in Marlboro sold Buck knives, neither had ever stocked this particular model. Pickett’s status as a”
― Vincent Bugliosi, quote from Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

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