Thoughts on the book CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties?

Great link, fool

Happy?

I thought it was utterly fantastic, and I look forward to the sequel.

I was intrigued by the Reeve Whitson character. As far as we can out together, he was a CIA operative who had the Ciello Drive home under surveillance. Word is HE arrived at the home hours before Winfred Chapman, and was the one to discover the bodies.

It's crazy- there are a dozen people on the record of him having been around Laurel Canyon in the late '60s. There's also a reference to him working with the Contras in the early '80s, in a CIA memo where his name went accidentally unredacted.

Not sure about O'Neil's entire thesis, but Bugliosi definitely engaged in unethical and even illegal behavior in order to secure the convictions.

I highly recommend the book.

Outstanding book. As a companion piece I’d also recommend Errol Morris’ mini-series “Wormwood,” which is on Netflix.

You’ll probably also want to read Stephen Kinzer’s “Poisoner In Chief,” about Sidney Gottlieb.

R3 about Witson - Sharon's family seemed to know him, the Manson gang knew him. Yeah something was going on, and how did his involment take this long to be exposed? A big hole right there.

R3: Re Bugliosi. Good. Those murderers needed getting. The different police and sheriffs' units proved incompetent.

R6 no. It's not "good" for a prosecutor to lie, and encourage witnesses to commit perjury. He could easily have gotten a conviction without that.

I am only 80 pages in and getting bored, honestly-- I will definitely keep going as the reviews have been raves and I respect the writer. So far the best part was the interview with Terry Melcher. That guy was something else.

R5 He is ENDLESSLY interesting. He was a right wing wacko, but hecseems to have actually befriended the Tate/Polanski crew. He also worked with Sharon Tate's military father.

I'm DYING to know more about him. Of course, given his employer, that prospect is unlikely.

R8 stay with it.

R10- Will do!!

R7, Whom did VB "encourage" to commit perjury? Do you refer to Linda Kasabian? What testimony of any witness is alleged now to be false? I don't countenance the accusations against Bugliosi.

An excellent book on the CIA, the rise of the "Counter-Culture," and the popular musicians then, is "Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon."

There were so many weird Laurel Canyon/CIA connections with music stars of the mid-late 60's.