Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties (2020)
This book reveals one of the massive American deep state psyops from the 60's and it's a fascinating read.
A
journalist's twenty-year fascination with the Manson murders leads to
"gobsmacking" (The Ringer) new revelations about the FBI's 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 leader's every order -- their crimes lit a flame
of paranoia across the nation, spelling the end of the sixties.
Manson
became one of history's 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 O'Neill
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, O'Neill knew he was onto something. But every discovery brought
more questions:
Who were Manson's real friends in Hollywood, and how far would they go to hide their ties?
Why didn't law enforcement, including Manson's 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?
O'Neill's
quest for the truth led him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned
spies, from San Francisco's summer of love to the shadowy sites of the
CIA's 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.