A journalist’s 20-year obsession with the Manson murders brings shocking revelations about the most infamous crimes in American history: carelessness from police, misconduct by prosecutors and even potential surveillance by intelligence agents. What really happened in 1969?

In 1999, when Tom O’Neill was assigned a magazine piece about the 30th anniversary of the Manson murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Weren’t the facts indisputable? Charles Manson had ordered his teenage followers to commit seven brutal murders and in his thrall, they’d gladly complied. But when O’Neill began reporting the story, he kept finding holes in the prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s narrative, long enshrined in the best-selling Helter Skelter. Before long, O’Neill had questions about everything from the motive to the manhunt. Though he’d never considered himself a conspiracy theorist, the Manson murders swallowed the next two decades of his career. He was obsessed.

Searching but never speculative, Chaos follows O’Neill’s 20-year effort to rebut the ‘official’ story behind Manson. Who were his real friends in Hollywood and how far would they go to hide their ties? Why didn’t law enforcement act on their many chances to stop him? And how did he turn a group of peaceful hippies into remorseless killers? O’Neill’s hunt for answers leads him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned spies, from the Summer of Love to the shadowy sites of the CIA’s mind-control experiments, on a trail rife with cover-ups and coincidences.

Featuring 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. In those two dark nights in Los Angeles, O’Neill finds the story of California in the '60s: when charlatans mixed with prodigies, free love was as possible as brainwashing and utopia - or dystopia - was just an acid trip away.

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Listening Length

16 hours and 14 minutes
Author

Tom O’Neill, see all
Narrator

Kevin Stillwell
Audible release date

27 June 2019
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B07L41HPFV
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	16 hours and 14 minutes
Author	Tom O’Neill, Dan Piepenbring
Narrator	Kevin Stillwell
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	27 June 2019
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07L41HPFV
Best Sellers Rank	333 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in 20th Century U.S. History 2 in Communication & Media Studies 2 in Murder True Crime

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4 star		14%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Boots

Well researched and well written.

Reviewed in Australia on 21 August 2020

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The author doesn't come to a final conclusion in his investigation of the Tate / La-bianca murders but all the evidence points to the CIA and its dark history of mind control research.

He's not the first author to go down this rabbit hole and come face to face with the nasty realisation that the American intelligence community more than likely has Sharon Tate and the other victims' blood on its hands. Dave McGowan, the author of Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon found the CIA's fingerprints all over the California free-love hippie movement of the 60s and implicates many of the biggest movie stars and music icons of the era as active participants or unwitting pawns in some very nasty business.

It's clear there's something deeper to the story behind Charles Manson, his followers and the horrible crimes they committed, but it's also clear that the cover up goes deep and we probably will never know the truth. Still, the author does an excellent job of taking the reader along with him as he falls down this rabbit hole and just keeps on falling, and falling, and falling. It's hard not to get angry at the deception and depth of the cover up that still goes on today and it's no wonder so many Americans don't trust their government or the agencies that are supposed to be protecting American interests. It's hard to fathom whose interest these organisations are actually protecting.

Twenty years is a long time to give your life over to researching the picked over bones of an old crime, but I'm glad the author stuck with it. I hope he keeps digging and looks into the Kennedy assassination, which for all intents and purposes appears to have undeniable links to a number of players investigated throughout this book.

4 people found this helpful

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James

Investigative journalism at its best.

Reviewed in Australia on 3 July 2021

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The author's tenacity and obsession make an effective backstory to this 20 year investigation as to what was behind the Manson killings.
The secrecy behind Manson's activities presents an opportunity to recreate of a confusing era. Confusion which was paralleled in other parts of the world also subsumed with Cold War paranoia.
The early part of the book drags a little as O'Neill gets bogged down in his investigation but Tom picks up the pace in the second half as he introduces more and more fascinating characters.
Tom loses a star only for failing to tie it all together at the end but then as he admits that would only take the focus away from all the unanswered questions...

One person found this helpful

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TraceyA

A ponderous tome with no conclusion

Reviewed in Australia on 26 June 2021

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Chaos is well named; almost from the first page it's nothing but chaos. While the author brings up some possibly relevant and interesting points they are buried in so many other extraneous ideas and concepts that they lose all meaning. If this is the work of 20 plus years of investigation by an apparently experienced journalist I confess to being utterly disappointed. For all the authors hyperbole I truly can't see that this work has contributed anything of real value to the continuing enigma that is Charles Manson and The Family, nor does it illuminate the motives for the Tate/LaBianca murders. The kindest thing to be said is that, if nothing else, it does pose some interesting questions regarding Vincent Bugliosi and the trial as a whole. It's a very great pity though that those questions remain unanswered.

One person found this helpful

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Paul Kenins

Gossip

Reviewed in Australia on 4 August 2022

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An inferior book regarding the Manson murders. This book is full of gossip and hearsay with tonnes of speculation made by the author. There are far better books regarding this event, such as Tex Watson's firsthand account in "Cease to Exist" and Nuel Emmons' "Manson in his Own Words". I wasted 2 days reading this book which I wish I could have back.

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Kitchen witch

Doesn’t hold interest.

Reviewed in Australia on 30 July 2022

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Having read another books on the Manson murders, I found this one very boring in comparison

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fay magner

Interesting

Reviewed in Australia on 28 February 2020

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Totally gripping. Fully believable. An education re MKULTRA

One person found this helpful

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Jane

Fantastic book! Thank you.

Reviewed in Australia on 27 October 2021

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Great read! Highly recommend!

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Wade Lanont

Magnifico

Reviewed in Australia on 15 July 2020

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Awesome read, came as described. I highly recommend.

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Gordon

This is not very good.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2020

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Starts interestingly, then falters, then falls flat completely.

Promises a lot but nothing new. Questions like why did a music producer claim to have only two meetings with Charlie when he was seen at four? The answer is either a wide ranging conspiracy involving the CIA, or the fact that nobody in their right mind wanted to admit having been associated with Charlie Manson any more than they had to when asked about him in the 70s.

MK-ULTRA and all that are dragged in to try to revive the corpse of this book but to no avail, yes Bugliosi was inaccurate in places, perhaps even self-servingly dishonest in his account, but this book is simply poor stuff and genuinely adds nothing.

It seems to have taken the author 10 years to write or something, chap could have built a 1/10 scale model of the Mayflower out of matchsticks in that time which would have been more worthwhile.

Don't waste ya hard earned shekels boys and girls.

24 people found this helpful

Tina McDaid

A work of ‘ifs, buts and maybes’

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2020

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Tom O’Neill opens with declaring that he’s not a conspiracy theorist, then launches into a cavalcade of conspiracy theories. He presents a volume of ‘ifs, buts and maybes’, but absolutely no ‘proof’. His contempt for Vincent Bugliosi is toe-curling. But, it’s Bugliosi’s coat-tails he’s hanging onto. It’s interesting that this book appears only after Bugliosi’s passing - I suppose that’s one way of avoiding a defamation lawsuit. The biggest problem facing the ‘Manson conspiracy theorists’ is this - not one of them can answer this question - why would Watson, Krenwinkel and Van Houten still be sitting in jail for 50 years if there was another story to tell - ie ‘the truth’...? Bugliosi probably embellished the ‘Helter Skelter’ theory, but essentially that’s what happened. It was a hugely complicated case with dozens of players. Hardly any of them told the same story twice. But, the general consensus from the ‘family’ members supports Bugliosi’s claims - Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, Van Houten, Share, Lake, Davis, Good, Fromme et al. The only one who doesn’t, is Manson himself. Although, he’s come perilously close to admitting it on several occasions.
I wasted a couple of weeks reading this book - there’s nothing of any value in it - it’s fantasy. If you want the definitive account of what happened, buy Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi.

17 people found this helpful

Dr Peter Parkes

More than a true crime story, but rather a dissection of American culture and counter-culture during the swinging sixties

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2021

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I am not a fan of crime novels, but i was recommended to read this one as the unfolding investigation provided a backdrop around ‘the swinging sixties’, and the perceived threat that the peace movement posed to the establishment in the midst of the Vietnam war.
The book is long, maybe to justify the decades of research going into it. The first half illustrates that the infamous Charles Manson, far from being an outlier, was one of many self-styled messiah characters who mingled liberally with Hollywood’s elite, including a close relationship with some of the Beach Boys.
The author’s investigative journalism uncovers more questions than answers, especially as numerous links are exposed to covert CIA operations in San Francisco during the hippy period.
Most surprising for me was the drawing out of similarities between the ‘psychedelic brainwashing’ techniques used by Manson to programmme his followers into committing the murders of Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife Sharon Tate and others, and those researched by the CIA under covert operation MK Ultra. More so when the same people crop up in the Manson investigation and that conspiracy, for which the head of the CIA was censured and sacked.
I learned so much about the political factors and forces at play during the swinging sixties from this book, and how a surface of ‘flower power’ and psychedelic music hid much darker forces at play.
A great piece of journalism which I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about this most interesting period of history.

11 people found this helpful

Levana

Great research

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2019

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This book greatly contributes to clarifying the missing piece in the Manson puzzle - his being mind-controlled or mind-manipulated. Whether it was an experiment gone wrong, or an experiment that reached its purpose, remains the unanswered question.
In terms of proof, it gets as good as it can ever get - bar an official admission; but the age of congressional committees that managed to extract admissions seems long gone. And Manson died without revealing anything in this connection - not that I would believe he was necessarily aware what was going on with and around him.
So - great research. I could not put the book down - read it in one (long) sitting.
Chapeau bas to the author for bearing through those long 'conversations' with Bugliosi - not too surprising, there are other books revealing his less than innocent role in the case - but it must have been hard to just sit through the pompousness and diatribes.
I only regret that this book was not out by the time Peter Levenda finalized his Secret Forces -- it would have been a great contribution.

16 people found this helpful

matthew podger

Coincidence?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 May 2020

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Interesting new theory behind the Sharon Tate murder. Unfortunately doesn’t really provide any concrete evidence; just provides a number of coincidences. A lot of the book is the author explaining his troubles during his research for the book.

13 people found this helpful

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