This may be the most compelling story of them all. We all know of the Tate/LaBianca murders from 1969. Charles Manson used every “tool” available to loser-leaders and had absolute power over his followers. He used scripture and then cited lyrics from the Beatles “White Album” to convince his family of an up and coming race war.

But while he was living the life (poor but he had, essentially a band of concubines), he messed up. He allowed Tex Watson to “fix” a bad drug deal, which led to the Tate murders. Manson, and his family were tried and convicted of murder based on a “Helter Skelter” concept by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. While this is the accepted concept, there’s compelling evidence that it was far more simple. He was just a clod that messed up. This may be my favorite chapter because it blows up everything we know about it.

While in prison, Charles Manson stated:

“There’s only one… beast… animal… on the planet. The most evil, dirtiest, lowlife, creature on earth… Charlie Manson”.