Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

Although I thought of myself as an armchair expert for this disturbing string of Manson inspired murders and the existing chaotic times in America, this book exposed an entirely new and extraordinary set of facts, reality and suppositions that I never considered. Exceptional read and hard to put down.

I think this is one of those books you have to read in order to get some insight into how our government agencies operate. It's very eye-opening to understand how a lot of what we are witnessing today are identical to operations carried out in the past. If you're interested in getting some insight into corruption, this is a great starting point.

This book was extremely well-written, and the thoroughness of the author's reporting and research went above and beyond pretty much anything I've ever heard of. The book becomes just as much a story of his own experience of having the Manson case consume his life as it is about the substance of the case itself. I know that might sound off-putting, but it's actually great. Tom O'Neill does not succumb to the temptation to fill in the blanks with some neat, overconfident answers. He doesn't over-state what he has, just to tie up loose ends in the plot in a tidy bow. He is always very clear about what is merely speculation or circumstantial evidence. He honestly admits that he could not come up with "the solution" that fills in all the missing pieces of the crime. However, the book is still a satisfying read for two reasons: one, because he unearths one startling, never-before-known detail after another, which ends up being far, far more than one would ever expect could ever be revealed so many years later. The reader doesn't feel cheated out of new revelations, because there are plenty. A shocking amount. Secondly, the book satisfies because the author's honest self-reflection about his personal struggle to solve the case prove that he gave a superhuman effort and really did all that anyone could have ever done, and more than anyone else would have done. Yet, many answers remain elusive, and life can be like that. It usually is. The frustration is shared and very relatable. This author risked his whole career and his reputation as a writer just to continue digging. It struck me how he made himself vulnerable by admitting to his missed deadlines and breech of contract with his first publisher, his depression, and at times total hopelessness that he would ever be able to put his book together. In the end, he delivers and at last proves to the world that he really did the most extensive and thorough reporting on this that anyone could have ever dreamed of, and while late, published a book that is so well-written, and expertly edited and proofread with a thick section of citations in the back. Many of the books I read these days are riddled with typos, bad syntax, and other errors. This is an actual professionally written book, like you used to expect to always get when you paid money for a book. I would have given it five stars, but I'm stingy with stars, and only give five stars if I feel like it's the best book I've ever read. This is more than just a book for entertainment. This book does nothing less than correct a huge piece of American social history that was just WILDLY WRONG. The events around the Manson murders, because of what they reveal about the far-reaching corruption in our justice system, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, and how that has colored our cultural lens for decades since, are monumentally significant. If we don't correct our perceptions of that time, we are pretty much living a lie. It's like everything we know is wrong if we don't wake up to how things really work. Events like this are carefully curated, scripted and choreographed for our consumption. This book goes a long way toward bringing this awareness into the mainstream. This guy really sacrificed to make the truth known to the world. It was a huge service to the world. I'm sorry this is a wall of text, I am not very good at writing anymore.

Tom O’Neill is not only an amazing author but an even more amazing reporter/investigator. This book has reshaped how I look at our government and the Charles Manson murders.

If you liked (or if you ever read) Helier Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Charles Manson and The Family, you'll love Chaos. There's a lot of characters in the story but the narrative flows smoothly and get you hooked from the very beginning. Turns out that Bugliosi kept some cards (info) from becoming public. It's page-turner, hard to put down true crime book. Highly recommended.

Wow! I finished this book in 3 days. It was such an easy and interesting read it was hard to put down.

An enjoyable read with some interesting new information that really makes you think about the official narrative and how accurate it was. However O'neill went off into way too many directions over the years and it seems like at the end, because none of them ultimately gave him some a-ha! type answer, he attempted to tie all 1,000 of them up into this book. Don't get me wrong, it's engaging and goes pretty well for about 1/2 of the book, but then starts falling apart, fracturing and then ultimately ends up miles off the road in CIA territory. As soon as the JFK murders were tied in I had to kind of give up. One thing he failed to do which really baffled me, for all his thousands of hours of interviews and research, was to simply go directly to the people involved in the murders and get new interviews from them about all this alternative info he stumbled upon. He did talk to Manson one time, but pretty much blew his ability to get anything out of Manson because he immediately presented himself as what Manson would consider a "snitch" and garden variety reporter looking for a way to sell a new book. What's really frustrating is that at some seeming really crucial moments during interviews and where he was about to break through to something really big he appeared to have an uncanny ability at completely just BLOWING the interviews with some rookie journalist mistakes - this was documented over and over and he would plainly admit to his stupidity each time. This was incredibly annoying because it either means he was just too naive and stupid to get what he wanted from the subjects or it's just him trying to cover his butt. In any case it makes you want to throw the book against a wall. Ultimately I was left with a feeling of having travelled away from the Bugliosi narrative and asking alot of questions right along with O'neill but then just feeling lost in some aborted thread or into CIA/JFK conspiracy territory, which is what he attempted to use to hint at an ultimate narrative cohesion to explain many of his contradictory and new findings in the cases. About the only thing I am convinced of after the read is that there are almost surely more unsolved Manson murders. If O'neill wants me to believe that Manson was turned into a CIA drone/operative in MKULTRA experiments in creating murder zombies, sorry bud but I can't go there. For all Manson's charms we have to realize that sociopathy was his prison education. It is not far fetched at all to think that with a criminally charming personality, seriously damaged and very young influential girls, and drugs at his disposal he was able to create a cult and convince people to kill for him. As for the Helter Skelter theory, every bit of it is absolutely possible especially cosidering that the Family devolved into speed abuse toward the end which would have been the perfect recipe not only for paranoid delusions with a ridiculous basis but as enabling factors for the shocking violence that they engaged in. I would probably still recommend this read because there is some interesting research and new factoids, but ultimately it totally lacks narrative cohesion and leaves you slightly annoyed with the author for devoting 20 years of his life to a topic and bestowing this as it's ultimate record.

Going into this book you need to understand there is not going to be a smoking gun that proves all of the authors assertions. He started writing this and researching back in 1999 which was 30 years after the murders and didn't publish until 2019. Unfortunately that means that a lot of documents and key players were lost to time, but that doesn't negate the authors claims of what possibly happened all of those years ago. Having read Helter Skelter and Manson in his own Words, I found this to be a fascinating journey which picks up where the mainstream narrative left off regarding the case of Charles Manson and his followers. I appreciated the fact the author also presents their findings and never attempts to strongarm the reader into believing their claims, but rather just gives you their evidence and allows you to make your own conclusions. Honestly I don't know where I stand with all of this new information. I seems too fantastic of a tale to be real, but on the other hand I do have confidence in the author and the validity of their claims. Some things which bothered me since Helter Skelter and seemed to bother the author as well is, if Charles Manson was such a threat and habitually breaking their parole, why was he constantly being let go? Why did Charles Manson's Parole Officer know all of this and yet constantly go to bat for him, even going to the extent of taking Manson's kid when he went to jail for a bit? Why did Helter Skelter deliberately leave out the fact that Terry Melcher met with the family AFTER the murders? So many unanswered questions here and I don't know what to make of it. Anyways, enough of my rambling. It was an excellent read and I absolutely recommend.

Well researched, answers a lot of areas of the time, and gives a good indication of what was happening with Manson, the family and why.

This book was a real shocker for me about the psyop run on the boomer & war babies age groups. Most boomers are aware of the Manson story - I was - read Bugliosi's Helter Skelter several times, (even gave it a great review here many years ago) also watched the made for TV series much later. As it turns out the whole story was a narrative constructed for the public consumption. The only "true" thing was that the people accused of killings were the ones actually doing the stabbing. However, everything else, the motive, who ordered the killings, who was involved, is not. The killings were not random, and the victims not completely innocent. Even Bugliosi himself, a very comprised man, was parachuted in as prosecution lawyer, and got a great book deal. But only the first part of Chaos is about the Manson murders. The rest of the book was, for me, my introduction to the organization known as MK Ultra. There was a massive psyop run on youth during the 60's involving drugs, purposely intended to undermine the family and society. Unlike what I had believed for 50 yrs. about the "sexual revolution" arising spontaneously from a freedom loving group of youth, the whole thing was orchestrated. Excellent read for anyone interested in the 60’s and how so much changed during that period, also true crime stories & celebrity culture. There is so much in this book of interest.

Book came torn after waiting a whole month

Great book! Couldn't stop reading.

Great investigation! Quite revealing.