Vince Bugliosi: The Whole Story

[Jim DiEugenio]

Well, now that he has passed on, we can finally publish my combination biography/analysis of the life and career of Vincent Bugliosi.

http://www.ctka.net/2015/the_prosecutor_bugliosi.html

I am really proud of this essay, and wish it had not been so heavily edited by my publisher in Reclaiming Parkland.

There is no better biography of Bugliosi anywhere to be found. And I also think there is no better analysis of his legal career and his attempted foray into politics. You won't find as much good information on the man in one single place than you will here.

And, of course, there is my revisionist view of the Tate/LaBianca murders. How Bugliosi and Gentry got away with this fig leaf of a story for so long stunned me. As I write here, I had not read the book until I wrote the essay. As I was taking notes on Helter Skelter, about every 30 pages I would write down, WTF! When I was done, I wrote, "This sounds like a cover story to me." I then consulted some other books, and I was convinced that was the case. I am even more convinced of that today.

Anyway, read and enjoy and spread the word.

[Jim DiEugenio]

BTW, the reason this was edited out of Reclaiming Parkland was because my publisher was afraid Vince would sue.

I told them, you cannot sue for libel if something is true. Plus, if the guy is a celebrity, there is a three tier test one has to pass, which includes the author has to know something is false and therefore practice malice in writing it. Look at all those footnotes, how could he say I knew something was false. I mean I did my homework.

I think it hurt the sales of the book because this was one of the highlights of the volume, plus it was the first chapter. It would have created buzz.

[Magda Hassan]

I told them, you cannot sue for libel if something is true.

In Australia this is not the case. It may be true but if it damages the plaintiff's reputation they can sue. We have appalling libel laws.

Any chance the publisher would do a revised all included edition of RP now the Bug is dead?

[Jim DiEugenio]

Wow, that is kangaroo wild.

Never heard of such a thing.

So if Himmler was alive in Australia and you said he supervised the Final Solution, he could sue you and win?

As per doing a reup of RP, I doubt it. My original publisher still has the rights and its still in hardcover.

[Dawn Meredith]

Well, now that he has passed on, we can finally publish my combination biography/analysis of the life and career of Vincent Bugliosi.

http://www.ctka.net/2015/the_prosecutor_bugliosi.html

I am really proud of this essay, and wish it had not been so heavily edited by my publisher in Reclaiming Parkland.

There is no better biography of Bugliosi anywhere to be found. And I also think there is no better analysis of his legal career and his attempted foray into politics. You won't find as much good information on the man in one single place than you will here.

And, of course, there is my revisionist view of the Tate/LaBianca murders. How Bugliosi and Gentry got away with this fig leaf of a story for so long stunned me. As I write here, I had not read the book until I wrote the essay. As I was taking notes on Helter Skelter, about every 30 pages I would write down, WTF! When I was done, I wrote, "This sounds like a cover story to me." I then consulted some other books, and I was convinced that was the case. I am even more convinced of that today.

Anyway, read and enjoy and spread the word.

WOW!!! "In fact, unfortunately for client Leslie Van Houten, this had been Ronald Hughes' first criminal trial".

To agree to take on a capital murder trail as your very first trial is malpractice. Here in TX you have to be death qualified to be appointed to such a case. Erick and I have had murder cases, but never one like this and we both have lots of trial experience. I have never read Helter Skelter either.

Dawn

[Albert Doyle]

Van Houten continues to be persecuted by the same draconian conservative California justice system that keeps innocent victim Sirhan Sirhan in jail:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Van_Houten

[Dawn Meredith]

Lots to digest in your article Jim. Have you looked at the threads here dealing with the LA music scene and connections to milintel?
Many tangled webs.

The Bug was one arrogant ADA. The Beatles music as a motive was pure bullshit from the start. I wonder if he actually believed his own bs.

[Jim DiEugenio]

"In fact, unfortunately for client Leslie Van Houten, this had been Ronald Hughes' first criminal trial".

Isn't that incredible?

See, in Helter Skelter, Bugliosi and Gentry do everything they can to paper this over. That is, the fact that the defendants had incompetent counsel. During the trial, Bugliosi was a bit more honest about it. And I quoted that. But he was not so honest in his book.

See, when the defense offered no case at all, this left the door open for Bugliosi to use that fantastic race war fantasy. And because it was uncontested by the defending counsel, it apparently worked. That, plus the success of the book, kept these people behind bars for life.

Which, I think is ridiculous.

[Jim DiEugenio]

The Bug was one arrogant ADA. The Beatles music as a motive was pure bullshit from the start. I wonder if he actually believed his own bs.


​Now, that Vince is dead, I really hope that this writer I met gets to finish his book on the case. He did literally years of research and accumulated scores of notebooks. I met with him after someone posted my work on Bugliosi and he told me that most of the stuff I was onto was correct.

There were four things that he said that were very interesting.

First, that Bugliosi told Melcher and Altobelli (the then owner of the house) he would keep them out of it. (BTW, Manson knew something that almost no one knew back then: Altobelli was gay. How did he know that?)

Second, there was more to the Parent killing than Vince let on to.

Third, the sacking of Aaron Stovitz was a strategy and it went up to Evelle Younger at least.

Fourth, when he went to interview Vince, they both tape recorded the interview. And then they both had back up recorders. Vince went into his "Where are you going with this?" routine.

See, to question the Helter Skelter scenario is heresy since its become embedded in our culture. But the point is, its that part of the prosecution's case that made the penalty phase so harsh.

[Drew Phipps]

I would like to point out that as far as motives go, "staging copycat killings to free a friend" or "revenge for bad drug deals" would not be appreciably less likely to result in harsh penalty than the "Helter Skelter" motive. It undoubtedly would sell fewer newspapers.