Obituary: Vincent Bugliosi

Famed prosecutor and later writer Vincent Bugliosi, 80, died Saturday night after battling cancer for some time. In his career as a prosecutor, he is best remembered for his successful conviction of killer Charles Manson and various members of the "Manson family." He parlayed that success into a best-selling book, Helter Skelter, which in turn launched a highly successful career as a writer, mostly of nonfiction works, and mostly of books relating to the legal field or crime.

I always enjoyed his books and found him to be one of the smartest, most astute observers around. In addition to Helter Skelter, Bugliosi wrote books critical of the O.J. Simpson case, Bush v. Gore, the Paula Jones USSC decision, and, the book he was most proud of, the massive Reclaiming History. The last title was more a reference work than simply a work of nonfiction, but Bugliosi spent years writing in long hand debunking every single JFK assassination conspiracy claim. He painstakingly researched what appears to be every single thing known about the murder. A section of the book was issued as a separate book and published in time of the 50-year anniversary of the assassination in 2013. It documented all of the events leading up to the murder, and the following three or four days afterwards.

Snip from the NYT obit:

Mr. Bugliosi was a 35-year-old deputy district attorney in Los Angeles in 1970, when he was chosen to lead the prosecution. In six years as a prosecutor, he had won convictions in 21 murder cases, without a loss.

One of his challenges was to convince the jury that Mr. Manson was just as guilty as the knife-wielders and shooters — even though he did not physically participate — since he had inspired them and sent them on their missions. The other defendants were Ms. Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, all in their early 20s.

“I hadn’t realized how small he was,” Mr. Bugliosi wrote of seeing the 5-foot-2 Mr. Manson for the first time. “I could not believe that this little guy had done all the things it was said he had. He was not only capable of committing murder himself, he also possessed the incredible power to command others to kill for him.”

As Mr. Bugliosi recalled later, the trial transformed life not only for him but for his wife, Gail, and their young children, Vincent Jr. and Wendy, as Mr. Bugliosi worked 100 hours a week and was accompanied by a bodyguard everywhere he went.

I for one will miss his commentaries. He had what I call a steel trap mind.



The obit mentioned the death last year of Helter Skelter co-author Curt Gentry. Here is that article.

Miscellaneous News

Just what was Susan Atkins' real role in the Manson killings?
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My nephew's independent film, Unremembered, is getting a little bit more media notice.

As I have mentioned before, it's a pretty good film, and not just because I am biased towards Greg.

O.J.

When Simpson went to trial for the 1994 killings, the whole nation, or, more accurately, the entire media, went apeshit. But now with the disasters of 9/11, Iraq, and all of the shit the Bush administration and the robber barons have thrust upon the American people, the Simpson saga is just a tiny footnote.
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In this piece, Vincent Bugliosi also noted the insane media attention to the Simpson case, which was beyond all proportion. Televising the trial had a lot to do with the frenzy.
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Fox's Greta Van Susteren had a panel discussion on the decline and fall of Simpson.

Miscellaneous News.

It would seem clear given the circumstances surrounding the illness of one-time Manson follower and killer Susan Atkins that she will be paroled and spend her last days with her family.

Doctors have determined she has less than six months to live. Atkins reportedly has brain cancer and has had to have a leg amputated. She has been in the hospital since March.

Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Atkins, said she deserved the death penalty in 1971. But the former prosecutor said he believed now that Atkins has sincerely renounced Manson and that her 37 years in prison, along with her illness, changed things.

"She has paid substantially, though not completely, for her horrendous crimes. Paying completely would mean imposing the death penalty," Bugliosi said. "But given that she has six months to live, and the loss of her leg, I don't have an objection to her being released."

Debra Tate feels differently, and while I understand her feelings, this doesn't make her look good:

"I don't want to seem like a heartless creature, but in all my years, I never considered this could happen," said Debra Tate, the actress' sister and only surviving relative. "This is a serial killer, and what kind of mercy did she show her victims? When you torture someone, you have no compassion. How do you ask others to give it to you? It is her duty, in order to pay for her crimes, to die in prison."

My God, Debra, let the hatred go. She knows, as well as any sane person knows, that if it hadn't been for the prominence of the victims and the sensationalism surrounding the case, Atkins would have been released many years ago. After all, she wasn't the only one responsible for the killings.

Besides, this isn't about Susan; this is about her family's wish to take of care of her in her last days. They were just as much victims as Tate and her family.

Atkins is 59 years old.

I came across this interesting blog post of a few months' ago. I will link it. I don't have any inside knowledge of the matter.
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Robert Parry analyzes yesterday's landmark decision by the USSC of the habeus corpus rights of Guantanamo Bay prisoners. The 5-4 case dealt a major blow to the Bush administration.

The usual suspects in the Boumediene et al. v. Bush case dissented. If you care to read the decision, it is 134 pages long.
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Yesterday

I picked up--with difficulty, as it is a 1,600-page book with a CD--Vincent Bugliosi's new book about the JFK assassination, a book that took him twenty years to write, Reclaiming History. As he notes in this interview of a couple of months ago, it took a tremendous toll on him, not least because he wrote THE ENTIRE BOOK IN LONGHAND (and had a secretary type it up for him).

The book, as he mentions, was not intended to be read from end to end, though it could be. It's intended to be a reference book, with sections on virtually every conceivable part of the assassination, including a major section on virtually every conspiracy theory out there. Bugliosi, just as he did in the 1987 docu-trial, On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald, demolishes the conspiracy theories with the greatest of ease.

The Kennedy/Tippit killings were routine murder cases. Thc cases would have been a prosecutor's dream. If it weren't for the prominence of Kennedy, it would have been a simple cut-and-dried murder conviction. But thanks to nutjob Jack Ruby, the American people were denied the opportunity to see Oswald tried, convicted, and probably executed in the most slam-dunk murder case in the history of the country. Instead, Ruby's murder of Oswald helped spring about the cottage industry of conspiracy theories of every stripe. The rebels without a cause looked at perceived holes in the Warren Commission investigation and report, and came up with their own explaination of "what really happened" that afternoon in Dallas. This despite the fact we already knew within 48 hours of the killing EVERYTHING there ever was to know about the case. As a result of the cottage industry, the American people have fallen sucker to this nonsense.

Hopefully, Bugliosi's book will set the record straight once and for all.