Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I was researching a story about settled gypsies in 1995, and I wanted to meet one of them, George, who was living in Hollywood. I went to the Formosa Café, and when I didn't see George, I sat down and watched a tennis match on the TV above the bar. A man next to me began watching a documentary about Charles Manson.

#2 I had fled the city because of the bad air, but I was also escaping the atmosphere of boundless possibility. I had always felt that L. A. was a place to experiment and shed the past, but now it felt like it was bedrock.

#3 I was so afraid of the women in Manson's group, who seemed normal, that I couldn't bring myself to read about the murders. I was also afraid of Charles Manson, who had achieved almost mythical status in the country.

#4 The enduring power of the Manson myth stems not only from his involvement in the murders, but from his ability to destroy the humanity of seemingly normal young people who killed at his command.