Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill with Dan Piepenbring

In July, my boyfriend and I went to Denver for a small but much needed vacation and one of my must see things was Tattered Covers bookstore. I think there might be more than one location, but I went to the one on 16th Street Mall and it is a truly beautiful store. I could have spent multiple hours there, probably even days, exploring the whole store. I had to buy something while there, even though prices were a bit much; but I purposely went to the store and I wanted something from it. I ended up choosing Chaos and started it on the way home. It seemed like a safe bet being about the Manson Family, but it left much to be desired.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

In 1999, Tom O'Neill was assigned a piece in Premier Magazine to write about the 30th anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders committed by members of the Family. First uncertain of how to write about something that has been written about a million times, O'Neill begins digging around only to find holes in the prosecutors narrative in his book, Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. O'Neill reaches out to anyone who could have been loosely involved with the Family and finds many doors slammed in his face. People who are willing to talk do not give everything up, or do not want to go on the record. When O'Neill learns there could be CIA involvement, he begins to understand the hesitation, but he needs to know why these eight murders took place and if it could have been stopped. Twenty years later, the article was never written and the magazine is no longer, and O'Neill still has yet to figure out what the truth really is.

So I am going to start with the end of the book. It may seem weird to start at the end, but I think you will understand.

"In my nearly twenty years of reporting on this case, people have asked me all the time: What do I think really happened? I hate that question more than anything. The plain answer it, I don't know. I worry that as soon as I speculate, I undermine the work I've done. In a sense, had I been more willing to fill in the blanks, I might've finished this book a lot sooner." (p.429)

In twenty years, O'Neill finds nothing definitive about the Tate-LaBianca murders that is not already known, and is not even willing to speculate on possibilities. He has theories that include that the victims knew their killers; there might have been a drug deal gone wrong; the Family, or members of it, may have been caught up in CIA operations CHAOS or COINTELPRO; or even "the most 'far out' theory: that Manson was tied to an MKULTRA effort to create assassins would kill on command" (p. 430). Yes, you read that right. The CIA is possibly why eight people were murdered and Manson may have been a part of the extremely controversial MKULTRA operation. I am sorry; there are a lot of ideas I can entertain as possibilities, but that is just too far for me.

(Source: Giphy)

But lets look at the other theories. Could the victims have known their murderers? O'Neill does show how Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger could have loosely known Tex Watson and that Frykowski did have some less desirable friends that were more on the shady side. Could he have gotten into a drug deal with Tex or Manson that went wrong? Sure. The murderers, aside from Manson, have all said they were on speed during the killings (although they have gone back and denied that claim during the trials). But to me, that does not tell me why the LaBianca's were murdered. Manson had previously stayed at the house next door but it was empty. O'Neill focuses more on why the Tate house was attacked and less on the possibilities of the LaBianca's house. Even Bugliosi could not really find a connection to the LaBianca's other than the connection to the house next door. The LaBianca's had no known history of knowing members of the Family, drug use, or CIA connections.

I feel stupid even talking about this, but let's talk about the CIA operations theory. O'Neill feels that he has found that certain connections of people loosely related to the Family could have possibly been CIA members. Of course, all of these people are dead and/or unwilling to talk to O'Neill. He contacted the CIA and they could neither confirm or deny if the persons were CIA members. Operation CHAOS was the code name of the domestic espionage project that targeted American people whose mission was to uncover possible foreign influence on race, anti-war, and other protest movements. It ran from 1967 to 1974. Operation COINTELPRO was the Counter Intelligence Program that ran from 1956 to 1971 and was a series of covert projects conducted by the FBI that aimed at surveillance, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations, including feminist organization, the Communist Party, anti-Vietnam War organizers, and activists of the civil rights and Black Power movements, along with some smaller movements like environmental and animal rights organizations. Lastly, MKULTRA, which is also known as the CIA Mind Control Program, was a program of experiments on human subjects that were done by the CIA. The experiments were to identify and develop drugs and procedures that could be used during interrogations that would weaken an individual and force confessions through mind control. It ran from 1953 to 1973.

(Source: Giphy)

If I am going to play into any of this, I would guess the involvement would have been COINTELPRO because of the organizations they infiltrated. But honestly, Manson and the Family barely had time to make it on to the LAPD/LASO radar, let alone the CIA or FBI. The Family rose as quickly as it fell. I completely lost all faith in anything O'Neill says when he begins to mention possible connections to the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Yes, you read that right too. You might as well say aliens were involved too.

(Source: Giphy)

O'Neill also lays into Bugliosi quite a bit. The book opens with O'Neill relating an argument between him and the former DA. Now, is Bugliosi a completely clean man who never did anything wrong-probably not. Could he have left things out of the trial? Could he have covered for Terry Melcher? Sure, I won't deny it. There is plenty to suggest even in Bugliosi's own book that not everything came to light. But Vincent Bugliosi passed away in 2015 and he cannot defend himself against anything O'Neill says, and I have an issue with that.

I cannot blame people for not wanting to talk to O'Neill. It has now been fifty years since the Tate-LaBianca murders and their friends and family are still living with it. It cannot be easy for them to talk about and wanting it to stay buried away. I would not want to admit that I had been a member of the Family, even if I did nothing wrong. I would not want to admit to partying with Manson. More often than not, it is Manson, Watson, and the girls that are remembered, not the victims. And when it comes down to it, they murdered them. I do not care if it was a drug burn or CIA operation. Eight people are dead and their murderers are behind bars. The book left a very sour taste in my mouth towards O'Neill. He wasted twenty years of his life to accomplish nothing essentially, and in his research, brought up painful memories to the survivors of the victims. And I feel in a way, he takes the blame away from Manson and the Family and tries to pin it anywhere else. If, and that's a big if, this was some rogue operation that went horribly amiss, those behind it had to live with the knowledge they did not stop the murders, but the murderers are paying for their crimes.

Rating: 1/10
Author: Tom O'Neill with Dan Piepenbring
Genres: Non-Fiction, True Crime, History
Dates Read: July 7-12, 2019