VINCENT BUGLIOSI, deputy district attorney. He is 74 and the author of several books, including Helter Skelter (cowritten with Curt Gentry), the definitive account of the case. The media were different. Back then it was the newspapers. The case was on the national TV news every night—but just for a minute. There weren’t any talking heads. The papers covered the big murder cases bigger than they do today. The jury was sequestered, and the windows on the bus that transported the jurors from the Hall of Justice to the Ambassador Hotel were soaped up so they couldn’t see headlines on street corners. The Manson case was one of the last great print stories. It was told with screaming headlines.
