Investigative reporter and award-winning author Ivor Davis reveals the truth—one that the Los Angeles District Attorney chose to ignore in favor of the more sensational one: Beatles songs like Helter Skelter, Piggies, Blackbird, and Revolution were NOT the reason behind the murders.
Davis is one of the foremost experts on the topic of the Manson Murders. He co-authored the first book about the murders half a century ago, FIVE TO DIE, which the Los Angeles prosecutors used as a blueprint for the trial. Now his eye-witness personal story about the murders and the key players—the killers and the showbiz heavyweights who were sucked into this crime—is laid out in his new book Manson Exposed: A Reporter’s 50-Year Journey into Madness and Murder, on sale July 24, 2019.
Davis, who was based in Los Angeles as a foreign correspondent for the London Daily Express, reveals the deep background about Manson and his family, the fear and gossip that terrified Hollywood at the time. Manson Exposed is a memoir/true-crime thriller filled with Davis’ published and unpublished interviews over the years, many that infuriated The Family. Always in the thick of it, he received deaths threats, ( “a knife down your throat” from Lyn “Squeaky” Fromme who later was arrested for trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford) after Davis visited the Spahn Movie Ranch—and covered the trial daily.
Covering the case from Day One then reported daily as an eyewitness to the trials over two years, Davis’ conclusions are drawn from half a century of reporting and exclusive interviews about the notorious case.
Here are four new key revelations from MANSON EXPOSED: A Reporter’s 50-Year Journey into Madness and Murder
1-The real reason Charles Manson ordered his drug-addled followers to murder Sharon Tate and six others. The Beatles are NOT to blame for Manson’s murderous rampage despite the district attorney’s astonishing “Helter S kelter” theory.
2-Why grieving movie director Roman Polanski went rogue to track down his wife’s killers.
3-What other stars didn’t arrive for a party planned the night of the murders at the Cielo Drive home. Who they were, their personal stories, and how fate saved them.
4-Davis separates truth from the fiction behind Manson’s “Death List” and just why Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Elizabeth Taylor were terrified when they were told they had all been marked for death.
5-What the Beatles really thought about “Crazy Charlie” Manson using lyrics from their bestselling White Album to predict an apocalyptic and bloody race war.