True Crime Authors: Helter Skelter With Vincent Bugliosi
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DVD details
Artist: Artist Not ProvidedDVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2002-08-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video
DVD Reviews of True Crime Authors: Helter Skelter With Vincent Bugliosi
DVD Review: "I'm The Devil, And I'm Here To Do The Devil's Work" -- Charles "Tex" Watson; August 1969
Summary: 4 Stars
On successive nights in August of 1969, 26-year-old actress Sharon Tate and six other people in Los Angeles were brutally slaughtered at the behest of 34-year-old Charles Manson, a bearded and diminutive 5-foot-2 crazy person who thought he was doing his victims "a favor" by having them killed; and thus, in Manson's demented mind, was setting off a "race war between the blacks and whites". A war he thought of as "Helter Skelter".
This DVD from The History Channel's "True Crime Authors" series of programs shines the spotlight on Vincent T. Bugliosi and "Helter Skelter", which was also the title of Vince's best-selling 1974 book about the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders and the nearly year-long Los Angeles court trial that followed those seven senseless slayings.
Peter Stacker provides skillful narration throughout this well-told and to-the-point 44-minute documentary; while former L.A. prosecutor Vince Bugliosi (who handled the Manson case for the State of California and secured a guilty verdict from the jury) gives a fairly in-depth on-camera interview. Vincent talks candidly about the celebrated trial and his own thoughts regarding Charles Manson, and Manson's "family" members who physically carried out the seven Tate-LaBianca murders.
The program's interview portions with Mr. Bugliosi are interspersed with an ample amount of stock video footage of Manson and his three co-defendants (Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel), including a few video clips I had not seen on similar documentaries dealing with Manson and his trial.
But, overall, there's nothing really new or groundbreaking about this "True Crime Authors" program; it is, however, presented very well and gives Vince Bugliosi himself quite a bit of air time.
Mixed in with the vintage 1969-1970 video footage are several "re-created" scenes that were produced (I assume) exclusively for this A&E/History Channel broadcast, which include actors portraying Manson and "family" members. The Tate and LaBianca murders are "re-constructed" via these actors' re-enactments. It's done fairly well (albeit with a bit more blood and gore, naturally, than the real-life photos and films depict), but I truly don't think the re-created parts were actually necessary at all here. The stock footage, mixed with Mr. Bugliosi's own first-hand comments about this fascinating murder case, would have sufficed (IMO).
This DVD, produced in 2002, is part of A&E's "DVD Library" series of Digital Discs, which are all created on DVD-R type discs. Therefore, unlike the "DVD-Video" format, this disc doesn't include any fancy Menus or subtitles or other interactive features of any kind. (There's no Menu at all in fact; the disc just begins playing automatically upon being loaded into the DVD player. Chapter stops have been inserted exactly every ten minutes.)
But the video quality here is excellent; and the audio is too. The price of the disc is outrageously high, but the A/V quality is very good indeed. There's a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track employed for this program. The video (in color) is Full Frame (1.33:1). .... The silky-smooth label used on the disc itself is very attractive and caught my eye. Nothing super-fancy, it just looks classy and nice. .... Keep Case packaging. .... No inserts included.
On the more personal side of the Tate-LaBianca killings which are documented on this "True Crime Authors" DVD, here's a list of the seven people who were butchered in 1969 at Charlie Manson's request (with some brief bio info included about the victims):
>>> Sharon Tate-Polanski (age 26 when she was killed; born January 24, 1943, in Dallas, Texas). .... Sharon's roster of acting roles included the part of "Janet Trego" on multiple episodes of the popular 1960s sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies", as well as four movie roles in the year 1967 alone. Two of those '67 films were "Valley Of The Dolls" and "The Fearless Vampire Killers", the latter being directed by Sharon's soon-to-be husband Roman Polanski (whom she wed on January 20, 1968, shortly after making "Vampire Killers"). ....
Sharon was in her eighth month of pregnancy when she was stabbed 16 times just after midnight on the morning of Saturday, August 9, 1969. Sharon's zombie killers, IMO, should have been charged with a total of eight murders, instead of just seven, with number eight being the murder of the soon-to-be-born baby boy inside the womb of Sharon Tate. The baby was going to be named "Paul Richard Polanski".
>>> Jay Sebring (age 35; born Thomas John Kummer on October 10, 1933, in Birmingham, Alabama). .... Jay was a well-known and highly-regarded hair stylist in Hollywood. His clients included Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, and Paul Newman. Jay was engaged to Sharon Tate for one year. .... Sebring died as a result of one gunshot wound (from Manson's very own "Buntline" revolver) and seven stab wounds.
>>> Voytek Frykowski (age 32; born in Poland on December 22, 1936). .... Voytek was dating Abigail Folger in 1969 and was one of Sharon Tate's houseguests on the night of August 8-9. .... Frykowski suffered the largest number of wounds at the hands of Manson's relentless killing machines -- he was stabbed 51 times, shot twice, and beaten over the head 13 times with a blunt object (probably the "Buntline" revolver also used in the murders). The savagery of it still boggles the mind even today.
>>> Abigail Folger (age 25; born August 11, 1943, in San Francisco, California). .... Affectionately known as "Gibby", Abigail was the heiress to the Folger Coffee fortune when she was murdered. She would have celebrated her 26th birthday in just two more days, but Susan Atkins, Tex Watson, and company intervened on the morning of August 9th instead. ....
Gibby was killed by being stabbed with a knife a total of 28 times. She was nearly able to get away from Manson's murderous clan, as she ran out of the Tate house fleeing for her life. However, she was tracked down on the lawn and repeatedly stabbed, resulting in her death. Her white nightgown was blood-red when her body was discovered by police several hours later.
>>> Steven Parent (age 18; born February 12, 1951, in California). .... Just two months prior to his death, Steven Earl Parent had graduated from Arroyo High School. .... Parent was visiting William Garretson, the Tate's caretaker, on the night of the murders. ....
Steve was the first to die that early Saturday morning at 10050 Cielo Drive in Hollywood's Benedict Canyon. He was in his car, attempting to leave the Tate property, when he was stopped in the driveway by murderer Charles "Tex" Watson. Watson proceeded to shoot Parent four times at near point-blank range, killing the teenager instantly.
>>> Leno LaBianca (age 44; born in Los Angeles, California, on August 6, 1925). .... Leno was president of "Gateway Markets", a Southern California supermarket chain. .... He was also the owner of nine thoroughbred race horses. ....
After Charles Milles Manson had personally tied up Leno LaBianca and his wife with rope inside their home at 3301 Waverly Drive in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles, Manson sent his killing machines into the LaBianca house to murder both of them. Leno was stabbed 12 times with a knife and another 7 times with a carving fork. A knife was found lodged in Leno's throat, and the word "war" had been physically carved into his stomach, while the double-tined fork used to create that word in his flesh was left protruding from Mr. LaBianca's abdomen following the grisly act.
>>> Rosemary LaBianca (age 38; born in Mexico on December 15, 1930). .... Wife of murder victim Leno LaBianca. She and Leno married in 1968. .... Rosemary was the owner of her own successful business, a shop known as "Boutique Carriage". When she died, her net worth was 2.6-million dollars. ....
Mrs. LaBianca was stabbed with a knife a total of 41 separate times. Both of the LaBiancas were found with pillowcases over their heads and lamp cords tied around their necks. After slaughtering the two helpless LaBianca victims, the three murderers (Watson, Van Houten, and Krenwinkel) decided they'd take a shower and grab a bite to eat from the LaBianca's refrigerator before departing the scene of the crime. (Unbelievable, isn't it? But true just the same.)
Thank you, Mr. Bugliosi, for convincing the jury to render that "Guilty" verdict against Charles Manson and his "family" of savages in 1971.
You can read every word of Vince Bugliosi's lengthy and powerfully-delivered "Final Summation" (Closing Arguments) that he gave during the last day of the Manson murder trial on January 15th, 1971, via the following weblink:
www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/manson/mansonsummation.html
For a good overview of the bizarre, yet compelling, Charles Manson murder case, this History Channel DVD more than adequately fills the bill.
More True Crime Authors: Helter Skelter With Vincent Bugliosi reviews:
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