The Shadow Over Santa Susana: Black Magic, Mind Control And The Manson Family Mythos Paperback – August 8, 2009

Yes there are serious editing issues with spelling and grammar but still an interesting read for people into this subject. One should always keep in mind that if they were not there then they can never know for sure so they should not get invested farther then that. I think there are more questions then answers presented in this book which is also true to what is actually known. I don't know that much of it has "new" ideas. It seems to present doubt, and questions the real reasons for what happened and the extent to who and how many people were actually involved. I didn't find it to try to explain or convince the reader of anything except that one should keep an open mind to what they are told is fact having not been a participant or spectator of the actual events. People who seem to have hatred of Manson and those involved with him seem scarier to me then Manson and his "followers" do. Especially those people who have no actual connection to anything that is attributed to the "Family". I hope those people can peace in themselves. I don't condone what happened or have sympathy for those who confessed to their involvement however I find the prosecution aspect of these events to be the most interesting aspect of this saga and this book does a great job at making one take into account that what we are told is almost never "the whole truth and nothing but the truth".

The Shadow Over Santa Susana by author Adam Gorightly is an account of the Manson family and their history from inception to arrest for the murders during the summer of 1969. I have found this book to be very interesting since it offers some additional information that other accounts lack. The book does contain some typos which are not numerous, but leaves one to wounder if it could have been better reviewed and corrected. This book does contain numerous photos of family members and others that were affiliated with the family. These photos contribute greatly to the information regarding the family and Charles Manson. However, the photos do not contain captions with descriptions of the images presented. One has to flip to the back of the book where a list of photos is present with each photo described. This is not a major flaw but renders this book somewhat unique with the slight inconvenience of having to look up the description of the photos. As I mentioned this book contains new information regarding Manson's use of mind control and affiliation with satanic cults. Furthermore,the book contains several chapters related to conspiracy theories surrounding the family and the murders. If you are a reader that likes to connect unrelated curcumstances and coincidences into a more global plot then this part of the book is for you. Quite a few orginizations and assassins are mentioned from the likes of government organizations (MK-ULTRA) that were tasked to clandestinely destroy the hippie movement to Oswald, Surhan Surhan, et al. I believe this book is a god addition for anyone wanting to read more about Cahrles Manson and the family.

This is a reasonable overview of the Family and the Murders, pulling heavily from the two main published records of the case: "The Family" by Ed Sanders and "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi. He even references Ed Sanders original edition of his book that suggested a strong relationship between the Family and a satanic group operating in Southern California at the time. There are also a number of interesting photos that haven't been as widely displayed as the ones in Helter Skelter.However, in spite of these good things going for it, the editorial work is quite lacking. Confusing sentences, poor grammar, and while the photos were quite interesting, and in some cases quite gruesome, overall they were of poor quality. That might have been ok, if this was just supposed to be an overview of one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century, but it's supposed to be an oversized coffee table book for the true crime aficionado.Finally, after starting out as a pretty standard overview of the case it goes off on some pretty wild conspiracy theories. I'm not saying there's no there there, but I think if you're going to present these ideas MkUltra, Cointelpro, Son of Sam connections, etc. You need to provide a bit more background evidence. So that's why I don't want this book to be your one source of information about the case. Look through the bibliography to find a number of good solid sources of information, and a few I might question, but take your pick and expand your knowledge base.

I believe Manson was and is mentally ill and he has gotten progressively worse over the years. Much of his personna has been an act. The general public does not understand that Manson never (in a physical sense) killed anyone. Manson behaved like a dog that has been beat too much. Not a pretty childhood. Manson, as he grew older, absorbed a lot of "counter-culture" ideas. He took these ideas (learned in prison) and mixed with the Summer of Love etc. Gorightly's book explains all this. Listen to the girls today (Van Houten, Krenwinkel and even Atkins (now deceased).) Charlie sold them a bill of goods. He was older and manipulation was in play. Compare Manson to R. Polanski. Read the grand jury testimony of the 13 yr old girl who Polanski raped. Manson & Polanski are of the same generation. Who is the worse man? Believe me, the idea that you think you are god (Manson) is a mental illness. Charlie was pretty much a small-time crook, a car thief, pimp etc. Things got crazy in '69.

This book is well worth reading no matter how much you think you may know already about Charles Manson and the family. Sourcing however is poor and on occasions there are sentences that jump out at you and make you wonder "now how the hell would you know that?", one such example is when a conversation from 1968 between Manson and another family member is recalled and makes the claim that what was said was said with an 'impish twinkle in Mansons eye' -unfortunately it's sentences like this that are unsourced and make you wonder if it's simply there to add depth and flavour to the actions and words of Manson. How the hell does the writer know what Mansons eyes looked like during said conversation?But don't let that detract, the book does well to highlight and explore many of the connections and celebrity friends as well as exploring the possibility that Manson maybe a victim of MKUltra mind control himself. Having read many books on Manson I'd say this one is highly recommended. It doesn't simply just repeat the myths like many other books.

This provides a good overview of the Manson mythos and Gorightly has clearly read a lot of Manson and cult-related stuff (the bibliography is a great stepping off point for further reading). However, I am finding it an irritating read, all of which could have been put right at the editing stage (I guess I should blame Creation books for this, rather than the author, which is a shame because I usually rate their other publications). It looks as though a lot of errors got passed, perhaps in the rush to get this out in time for the 40th anniversary of the killings/trial. There are plenty of typos and poorly worded passages, and Gorightly has an annoying habit of going off-tangent even within short chapters, as if he found it difficult to organise his material, probably in a rush to meet a deadline. He also often (again annoyingly) relates subjective assessments of Manson's psychological abilities as fact, rather than ascribing them to either himself or as the opinions of witnesses. There are also a large number of uncaptioned small black and white photographs, often difficult to identify, which I find frustrating. Aside from these, perhaps pedantic, gripes, this is clearly a worthy addition to the best books on the subject - I would also recommend Sanders' The Family and Gilmore's The Garbage People as the best I have read so far (and any student of Manson has to read Bugliosi to get a rounded picture).

Loved it. Big fan of everything Charlie and this is my favourite book about him.