didn't want the government overthrown then, even if i didn't agree with anything but tom hayden has written about that, bill aers, whether we agree with it or not they have written the story. so what's left. so i asked myself, who is one person from 1969, '70, that time in american history whose name would be recognizable not just to folks our age, but people who are younger. maybe even people who are still in college. and, of course, there is one answer to that. and that left me to do two things with this book i was going to write. after reading the other books about charles manson, and as i believe you may know, there have been many. if you wanted to collect each one of them, my last count was by reputable publishers since 1975 there have been 171 books about charles manson. if you throw in the self-published books and, to this day, i'm sure many of you realize, he has active followers who are publishing their books on the internet. all these things have been written. but i never found a book that was the one i wanted to write. the definitive manson book is, of course, called helter skelte it has sold 4 m