Vincent Bugliosi dead at 80

[zachhoran1]

The Manson prosecutor and author of Helter Skelter died on Saturday night at age 80, as per the LA Times.

[mikehardware]

He came to Tennessee Tech University in early 1977 and talked about the Manson case and the Bobby Kennedy killing. I asked his thoughts on the death penalty. Wonderful speaker, and I enjoyed his books as well.

Memorable night, since that was my first date. The lecture was much better.

[silverscreenselect]

Although he's best known forHelter Skelter, Bugliosi wrote several other books about interesting cases in which he was involved. He also wrote books on the OJ Simpson trial, the JFK assassination, and other political topics. He was quite opinionated and rather outspoken.

Helter Skelter was made as a TV miniseries in 1976 with George diCenzo as Bugliosi and Steve Railsback as Manson (it pretty much typecast Railsback for the rest of his career) and then remade as a 3-hour TV movie in 2004 with Bruno Kirby as Bugliosi and Jeremy Davies as Manson. I think the earlier version is better. Richard Crenna and Arliss Howard played Bugliosi in a couple of other TV miniseries based on his other books.