Helter Skelter

Bugliosi begins this part with a self-introduction, explaining that, on November 18, 1969 he was employed as the Deputy District Attorney for the city of Los Angeles. On that day, he discovered that he would be on the prosecution team against the Family. He’s a family man, worried about how such a case will affect his family. He quotes from Canon of Ethics of the American Bar Association: “The primary duty of a lawyer engaged in public prosecution is not to convict, but to see that justice is done” (165).

The first thing Bugliosi did, he says, was to explore the Spahn Ranch with representatives of the LAPD and LASO, including Detectives Helder and Calkins of the Tate team: “It was a very strange place,” he recounts (170). After receiving Spahn’s taped permission to search the ranch, the team noted nothing of interest but a few .22 caliber bullets. The DA’s office and the LAPD argued about how quickly the case should be wrapped up and announced, and whether Atkins would be given a deal for her testimony. Bugliosi believed that, as a murderer, Atkins should have been given no deal at all. With no deal or announcement, a new team of investigators drove out to the Barker Ranch.