Ivor Davis Book Talk & Signing

Join us at the Museum of Ventura County on July 26, 2019 @ 6:30 p.m. for a book talk and signing with Ivor Davis. Admission is $5 for Museum members, $10 for nonmembers. Ivor Davis will be discussing his latest book, Manson Exposed: A Reporter’s 50-Year Journey into Madness and Murder. Tickets will be available for pre-purchase at a later date.

The notorious Manson Murders paralyzed Hollywood and most of America in August 1969. However, few at the time of the grisly discoveries had heard of Manson, his family/gang of demented followers, and none believed they were involved. Fingers were pointed at many Hollywood A-listers, but none at the unkempt tramps living in squalor in surrounding L.A. County.

“The Beatles and their songs like “Helter Skelter” were NOT to blame,” says award-winning author Ivor Davis. “In August l969,” said Davis, “Manson and his gang murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others. The DA claimed—and the jury believed—that the motive for the killings was to trigger a race war in America.  Manson’s brainwashed, drug-addled followers really believed his outlandish preaching: That a bloody, racial revolution was imminent. Manson claimed those warnings came in the lyrics in songs like Helter Skelter, Piggies and Revolution –contained in the Beatles bestselling “White Album.”

Not true, says investigative reporter Davis who was one of the first on the murder scene in Beverly Hills August 10, 1969. He covered the initial investigations, sat daily through two Manson trials, and co-authored the first book ever published on the murders titled “Five to Die.” Throughout his long career as an international journalist and NY Times syndicated columnist, Davis interviewed many of the people whose strange relationships with Manson and his girls crossed all sections of the entertainment industry. With boxes of journals and a keen eye for detail, Davis has discovered a new motivation for the murders.

“After many interviews and sharing of statements from other reporters, plus years of conversations with prominent players, the whole Helter Skelter theory doesn’t stand up,” says Davis. “I have found verifiable information from multiple sources that the truth is very different, much more personal and strangely sad. The mania of Manson ruined so many lives.”

Davis writes that the massacres at the Tate house were not carried out —as police had originally thought—because Manson was furious with Doris Day’s son Terry Melcher.

“Melcher once lived at the Cielo Drive canyon house where Sharon Tate resided,” states Davis. “I spoke with Terry in the early 90s and he told me his whole involvement with the family. Manson wasn’t mad because Melcher didn’t keep his promise to give him a fat recording contract. These stories flooded the cocktail parties and airwaves for years. But the truth is much simpler.”

Media contact: Kathleen Kaiser
C: 805-607-6717
E: kathleen@kathleenkaiser.com