But while at the CMF, he was given another unexpected opportunity.
I was asked by the guard following my interview, You interested in meetingCharles Manson?
Morris recalls in a recent interview.
And I said, Sure!
Of course I am.
Still, this was the mid-Seventies, and Manson remained a phenomenon.
Everybody was aware of this case, Morris says.
Its one of the most famous cases in American history, if not world history.
And a lot of people, including myself, had read more than one book about it.
(The films trailer is also premiering today, exclusively viaRolling Stone.)
ONeills book is thrilling but dense, filled with countless threads to pull and dark corridors to explore.
What are we to make of Mansons parole officer letting him carry on despite repeated violations?
He still cannot, for instance, place West and Manson in the same room together.
This ambiguity leads Morris to describeChaosas a strange, surreal excursion into some no mans land of investigation.
In fact, Morris says he was brought in to help ONeil with this labyrinthine enterprise.
Morris was eager to do just that.
Morris knows what its like to obsess over a confounding case or fall down a CIA-sized rabbit hole.
He did both in his2017 miniseriesWormwood, about the mysterious MKULTRA-linked death of scientist Frank Olson.
There will be so many questions about this murder that will never be answered, Morris says.
I guess never say never.
What Morris feels he can say definitively is thatChaosdismantles theHelter Skeltertheory.
I find Bugliosis version far-fetched, Morris says.
Do I believe the Beatles and Helter Skelter and the whole dream of a race war motivated this story?
I think its unlikely.
More far-fetched than a version involving MKULTRA and CIA experiments?
I think it is, Morris says with a smile.
Was that stuff going on?
Was it going on with Manson?
I like Mansons music!
Call me a fool.
Melcher famously lived at the house at 10050 Cielo Drive before Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate moved in.
Revenge not unlike MKULTRA and LSD mind control feels less far-fetched than Helter Skelter.
Maybe theres just a stupid explanation.
Who does that kind of thing?
But not so stupid that it didnt actually happen.
I sometimes look back on my life and I think, My god, this was stupid.
How could you have ever lived it?
And the fact that Bobby is grappling with it still, I find endlessly interesting and moving.
Could it be that some things are just a result of confusion and ignorance?
