It's a huge book and there is so much in here but he does well to organise the information as best he could. The information is incomplete and scattered but that's not a mark against the author. There is just so much deception and mystery around the Manson murders that anyone offering you a concrete story is lying.

Even without being able to present much of a thesis of his own, O'Neil conclusively proves that the CIA were involved in this and that there was a massive cover-up. I have read these types of books before, and I'm quite familiar with how evil the American government is, but I still find myself shocked by new schemes, operations and crimes all the time.

Anyway MKULTRA succeeded and is hypnotism is real.

There is really no limit to what the CIA is capable of.

Their attempts were sometimes even more unhinged. In 1968, CIA scientists at the Bien Hoa Prison outside Saigon surgically opened the skulls of three prisoners, implanted electrodes on their brains, gave them daggers, and left them alone in a room. They wanted to shock the prisoners into killing one another. When the effort failed, the prisoners were shot and their bodies burned.

Also even if you're not into conspiracy stuff this book is still a lot of fun. Reads like a decent thriller.