copyright 1978; W.W. Norton publishers, New York; Book Club Edition; hardbound with black/grey boards and gilt lettering on spine; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket fair condition with edge wear - see pics.
Vincent T. Bugliosi, Jr. (/ˌbuːliˈoʊsi/; August 18, 1934 – June 6, 2015) was an American attorney and New York Times bestselling author. During his eight years in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, which included 21 murder convictions, without a single loss. He was best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the seven Tate–LaBianca murders of August 9–10, 1969. Although Manson did not physically participate in the murders at Sharon Tate's home, Bugliosi used circumstantial evidence to show that he had orchestrated the killings.
After leaving the Los Angeles district attorney's office in 1972, Bugliosi turned to private practice and represented three criminal defendants, achieving successful acquittals on behalf of all three—the most famous of which was Stephanie Stearns (referred to as "Jennifer Jenkins" in his book), whom he defended for the murder of Eleanor "Muff" Graham which occurred on the South Pacific island of Palmyra Atoll. The case was the subject of his 1991 #1 New York Times bestselling book And the Sea Will Tell. He turned down opportunities to represent famous defendants Jeffrey MacDonald and Dan White because he did not represent anyone whom he believed to be guilty of murder.
Inside Cover -
Following a series of unsolved attempted murders in the southern California area, in 1966, a murder is commited in a blue-collar neighborhood of Los Angeles. The victim is a pleasant young man with no known enemies. The police have no murder weapon, no eyewitnesses and no suspects. Sixteen months later, again in Los Angeles another murder takes place. This time the victim is a young woman recently married, killed in the carport of a luxury apartment complex. Again, the police find no murder weapon, no eyewitnesses, and no obvious suspects. These two murders were the result of bizarre conspiracies rooted in passion and greed. Taken separately, the murders appeared unrelated, but they were linked by a single criminal mind. Shreds of evidence - jottings in an appointment calendar, suspicious bank transactions, a spending spree in Las Vegas - were the starting points of a fascinating investigation and a trial that generated more tension and unexpected reversals than the fictional courtroom dramas seen on television.