Curt Gentry, ‘Helter Skelter’ co-author, dies at 83

Curt Gentry, one of the authors of “Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders,” died in San Francisco at the age of 83, his brother just confirmed.

Mr. Gentry had been in hospice care when he died, The New York Times reported. He passed on June 10 of undisclosed causes but his death is only now being made public.

He had written a biography of J.Edgar Hoover that was well-received, as well as several books about California history and culture. But he found commercial success with his 1974 blockbuster on the Manson murders, teaming with the deputy district attorney who had prosecuted the case, Vincent Bugliosi.

The book became one of the best sold books of the 1970s, The New York Times reported. And the money he earned from it allowed his to pen the greatly praised Hoover work in 1991.

Shortly after its publication, critic David Johnson wrote of the Hoover book in The New York Times: “Mr. Gentry has illuminated his unrelentingly harsh profile in vindictiveness and egocentricity with fresh details. He discloses that in the attack of the Justice Department, the F.B.I. ran a school teaching agents how to conduct break-ins. In a basement ’blue room,’ Hoover entertained select aides with screenings of surveillance films and pornographic movies.”