LAWFUEL – The Lawyer Newswire – Former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi will speak at 7 p.m. Oct. 2 in Indiana State University’s Tilson Auditorium as part of the 2007-2008 University Speakers Series. A book signing and reception is planned immediately following his talk in Heritage Lounge.
Bugliosi was made immortal as the prosecutor who convicted Charles Manson in the bloody Tate/LaBianca murders. He told the story of that case, authoring the bestselling true crime book in publishing history, “Helter Skelter,” which was turned into a highly successful television movie.
In addition to “Helter Skelter,” two more of Bugliosi’s true crime books — “And the Sea Will Tell” and “Outrage‚” — reached No. 1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. No other American true-crime writer has ever had more than one book that achieved this ranking.
His most recent book, “Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” is the culmination of more than 20 years of writing and research. Bugliosi defends the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the slaying of President Kennedy.
Bugliosi starred in a British television production in which he prosecuted Lee Harvey Oswald for the assassination of John F. Kennedy against the celebrated defense attorney Gerry Spence. For this special he prepared for six months as if it were an actual case, working over 100 hours per week. The 21-hour show had a real judge and jury, the actual witnesses in the Kennedy case, and no script or actors. The jury convicted Oswald.
Bugliosi received his law degree in 1964 from UCLA Law School. As a prosecutor for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, he lost only one out of the 106 felony jury trials he prosecuted, including 21 consecutive murder convictions.
