SERENDIPITOUS TUESDAYS: INTROS/TEASERS — RESTLESS SOULS — JAN. 29

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

Today I’ve decided to go back to the past to read about events that happened in August 1969.  It was a time I remember well.  I lived in a nice suburban house with my husband and two small children.  We were sitting on our lovely patio the night after we heard…horrified by the events of that time.

Restless Souls:  The Sharon Tate Family’s Account…, by Alisa Statman with Brie Tate, is the family’s story.

 

Intro/Beginning:  Patti – August 9, 1969

“My God, Sharon’s been murdered.”  Barely able to get the words out, my mother collapsed against the scarred door frame and then to her knees.  I looked up from my favorite cartoon in time to see the first tear spill from her eyes.

Paralyzed by her emotion but not understanding it, I could only stare at her while the seconds passed, waiting for an explanation.  Her lips fluttered, but there was no sound.  Leaning forward, I strained to hear.  Then, in a scarcely audible whisper, she said, “My baby’s dead.”

As if floating to me in delayed time and space, her words eventually reached my ears, forever altering the stability of my life.

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Would you keep reading?  Even knowing most of what happened from the news and TV movies, I am eager to read the family’s perspective.

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Teaser:  Patti:

The media swarmed the downtown courthouse like journalistic sharks drawn into the feeding frenzy by the Manson family.  Months before the trial started, reporters played a high-stakes, cutthroat game for exclusive interviews with the suspects.  (p. 119)

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Amazon Description:  The gruesome murders of the beautiful and talented actress Sharon Tate, her unborn child and four others that same night at the hands of the notorious “Manson family” rocked the nation. As one of the most horrific crimes in modern history, these atrocities, the trial and the subsequent conviction of Charles Manson and his followers caused a media sensation, spawning movies, documentaries and bestselling books, including the classic Helter Skelter. A defining moment in an era otherwise associated with radical peace, love and understanding, this incident is one that still resonates with millions today.

Yet while this crime left an indelible mark on society’s consciousness, it was, first and foremost, a shattering personal tragedy for those closest to Sharon—the loving family left to cope with the emotional devastation of her loss. Now, after nearly forty years, their story is finally revealed.

Compiled by close family friend Alisa Statman and Sharon’s niece Brie Tate, Restless Souls draws on a wealth of material including interviews with the Tates, personal letters, tape recordings, home movies, public interviews, private journals, and official documents to provide a powerful, poignant, and affecting four-decade, three-generation memoir of crime and punishment, anguish and hope, rage and love, that is both a chronicle of death and a celebration of life.

Extending beyond all previous accounts, Restless Souls is the most revealing, riveting, and emotionally raw account not just of these heinous murders, the hunt and capture of the killers and the behind-the-scenes drama of their trials, but of the torment victims families’ endure for years in the wake of such senseless violence….

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Now I’m off to see what the rest of you are sharing….