Forty years after one of the most bloody and gruesome periods in American history, Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter author and the lawyer who put away Charles Manson, looks back and reflects.

Why did the crimes penetrate so deeply in the American psyche? How did the culture change in the immediate aftermath?

The killings tapped a feeling of dread … if you're not safe in your own home, where are you safe? And the very thought of young women dressed in black, armed with sharp knives, entering the homes of complete strangers in the middle of the night and mercilessly stabbing them to death … it's difficult to even contemplate a thought like that.

And who were they? Young kids from average American homes with fairly good backgrounds. There was a feeling that this could be our own children.

From Newsweek's True Crime Week series. Read the whole interview here.