(August 18, 1934 – June 6, 2015)
Vincent T. Bugliosi, Jr. 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 LA 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 Jennifer Jenkins, whom he defended for the murder of Eleanor “Muff” Graham which occurred on the South Pacific island of Palmyra. 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.[1]
His most recent books are Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (2007), The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (2008), and Divinity of Doubt: The God Question (2011).
Bugliosi, who was of Italian ancestry, was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, on August 18, 1934. Bugliosi graduated from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, which he attended on a tennis scholarship. In 1964, he received his law degree from UCLA, where he was president of his graduating class.
He had two children: Wendy and Vince Jr. He often refers to his wife, Gail, in his books, referencing her understanding and patience with him. He also stated that he was an agnostic, although open to the ideas of deism.
Bugliosi died of cancer at a Los Angeles hospital on June 6, 2015
