Curtis Marsena "Curt" Gentry (June 13, 1931 – July 10, 2014) was an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

, born in Lamar, Colorado. He is best known for co-authoring, with Vincent Bugliosi, the 1974 book '' Helter Skelter'', which detailed the Charles Manson murders. Gentry lived in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Gentry died, aged 83, on July 10, 2014, in San Francisco.

Awards and nominations

''Frame-Up'' was a nominee for the 1968

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards hon ...

from the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the E ...

for Best Fact Crime book. ''Helter Skelter'' won a 1975

from the

for Best Fact Crime book. ''J. Edgar Hoover'' won the 1992 PEN Center West Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

Select works

* '' The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California'', Putnam, 1968 (novel) * '' J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets'', W. W. Norton, 1991, * ''The Madams of San Francisco: An Irreverent History of the City by the Golden Gate'', Doubleday and Company, 1964, paperback reprint 1971 * ''The Killer Mountains: A Search for the Legendary Lost Dutchman Mine'', World Publishing Company (1969) * ''Helter Skelter: The True Story Of The Manson Murders'' (with Vincent Bugliosi) * ''Frame-up: The Incredible Case of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings'', W. W. Norton, 1967 * ''The Dolphin Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area'' * ''Jade: Stone of Heaven'' (with Richard Gump) * '' John M. Browning: American Gunmaker'' (with J. Browning) * ''The Vulnerable Americans'' * ''A Kind of Loving'', with Toni Lee Scott (autobiography), World Publishing Company (1970) * ''Operation Overflight: The U-2 Spy Pilot Tells His Story for the First Time'' (with Francis Gary Powers)

Holt, Rinehart and Winston Holt McDougal is an American publishing company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that specializes in textbooks for use in high schools. The Holt name is derived from that of U.S. publisher Henry Holt (1840–1926), co-founder of ...

(1971) * ''Second in Command: The Uncensored Account of the Capture of the Spy Ship

Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

'' (with Edward R. Murphy)

References

1931 births 2014 deaths People from Lamar, Colorado American non-fiction crime writers American investigative journalists Edgar Award winners Writers from San Francisco Writers from Colorado Deaths from lung cancer in California Historians from California {{US-historian-stub