About Ivor Davis

Best Selling Author

Ivor’s Story

Author/journalist and investigative reporter IVOR DAVIS was deeply embedded in the life of Charles Manson, while maintaining distance from the mesmerizing pull that drew Manson’s followers to him and compelled them to do his savage, unspeakable bidding. Davis retained a cool, independent, and objective view as the case played out, and in his gripping new book Manson Exposed: A Reporter’s 50-Year Journey into Madness and Murder, he shares his personal odyssey over half a century. He meticulously pieces together the complex and Byzantine story, making sense of senseless as well as the facts surrounding one of the most savage massacres in American criminal history.

For half a century Davis was an eyewitness to the case. He was hot on the story from the moment the Tate murders were discovered in August 1969. He had a front row seat during the crazy, year-long trial and sheds new light on this ever changing story by sharing how he stayed one step ahead of investigators; pinpointing why this killer band did what they did, and how they did it and who they did it to, as well as clearly identifying all the players in this warped American tragedy. Five to Die was his first book ever published on the murders and was so pinpointed and scrupulously detailed, it was used by the Los Angeles district attorney as a blueprint for the prosecution.

Today, drawing from his personal diaries, decades of reportage, court records as well as dozens of new interviews, he weaves together his memories, investigations, and an exclusive dossier gathered over half a century, to deliver new evidence and revelations. The result is a complex and fascinating “I was there” catalogue of criminal certitude. His eyewitness interviews with Manson Family members, their lawyers, prosecutors, plus an assortment of world famous celebrities whose lives were forever scarred as a result of becoming enmeshed in this dark and brutal chapter in murder history, makes for a true life roller coaster ride.

Written with a master storyteller’s eye, “Manson Exposed” brings vivid new life and revelations to this much chronicled story.

About Ivor Davis

Best Selling Author

Ivor’s Story

Author/journalist and investigative reporter IVOR DAVIS was deeply embedded in the life of Charles Manson, while maintaining distance from the mesmerizing pull that drew Manson’s followers to him and compelled them to do his savage, unspeakable bidding. Davis retained a cool, independent, and objective view as the case played out, and in his gripping new book Manson Exposed: A Reporter’s 50-Year Journey into Madness and Murder, he shares his personal odyssey over half a century. He meticulously pieces together the complex and Byzantine story, making sense of senseless as well as the facts surrounding one of the most savage massacres in American criminal history.

For half a century Davis was an eyewitness to the case. He was hot on the story from the moment the Tate murders were discovered in August 1969. He had a front row seat during the crazy, year-long trial and sheds new light on this ever changing story by sharing how he stayed one step ahead of investigators; pinpointing why this killer band did what they did, and how they did it and who they did it to, as well as clearly identifying all the players in this warped American tragedy. Five to Die was his first book ever published on the murders and was so pinpointed and scrupulously detailed, it was used by the Los Angeles district attorney as a blueprint for the prosecution.

Today, drawing from his personal diaries, decades of reportage, court records as well as dozens of new interviews, he weaves together his memories, investigations, and an exclusive dossier gathered over half a century, to deliver new evidence and revelations. The result is a complex and fascinating “I was there” catalogue of criminal certitude. His eyewitness interviews with Manson Family members, their lawyers, prosecutors, plus an assortment of world famous celebrities whose lives were forever scarred as a result of becoming enmeshed in this dark and brutal chapter in murder history, makes for a true life roller coaster ride.

Written with a master storyteller’s eye, “Manson Exposed” brings vivid new life and revelations to this much chronicled story.

An Incredible Career

Over more than half a century as a writer for the Express and the Times of London, Ivor covered major events in North America. He penned a weekly entertainment column for the New York Times Syndicate for over 15 years, interviewing some of the biggest names in show business, from Cary Grant to Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton to Tom Cruise and Muhammad Ali.rbi

In 1962 he was smuggled onto the campus of the riot-torn University of Mississippi when James Meredith was enrolled and three years later was in the front lines as Los Angeles’ Watts riots erupted.

He was the only British daily newspaper correspondent to cover The Beatles’ first American tour from start to finish, given unparalleled access to John, Paul, George and Ringo on the road, in their hotel and during long nights of card and Monopoly games as they talked frankly about their bizarre new life. He also ghosted a regular newspaper column for George. Ivor’s first-hand, insider’s memoir, The Beatles and Me On Tour, is a fascinating travel back in time where for the first time he chronicles, frankly and humorously, 34 days with the world’s most famous band on the road—at a critical moment in the history of rock.

He covered Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential bid and was in the Ambassador Hotel the night Kennedy was assassinated. He was one of the Boys on the Bus chronicling the life of actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan, first in his campaign for governor of California, then for president.

He was a co-author of the 1969 political book Divided They Stand, which chronicled the Presidential election; and witnessed some of the biggest trials in American history: Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of killing Bobby Kennedy in 1969; black-power militant Angela Davis, acquitted of murder in l972; a year later, Daniel Ellsberg’s trial for leaking the Pentagon Papers, and, in 1976, he was in San Francisco to see heiress Patty Hearst convicted of robbery after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

In 1969 he co-wrote Five to Die, the first book ever published about the Sharon Tate murders. (The book was updated in 2009.) As a foreign correspondent, he traveled throughout the western hemisphere covering riots, floods, earthquakes and politics. As Editor at Large for Los Angeles Magazine. he and his late wife Sally Ogle Davis wrote over 100 major magazine and cover stories. He has reported on four World Soccer Cups for CBS radio.

His 2018 book, Ladies and Gentlemen… The Penguins, is an illustrated childrens’ book that stars four penguins on the Falkland Islands whose rise to rock-n-roll fame is tongue-in-cheek, funny, and, not surprisingly, eerily similar to that of The Beatles.

He currently lives in Southern California and is working on two new books: one about movies the other a true crime story.