Poking a Dung Pile

"A defense investigator spoke with Von Wendel on June 11,1986, after petitioner had been convicted in the guilt phase of the trial.  At that time, the investigator learned of the incident with Bo.  In the same interview, Von Wendel told the investigator of an incident in which petitioner had threatened a woman with a dog.  When Von Wendel intervened, petitioner left and returned with a machete."  ( Thomas v. Wong , p. 14) (The way I read this is that Thomas threatened a woman who had a dog--not that Thomas had a dog and he threatened the woman with it.) I want to critically examine the prosecution's argument at trial by considering a hypothetical situation based on Von Wendel's report. Looking at the incident in which Thomas allegedly threatened the woman, let's say that Thomas had had hacked Von Wendel to death with the machete after he intervened. And let's say that the police had arrested Thomas and that he was brought to trial. Would the prosecution have u...

In this post, I want to respond to a question  someone  posed in a comment. " Everyone with half a brain knew what happened at Rainbow Village. This violent felon with a history of raping women at gunpoint -- Ralph "International" Thomas -- tried to rape that Deadhead woman. And when her boyfriend tried to intervene, he shot both of them in the head and dumped their bodies in the San Francisco Bay. And was convicted for that crime.  And died in prison where he belonged. Do you have anything to add to the story??" I have nothing to add to that story because I don’t think it gets at the truth. This is the story the prosecution used during the trial and it proved useful for convicting Thomas, who I think was guilty of having committed the murders. So I'd agree that it was a useful story, but I don't believe it gets close to the truth. The story told during the appeals process (and retold in the podcast) was meant to be useful for righting a wrong and getting Th...

Near the Site of Rainbow Village Reading through various documents yesterday I wanted to refresh my memory, and they reminded me of how imprecise the timeline I've given is. For example, to fit Jim Prew's account of when the party at his van ended (0200-0225) with Vincent Johnson's account of seeing Thomas with Mary and Greg, I've assumed that this encounter took place around 0230. I've assumed that it would have taken about 5-10 minutes for Johnson to ride with his friend down to University Avenue and that it would have taken him about 15-20 minutes to walk the distance between University Avenue and the entrance to the dump. I've assumed that Mary and Greg left the Village immediately after leaving the Prew’s van and that Thomas caught up with them before they walked by Cercy's car. Had they not stopped at the car, it would have probably taken them about 8-10 minutes to walk down to the dump entrance so I’m assuming it probably took them about 15 minutes to...

Two Gravel Roads I wanted to visit Cesar Chavez Park to get a sense of how long it would take someone to walk from the site of Rainbow Village to the approximate location of where Mary and Greg were shot. I also wanted to see if I could find some indication of where the entrance to the Berkeley dump might have been, because Vincent Johnson testified that he saw Ralph Thomas with Mary and Greg near the entrance.  When I arrived I assumed that the terrain of the Park is very different from the terrain of the dump, but I also assumed that a section of what's now the Dorothy Stegmann perimeter trail roughly follows what was once the access road to the dump and to Rainbow Village. To get an overview of the area of the park I'm talking about, you may want to go to Google Maps and take a look at the satellite image of Cesar Chavez Park. To me, the park looks like a rhombus, and the side I'm focusing on is the east side of that figure. If you follow the Stegmann trail from the sout...

My wife, Moonflower, and I flew out to San Francisco for the 60th anniversary shows this weekend, and today we took some time to go over to Berkeley and visit Cesar Chavez Park, where we picked some beautiful flowers to lay at the memorial to Mary and Greg... Some thoughts to follow in a separate post…

Here's my theory on what happened in the early morning of August 16, 1985. At around 2200, a small group of folks (including Dan Adams, Robbie Van Heest, Chris Campbell, Paul Harter, Mary, Greg, and Ralph Thomas) gathered at Jim Prew's van, where they hung out for a couple of hours. Prew testified that, some time between 0100 and 0130, he left Rainbow Village with Thomas, Mary, Harter, and Campbell to get some more beer and burritos and to drop off Chris.   Greg didn't go along. As they returned, they saw Greg on University Avenue and stopped to give him a ride back to the Village.  Shortly after they returned to the Village (approximately 0200), Greg and Mary left the group to take a walk, and Thomas followed them. It's likely that the three walked from the Village toward the dump entrance, and on the way, they had to pass Vivian Cercy's vehicle. As they walked, Thomas decided to scare Cercy, who was spending the night in the car with her two young daughters. Cercy...