"Fear stalks Berkeley's Rainbow Village"
In this post I will try to walk a thin line between skepticism and cynicism with regard to the veracity of Vivian Cercy’s testimony. To some, cynicism may appear to be skepticism, so I will give a definition of skepticism, and then I’ll give a definition of cynicism to distinguish the two clearly. Skepticism is merely maintaining an attitude of doubt with regard to the truth of a claim or set of claims. Cynicism, on the other hand, is an inclination to believe that people are purely motivated by self-interest.
So there are many reasons to be skeptical regarding the veracity of Vivian Cercy’s testimony, and these go beyond her claim to have seen Mary and Greg with a tall, skinny, blond man around 0130. These are reasons that prosecuting attorney Jim Anderson (a cynic, in my opinion) could have given a jury to get them to doubt the truth of her entire testimony. They explain why Vivian Cercy may have told Vincent Johnson that, “she actually had not seen anything on the night of the murders and that ‘everything she said, she said because Harry [Shorman] told her to say it.” (Thomas v. Chappell, p. 6) Why would Harry ask Vivian to do this and why would she comply?
On Sunday, August 19, two local newspapers published very different stories that may help us to understand what could possibly have motivated Shorman and Cercy to concoct a story. The first is a piece from The San Francisco Chronicle titled, “‘Deadheads’ Had Been Lovers-Hunt for Clues.” The other is from The San Francisco Examiner titled “Fear Stalks Rainbow Village.” In the Chronicle one reads:
“At the village yesterday, neither residents nor other Deadhead visitors displayed grief or fear that the violence could be repeated."
"Six residents sat around a coffee table in the crowded corral of buses. One played guitar, a woman knitted and a young child named Harmony ran underfoot. Later, two men practiced fencing, and a group went to People's Park for a concert.”
Add to this the caption to an accompanying photo of “Dan Reynolds” (aka Dan Adams) "sunning himself" by what one assumes are the Dead On and the Blunder Bus, and you don't get the impression that these people are afraid of there being a killer in their midst.
In contrast, the Examiner reported, “In this refuge for the poor, residents have been shaken by the weekend murders of two young East Coast drifters and Grateful Dead fans who were staying at Rainbow Village before they each were shot once in the temple last week.”
“The homeless who fought long and hard to build the 6-month-old community say they now have two fears: for their safety and for their existence.”
So two very different stories about the residents of Rainbow Village published two days after Mary and Greg were killed. The second of the two could have bolstered the argument Jim Anderson wanted to make to the jury to discredit Vivian Cercy’s testimony. How?
The fears the Examiner describes could be understood to have been twofold: People in the Village feared that the murders could be used as a "reason" to shut the place down. And so (it could be argued) the story some residents told immediately after the murders tried to place the blame on an outsider; it couldn’t have been an insider. And it’s easy to see why Harry Shorman, a staunch advocate for the residents of Rainbow Village, told Vivian Cercy to say everything she said. He may not have done this out of self-interest, as Jim Anderson might have argued; that’s a cynical view. Rather, Harry might have tried to draw attention away from the residents of Rainbow Village and the possibility that one of the homeless people living there could be responsible for the murders, just to save the Village. Save it from what or from whom? Politicians and developers. So this is a story that Jim Anderson may have told the jury to try to discredit Cercy's testimony.
Here’s a question: Among the people who pointed to the thin, tall, blond man named “Bo” and said he might have committed the murders, how many were trying to achieve the same thing as Harry Shorman? What were their motives?
And here’s another question that turns cynicism on the cynic: What self-interests led Jim Anderson to prosecute Ralph Thomas the way he did?
Vivian is my biological mother. She was pregnant with Harry's child at the time of the murders. I was one of those girls in the car. The day my parents adopted us three, baby included, Harry called in a bomb threat to the courthouse. I believe Vivian witnessed the entire event and told the truth that in partiality
ReplyDeleteHarry forced her to tell intermingling the events transpired. She was not available for trial because she had my sister in a hotel bathtub to escape Harry.
In fact Harry Shorman made up that whole story about the "blonde man" and talked his girlfriend into peddling that nonsense. Why? He was afraid that Rainbow Village would get shut down, and he'd lose his home, if the truth came out that the murders were committed by a Rainbow Village resident. Which is exactly what happened. Of course she fled town to avoid testifying in court and libeling herself under oath. Vincent Johnson was one of my best friends and one of the most honest people I knew. And his eye witness testimony convicted International -- Vincent saw him right down by the water right at the time the murders were taking place, which contradicted his alibi that he was walking around in another neighborhood in Berkeley. I actually went to the trial in Oakland. International is dead now -- along with his victims -- and the story is over.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I'm assuming this is Ace Backwards. If not, then I apologize.
DeleteI tend to agree with Vivian Cercy's daughter's characterization of her mother's story as in part or mostly true. I think someone did threaten Vivian that night, while she was in her car with her daughters. I think she did hear the gun shots. Because the report of seeing Greg and Mary doesn't fit into the timeline given in other witnesses' testimony, I don't believe this part is true.
I believe there may have been some tensions between Harry Shorman and Ralph Thomas (e.g. Thomas fired his rifle at Shorman's Canadian Flag near dusk on the night of August 15) and this may have led Thomas to want to f@*k with Cercy, because he knew she was Harry's girlfriend. So Thomas may have been the one to threaten Vivian while she was alone with her girls in her Dodge. Greg Kniffin may have been the one to tell Thomas to cut it out.
I think this story belongs to a larger story involving Reagan-era policies, homelessness, sexism, the corrosiveness of capitalism, intergenerational community, etc. A writer like Nick Paumgarten, Kevin Fagan, or Carolyn Ruff would need to tell this story. I lack the skill and the resources to do so. But it needs to be told.
PS. Nobody testified in court about the "thin white man." Because it was a lie concocted by Harry Shorman.
ReplyDeleteSee my previous comment regarding my opinion about Cercy's testimony.
DeleteIt's clear from the judicial record that Thomas did not receive adequate legal representation during the preliminary hearing nor during the trial. This is not to say he wasn't guilty. Rather, Chaffee didn't use the resources available to him to follow-through on Cercy's testimony.
Here's an example of a lack of follow-through. There was a get-together of seven or eight people on the night of the murders, and three of those seven people were Thomas, Mary, and Greg. Among the four others, there was a guy by the name of Dan Adams who knew Greg from back home in CT. Adams was living in Rainbow Village and remained there for some time after the murders. Adams was interviewed by a local journalist. Had Chaffee read through the local newspapers, he'd have known about this guy, and he could have used some of his resources to search within the Deadhead community and find Adams. Finally, had he found Adams, Chaffee may have learned that Adams saw the thin blond guy treat Mary badly a day or two before she was killed. And Chaffee may have called Adams to the stand during the trial in May '86. As a result Thomas may have received a stronger defense.
Here's a Vincent Johnson story. He was one of the coolest people I've ever met.
ReplyDeletehttps://wp.me/pmwzA-Si
Thanks for the link.
DeleteAgain, I'm assuming this is Ace. When you posted a while back, a friendly Deadhead alerted me to who you are and the importance of your work for the Bay area. This led me to read all you'd written about Vince Johnson, and this gave me insight into his character.
From reading of the reporting on Rainbow Village in '85, I had the intuition that there were two leading figures in the community that moved out to the landfill, and these were Harry Shorman and Vince Johnson. I also got the impression that they were of different character--Harry being outspoken and Vince not being as outspoken. Also, after reading your stories about Johnson, I got the impression that he would have put what was right and just for everybody ahead of what was good for the Rainbow Village community. (This could not be said about Shorman, the prosecuting attorney, or Thomas's defense at trial, as individual self-interest and hostility toward the homeless may have led them to lose sight of the importance of getting at the truth.)
Let me put this delicately. Harry Shorman had some serious mental problems. He self-appointed himself to the position of "public spokesman" for Rainbow Village and was ever eager to get his picture in the paper whenever the local media came by to do a story on Rainbow Village. But according to Vincent Johnson -- who was the real driving force behind the creation of Rainbow Village -- Shorman caused nothing but problems with his endless babble.
DeleteI should make one correction. Shorman's girlfriend testified to the Grand Jury about the "thin white man." And her statement was read during the trial. But she never testified during the trial -- where the prosecutors would have been able to cross-examine her, and no doubt would have ripped her lies to shreds on the stand.
ReplyDeleteThis may have not been the case had the public defender put any effort into trying to corroborate Cercy's story...
DeleteThere was no way to "corroborate" Cercy's story. There was nothing to corroborate. It was a lie that Harry Shorman made up to begin with.
DeletePS. Ralph "International" Thomas had a rap sheet as long as my arm, including convictions and prison time for raping women at gunpoint. I knew the low-life that sold him the gun (for a bag of speed) that he used to kill those two kids... . It's amazing to me that people are still speculating about what happened all these years later. When there's no mysterious to it. And thankfully Thomas died in prison where he belonged before his nonsense appeal saw the light of day.
ReplyDeleteYou're certain that Thomas did it, and I respect that view, because I think he more than likely did it. I can't be certain, because I know Thomas's representation at trial did such a shoddy job of defending him.
DeleteI started writing this blog because I listened to a podcast that raised questions about the justice of Thomas's conviction, and after doing some research I learned the podcast only told part of the story. Views like yours were not included in the podcast, although they certainly should have been included. Not much (if anything) was said about Shorman or Vince Johnson.
What amazes me...is that the culture industry paid big bucks for the option of developing this 'story' into a 'scripted series' (whatever that is.) Read for yourself:
https://deadline.com/2022/05/joe-berlinger-grateful-dead-series-podcast-1235018350/
PPS: I didn't know Dan Adams. So I have no idea what his motives were for convicting that phony alibi of his. But I can assure you there was never any evidence to back up his story. Last I heard Adams was in prison for heroin. And died some time afterwards. The End
ReplyDeleteI came across the information about Dan Adams's incarceration and passing a few years ago when I read this posting on the Cesar Chavez website:
ReplyDeletehttps://chavezpark.org/murders-with-new-life/
Like Vince Johnson, Dan Adams was a friend to some in the Dead community (and very likely a friend to some of the folks interviewed for the podcast.)
I think Adams basically testified to what he saw and heard prior to the murders. There may not have been evidence presented during the preliminary hearing or the trial to support his story, but I believe there was testimony gathered by the police that showed that a tall, thin guy known as 'Bo' was staying in Rainbow Village prior to, and on the night of, the murders.
It was good talking with you. I appreciate your intelligent take on all this.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your input, and, if this is Ace, then I really want to thank you for your memories of Vince Johnson (and now Harry Shorman). I hope others feel free to comment too.
DeletePPPS. I'd like to correct one typo I made. I meant to say Dan Adams "concocted" that alibi, not "convicted." And for the record, the prosecutors and investigators thoroughly vetted the "thin white male" story and came to the obvious conclusion that it was nothing but bullshit from liars and junkies. There was overwhelming evidence against Ralph Thomas and he was rightfully convicted and thankfully died in prison where he belonged.
ReplyDeleteI think it's rationally safe to assume that not everybody living in or staying in Rainbow Village at that time was a liar and/or a junkie. It seems to me that the only "concoction" that requires attention is the one Harry Shorman had Vivian Cercy tell the police and others. He tried to get the police and anyone who'd listen to turn their attention away from the residents of the Village and focus on one of the Deadheads. And that story must have been believable to some , because it circulated for months and then years after those two young people were shot. One has to to ask: Why was is it so believable?
ReplyDeleteAnd, to be clear, for me the only bit of Cercy's account that's in question is the claim she made about seeing the blond man with the deceased shortly before they were murdered. I take it as a fact that somebody threatened Cercy while she was in her car, and I believe that that someone was more than likely Thomas. From the point at which someone told him to cut it out (and I think this was Greg), things just spun out of control, and he ended up shooting two young people with a rifle for which he had ammunition and he knew how to load.
PS. Everyone at Rainbow Village knew that Thomas killed those two Deadheads. It couldn't have been more obvious. Even the imbecile Harry Shorman knew Thomas killed them. He had to concoct a lie to try and clear them
ReplyDeleteFor his own imbecilic and self-centered reasons.
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
ReplyDeleteAnd died in prison where he belonged. Do you have anything to add to the story??