Now...Just Who Knew Whom? (I)

The evidence suggests that Mary and/or Greg had a prior relationship with their killer. So in this post I'm going to try to answer the question:  "Just who knew whom in Rainbow Village that night?"

At different points in the "Dead and Gone" podcast, Payne Lindsey addressed the questions: Did Mary know Bo prior to the murders and if so, what was the nature of their acquaintance?  In Thomas v. Chappell one reads that, "On the night of the murders, a tall, thin blond man generally known as 'Bo,' whose real name was James Bowen, was staying in Rainbow Village. Bo was a Deadhead and, like the victims, was staying on the Dead On bus." (Thomas v. Chappell, p. 7) A little further down, the document states that Bo had a sexual relationship with Mary.  A day or two before the murders, one witness [Dan Adams] testified that Bo had argued with Mary and sounded controlling toward her. Mary seemed upset and afraid. (Thomas v. Chappell, p. 7)

Lindsey did not address a similar question regarding the acquaintance of Mary and Ralph Thomas.  If one assumes that Mary didn't show up at Rainbow Village until just a few days before she was murdered (a postmark on a letter to her mother puts her in the Oakland area on August 13), then there may have been something like a new acquaintance between Mary and Thomas, but probably not enough to count as a prior relationship.  Also, Lindsey didn't address the question of whether Greg knew Thomas before the night of the murders.  It was reported that Greg "had stayed on and off at the Village several months." (San Francisco Examiner, August 18, 1985) Even though he'd only arrived in California just prior to the Ventura shows in mid-July, Greg probably stayed at the Village more than once after arriving in California, so he may have been more acquainted with Thomas than Mary, but, again, probably not acquainted enough to constitute a prior relationship.

I think an important question needs to be answere:  Did Greg know Bo prior to the night of the murders?  I think there's good reason to believe that Greg may have known Bo.

We know from the podcast that Greg became friends with Gnome (aka"Anne") while he traveled to California on the Dead On, and we know that she felt fond enough of him to give him the wristwatch that was found at the crime scene. ( Dead and Gone. Episode 4)  Gnome tells Lindsey that she "had been friends with Bo on and off in 1985 and that she camped with him in the woods near Santa Cruz."  (Ibid) So, if Gnome knew Bo, then it's possible that Greg met him at some point, perhaps as early as the Ventura shows in July, if not before that.  We also know from the court documents and reporting in the newspapers, that Greg knew Dan Adams from back home in Connecticut, so it may be that they connected when Greg arrived in California, if not before that.  From the court documents, we know that, "In his travels, [Dan Adams] gained the acquaintance of a tall man with strawberry hair named 'Bo'." (Thomas v. Wong, p. 11) If Gnome and Dan knew Bo, then it's possible that Greg met Bo.  Dan Adams may be deceased.  This leaves Gnome as one person who might confirm that Greg knew Bo before the murders, and this might help shed some light on Vivian Cercy's testimony.  More on this below.

In the days following the murders, police spokesman, Marc Garcia, told reporters that "investigators believed drugs were 'probably not' involved." (San Francisco Examiner, August 18, 1985)  This belief was supported by toxicological reports showing that Greg and Mary had been drinking, but showed that they'd not been using narcotics or stimulants.  They weren't tested for cannabis use.* So it may be that drugs weren't involved, but that doesn't mean that drug dealers weren't involved. 

Interviews included in the podcast show that a number of people believe that a drug dealer was involved. Of those  Payne Lindsey interviewed for the podcast, one of the most interesting is James Barnes.  Barnes assisted Thomas's defense team during the appeals process, and he was tasked with doing what public defender James Chaffee did not do—find witnesses who could corroborate Vivian Cercy's testimony and support an alternative killer theory. As he interviewed more and more people and conducted a background check on Bo, Barnes became convinced that he may be a dangerous person.  He says of the Deadhead community: 

"Along with that counter-culture comes an interest in LSD, marijuana back in the days when it was illegal.  The drug element of that culture creates a sub-culture of people that are engaged in the manufacture and distribution of those drugs, and some of those people can be very ruthless.  They don't have the same moral compass that the rest of us carry around with us."

"I did have a straight-up, legitimate fear of Bo.  I had enough people saying he did this crime and they were sure of it that I definitely was fearful of him.  I did not want him knowing who I was or where I was under any circumstances." (Dead and Gone. Episode 8.)

Weston Sudduth was in Rainbow Village on the night of the murders.  During the podcast, he speaks freely about his having been a drug dealer and he tells Lindsey that Bo was a dealer too, at one point saying that Bo was dealing more than just cannabis and 'shrooms.  Claus von Wendel who lived on a boat nearby, tells of how some of the residents in the Village were using heroin, and he describes Bo as a "wheeler-dealer guy." (Dead and Gone. Episode 8) Dave Kohn, who, like Gnome hung out with Bo for a brief time in Santa Cruz, remarks on a code Deadheads followed during that "wild time," "There's a code, right. Deadheads.  If you know the person who's supplying the pot or the LSD, you never tell.  There's a code, that you don't tell on anybody.  That's just part of the code.  Don't be a snitch." (Dead and Gone. Episode 4)  Kohn tells Lindsey this in the context of a discussion about Bo.  Finally, Megan Barry testified that she, "disliked Bo immensely and speculated that Bo and/or fellow Deadhead Weston Sudduth might have killed Gioia and Kniffin over a drug transaction." (In Re Ralph International on Habeas Corpus, p. 11)

So if Mary and Greg knew Bo prior to being killed, then they knew a drug dealer who really didn't fit into the Deadhead community, but lived off that community.  They knew someone described as an antisocial drug dealer who may have been lacking a conscience.  If this is true, then this sheds light on Vivian Cercy's testimony, because Bo may have been the same guy who she heard say to a dark-haired man (presumably Greg), "Do you think she's seen anything?" and to whom the dark-haired man replied, "No, she couldn't have."  Bo may have been speaking to someone he already knew, and Greg may have been replying to someone he already knew.  

But without confirmation, this remains speculation.

* I found this in Patricia Gioia's The Berkeley Marina Murders.  Mary's brother Gerry spoke to the police as they were just beginning their investigation.  Dan Wolke told him, "When we questioned a young man, Robin Van Heest, he identified the body as Mary.  She had been with him at a party outside a van on Thursday night and left the party with a young man named Greg.  They had all been drinking and smoking pot." (Berkeley Marina Murders, p. 27)