"Three 'Deadheads' sought in murder on the north coast"
"The best years of my life. Yeah, I learned so much. It was better than college, for sure. I learned so much. I learned how to support myself. I learned I could make a living off of my artwork and my creativity. I learned finance by watching people sell drugs and watching the economics of drug sales is like the economics of selling anything that there is a demand for." ("Anne" Dead and Gone, Episode 4)
Testimony given during the evidentiary hearing held in 2002 suggests that drug dealers were present in Rainbow Village on the night of the murders and that Mary and Greg knew at least one of them. These drug dealers spent a good amount of time in Santa Cruz, so it may be useful to consider the murders against the backdrop of the homicides that occurred in Santa Cruz County (where Mary Gioia herself may have been living just prior to her arrival in the Bay Area) during the months leading up to, and the months following, their killing.
Early in the morning on Tuesday, September 3, 1985, 23 year-old Samuel Holloway was stabbed to death at Bonny Doon Beach, during a fight that began after a young man, Jason Wagner (20) and two young women, Kim Moreau (20) and Greta Anderson (19) rolled Holloway off a blanket he'd been sleeping on. The blanket belonged to the three. Early reporting in the Sentinel claimed that Holloway had been stabbed with something like a crowbar, but a few days later the it reported that he'd been stabbed with a knife.
What interests me about the Holloway case is how the local authorities went about tracking down the suspects. They were quickly identified as Deadheads who were known to law enforcement in Boston, MA. So the sheriff's detectives in Santa Cruz County quickly received help from across the country! What's more, they had a lead on where the three were headed--Boulder--and how they planned to get there--they'd probably catch a ride in Berkeley. (Looking at the set-lists from '85, this was in part a wrong assumption as they may not have been headed toward Boulder, but toward Denver for three shows at Red Rocks). As far as I can tell, the Sentinel doesn't report how or from whom the sheriff's detectives gathered their intelligence, although Holloway's girlfriend is mentioned in the September 4th story, so she may have been a source. One can assume that the detectives in Santa Cruz contacted the police in Berkeley with a description of the suspects so that they could be on the lookout for them. One assumes that the police in Berkeley would've known where they'd likely find them if they were in or around Berkeley.
I can easily imagine that, if the Berkeley police had suspected one or more Deadheads of murdering Greg and Mary, they would have contacted the authorities in Santa Cruz or Chico to let them know to be on the look out. I can also imagine that Berkeley police could have predicted that the suspects would probably head to Chico, as the Dead were to play at Boreal Springs on August 24th.
"Homicide cases hit new high in county" (Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 13, 1985)
A week and a half after reporting on the Holloway murder, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that 16 homicides had occurred in the county since the beginning of the year. District Attorney Art Danner is quoted as saying, "[Many of the killings] are specifically related to a circle of drug dealers." The story goes on to add, "Some are bodies that have been dumped in the mountains after being killed elsewhere." An example of this was the body of 21 year-old Jaime Farais Orosco: "Orosco's body was found in a burning sleeping bag off Woodwardia Road in May. The case may be transferred to San Jose where authorities believe the killing occurred." (Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 13, 1985) Orosco had been shot two times in the head before his body was left burning under a bridge on Woodwardia Road.
A week later, around 1:00 AM on May 31, the body of 55 year-old John Charles McGuire was spotted by a commuter alongside Mar Monte Avenue. "The latest body was discovered by a passing motorist about 1 a.m. The victim, a longtime printer and employee of the The Sentinel from 1975 through '79, had been shot in the head. His body was lying at the entrance to a long driveway off Mar Monte Avenue, between Highway 1 and Larkin Valley Road." (Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 31, 1985) McGuire had been shot twice in the head with a small caliber weapon. At the time, the police didn't know whether the body had been shot at the scene or dumped.
The murders of Orosco and McGuire had something in common with another drug-related murder back in February--two shots to the head with a small caliber weapon. On Friday, February1, a roommate found 22 year-old Riley Christopher Pierce dead in his bed. At first, the local authorities found no evidence of foul play and believed Pierce had died of natural causes. But two small caliber wounds to the head were found during a post-mortem examination, and the cause of death was ruled a homicide. Later reporting revealed that the Pierce was a suspected cocaine dealer.
"And she [a resident of Rainbow Village] asked me where I was going to go. And I'm like well I'm going to go to Chico, you know. Where else? You know. Santa Cruz's kind of out because people were...still banging the, uh, you know the kids on the street. Uh, I forgot what it was called but you know people had gotten killed. And now people are gettin' killed in Berkeley, well I'll just keep going north, man. I'm getting out of here." (Dead and Gone, Episode 7)
I believe Weston's probably referring to the Troll Busters, a group of individuals who’d attacked transients, street people and hippies in the Santa Cruz area. Newspaper stories from around this time show that the Troll Busters would've been a very real concern for hippies and Heads living in the Santa Cruz area. As a drug-dealer, Sudduth probably kept company with the likes of those who participated in the drug economy in and around Santa Cruz, and it makes sense he’d have headed to Chico after the murders, as it’s on the way to Boreal Springs, where there was business to be done in just a week's time.
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