"A Whole Other Thing Goin' On"

"What more do you need to hear? He thought for a minute.  It does however also validate what everyone said about Bo.  He's not your run-of-the-mill happy hippie.  He's got some whole other thing goin' on.  You got a little taste of it."

 James Barnes (Dead and Gone, Episode 9, "Long Black Veil")

"You know, honestly, I've been pretty certain--as certain as you can be without being a witness--Bo did it and that Weston was with him there that night. So it's kind of reassuring, in a way, that we had it right."

"It was very, very telling what you got from Weston.  And from Bo, honestly it doesn't surprise me.  We thought the evidence showed he did something terribly violent, very kind of anti-social. Violent and anti-social behavior, and that sort of encapsulates what his response to you was.  It was violent.  It was anti-social."

Alex Reisman, (Dead and Gone, Episode 9, "Long Black Veil")

In Episode 9 of Dead and Gone, Payne Lindsey locates Bo's dwelling place, and confronts him about the murders of Mary and Greg.  Afterword Lindsey shared the audio recording of this confrontation with those who knew Bo and he also shared it with Barnes and Reisman.  I've transcribed part of Barnes's and Reisman's reactions to hearing the recording above.  After listening to this part of the episode a few times, I began wondering if I'd detected a little confirmation bias in both reactions.  You should listen to the episode and judge for yourself.  But, before you do, consider the following information taken from In Re Ralph International Thomas on Habeas Corpus:

"...von Wendel also told the investigator of an incident in which Thomas had threatened to kill a woman and her dog. When von Wendel intervened, Thomas appeared to snap, left, and returned with a machete. When Thomas was distracted, von Wendel escaped unharmed. Chaffee made a tactical decision not to call von Wendel, reasoning that calling him would allow the prosecution to introduce this incident." (p. 14) 

In Episode 9 of Dead and Gone Bo angrily reacts to being surprised and confronted on his property, and he apparently thrusts a shovel at Lindsey in a threatening way.  How does this compare to brandishing a machete?  

I don't have access to the testimonies given during an evidentiary hearing held in 2002.  I have court documents that summarize those testimonies but I don't have transcripts of them.  Similarly, I can listen to Dead and Gone and hear some of the things that those who knew him had to say about Bo, but I assuredly haven’t heard everything that was said about him.  If one reads and listens carefully one might be able to catch hints about that "whole other thing [Bo's] got goin' on."  Please let me list them for you:

1. Episode 3 ("The Human Condition") Robert Herbert characterizes Bo as an "unstable character": "I saw somebody that I thought I knew a little bit, that showed himself to be an unstable character, being confronted by somebody else.  And it sure seemed like the man who was confronting him [Weston] knew something."

2. Episode 3 ("The Human Condition") Gnome characterizes Bo as a "weird dude": "He was a weird dude. He had something up, whether it was something from his past or this, I don't know."

3. Episode 4 ("Out Come the Wolves") Gnome talks about that whole other thing that Bo had goin' on:  "But I just feel like he had a past that he disappeared completely from and come be with the Grateful Dead.  He was a weird dude.  There was a lot goin' on underneath the surface."

4. Gnome again: "We were all just kids; we were all so young it would be very easy to take advantage of that being in a big group to hide.  For Bo, if he had some past that he was escaping it would be a really good place to hide those behaviors.  There was a lot of predators in the Grateful Dead scene 'cause we were just so young and innocent."

5. Episode 4 ("Out Come the Wolves") Dave Kohn describes Bo as "anti-society":  "Bo just kind of lived on the edge or outside of the edge of that whole world, so like even him being at Dead shows was a little bit odd.  I think that Bo felt anti-society."

6. Episode 8 ("Synchronicity) James Barnes characterizes Bo as potentially "ruthless" and "amoral": "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."

Now what precautions might one want to take when living in or near the northwest timbers of Fennario, where Bo and some of those interviewed still live?

James Barnes feared what Bo might do if he found out that someone was investigating the murders of Mary and Greg.  "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."

Violent and anti-social behavior.  A whole other thing goin' on... These things may be quite scary, because they may display a lack of conscience.  Something hard to imagine for those possessing a conscience.