Brazen Killer or Just a Callous Shithead?

Fennario

If you read through the court documents and/or listened to the Dead and Gone podcast, you can't help but think to yourself, "After the murders, did Bo act like a brazen killer or he did merely act like a callous shithead?"

Here I'm going to assume (as I have all along) that the following accounts are true.  I'm going to weigh statements attributed to Bo individually, and then weigh them together.  

1. "Jong Cheol Cho: Cho was a traveling Deadhead. The referee found Chaffee knew of Cho, whose name and address were disclosed in a police report. Cho testified that he knew someone named Bo, but no one named James Bowen. Cho identified pictures of James Bowen as the man he knew as Bo. Cho was in Rainbow Village the night of the murders. The morning after, he had a conversation with Bo and another man he knew as Weston about the previous night. Bo said either, 'I' or 'we' 'went swimming into [sic] the bay last night.'  In response, Weston jabbed Bo in the ribs and gave him a look." (In Re: Ralph International Thomas on Habeas Corpus, p. 14)

Here, Weston's alleged reaction gives us a tiny inkling of how to interpret Bo's remark.  Weston jabbed Bo in the ribs with an elbow and gave him a look.  Had one been there with Cho, one might have interpreted the coupled jab and look as, "Shut the fuck up, dumbass!"  But the ambiguity of Weston's reaction allows for an equally valid interpretation like, "Don't be an insensitive dick!"  The latter interpretation attributes a joking tone to Bo's remark, whereas the former does not.  Clearly, Sudduth was startled by what Bowen said.  Whether he was startled by the remark's brazenness or insensitivity we just can't yet say.

2. "Daniel Adams: Adams was a traveling Deadhead. At the evidentiary hearing, Adams recounted witnessing, in the days before the murders, a discussion between Gioia and a man he knew as Bo in which Bo seemed controlling and Gioia appeared very upset. He also reported hearing Bo say, 'Sometimes a man's got to do what must be done' the morning after the murders, then saw him pack up and leave Rainbow Village in a hurried fashion." (Ibid. p. 11)

We don't know the exact context of this remark either, but we can assume that it was made during a discussion about the finding of Mary's body.  Like the remark made in Cho's presence, the  meaning of this one's ambiguous.  But, similar to International's baffling remark to the police that he could think of many reasons for murdering Greg and Mary(?!?), this comment speaks to motive (assuming it lacked a joking tone).  From Bo's perspective, a perceived necessity called for their murders.  Or self-preservation led to their murders.  Whoever did it, had to do it.  This interpretation would err on the side of brazenness.

3. "David Kohn: Kohn first came to California four months after the murders, in December 1985, for a Grateful Dead show. He eventually shared an apartment in Chico with James Bowen and others. On a trip to and from a Dead show, Bowen told him he had once 'killed his brother over a woman.' Kohn did not know what the statement meant. (Ibid. p. 12)

And this needs to be added:

"David Kohn came to California in December 1985, five months after the two murders. In early 1986, he shared an apartment in Chico with James Bowen, whom he knew as Bo. In February 1986, while driving in a car after a Grateful Dead concert, Bowen said women were 'evil' and he had 'killed his brother over a woman.'" (Ibid. p. 21)

Fortunately, we have Payne Lindsey's interview with David Kohn to add to these two snippets for context:

"I had met this girl, and it just didn't work out.  I had met the girl thirty days before, and I was head over heals in love with her.  And it just didn't work out.  I got a ride home with this guy, this kind of cool, hippie guy, Bo.  The whole way back I'm telling him how I'm just heart-broken, I'm just kind of lost over this girl  We're about to smoke pot.  We're sittin' in the car.  I'm just heart-broken--complaining about how awful it was--and Bo just basically said, 'Women are evil.  I killed my own brother over a girl.'" (Dead and Gone, Episode 4, "Out Come the Wolves")

Kohn tells Lindsey that Bo was not kidding—that he was being serious, that he was being honest.  So, at the time this remark was made, Bo was not really being all that brazen, and we can rule out his having been a callous shithead with just a fucked-up sense of humor.  Bo was just being honest, and, as the following tells us, he might have been saying some pretty fucked-up shit:

"I mean it's hard to imagine that you'd say something like that.  You'd killed your brother over a girl?  And that if he killed two people, he had such disrespect for women that he only cared that he killed his brother over a girl is pretty fucked up, when you think about it." (Ibid)

When you put all the separate statements together, the ambiguities of the first two seem to be dispelled, and it would seem you’re left considering the remarks of a brazen killer.