Some of Those Things Were Not Like the Others...

I want to return to using the metaphor of a puzzle to help me (and perhaps you) to think about what happened on the night of August 15/16.  I can piece together three separate clusters but I still need pieces to put them together.  These are:

1. A cluster of pieces revealing what happened between 2200 on the night of August 15 and 0230 the morning of August 16.  The pieces here are statements or testimony given by David Bergman, Jim Prew, Robbie Van Heest, Ralph International Thomas, and Vincent Johnson.

2. Another cluster revealing what happened during the attacks. The pieces here are statements or testimony given by the police and the medical examiner that describe the crime scene and the injuries/wounds found on the corpses.

3. A third cluster describing the bizarre and/or suspicious behavior of James Bowen during the morning of August 16.  The pieces here are the statements and testimony given by Dan Adams, Claus von Wendel, and Jong Cheol Cho about what they heard and witnessed.

For now, skepticism regarding the accuracy and/or the veracity of Vivian Cercy's statements keeps me from spending too much time on them.  So I'm going to set them aside until I have enough pieced together to warrant trying to fit them into the other clusters.

l'll try to piece together the three clusters by focusing on Greg's missing shoes and serape.

In her account of the proceedings during the preliminary hearing, Patricia Gioia reports that Jim Prew testified that, "the last time he saw Greg he wore jeans and sarafi [sic] with lots of colors and Mary wore dark colored clothes and maybe a sleeping bag over herself." (Berkeley Marina Murders, p. 112)

When the divers found Greg's body on Saturday, August 17*, he was wearing bib-overalls and white socks, but no serape and no shoes.  "The next day, August 17, [Dan Wolke] went back with a scuba diving team.  They did a hand-over-hand search in the water and found a second body, Greg Kniffin.  Wolke described Greg as having brown hair and a beard, and he was wearing bib overalls and white socks." (Berkeley Marina Murders, p. 119)

Now, this should have rang bells with the police because, just the day before, Claus von Wendel had talked to the police about finding a bag on his vessel--Sea Space Station--moored just a short distance from where Mary's body was found floating.  According to von Wendel, he spoke to a police officer by the name of Elliott about what he found and the person who'd come to claim the bag (Dead and Gone, Episode 8, "Synchronicity").  I find von Wendel's testimony to be very credible, as Patricia Gioia's book backs up his account.  When her son, Gerry, spoke to the police on August 17th, he was told that, "[Dan Wolke] asked David Elliott, a fellow officer at the scene, if he knew who the man was who had spoken.  Elliott told him he was 'International'." (Berkeley Marina Murders, pp. 26-7)  While attending the preliminary hearing at the end of October '85, Patricia Gioia visited Rainbow Village with Gerry, and they met von Wendel:

"On the road into the Village, we met Claus von Wendel, the captain of a home built boat, which he told us was being prepared to sail around the world.  The boat, The Sea Space Station, was docked in the inlet.  Von Wendel knew about the murders and had reported to the police that someone left a bag on his boat that night.  He thought someone may have been trying to set him up and that the missing rifle [?] may have been in this bag.  When he opened it, he found no evidence of a gun." (Berkeley Marina Murders, pp.  116-7)

But what did von Wendel find in the bag?  We find this in In Re: Ralph International Thomas on Habeas Corpus: "Claus von Wendel: Von Wendel lived on a boat near Rainbow Village. During the evidentiary hearing, he testified that he found a bag on his boat the morning of August 16. He looked inside and saw shoes, books, a blanket-like object, and an out-of-state license for a dark-haired male." (p. 14)  And we find this in Thomas v. Chappell:  

"Von Wendel lived on a boat a short distance from Rainbow Village. The morning after the murder, von Wendel awoke early and noticed a bag sitting on the veranda part of his boat. He picked it up but then put it back down, thinking that its owner would return to collect it. When von Wendel learned that a body had been found in the Bay, he became suspicious about the bag and opened it. [my emphasis] The bag contained some books, a driver's license registered to a man with the name of “Bryan” or “Bryant,” a pair of shoes, and a serape. Petitioner suggests that the shoes and serape could have been Greg's shoes and serape, which the police never found." (pp. 7-8)

And who was the someone who left the bag on the vessel?  Again, we find this in In Re: Ralph International Thomas on Habeas Corpus:  "Later that day, a blond man came to claim the bag. Von Wendel was upset because the man said he had spent the night on the boat and because he had left the bag without permission. When von Wendel described the man to Deadheads James Berney Royster and Marie Marino, they recognized him and said his name was something like “Bo.” Von Wendel did not know Bo. At the evidentiary hearing, von Wendel identified two photographs of James Bowen as the man who appeared on his boat." (p. 14) And again we find this in Thomas v. Chappell:

"Later that day, a blond man came to claim the bag. At the evidentiary hearing, von Wendel identified a picture of James Bowen, or Bo, as the same person who came to claim the bag. Von Wendel told the blond man that he did not have permission to leave his belongings on von Wendel's boat. When Bo told von Wendel that he had slept on the veranda of von Wendel's boat, von Wendel became angry. Bo, who seemed like he was in a hurry to leave, got in his Volkswagen and left hastily. Another person was seated in the car throughout the exchange, and that person left in the car with Bo." (p. 9)

The police didn't find the shoes nor the serape.  As of Sunday they couldn't positively identify the body, presumably because they lacked an ID to do so.  Even though the name von Wendel saw on the license was similar to "Bowen," the photo and the issuing state suggest that the ID didn't belong to Bo.  And some of the things in the bag were not like the others.  To me it's not difficult to imagine that the shoes, serape, and driver's license could have been on Greg's person before he was murdered. But the books?  The books point to several possible conclusions.  Perhaps everything but the license belonged to Bo.  Randy Turley testified that Bo liked to wear serapes** and it wouldn't be surprising if he had an extra pair of shoes.  But why wouldn't those have been kept in his vehicle?  Perhaps the books belonged to Bo and everything else did not.  Perhaps everything, including the bag, belonged to Greg.  If everything belonged to Greg then how did Bo come to have the books?  

Reporting from the Oakland Trbune tells us that Greg and Mary were staying on one of Randy Turley's buses, and that they were "visiting friends" who were staying on the same bus.  Who were these friends?  According to the court documents Bo and Weston were staying on the Dead On the night of the murders:

"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. Bo owned a silver Volkswagen and had it with him in Rainbow Village. Bo was well known among the Deadheads, in part because he sold clothing, primarily tie- dyed shirts, at Grateful Dead shows. Before the murders, Bo regularly attended Grateful Dead shows and sold his merchandise.

A friend of Bo's, a white man named Weston Sudduth, also was a Deadhead and was staying in Rainbow Village on the Dead On bus." (Thomas v. Chappell, p. 7)

Why didn't Bo sleep in the bus that night?  Or in his vehicle?

And what about Weston Sudduth?  Well, one needn't bother themselves with his bullshit for now...

*There are two questions that sometimes nag at me: Why was Mary's body found floating, but divers found Greg's body sunk in 10 feet of water?  Can tidal activity in and around San Francisco Bay explain this?

**Thomas v. Chappell, p. 20