Vincent Johnson

Vincent Johnson may be (or may have been) one of the last people to have seen Mary and Greg alive, and he turned out to be a key witness for the prosecution.  So he deserves some attention.

Writing for the Oakland Tribune, Lonnie Isabel interviewed Johnson in January 1985.  Isabel describes Johnson as a wiry, 36 year-old native of Los Angeles with bushy brown hair who'd been living on the street for four years. (Oakland Tribune, January 24,1985) At the time, he lived in a brightly colored bus that counted among some two dozen vehicles parked on 5th street in Berkeley. Johnson counted himself among those who lived on the street by choice, not among those living there by necessity.  "'Some people are here because they have to be here,' said Johnson inside the bus. 'It's hard to explain why I am here.  I'm here because of the chance to produce a community out of this.'" (Oakland Tribune, January 24,1985) Those living in Rainbow Village described themselves as "a counter-culture mobile community" that had taken its name from a gathering of the Rainbow Tribes near Mt. Shasta in the summer of '84.  Along with Harry Shorman, Johnson seems to have been a fairly important member of the community because, in a story published two days after the murders, he's recognized as "a co-founder of the Village." (Oakland Tribune, August 18,1985)

At this point it might be helpful to compare Johnson with Shorman briefly.  Shorman  was both the face and the spokesperson for Rainbow Village.  Going through newspaper clippings from 1985, one finds several photographs of him accompanying the reporting on Rainbow Village, but there's only one of Johnson (see above) that I've found.  In the reporting one finds a number of statements given by Shorman and only a few from Johnson.  In contrast, the latter's name and testimonies figure more prominently in the court documents that one can find online.

Johnson testified during the preliminary hearing held in October and November 1985, and he testified again during the trial in May of 1986.  Both times he testified about what he witnessed on the night of August 15/16.  This can be summarized as follows:

In the very early hours of August 16 Johnson had been hanging out with a friend in his bus.  Because the friend was afraid to drive herself out of the Village, Johnson accompanied her out to University Ave., and then walked back to the Village.  As he was returning, he saw Mary, Greg, and International standing together near the dump office.  This was around 0230.  Johnson testified that he walked by quickly, without saying anything to them, and he had the impression that International looked "angry."  (According to the court documents, this testimony fits with that of Jim Prew, who testified that the gathering at his van ended around 0230, when Greg and Mary left to go for a walk, and International left too.)

During the trial in May 1986, Johnson was called  to the stand twice, and the second time he testified that, sometime during the two months following the murder, Vivian Cercy told him that Harry Shorman had put her up to telling the police the story about a white man arguing with Mary Gioia.  Johnson did not testify to this during the preliminary hearing in the fall of ‘85.

Now, one can imagine that, since her story seemed to overlap with his experiences on that night, Johnson probably talked to Cercy about what she saw, as we know from the reporting in the Oakland Tribune that some residents of Rainbow Village were telling the police in the days that followed the murders that they suspected someone other than International of having committed the crime:

"One of the village's estimated 50 residents reported seeing a white man with a gun argue with Mary Gioia on August 15, shortly before she was killed, said village spokesman Harry Shorman." (Oakland Tribune, August 28,1985)  

We can assume that the person who reported this was probably Harry Shorman's girlfriend, Vivian Cercy.  And we know from the same Tribune article that the Berkeley police didn't find this story credible.  The court documents tell us why they believed that Cercy's story lacked credibility: She'd told Dan Wolke that she had "quite a bit to drink" on the night of the 15/16:

"Inspector Wolke testied that he interviewed Vivian Cercy on August 17 after Harry Shorman introduced him to her. She told Wolke that she had had quite a bit to drink on the night of the 15th. She did not mention seeing a rifle, but said that, while overhearing the conversation that she reported, she saw a person stick a 10– or 12–inch object down his waistband. She was positive it was not a rifle."

Like Johnson, Cercy testified during the preliminary hearing, but she failed to appear in court to testify during the trial.  Rather, her testimony from the preliminary hearing was read in court.  She did appear and testify during the penalty phase of the trial, however.

Now, remember that Chaffee's defense relied heavily on Cercy's testimony, but she failed to testify during the trial and Chaffee lacked corroborating testimony for Cercy's account.  Johnson was recalled to the stand and testified that Cercy told him she didn't see anything that night.  Johnson's testimony thus destroyed Chaffee's alternate suspect theory.  All that was left for the defense to do without corroborating testimonies was to point at the prosecution as not having met the burden of proof.

Some time in the mid 90's Johnson did recant the testimony he gave during the trial about Cercy telling him she hadn't seen anything (Thomas v. Wong, p. 22). He admitted he'd made a deal with the prosecution to have charges against him dropped in exchange for his testimony.  But by that point the man pictured below had been in prison and on death row for over ten years.

Ecce Homo

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A final note to end this post.  It's my understanding (from a Facebook post) that there will be a second season of Dead and Gone.  After listening to the final episode of the first season, it was my understanding that Lindsey and Brennan had decided that they'd done as much as they could investigating the murders of Mary and Greg.  Perhaps they'll return to the case.  It's my hope that if they do, and they've found what I've put together (e.g. my post about Robin Van Heest), and they've found it to be helpful, that they will acknowledge this publicly.