The Missing Weapon

Remington 788

On the night of the murders, Ralph Thomas possessed a Remington .44 magnum Model 788 rifle with serial number 041747.  Sometime around 2000 on the evening of August 15, Thomas fired a round from that rifle at a Canadian flag that Harry Shorman flew over his bus.  He kept the rifle in a leather case, sometimes on the rack of his car, sometimes inside the car, along with a Tupperware container of ammunition,

Sometime around 0900 to 1000 on the morning of August 16, Thomas told David Bergman ("Mousey") that after returning to Rainbow Village he found his rifle was missing from its case in his car.  Thomas also told Thomas Medlin and Tracy Scarborough about the missing rifle.  He eventually reported it to the police.

During the trial, a ballistics expert, Jack F. Richardson, gave evidence for the prosecution.  He testified that, based on his examination of a postmortem photo of the damage done to Mary's face, the exit wound appeared to have been caused by a high-powered rifle, not by a handgun.  

To my knowledge, the murder weapon was never found.  Patricia Gioia's book tells us that, during the trial, Chaffee questioned Dan Wolke about police efforts to find it.  Wolke testified that they'd searched the entire area around Rainbow Village,  including the field to the east of Marina Blvd. He  told Chaffee that they searched "as best they could because there were trucks coming in each day." (Berkeley Marina Murders, p. 149)  Related to the difficulties of searching for the rifle, the book also recounts how the police were concerned about truck traffic on the morning of August 16:  

"[The police] thought Mary was murdered 75 yards from the road leading into Rainbow Village.  Blood had been discovered near a tractor there.  But the area had already been paved over because the site was a landfill.  Precious evidence may have been lost.  Crime scenes are generally secured until an investigation is completed.  Usually only a short space of time exists when evidence can be collected.  In our case, whoever paved over the area certainly was not in the loop of the investigation." (Ibid. pp. 27-8)

Ms. Gioia tells us that on redirect Anderson asked if the waters had been searched, and Wolke answered that police had searched the North Basin "from the point to Captain Claus's boat" When asked if they'd extended their search to the Bay, Wolke responded that there was no way to do so. (Ibid. p. 149)

Assuming just one firearm was used, I think it's reasonable to believe that the offender would have disposed of it quickly, probably throwing it into the water.  If they did throw it into the water then it's likely it went into the North Basin, although it may have been possible for the offender to find a spot where they could throw it into the Bay without being seen.  Greg's body was found in 10 feet of water, about 30 feet from the shore in the North Basin.  There is tidal activity.  I don't know anything about tides and how they'd affect the bottom of the Basin, so I don't know if they would have buried the rifle or gradually pulled it out into the Bay over the last 36 years.  Would it even be possible to go magnet fishing for it at low tide?  Would the stock have rotted by now?

Assuming there was access, the offender may have taken it to the dump where they hid or buried it, with the expectation that it would be buried deeper after the dump opened that morning.

At the end of The Berkeley Marina Murders, there's a timeline of Ralph Thomas's appeals.  This tells us that in November 1996 James Chaffee was deposed about Thomas's representation at trial.  Apparently Chaffee reported the following during the deposition:

"There are only two things that ever led me to waiver in the—the thought that he might have done this.  One was, I was always concerned throughout that—that the rifle would be found and I said to him one time, 'I hope they don't find that thing,' you know, and he...looked at me and said, 'Don't worry about it.  They're not gonna find it.'  And from the way he said it and his body attitude, it indicated to me that perhaps he knew what happened to that rifle...His response to me in that situation led me to believe that he had some notion of what had actually become of the rifle, which was why he could be so certain the police wouldn't find it." (p. 238)

Clearly something that should not be overlooked when considering the possibility that Thomas may have committed the crimes.