Poking a Dung Pile

What potential leads could Chaffee and his team have picked up just by reading clips from  the local newspapers —e.g. the San Francisco Chronicle , the San Francisco Examiner , and the Oakland Tribune?   To answer this question, let's look at three stories published a few days after the murders.  The first one is "2nd body found in the bay area near Berkeley Marina" by Benny Evangelista ( Oakland Tribune, 08.18.85).  The second is "Execution killings in Berkeley:  2 Grateful Dead followers shot, dumped in Bay near bus camp" by Walt Gibbs ( San Francisco Examiner , 08.18.85).  The last is "Hunt for Clues in Berkeley Killings" by Rick DelVecchio ( San Francisco Chronicle , 08.19.85) Oakland Tribune .  Evangelista's story in the  Tribune leads off with this paragraph: "The body of a man who was visiting friends living in a Rainbow Village bus was found yesterday in San Francisco Bay near the spot where a woman's body was found Friday, polic...

If you read Rick DelVecchio's reporting in  The San Francisco Chronicle  ("'Deadheads' Had Been Lovers- Hunt for Clues in Berkeley Killings," August 20, 1985), you'll come across a paragraph in which he relays the following information, "The pair was last seen alive at 1:30 a.m. as they sat together along an inlet of the bay, several hundred yards from the village entrance, police said.  About an hour later, a resident of the village heard two sounds that could have been gunshots."  Seen by whom? When you try to put this on a timeline based on details found in the court documents, you'll find that it conflicts with the testimonies given by Jim Prew and Vivian Cercy.  Cercy testified that she saw an exchange among three people (two of whom looked like Greg and Mary) around 0130.  Prew testified that he and four others (including Mary) didn't return from a beer and burrito run until some time around 0200.  So from this we can infer that Mary an...

The caption to the photo reads, "19 year-old 'Deadhead' Dan Reynolds sunned himself yesterday next to the one of the two buses used by the devotees of the group."  When I began writing this blog, I had a copy of a story with a caption to a photo, but I didn't have the photo itself.  This led me to form a very different image when I first read the caption. I'd pictured a young man, sitting in a chair, 'laying out and catching some rays.'  Relaxed.  But, the caption's misleading.  The young man's not sunning himself; he's sitting in the sun, on the hood of car, wearing a dark t-shirt and shorts, and it appears that a wind's lifting his hair off his shoulders.  There's a guitar sitting next to him.  Reading his facial expression, I'd say he looks stunned—like he's still in shock.  And it's understandable why he might be... Of course, this is the photo of Dan Adams that accompanied a story about the murders that the San Fra...