Poking a Dung Pile

North Face of Mount Shasta Apparently the blog format I've chosen doesn't allow me to reply directly to a comment on a post.  So I’ll reply by way of a new post. First, I'd like to thank Ace Backwords for commenting on a previous  post focusing on Vincent Johnson .  I'd also like to say that I'm sorry to hear Vince Johnson has passed, and I'd like to extend my sympathies to Ace Backwords on the loss of a best friend.  After reading the reporting on Rainbow Village from '85 to '86, and also reading Patricia Gioia's descriptions of him in her book (particularly her account of seeing him while driving in traffic), it  seems to me that Vince Johnson was an interesting and very decent man. Now to reply to the concerns expressed in the comment.  For those who've not read it, here it is: " The line that Vincent Johnson, "Some time in the mid 90s did recant his testimony he gave at the trial" is completely false. Vince was one of my best f...

  Rochester Democratic and Chronicle (11.09.1985) Here's a story about Randy Turley and the Dead On that appeared in November of '85.  Of particular note in the badly edited reporting is the fact that Turley had, "no home outside the bus, only a post office box in Berkeley, Calif."

In Episode 4 of the Dead and Gone  podcast, Gnome wonders "why anyone would be jealous of Greg" because "he was just a kid."  So let's return to jealousy as the motive for the murders .   Here, then, is the documentation this view: One witness testified that she had witnessed both Bo and Weston being verbally or physically abusive to women in the past."  ( Thomas v. Chappell , p. 7) Dan Adams witnessed an argument between Bo and Mary in which Bo seemed possessive.  ( Thomas v. Wong , p. 11-2) To Adams Mary seemed upset and afraid. ( Thomas v. Wong , p. 12) Mary and Greg began hanging out, becoming friends. "[Jim] Prew said Mary came into the Drop In Center at the University Lutheran Chapel on the 15th and after work he met up with Greg and Mary and several others.  They all went down to Rainbow Village." ( Berkeley Marina Murders , p. 135) "[Prew] again described the party scene outside his van; most drank beer but International drank whiskey...

We know that, had Mary and Greg returned to Rainbow Village after their walk, they'd not have slept in a tent.  The city of Berkeley had established the Village as a place for the homeless to park their vehicles--hence why some refer(red) to it as "Bus Village."  There's a segment of the short film "Deadheads" ( posted on YouTube ) that may shed some light on pitching tents in and around Berkeley.  At about 4:32 from the beginning, an affable, and clearly resourceful man, talks about his homelessness: "I'm sort of homeless and I'm really landless.  I got no place to put my teepee, uh...in Berkeley.  I'd like to up in the hills in Tilden, or out on the watershed, and uh...or in the Marina.  But, uh it didn't work, so.  It's against the law.  And I just made this out of corduroy pants from the Free Box in People's Park .  And uh...it's a seven-foot teepee, and uh, all hand-stitched.  And a lot of the clothes I've made are, ...