Vivian Cercy

People's Park, April 3, 2021

First, I'd like to express my sincere appreciation to Venus in Style for sharing information about her biological mother, Vivian Cercy, in her comments to the blog.  

For me, the stories surrounding the murders of Greg Kniffen and Mary Gioia tell about the various predicaments of those gathered at Rainbow Village on the night of August 15, 1986.  They detail the difficulties associated with homelessness, race, and gender.  For example, the story that Mary's mother tells in her book and the stories told by individuals who knew Mary around the time of her murder, shed light on gender issues associated with being on tour.  The stories Ace Backwords tells about Vincent Johnson shed light on issues related to homelessness and race.  And the two recent comments to this blog, along with some glimpses of her given Patricia Gioia's book, illuminate some of the risks Vivian Cercy endured as a homeless mother of two.

In the comments made by Venus in Style, we learn more details about Vivian Cercy:  

"Vivian is my biological mother. She was pregnant with Harry's child at the time of the murders. I was one of those girls in the car. The day my parents adopted us three, baby included, Harry called in a bomb threat to the courthouse. I believe Vivian witnessed the entire event and told the truth that in partiality Harry forced her to tell intermingling the events transpired. She was not available for trial because she had my sister in a hotel bathtub to escape Harry."

I'd learned from reading Patricia Gioia's book that, at the time of the murders, Vivian Cercy was a woman in her twenties who lived in a brown, 1973 Dodge Dart with two young daughters—a four year-old and a one year-old. (Berkeley Marina Murders, p. 121)  So, Vivian and her daughters experienced what Elizabeth Bowen (an associate professor of social work at the University of Buffalo interviewed for the second season of Dead and Gone) described as an "incredibly stressful and traumatic living situation."  Now I can add to this understanding that she was probably in an abusive relationship with Harry Shorman.  Why else would Vivian have been trying to escape him?

From Ms. Gioia’s book I also learned that Vivian Cercy testified in person during the preliminary hearing held in late October '85, but probably left the Berkeley area sometime in December. (Ibid. p. 149)  During the last week of the trial in May ‘86, Harry Shorman reported to the court that Vivian had been leaving telephone messages with his sister in Albany, CA. but he'd not been able to locate her.  (Ibid. p. 150)  Lastly, Jim Chaffee (Thomas's lawyer) told the presiding judge that "...Shorman's sister told him Vivian had a baby girl born two weeks earlier on May 12." (Ibid. p. 153)  Given what Venus in Style communicates to Ace Backwords, one wonders about the accuracy of this last detail from the book since she says Vivian had the baby in April.  (Of course it could have been that Chaffee spoke to Shorman's sister on May 12, and that she told him something different.)

This brings me to the following:  "I believe Vivian witnessed the entire event and told the truth that in partiality Harry forced her to tell[,] intermingling the events transpired." (My comma)  There are details in Vivian's testimony that, up until a few months ago, that would have led me to believe this to be true.  For example, I'd thought there's some truth to her story, especially her account of being threatened in her car.  But the fact that Shorman called in a bomb threat, combined with the fact he filed a lawsuit after Berkeley decided to close Rainbow Village, would make me wonder to what lengths he’d have gone to get what he wanted.  Would he have gone so far as to try to pin the murders on an innocent outsider?

It's almost certain that Harry Shorman forced Vivian to talk to the police.  The question is:  Was the story she told entirely fictitious?  Probably not.  Then this raises another question:  How much of it was true and does the truth implicate Thomas and somebody else in the murders?