HEAR: Grateful Dead murder mystery? That’s what a new podcast is serving up.
The bodies of two young Grateful Dead fans, who had been beaten and shot to death, were found in the San Francisco Bay during the summer of 1986.
A local man, who had reportedly been staying in the same Berkeley homeless encampment as the victims, was quickly arrested and convicted for the double murder of 22-year- old Mary Regina Gioia and 19-year- old Gregory Allen Kniffin.
It was anything but the end of the tale, though. Some people believed the police had nabbed the wrong person, and the real culprit remained at large.
Some 34 years later, popular podcasters Payne Lindsey and Jake Brennan have reopened the case to investigate this dark moment in “Dead and Gone.” The new 10-part series, which is available on Apple Podcasts and all other major platforms, is a hybrid of sorts, one that should please both fans of Lindsey’s work in the true- crime genre and those who dig Brennan’s raucous rock focus. New episodes are released on Thursdays.
“It really all started because I was a fan of Jake Brennan’s ‘Disgraceland,’ which is sort of a dark music history/rock star podcast,” said Lindsey, who is known for the true- crime podcasts “Up and Vanished” and “Atlanta Monster.”
“We had connected a few years ago, and I wanted to figure out a way that we could, down the road, work on something together.”
They just needed to find the right subject, one both music and crime related. They found the right ticket when they stumbled on an article about missing and murdered Grateful Dead fans.
“We thought, that’s bizarre,” Lindsey recalled during a recent phone interview. “This could be something that I could look into from an investigative standpoint, and (Brennan) could dig into the darker history of the Grateful Dead. We could make this a mix of both our styles and see what happens.”
The two podcasters initially planned to use the series to look at dozens of cases involving missing and murdered Deadheads, but their plans changed after receiving a tip about the double murder in Berkeley. The podcasters dug into the case, quickly deciding that there was enough there to fill a whole series of its own.
The story begins in 1986 in Rainbow Village, which was at the time a homeless encampment in the Berkeley Marina area.
“There were two Deadheads, who were staying there that night, and the next morning they were found floating in the bay,” Lindsey said. “They had been shot and they had been beaten and it was just a really horrible, brutal crime. The cops quickly pointed their finger toward this man called Ralph International Thomas, an Afri
can American man who had a bad history, and really quickly wrapped this case up.”
But did they get the wrong man?
“Within hours and days of this murder happening, there were whispers in the Dead community about there being someone else — or a couple of people who were not Ralph — who may be involved in actually killing them,” Lindsey said.
It took much longer than hours and days for the courts to react to the new information.
“For years, Ralph’s attorney was filing appeals. It took almost 30 years, but he eventually did get granted a retrial based on sufficient evidence that there was an alternative suspect that his public defender did not look into whatsoever. (He had) kind of ignored the evidence,” Lindsey said. “But it was too late. He had fallen ill with diabetes, among a few other things, and he passed away before he had a chance to have his retrial.”
Thomas died in a state mental health facility in January 2014, according to injusticewatch.org.
All these years later, Lind
sey and Brennan could finally help clear Thomas’ name. They believe they may know who actually committed the double murder — and they plan to share it on their podcast.
“It’s definitely not a secret who (some people) think is responsible,” Lindsey said. “The main thing is figuring out if this guy is still around anymore and if so, where is he? And also, (is) he going to talk to us?”
Not surprisingly, the podcast is proving popular with the Bay Area band’s legendary loyal fans.
“I think most of the Deadheads are fascinated by this,” Lindsey said. “They live and breathe this culture, and they experienced a lot of this stuff firsthand. I think reliving that is very special through the podcast.”
That said, don’t feel like you have to know your “Scarlet Begonias” from your “Sugar Magnolia” to enjoy the long, strange trip offered on “Dead and Gone.”
“You can know nothing about the Grateful Dead — not care one bit — and still find this very compelling,” Lindsey said.