Kathy and the ride home

Great work! There are other problems:

1. "X gave the boys a ride to Keddie; therefore, Martin Smartt and John Boubede committed the murders and kidnapped Tina."
I don't follow the logic, here, unless it's to try and say that they were NOT murdered by their ride.

2. "Y withheld info about Z giving them a ride, because Z would have gotten into trouble for sleeping with Dana." How does giving them a ride to Keddie prove that Z was sleeping with Dana? Sue gave them a ride to Quincy (supposedly.) Does that mean Sue was sleeping with Dana? I mean, if Z was sleeping with Dana, she wouldn't have to worry about Johnny or Dana saying anything, would she?

3. Several other women, some in their 30s, admitted/bragged they were Dana's "girlfriends." None of them were arrested.

4. WAS Sue sleeping with Dana?

5. The thing is, one very, very, very obvious reason so many women were "dating" Dana is because of his access to druuuuuuuuuuugs. Johnny's own frigging uncle told police Johnny was using drugs. Johnny's friends said he was stealing drugs and selling drugs. Everybody in town said the murders probably had to do with drugs. Doug Thomas, who was in charge of the case, said it was probably about drugs. Half the residents of Keddie, including Smartt, were dealing drugs. The crime scene sure looks like the people responsible were high on some kind of drugs. NO ONE has come up with ANY OTHER HALFWAY PLAUSIBLE MOTIVE. Drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs. But Gamberg and Hagwood keep shrieking "Drugs had nothing to do with it! Drugs had nothing to do with it! Drugs had nothing to do with it!"

6. Half the people in Plumas County have obviously lied about what they were doing that weekend, and it's obvious they're lying because what they were doing that weekend has something to do with drugs. "I gave them a ride to Keddie because I was having sex with Dana." Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. "I gave them a ride to Keddie in exchange for a BAG OF DRUGS." Now, THAT might be something to LIE about. Wouldn't it? "Drugs had nothing to do with it! Drugs had nothing to do with it! Drugs had nothing to do with it!" Riiiiiiiiight.

7. Aaaaaalllll of these rumors about Tina being sexually mature/active/pregnant (a "fast little girl.") The source? Well, aaaaaalllll of these "ladies" were "friends" of DANA'S. Aaaaaallll of the rumors about Dana having sex with every female in Plumas? Maybe even Alysa Seabolt? Well, TINA was a "fast" female in Plumas. Does that prove Dana was having sex with Tina? No. But he might have BRAGGED about it. AFTER the supposed phone call from supposed Nina Meeks to Sue saying that Johnny was bringing Dana home for a sleepover, Tina tells Sheila and Zonita "I have to sleep at home tonight." Funny, that.

8. This is Gamberg's and Hagwood's theory: "Yeah, aaaaaallll the evidence points to some kind of drug related thing. But the funny thing is, it turns out to be because of some bizarre and incomprehensible state-wide conspiracy to cover up for Martin Smartt blaming Sue for breaking up his marriage to Marylin, so he killed her, her druggie son, her druggie son's druggie friend, her daughter, then, with the massive cooperation of half the law enforcement personnel in California, rigged the bodies and the crime scene to make it all look EXACTLY like a drug related thing. Then, a couple of days later, he left his wife for good and lived happily ever after, anyway. And we can prove it. The world's most unreliable secret witness told us thirty five years later about a third-hand story that the world's other most unreliable witness said she gave the boys a ride to Keddie that night. Case closed, and we make Sherlock Holmes look like Inspector Clouseau."

PS: I keep losing track of the answer to this question, but, did ANYONE back in the day EVER say ANYTHING about giving the boys a ride FROM Keddie back to Quincy Saturday afternoon?

I mean, NO ONE would have a reason to lie about THAT, right? I keep harping on that, because NOBODY seems to have confirmed Sheila's story about the boys coming out to Cabin 28 for an hour or two to do yard work, then hitching back to town. Nobody saw Sue pick them up, nobody saw them doing any yardwork, nobody saw them hitching back to Quincy, nobody picked them up and drove them to Quincy. Her babydaddy, and his friends, contradicted her story. Paula (Alysa?) sooooort of confirmed her story, in a back-handed way.

Lots of people have lots of reasons for not admitting the drove to Keddie Saturday night. But no one has a reason to hide driving them to Quincy that afternoon.

Chief said Marty Smartt, driving someone else's dark 1957ish Chevy pickup, drove them to Keddie that night. That's not totally implausible. We have zero idea where Marty was BEFORE he and Bo and Marilyn headed out to the bar. But--Chief may very well have lied about that, after prompting from the Meeks clan. But, in order for the Meekses to prompt him to say that, THEY would have to know about CHIEF riding along to Keddie that night. But, IF they "knew" from Chief that Marty had driven Chief, the boys, and two other men to Keddie that night, then why didn't THE MEEKSES say something about it BEFORE Chief got himself arrested 3 weeks later? And if they made the whole thing up, then why "wait" until Chief got himself arrested on an apparently unrelated charge?

And where did Marty and Bo suddenly get 20 dollars-plus in cash to blow at the Bar that night? Suppooooooooooose Chief was more or less telling the truth. Why, and how, would Marty end up driving around Plumas County in Steve Howard's 1957 Chevy pickup truck, picking up Johnny and Dana and Chief? And why would Marty not tell that part of the story? Weeeeelllllllll, maybe Marty and Steve Howard and say, Baird McKnight Jr, were driving around LOOKING for Johnny and Dana. Maybe Marty went along because A. He had a pretty good idea where to look and B. Johnny and Dana might be more willing/less nervous to get into a vehicle driven by Marty and C. Marty's car was on the blink. Then Marty and Bo and Marylin establish an alibi at the Bar, blowing 20 dollars they didn't have to blow until McKnight gave Marty 20 bucks for helping him track down Johnny and Dana. An alibi Howard and McKnight (and Chuck and Henry, for that matter) don't have.

What if everybody (we know of) more or less told the truth (at the time. Not all these tall tales told years later.)? What if the only lies they told, like Chuck and Henry lying about driving out to Keddie to drop off some coke at Cabin 9, were things they had to hide, but have nothing to do with the actual murders? If so, then the only person who stands out as maybe lying about things that might be directly related to the murders is Sheila Sharp. The last person who supposedly saw the victims alive; the person who supposedly discovered the bodies; the one person we could maybe say "benefitted" from Sue's death. The only person who seems to have not been honest with investigators, and was certainly no help at all. IF I'm right about Sheila, okay, then why on earth would she lie about Johnny and Dana being at Cabin 28 for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon? Such a lie would not "explain" any witness statements. Okay. What PHYSICAL evidence might it "explain?"

Well, how about the clothes Johnny and Dana were wearing? Dead Johnny was wearing Sheila's red gym shorts. There is some confusion about Dana's boots, his bandana, etc etc. Ooooooooorrrrrrr, maybe it's about that mysterious blue sweatshirt. The one the crime scene experts "left" where they found it, in the bathroom, until after Sheila had been taken through the cabin. What I mean is, I'm not asking what it was doing there. I'm asking, what was it STILL doing there? They actually removed the medicine cabinet door. Don't tell me they "didn't" pick up the blue sweatshirt. I think that very probably, they had "questions" about it, and took it back to Cabin 28 and left it there for Sheila to see...Why?