May '75 Hitch-Hike To Redding --- A Pre-Planned, Round-Trip To L.A. & Covina,
Appears Spontaneous To Greg Get Up North ---- It Coincides With My Girl's Idaho Trip
--- Girlfriend's July '75 Lie About Pocatello, The Day Before Events At 'Callahan Days'
103. The way of things went like this. --- It was May 1975, Karen and I were living therein an apartment
house, located in downtown Yreka, just behind the beer-bar called 'The Deli' which faced Miner Street,
near the Siskiyou County Courthouse & Jail. 104. Karen, was from Portland, Oregon, and she had moved in
with me just before Thanksgiving, back in November '74 Karen, and had left for a visit to Pocatello, Idaho
by herself sometime around May 19th or 20th as I recall. ---- She said that she wanted to go there alone
because her brother in law was an asshole, and she just wanted to see her sistert Kathy who was then
pregant or possibly had jalready ust given birth to her son Shane. 105. Karen told me that she didn't want
to take me along with her to Pocatello, Idaho, because of Kathy's husband Gary, and his violently, volitile
temper, whcih would make things just too difficult. 106. I didn't think too much of it, whereas Karen had
made this trip at least once before back in the Fall of 1974, just before moving in with me therein Yreka
by November '74. --- And besides we had already made several trips up to Portland, and at least one to
Crescent City, so I really didn't mind, whereas I could catch up on my reading and do a few things I wanted
to do as well. 107. It was Thursday morning and I had just went over to one of those old style restaurant
counters, which was in a store of some kind, a pharmacy perhaps, located on Miner Street, where I had
some coffee, and may have already started in on my newspaper, whcih I had when I ran into Dave, the
friend of a friend of mine. --- Yreka had papers from L.A., San Francisco and Portland which was new to me
at that time, having seen only L.A. newspapers all my life. 108. As I was then collecting unemployment and
had that day, and many others to come, off work, I decided to make the most of it thereat the local library
in Yreka, and maybe do a little hiking as well,before my girlfriend came back to town the following week.
109. It was thereon Miner Street that I ran into Dave and we casually chatted a bit. --- Dave, was a guy
about my age, with a seventies style, haircut and a moustache, and was only a few inches taller than me
and had a tall wife named Diane, who had a hot body, a kind of dominatrix-bitch, personality. Diane showed
me all she had, when Dave and my freind went on a beer run, thereon that very first time I met them both,
back in mid-September '74. This was at my then place of residence, a room, in an apartment over a pizza
joint in Montague, some eight-miles east of Yreka. 110. Diane was wearing a skimpy, one-piece jumper
that served as both a short sleeved top that was unzipped straight down the front, attached to some short,
shorts. 111. She studied my face as my eyes went over every square inch, of her tight, slender body, like
U-2 spy plane taking photos on a 'recon' mission. This wasn't to difficult, whereas she was sitting directly in
front of me, continuously leaning forward to expose her nice tits, crossing and uncrossing her legs, repeat-
edly giving me views of homeplate as well. 112. I actually entertained the thought of fucking her, all night
long if possible, but I feared that the hot, long slender bitch might bite my head off like some pretty,
'Preying Mantis' when we were done. ---- I wasn't about to take her up on her offer as she was married for
one thing, and besides that, I liked Dave, and his sardonically wry wit. --- I also figured that this shrew might
possibly 'rat-me-out' to Dave, though I don't think that he really wouldn't have cared one way or the other.
113. I'm pretty sure that it must been mid-morning, on Thursday, May 22, 1975 when I ran into Dave
thereon Miner Street in Yreka, and exchanged greetings. As we chatted Dave mentioned that he was
going down to Redding as he had to take care of some business there, and that whereas he hadn't
repaired his car yet, that he was making a day long, hitch-hiking to Redding within the hour, and that if I
wasn't doing anything that maybe I should tag along with him. 114. I had never been to Redding before,
and as it was one of the largest cities north of Sacramento back in 1975, I decided to go along out of
curiousity. ---- There was also the fact that my girlfriend had talked into dropping my art classes at the
College of the Siskiyous some weeks before, and so I decided that it might be good time to go as she was
presently out of town and it would be nice to hang out with guy I knew for a change, and maybe score on
some chicks while we were down there too. 115. I then went back to my apartment and grabbed a jacket,
and then asked a friend of mine to look in the dog, a small cocker-mix, that my girl insisted on taking in,
some months before. ---- I then met Dave and we both walked down Miner Street to I-5 Freeway onramp
heading south. 116. Dave and I made pretty good time hitch-hiking, and we arrived in Redding, about a
hundred miles south of Yreka, at what must have been some time just after noon. ---- To my surprise the
City of Redding had it's own Black part of town where Dave knew some white guys had rented a house.
--- I had seen some of them before up in Yreka, and they apparently recognized me as well, as one of them
briefly chatted with Dave, whilst others raced around the house, moving furniture and looking into various
nooks and crannies around the house, looking for any all kinds of drugs, and drug paraphenalia that might
be unaccounted for thereat the house, as they said that had heard from a reliable source that the cops
were going raid the place anytime. 117. And before I knew it, Dave and I had joined in this frenetic little
'scavenger hunt' for contraband, whereby we scraped up enough renegade 'pot' to roll a joint or two, which
we smoked as the search went on. --- I then found one of those little grey plastic film containers under a
bed, and without opening it up, I shook it there in front of one of our hosts, and said: "Mmmm, meth-tabs,
if I'm right can I keep 'em." He said yes, and so I did just that, and took some, and gave Dave a couple too
I seem to recall. 118. Since I left home back in Covina August 31, 1974 --- I had pretty much quit speed for
the most part, pretty much stuck with 'pot' and beer, except when I made I those several odd or very poss-
ibly more weekend visits up in Portland with my girlfrend Karen, who seemed to have kept a mini-phar-
macy of sorts therein her purse most of the time.
119. By May of 1975, I had really lost my craving for
speed since my arrival up north that previous fall, and I only took it on rare occassions, like when we had
to make the long drives up to Portland, or we were partying there with her friends. 120. After that, at Dave's
request we both went over to his mom's house therein Redding, Although mom was at work, Dave's older
brother, a real 'Fuck-Up' was there at the house. --- Dave dug out a giant jar of 'pot' seeds and we sifted out
enough loose shake to roll a few 'joints'from. --- I not a hundred percent positive, but I believe that it was
at that time that we all went over to a little art gallery there in Redding. A little place, ran by a couple of
middle-aged ladies, and which was according to Dave, was his primary reason for the trip to Redding
in the first place. ---- It was according to Dave, to see if and when these female proprietors would have
space for some of his paintings that he wanted to sell. 121. It wouldn't be until some two-months later
thereon the opening night of the 10th Annual 'Callahan Days Jubillee', as events unfolded at Bob's house
in the woods, on the night of July 25, 1975 --- that I would fully realize Dave's actual motives for bringing
me down to Redding, California with him back in May '75. 122. This art gallery that Dave brought me to
was a pretty small, boutique like affair, with paintings and a couple of stainless steel sculptures I that I
actually liked, and which were pretty reasonably priced as well. --- I noticed the ladies had taken a bit of
interest in me as I perused the place and the art that was in it.
123. Having completed his business with
the art gallery ladies, we then returned to Dave's mother's house, where Dave's older brother suggested
that we all 'chip-in' and get a large bottle of wine, which we did, and so the three of us we hung out there
and talkied a bit, and smoked another joint until mid-afternoon when Dave took me on a little tour of
downtown Redding, whereby we then went over to a little park and sat for bit smoking cigarettes.
124. I'm not certain, whereas I was a little high therefrom the effects of 'speed' alcohol and 'weed', but I
think that we may have stopped by Dave's mom's house before we left and said goodbye to Dave's
brother, as it was late-afternoon thereon that Thursday May 22, 1975 --- when Dave and I decided to start
making the 100-mile, hitch-hike back north to Yreka.125. Assuming that it was there in existence back in
May '75, Dave and I must have hitched a ride east on Highway 44 east to the freeway onramps located at
Interstate 5. --- I seem to recall that we caught a short ride there on Highway 44 thereas evening approa-
ched, and we had to get out and hitch another ride. 126. I recall feeling a little concerned that we might
not get ride before dark as Dave and I stood there with our thumbs out as the cars and trucks whizzed by
for at least 20-minutes or so when a not very new, light beige, AMC sedan, slowed down and stopped to
pick us up. It was driven by a girl about my age therein her early twenties, she was a white chick, with
thin light sandy brown hair and not bad to look at either, and she wasn't into wearing any make-up either.
127. As we drove down Highway 44 headed east, I was sitting shotgun, and Dave was in the backseat
of the sedan, when the driver of the car told us that she had just dropped a friend off therein Redding,
and that she was now on her way over to Interstate 5, whereby I was elated, I can't say the same about
Dave as he was in the back seat and I couldn't see his face --- that is until the driver of the AMC sedan.
that she was going south on Interstate 5, as opposed to north, therein the direction of Yreka, the intended
destination of Dave and I. 128. I guess I that I must have turned my head head to look back at Dave, in
order to express myself, whereby I seemed to notice that Dave appeared to be as disappointed as I was by
this --- however therein light of other facts which later came to light therein July 1975, I can only conclude
that Dave must have been putting on a pretty good for my benefit.
129. Our driver-host then told us both
that she was driving down L.A. to spend the Memorial Day weekend at her folk's place therein Glendale
a suburb nearby, and that she wanted someone to help her with the rather long drive there, non-stop, and
then make return drive as well the following Monday, Memorial Day --- This meant that she had over a 1000
miles of driving to do.
130. Being the chummy and chatty sort of guy that I was back in 1975, I told her that
although I was now a Yreka resident, that I had only moved there some eight-months ago, from Covina, my
hometown about 20 miles or so away from Glendale, the AMC driver's weekend destination.
131. I guess
that it must have been have been just about this time --- that the wheels in my head started turning, and
I started quizzing the AMC driver about her planned weekebd drive to L.A., as my girlfriend Karen from Port-
land was out of town and visiting her sister in Idaho.
132. I suppose that I then talked around with the idea
with the driver and she seemed somewhat encouraged at the possibility that I might accompany her on her
thereon her Memorial Day weekend '75 drive to L.A. and back. ---- I'm pretty sure that I also told the driver
that I didn't have any money for gas, or I would take her up on her offer --- to which she replied that she had
the cost of gas covered, and that what she really needed was someone to help her with the driving and to
keep her company during this 1000 mile round trip to L.A. and back north up Oregon and her job at Wolf
Creek, Oregon where she had a job therewith U.S. Forest Service there. --- We then considered the very real
danger of her nodding off behind the wheel, which must have appealed to a chivalrous facet of my nature.
133. The next thing that I knew, I asked Dave to tell Pat, a guy who lived in apartment house, to have him
and water my dog, a small cocker mix while I was away for the weekend. --- It was almost nightfall by the
time that we arrived at Interstate 5, and after all these years I can still see Dave sticking out his thumb
therein the dim light, on the north bound onramp to Interstate 5 just east of Redding --- the girl driver and I
both proceeded to the onramp to southbound lane of Interstate 5 heading for L.A.
134. We drove down the
Interstate, I noticed that she didn't have an FM radio, or any tape player therein the car, only AM radio which
played only some of the music that I liked, and so we talked a bit until sometime after midnight before we
pulled over to catch a few hours to get some rest thereon a service road just off the Interstate, which to
the best of my recollection, now some 37-years later, was somewhere around Coalinga or Kettleman City.
135. As the girl in the AMC who picked me up hitch-hiking wasn't bad looking and had nice little body to
boot, we both ended up in the backseat and started making out, I guess the 'meth' made a bit horny,
especially when combined with alcohol I drank, and the 'pot' I smoked earlier that day --- this plus the fact
that my girl had been out of town for a few days, by then. 136. I was just feeling my way across her state
line, when she informed that she couldn't oblige me whereas she had something topical, going on down
there in the 'bush-country', but I kind of suspected that the chick might also be a lesbian or possibly 'bi',
regardless of this, it was her call to make and I totally respected that and so we both went to sleep.
137. When we awoke next morning I stepped outside the car to take a leak, and I noticed that we were
parked next to a barbed wire fence, enclosing some pasture land, near what I now believe was in Kettle-
man City and got back on Interstate 5, somewhere around 8:00 or 8:30 AM, and we continued our drive,
non-stop, pretty much, stopping only for gas and something to drink.
138. We arrived at the girl's parent's
home in Glendale, at sometime around noon. The place was a nice, roomy, ranch style pad, located there-
in a upper middle class neighborhood, and the combination masonary lower wall, and upper wood siding,
that went up to the eves, just it's cedar-shake roof.
139. My lady driver then invited me inside to meet her
mom, who invited us into the kitchen where she made us both a sandwich, and then began talking to each to each other and then looked over at her, with searching eyes that seemed to ask her if she had been
fucking me there on the long drive down from Redding thereas I ate my sandwich, standing near a coun-
ter staring off into space.
140. I then gave the girl the phone of the place where I expected that I would be
staying in Covina, and I suppose that I may have gotten the phone number at her mom's place in Glendale
just in case --- but I'm not so sure that I even bothered, as I was pretty much certain that the girl who
picked me up hitch-hiking in Redding would need me again, thereon the following Monday, Memorial Day,
May 26, 1975.
141. Not realizing the actual underlying motives for this seemingly, providential, free round
trip to L.A. and back north to Yreka --- I labored under the misapprehension that this young lady who
appealed my chivalry somehow, actually needed me --- when she set out for the tediously long, 500
mile drive back up north first to Redding to pick up her freind and fellow co-worker there --- afterwhich she
would be dropping me off in Yreka, and then have to drive another 100 miles north to the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice Station near Wolf Creek, Oregon.
142. It wouldn't be until two-months later, thereon opening night at
'Callahan Days' on July 25, 1975, that I was to actually realize that this round-trip ride, from Redding to
L.A. and from Covina, up to Yreka, was actually the result of some very carefully laid out planning, and
some very clever and precise execution.
143. It was early-afternoon, somnetime around 1:00 PM when I left the lady AMC driver's parent's house therein Glendale, and I distinctly remember hitched a ride across
the Colorado Street Bridge into Pasadena, where I may have spent a little time checking out Colorado
Blvd. where I used to go the New Years Eve Street party, and did a little street racing at night, therein my
Porche a few years before. 144. By the time that I hitch-hiked over to a surfer friend's therein my old
neighborhood in Covina, it was mid-afternoon, about 3:00 PM or so and my friend was still at work, so his
wife let me in, as she worked swing-shift, and glad to see me and let me roll a 'joint' in honor of my week-
end visit return, before I went over to the place just down the street where I would be spending the night.
145. This was the house loacted near the dead-end of Tudor Street, which was techincally in an unicorporat-
ed scrap of L. A. Covina, but had a Covina mailing address, with Covina cops and L.A. Sheriff's to boot. It
wsa the home of the mother of my friend Thom, who made the hitch-hiking trip up north with me back on
Labor Day weekend 1974. ---- I had grown up in a house just down the street, located at the corner of Tudor
Street and Lark Ellen Ave.
146. it was there at this home of my friend's mother that rented a trailer and had
house privilages at from September 1973, until Labor Day Weekend '74 when Thom and I made the move
north. I walked over tjhere His mother Dorothy ived there
alone now and my Ford Anglia panel truck was still parked in the garage there.
144. Dorothy was like my
second mother whereas I had spent so much time there growing up from 1966 on through August of '74
was in Idaho visting relatives, and I told her about the round trip ride that made my visit possible, and so
Dorothy granted me permission to stay there for the weekend until my ride came to get me for the trip back
north. 88. During my stay in Covina, I saw my surfer friend John, who took over to see some other friends
and acquaintances, and so we partied a bit and caught up on old times. --- They seemed a little disappoin-
ted that I had left, whereas these guys were friends who were hardworking and stable and some of them
were surfers who liked to take me along on their surfing and camping trips, as I was kind of campfire
comedian back in those days, when I wasn't running around with other friends who not so responsible
and got into trouble. 89. Although I'm not sure I think I may have seen my half-sister Ann who still lived in
neighborhood just around the corner, from Dorothy's place on Tudor Street, and I'm pretty sure that I must
have seen some of my other friends, whereas I had heard that my old friend Greg was, 'Bad News' --- getting
strung out on drugs. --- Having been mostly 'clean' myself since my arrival up north, other than taking a few
meth tabs my girlfriend had provided me during our drives back up to Portland, I pretty stuck with 'pot' and
beer and maybe some 'mushrooms' once and while --- I decided that I woudn't contact Greg, whereas the
last time I saw him, sometime in 1974, he wasn't much fun, nodding off from heroin and all. 90. I guess
that it must hCity, therefrom Ann, wheras they had left Covina shortly after I did, when I headed north and moved to the
'Raintree' Condos which were built on acrerage and backlots once belonging to MGM studios. 91. It was
a couple of years since I had spoken with my mom, my older sisters, and younger half brother and sister
and my step dad, so I decided to pay them all a visit, whereas I didn't when, or even if I would ever come
back to Covina, L.A. County or Southern California for that matter. ---- In May of 1975, I still couldn't believe
that the Vietnam War had just ended only an month or so earlier back in April.
92. I spent my last day of
my visit to L.A. County therewith my family in Culver City having a Sunday sitdown dinner, and reassured
them all that things were alright with me up there in Yreka, and told about place and a little about my girl-
friend from Portland --- when I was a kid I never told them about my girlfriends or ever brought them home
to meet them whereas I was too ashamed and embarrassed to do so, although I would from time to time
sneak girls into the unattached bedroom overnight, which my step dad and I had built back at the house
in Covina.
98. It was
there as I sat in that cushy chair next to the phone at Dorothy's house that I then decided that I would
give Greg a call to say hello and wish him well. --- As we talked, Greg said that he would like to come over
and talk, whereas he was at folks house on Banewell, just North of Gladstone High, and Dorothy's back-
yard butted up against the south side of the school.
99. Greg and I chatted it up until late hours and he
told me how he wanted get off heroin and all the rest of the shit he was using, and so it was, like a sucker
I invited him to go back up north with and that I would put him up until he got things got settled up there.
We then went over to Greg's Parent's house and Greg packed a bag with things, where his frazzled look-
ing mother thanked me profusely for my generosity in trying to help Greg, get off dope by moving north.
100. Greg and I, powered down a little by dawn, and had some coffee thereat Dorothy's place in Covina
as we waited for the girl from Glendale to call me on the phone, and give her driving directions to my
present location. --- She must have arrived fairly early whereas I recall that as we hit the freeeway inter-
change near the 'Brew 102 straights' in downtown L.A. ---- it was now the morning rush hour, and we had
already decided to take the coastal route back up north, as opposed to the way we came down Interstate 5.
We decided to take Highway 101 along the Pacific Ocean north, all the way to Eureka, and then take
Highway 299 east over to Redding where she had to pick up a friend and fellow co-worker therein Redding,
whereby all four of us would both continue north on Interstate 5 to the destination Greg and I were going to
Yreka, California, just off I-5 --- whereby the girl from Glendale and her fellow co-worker would continue on
north thereon I-5, to the U.S. Forest Service facility located therein Wolf Creek, Oregon.
Narcs ? Feds ? Trail Us In San Luis Obispo --- Greg's Paranoia Looks Suspicious
Back In May --- Now At Bob's In July '75, I Suspect 'Leash Pulling' & 'Cover' For Him
---- As Paranoid Of Cops As I Am, He Just Can't Be An Informant --- Unless ?
101. Glendale girl, our ride back up north to Yreka, was still at the wheel of her AMC sedan, about four -
hours later, a trip made all the more longer and tedious, thanks to the coastal route we had then decided
to take back up north, as opposed to the route up Interstate 5 ---- when we hit San Luis Obispo, when I
suddenly noticed that we were being followed by two guys in suits driving, an unmarked governent vehicle,
a typical standard issue in 1975, much as they would look today 2013.
102. I then made the announce-
ment that all three of us should just 'be cool' and keep looking straight ahead, which we all did, however
Greg then reiminded me that he had 'tracks', needle marks on his arms and he was afraid of getting
'busted' over them, if the 'plain clothes' cops ? Narcs ? or whatever they were pulled us over and started
checking us out.
103. I vaguely recall that just before this happened, that I had a made of usually witty
and laconically sarcastic remarks that made Greg and I laugh, whereby Greg made his own little witty,
reply and we laughed some more --- this possibly may --- or may not have --- had anything to do with the
'plain clothes' dudes tailing us, --- that is not unless Glendale Girl's Car was 'wired' for sound and these
guys were noiw here to keep someone in line. --- That 'someone' could only be Greg.
104. During our little
ride back-up north it wasn't too hard for me to imagine how Greg, now a heroin addict to 'catch-a-beef'
over a heroin possession charge, and or maybe even a 'sales-wrap' as well, and that he hadn't bother to
mentionthis little fact to me during our little, hours long chat the night before, that is unless the chat
wasn't really a 'chat' --- as it was more of a ploy used by Greg to help persuade me to take him back
with me, up north to Yreka. 105. On that seemingly darkest, of dark nights back in July in 1975, thereat
Bob's place in the woods near Callahan, California --- it was plain as fucking day to me, just why it was
that Greg, only some two months earlier, had worked so very, very, hard on me on that last night of the
Memorial Day Weekend during my unplanned visit to Covina, which I now fully realized must have been
so very elaborately pre-arranged and carefully, contrived to appear to me as though it were spontan-
eous, when such was not the case at all. --- It was all about those 'Plans' for me 'Up North' that my girl-
freind had just unexpectedly, and so very unintentionally divulged to me only seconds before, as
so very plainly evidenced thereby Greg and Portland Kathy's horrified reactions to major revelation.
106. Even then as the plainclothes, dudes were following us on that post holiday, Monday, back in May,
then only some weeks before, that I somehow suspected that the guys, most likely Narcs of Feds, were
directing their angry glares thereat Greg, rather than anyone else in that rather plain, and non-descript
looking AMC sedan, which they targeted us for some reason or other, 'out-of-the-clear-blue-fucking-sky'.
107. Nope --- the car must have been 'wired' for sound on the way back up north, to monitor my respon-
ses and find out, if Iwas getting suspicious about things, things which I would tell an old friend like
____________
