Three
KEDDIE

By October of 1980, Sheriff Sylvester 'Doug' Thomas had decided to move from 28 back to Quincy. The Oct 8 edition of the weekly Feather River Bulletin (FRB) stated his moving sale was held the following Sunday. It also seems Sue learned of 28 opening up from either the Meeks or, most likely, boyfriend Marty himself, as she was set to move into 28 as soon as it wasn't readied by Keddie's resident handyman, James Seabolt, Sr. By November, with Sheila hidden at her aunt's Oregon house for the pregnancy's term, Sue and the remaining four kids moved into #28, Keddie. While Sheila came to visit at 28 that Christmas, she didn't live there until just a few weeks before the murders.

28 was a mansion compared to the trailer, but it was a decrepit, ramshackle leftover from the 1930s. Originally a 1-room shack for railroad workers, it had been ecpanded three times by 1981. Still, it only had two small bedrooms upstairs, and an unfinished basement. The younger boys took the bedroom at the front of the house, while Sue and the girls took the back bedroom. That bedroom had a twin bed for Sue and, once Sheila came back from Oregon, she shared the queen bed with Tina. John, the oldest, took a room in the unfinished basement, which had no bathroom or indoor access to the upstairs; To go upstairs, he had to climb an exterior set of ramshackle steps to reach the rear entry, or walk around and up to the front of 28 (the house was built on a sharp incline)..

Just as there were multiple people involved in the planning and accomplishment of the murders, there were as many motives. It was evidently in February of 1981 that all hell began to break loose, with many factors lining up to make the Perfect Storm for the murders that followed. Around this time, the Albins / Hogaboams (Keddie's landlords, living in nearby #25) began evicting troublesome tenants, including at least two houses where known dealers lived. It's not known if this was a deliberate sweep of drug dealers or simply coincidence, but Marty was also fired from his job in February. While not confirmed (Jan claimed she fired Marty as "his cooking did not fit our needs"), it is believed Marty had also been dealing drugs from the restaurant. Regardless, as free rent at 26 ended with Marty's job, it now either had to be paid in cash the Smartts didn't have, or the Smartts had to move by May of 1981 (it is not known if the Smartts had been evicted). It's also around this time that their red Pinto wagon (purchased with a loan co-signed by Marilyn's 'aunt' in Burney) broke down on them, and they stopped making payments. Roughly at the same time, Marilyn was made aware of Marty's affair with Sue.

In mid-Feb, Sue distributed her kids amongst friends (including the Meeks) and went to Oregon for the birth of Sheila's kid. As it appears that, along with most of the other obvious leads, LE never investigated this prime motive in the wake of the murders, we don't know if Sue conferred with the Meeks over the baby, but Sue's putting that baby up for adoption was directly against Sheila's wishes, and those of at least Nina Meeks- who believed this child was Richard's AND it was her first known grand-child. It's also quite possible that, in the fallout from the adoption, Nina told Marilyn of Marty's affair with Sue.

Marilyn soon kicked Marty out of the house, and he ended up in Reno, living with an old friend, Severin John 'Bo' Boubede (despite decades of lies by the killers and LE alike, Marty knew Bo long before supposedly meeting for the first time at the Reno VA- in fact, Reno VA records indicate Boubede was never a patient there). In March of 1980, records show Marty was complaining of PTSD, trying to get monetary compensation for a very real condition from which Marty clearly did not suffer- at least certainly not connected to his brief military service, where his time in Vietnam was spent as a cook at one of the safest US bases in all of South Vietnam. PTSD had just become a condition with benefits through the VA, and one of Marty's closest friends- a simple clerk on a Navy repair ship whose own records show no logical chance of military-related PTSD- was pushing almost everyone he knew with a military background to claim. In fact, it was apparently Dee who took Marty to Reno when Marilyn gave him the boot.

There is much more that led up to the murders, which I have yet to write up for this synopsis... Stay Tuned... "I'm werkin' on it!'