Originally from Ohio, Emmon Bodfish was active in the Reformed Druids of North America. He produced the Druid Missal-Any Magazine 1983-1991, some of which was reprinted in A Reformed Druid Anthology, 2nd Edition, Volume 3: The Magazine Volume. At this time he corresponded with trans woman Tadhg MacCrossan, in the period before she wrote The Sacred Cauldron. His wisdom is still quoted on Druid sites.As his prior identity, Margaret, Bodfish ran a pool maintenance and plumbing business, The Blue Lagoon. Later he worked as an investment advisor. He owned a simple home in the affluent Orinda area outside San Francisco. He also owned a town-house in Marin County. In the late nineties he was apparently isolated and depressed, and occasionally reverted to being a woman.
In June 1999 Emmon was found bludgeoned to death. The next day his son Max Wills was found, an apparent suicide in a Santa Monica hotel room. Max was known to have suffered from long term depression but was reluctant to kill himself while his mother was alive.
Later the police discovered a floor safe containing $60,000 in gold and coins. A drill had been found at the same spot but there was no sign that it was used to pry out the safe. In addition a police investigator apparently contracted Q fever in the Bodfish home.
- Samhain 1986. "Samhain: The Other World". Reposted at: www.opednews.com/articles/Samhain-The-Other-World-by-Emmon-Bodfish-081029-130.html.
- Isaac Bonewits & Michael Scharding (eds).A Reformed Druid Anthology, 2nd Edition, Volume 3: The Magazine Volume. Online at: http://orgs.carleton.edu/druids/arda.
- Ed Walsh. " Bodfish likely struggled with killer, report says". Bay Area Reporter, 28/08/99. Online at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.true-crime/_QyBWhoc5SE.
- Ed Walsh. "Reclusive Bodfish had stash of herbal remedies, vitamins: Report says liver was normal". Bay Area Reporter, 10/29/99. Online at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.true-crime/OpbPg1-y3ds.
- Ed Walsh. "Bodfish investigator may have gotten rare disease from Orinda home". Bay Area Reporter, 2/4/00. Online at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.true-crime/E9-N8dH6ixw.
- Charlie Goodyear. "Diary Prompts Theories in Orinda Slaying / Police suspect mother-son death pact". SFGate, March 31, 2000. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Diary-Prompts-Theories-in-Orinda-Slaying-Police-2766298.php.
The murder remains unsolved. Different possibilities have been suggested including transphobia, family involvement, a fustrated robbery and even, based on an entry in his diary, that Emmon contracted his own death.
The Druid sites do not mention the murder.
