The date: December 20, 1968. The time: 11:25 p.m.

     Stella Medeiros is driving on Lake Herman Road, a lonely dark country road just outside of Vallejo, California, that leads to Benicia. The rear and side windows on a parked Rambler station wagon sparkle as her headlights sweep it. A young man’s body lies beside the car; a girl lies about 30 feet behind the rear bumper. She is on her right side, facing the road. Blood is everywhere. Mrs. Medeiros hits the gas and speeds off to Benicia. On the outskirts she locates a Benicia police car. She honks her horn and blinks her lights. She reports what she saw.

     In a few minutes Benicia police are in control of the area. It is but a gravel turnout to the entrance to the pumping station. Apparently it is used by local teens as a petting spot. Yet it is a bit surprising on a night like this. There is a record low in temperature of only 22 degrees.

     At 11:52 p.m. the call comes into to the Solano County Sheriff’s Office. Responding officers are Butterbach and Waterman. Lake Herman Road is their jurisdiction. When they arrive, the Benicia police show them the scene. They lift their wool blanket off the female victim. The victim is Betty Lou Jensen, 16 years old. She is dead, shot 5 times in the right of the back, apparently while fleeing the assailant. Blood splattered her path from where she lay to the side of the car where the boy, David Faraday, 17, had been found. She must have been next to Faraday when he was shot and then ran away toward the road. David Faraday has been removed. He was still alive, breathing faintly despite a gunshot to his head. A chalk outline marks the area where his body had fallen. His left foot had almost been touching the right rear passenger side tire. He was facing away from the vehicle, perpendicular to it. A large pool of blood still marked where the head had been. He had been found with his hands up by his head. They and the sleeves of his shirt were bloody. Curiously, his class ring was almost removed from his ring finger. It hung on at the tip only, held there by the tip of the middle finger. He was currently en route to the hospital.

     The general arrangement of things was recorded. The station wagon was parked facing Easterly. The passenger side front door was open all the way. The others were closed and locked. Several shell casings peppered the ground on the passenger side of the car. They were .22 caliber. In all, 9 were collected. One, curiously, was about 20 feet away from where Faraday had fallen. The back passenger side rear window had been shattered by a bullet, which penetrated it at the bottom and angled into the floorboard. A bullet hole was in the top just above the back seat passenger side door.

     At 12:05 a.m. December 21 Detective Sergeant Leslie Lundblad of the Solano Co. Sheriffs arrived.  Landblad asked Butterbach and Waterman to go get a statement at the hospital from Faraday. Upon arrival at the hospital they discovered that the young man had been pronounced Dead on Arrival.

     The detectives now had to paste things together from what they had before them. The shell casings show that the killer stood by the passenger side of the car, away from the road. Faraday had been shot close range through the upper left ear and into the head. (There were powder burns on his ear).  Jensen was hit by the force of 5 .22 caliber bullets in the right back, and must have been tough enough to keep going until she fell. This is evident is that she fell backward, despite that in running away momentum would have been to the fore. Three of the bullets passed through her. One exited the left breast and left a hole in the front of her dress. Another ricocheted through her body and came out at her panty elastic and lodged in her underwear. The other came out her stomach and fell down her dress and was found in her “blood splattered” path. Butterbach considered the shots to have a remarkable grouping.

     Nine casings were recovered. Eight bullets were accounted for.

     On the face of it there was no reason for the crime. There was no theft. There was no sexual molestation. There was no murder weapon. Faraday hadn’t gunned her down and then shot himself in the head. Somebody else had been involved. But the gravel was too frozen to show footprints or even fresh tire tracks.

     Witnesses would help bring some clarity to a probable sequence of events. Homer and Peggie Your provided some interesting information. About 11 p.m. they passed the pumping station, coming from the Benicia way. Their lights dazzled the windshield of the Rambler. Inside she could see the boy, Faraday, at the wheel, and Betty Jensen with her head leaning on his shoulder. Faraday put his hands on the wheel when the Your’s lights swept them.  The Yours didn’t go far down the road. He worked on laying pipe and was merely out with his wife making sure all was well. They pulled into Marshall Ranch down the road to do a U-turn and go back to Benicia. Here their lights swept a red pick up truck with wooden sideboards. It was parked  along the fence, about 25 feet down on the road to the ranch, facing out toward Lake Herman Road. Two men were standing by. One was 25 to 30, had on a wool cap, a hunting jacket and a long flashlight. He was curious enough to shine the flashlight into the car at Peggie Your. The other man had a rifle. Peggie told her husband to get “the hell out of there” because one had a gun. They drove back to Benicia and noticed the Rambler in the same position.

     The two men would later be identified as Robert Connley and Frank Gasser. They were out raccoon hunting. They arrived at the Marshall Ranch area around 9 p.m. and left a little after 11 p.m. They were just getting back in their truck when the Yours drove into the driveway to do their U-turn. They were able to recall some significant events. They remembered that when they passed the pump house entrance to go to their raccoon spot at Marshall Ranch, they saw a white impala, about 1959, 1960, hardtop 4 door parked in the entrance. At the precise moment they passed, a truck was coming out of the pumping station gate. Sheriffs confirmed that this was Bingo Wesher, who tended sheep on the eastern part of the property. He, too, recalled seeing the Impala. He also saw Gasser and Connley’s red pickup go by.

     After their encounter with the Yours, Connley and Gasser give us more pertinent information. Loaded up, they pulled out and drove off toward Gasser’s ranch, heading in the Benicia direction. It was between 11:05 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. Connley reported that the Rambler was in a very different position, toward the south side of the pump station entrance. They both returned to Gasser’s ranch and hung-out for an hour or so.

       Mr. James Owen next comes into the picture. He, too, contacted he police. At 11:20 p.m. that night he had driven past the entrance to the pumping station, coming from Vallejo, going toward Benicia. He noticed 2 cars at the turnout. One was the Rambler station wagon. It was parked where the earlier witnesses, Homer and Peggier Your, had located it, facing easterly, not where Connley said it was parked. Parked along its passenger side, about 5 feet from it, was another car. He could not identify it by model or year, but it was a dark car, not too big, not compact, little chrome finishings. Curiously, he did not notice anybody in either car or anybody about.

     One quarter of a mile down the road he heard what he thought was a gunshot.

     Taken together, the chain of events show that James Owen passed by extremely close to the shooting.

     Due to the fact there was no motive, the report of young William Crow was taken as relevant. Earlier that night, sometime between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., he was driving his girlfriend in her new sports car. He had pulled off at the pumping station turnout and was adjusting the carburetor when a blue car, possibly a Plymouth Valiant, drove past heading toward Vallejo. It stopped in the middle of the road. Then it started backing up. It backed up slowly enough to appear menacing. Crow hopped in the car and sped off. The Valiant, amazingly, pursued, which meant the driver had to have turned around. Moreover, it also followed him at a high rate of speed. It did not try to overtake him, but remained pacing at an acceptable distance behind. Crow turned off on the road to Benicia. The Valiant continued on. He thought there were two white males in the car.

     Continuing investigation by the Sheriff’s department revealed no possible motive for the killing. This was Betty Lou Jensen’s first date. David Faraday was new to her life. Nothing tied the two to anything that would motivate the joint killing. Faraday supposedly knew someone who was pushing dope and was allegedly going to turn him in. This contretemps was possibly overheard at the IHOP on Tennessee Street in Vallejo. But it was not confirmed in the actual Sheriff’s report. But more plausibility was accorded the idea that a lovesick boy might have been jealous enough to take vengeance on Betty Lou. There was that strange fact that Faraday’s class ring was almost removed from his finger. But no proof could be found to implicate the secret admirer. The end result was an unsolved killing. Suspect was unknown; motive unknown.

     This wasn’t new. The 1960s saw America inducted into the crime of pointless murders. The Boston Strangler had shocked the nation. Illinois saw bold stabbings and beatings of people in their own homes, one victim was even a senator elect’s daughter. Murders were no longer the exclusive provenance of cheap hoods, mob gunsels and bank robbers. They occurred without reason. They plagued the middle class, and the killers faded away into obscurity. San Francisco, too, was in the throes of the counterculture movement. Hippies, Yippies, all sorts of strange people were flocking to the city and living in love-ins and communes. Society was quite worried about drug use and your now all-too-common everyday wacko.

     There was, of course, no reason for the detectives to suspect the beginning of a serial killing spree. The investigators in the first of what becomes a serial killing spree are always at a disadvantage, for none know that the crime will lead to more. They must pursue angles and avenues they otherwise would not bother with if they already knew the serial killer’s MO. The Sheriffs did an excellent investigation here. They may have drawn stick men, but they got down the measurements of significant points of the crime scene down to the inch. 

     The evidence they put together allows us to draw a certain chain of events, a chain that will become more relevant when it became apparent that a serial killer was beginning his spree. Police photos, sketches and evidence show that the Rambler is not parked up against the fence as some police sketches have hitherto shown. One picture is particularly valuable.   

This photo is taken from quite a distance in front of the car. Yet we see none of the fencing that divided the property from the turnout, which is also visible in the first photos on this page.

     The picture above causes us to ask many questions. Did Faraday start to back out after the mystery car pulled up next to him? Did the killer put the bullet holes in the car to stop him?  These questions and more nag at one when the detailed sketch of the crime scene, drawn that night, is compared to those that were amended according to later witness descriptions. This sketch, left, even carries the measurements from significant landmarks, such as the telephone pole. It is also noteworthy for placing the car further from the fence toward the center of the turnout, as it seems to appear in the photograph.  Due to the fact that the turnout has been drastically changed today, it is difficult to recreate the exact positions. But it could be that Faraday reacted quickly when another car pulled up to get out of there. We must remember that just by being swept by the Your’s headlights he had put his hands on the wheel. With a car pulling up next to him and the driver getting out, he would no doubt call it a night. According to Jensen’s mother, he was supposed to have her home around 11 p.m. anyway.

     The position of the Rambler would also suggest that the killer acted quickly.

     The problem, of course, is not that James Owen says the cars were parked alongside each other but that he could not see anybody in either car. Where would they have been? Knowing the area, it would be hard to imagine that he would not have seen them crouching between the cars, if this is where the killer held them at gunpoint to keep them still.

     Yet we know the killer murdered them by standing in between the cars. Yet we also know he could not have shot out their rear window from that position.

     From the evidence, we can suggest a certain chain of events. For one, due to that one shell casing found 20 feet from where Faraday lay, it is logical to assume that this casing represents one of the first shots fired. Tests have shown that .22 caliber automatic pistols have a tendency to discharge their casings toward the rear of the shooter. The position of this particular casing indicates the killer must have stood toward the rear of his own car.The killer must have gotten out of his car and walked to its rear, perhaps as a feint. Faraday started backing out. Perhaps the killer fired once into the air and ordered them out of the car. One bullet was never found. When they didn’t get out, or when Faraday started and put it into gear, he may have approached closer and fired two rounds into the car.

     The question is . . .why?

     Robert Graysmith in his book Zodiac suggested the shots fired into the car were designed to chase the occupants out; that the killer fired the shots into the passenger side and then ran around to the driver’s side and fired the gun into Faraday’s head as he was getting out the passenger side. However, the evidence does not allow this. There is no report of blood splattering in the car. The front driver’s side door was supposedly also found locked. Faraday also did not fall out the passenger side door. He had fallen by the back tire, his left foot almost touching it. Faraday appears to have been shot execution style, point blank into the side of the head. Since he lay with his arms fallen over his head, one hand and sleeve in the pool of blood by his head, he may have been told to clasp his hands behind his neck or head or simply keep them raised. This would explain why the killer fired through the top of his ear point blank. He could also have resisted and been punched, thereby accounting for a bulge supposedly on his jaw. He might have been shot while lying on the ground.

     The killer obviously ordered them out of the passenger side. He must have told them to keep their hands up. After he shot Faraday either he told Jensen to run or she bolted off. He then fired repeatedly and brought her down quickly. Since the casings were closely grouped here, by Faraday, the killer never advanced beyond the space between his car and the Rambler. While ejecting, the casings must have bounced off both cars and remained in the space between both vehicles. One ejected into the passenger side of the Rambler, through the open door, and was found on the floorboard.

     It is possible therefore that the killer, after firing 1 shot in the air and 2 shots into the car, ordered the youths to come out the passenger side with their arms up. He approached. Perhaps he ordered them down when Owen’s car passed. Perhaps Owen simply hadn’t seen them in their cars. Perhaps the shot that Owen heard was the first shot in the air. Perhaps it was the lone shot that mortally wounded Faraday. Whatever happened, the killer must have summarily dispatched Faraday with a bullet to his head.  

     The killer was particularly cowardly. Ballistics say that 3 of the bullets passed through Jensen, one with sufficient force to perforate her dress in front on exit. There was only one grain of gunpowder on her dress by the topmost hole in the grouping of five bullet holes in her back. Presumably this was the first shot. The killer must have fired less than a second after she fled, the muzzle being close enough to thrust one grain of powder on the dress. The killer gave her no chance to run even more than a few feet before he fired. It takes but a few seconds to run the short distance where the body was found from the side of the car where Jensen commenced. She must have staggered after the first shot, the killer holding his aim on her and repeatedly firing into her back, thus explaining the grouping. The Sheriff’s report states that her escape path was “blood splattered.” It is hard to imagine that blood could splatter in just a couple of seconds unless she staggered. The fact she fell backward indicates she was barely moving at the end when he pumped the last shots into her and she fell back.

     (ALTERNATE:  I visited the Vallejo Historical Museum on Tuesday, September 11, 2012, to get more information and photographs circa 1969 in my quest to document the crime and other relevant scenes in detail. My visit was very successful. Two of the docents knew those involved in the Lake Herman Road murders. One had just been talking with Stella Medeiros. The other, Mike, was a schoolmate of David’s, though a year his senior. He told me that David had been a school wrestler. This answers significant points at the crime scene. With 2 bullet holes in his car, David must have known the score. I suspect he tried to wrestle ZODIAC. This would explain the chalk outline of his body showing he was laying down in a way that doesn’t suggest he fell down. It would also explain why his class ring was almost off his finger. It must have come loose during his clutching and re-clutching on the killer. The ZODIAC could have held him down and put the gun to his head and made them both remain quiet until Owen passed. David Faraday must have realized the consequences. His last words could have been “Run!” The ZODIAC shoots point blank. Jensen takes off. He jumps up and fires in time to get one grain of powder on her dress by the bullet hole. The rest would be the same as above. The physics of forward momentum cannot be violated. Jensen fell back into her own bloody wake. She must only have been staggering and then, finally, lurching at the end when the ZODIAC pumped the last bullet in her that made her back cave and she fell backward. David did not go like sheep to the slaughter, but quit himself well.)

     There is a contradiction in the Sheriff’s ballistic and autopsy reports concerning Jensen, but it is not beyond the usual contradictions that can occur in official reports. Ballistics say there was only 1 exit hole for a bullet in the front of the dress. The Sheriff’s report says that 3 bullets passed through the body, with two holes in the front of the dress and one bullet remaining lodged in the panties and not perforating the dress. The police reports also states that one of the bullets exited her stomach and dropped down through her dress. 

     From the chain of sightings that witnesses give us, we must deduce that the killer came from Vallejo. Medeiros herself came from that direction. She actually placed herself at the scene around 11:15 p.m.  This is a bit too early, but she must have missed Owen by only a couple of minutes and the killer by less than that. Since no car passed her going to Vallejo, the killer must have driven on to Benicia. The turnout comes upon one far more precipitously when coming from Benicia. A car turning into it from this direction would most likely leave tire marks in a sweeping motion on the gravel whereas from Vallejo the turnout presents itself easily of the right side of the road. (Coming from Benicia See Video.) Coming from Vallejo, See Video.)

     How the killer pulled out is another question. Presumably, he drove in the open space between the rear of the Rambler and Jensen’s body. One would think that the tires would transfer some blood from the gravel, since he would have to cross her bloodstained path. Perhaps that was not checked. But even drops of blood would have shown some disturbance from a tire.

     Over 6 months went by. The terrible slaying at Lake Herman Road began to fade. Then something else happened.