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The ZODIAC speaks. Indeed. Speech was most of his game. The murders were only a means to an end. That’s all he valued others’ lives. His murders were a move in his game. His acts reveal his arrogance. His speech reveals his arrogance. His introduction was a haughty dictum: “This is the Zodiac Speaking.” He didn’t just sign his name or symbol. He introduced himself so all would pay special attention to the missive. The king hath spoken it. He was indeed the gamester of death announcing the new installment of his game of Murder and Seek.
But as with all who speak too much, they reveal more than they learn. It is at this, his speech, we must look in order to catch a clue, perhaps the clue to unraveling his identity.
We can’t look at the execution of his killings. They were quite sloppy, even clumsy, some having all the appearance of random, spontaneous murders. But his speech tells us more. In his speech we see the reflection of how carefully ZODIAC took his game. It tells us more of his game and more therefore of him. We’ve been sidetracked by the clumsiness of his killings to such an extent we’ve overlooked the pattern of his speech. And this pattern reveals what is probably his most brilliant albeit fiendish inspiration: The ZODIAC probably didn’t live anywhere within a hundred miles of the Bay Area, perhaps even hundreds of miles.
Let’s summarize some quick chronology here.
The ZODIAC strikes on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, just outside the
north Bay Area city of Vallejo.
The ZODIAC takes no credit for this brutal murder of 2 teens until over 6 months later.
The ZODIAC’s next strike is on July 4, 1969. One of the two victims dies. More to
the point here is that ZODIAC calls the police and takes credit. Yet he is remarkably
ignorant of directions, time of travel and even the actual name of the famous park where
he had just gunned down two youths.
July 31, 1969, just under one month later, The ZODIAC starts his game. Three nearly
identical letters arrive at 3 separate Bay Area newspapers— The Vallejo Times
Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner. With each one
there is one third of a cipher. He demands they publish this cipher on their front pages
by the afternoon of Friday the 1st of August or he will go on a “kill rampage.” The
papers duly oblige.
Granted, it would take him a while to formulate his game, create and compose his cipher and childish message, but a month interim still remains quite some time. Moreover, he seems to have been unexpectedly delayed in mailing his letters. They are postmarked on the last day of July, but his demand inside them is to be met by the afternoon of the next day. There is no reason for him to think that all papers would have waded through their mail overnight and found his letters in time.
August 4, 1969, the next letter comes in. This is to the San Francisco Chronicle. This
is the first time he introduces himself with “This is the Zodiac Speaking.” The body of
the letter is devoted to convincing them he really is the killer of Dec. 20, ’68 & July 4.
Once again there is a dearth. The ZODIAC says nothing until September 27, 1969.
The ZODIAC strikes at Lake Berryessa. He says many things here believing both his
victims will die and we will be none-the-wiser. But he fails again and a victim survives to
tell us of his theatrical hood and zodiac symbol. He boasts of his strike in the form of
keeping score of all his killings on the passenger side door of the victim’s car. He wrote
in an felt marker.
No letter is forthcoming. Rather, he strikes again.
Far afield again, The ZODIAC strikes in San Francisco. He breaks his previous MO of
killing young couples to kill point blank a single cab driver. This is the first time he has
not attacked a couple. There is no phone call again.
October 13, 1969, a letter arrives at the Chronicle. Along with the letter, The
ZODIAC has mailed a bloodied piece of the slain cab driver’s shirt as proof that he is
indeed the killer.
There is another long dearth. Then:
November 8, 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle receives a tongue-in-cheek
“dripping pen” card. With it is a new cipher. He warns, also tongue-in-cheek, that if it
is not published he might go out and “do his thing” again. This one is not cracked.
November 9, 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle receives a long letter from him. He
describes how he may start placing time bombs at certain locations.
There is once again a space of time. Then on:
December 20, 1969, (anniversary of the Lake Herman Road murders) he sends a
letter to San Francisco’s flamboyant attorney Melvin Belli.
Then there is a long dearth until:
April 20th, 1970. In this letter he finally asks if they ever cracked the last cipher he
sent them (on November 9, 1969).
April 28, 1970, he sends another greeting card to the Chronicle.
Months pass yet again.
June 26, 1970, a short letter with another short cipher at the bottom is received at the
Chronicle.
July 24, 1970, one month later, another short note is received at the Chronicle. Now
months after-the-fact he takes credit for a dubious kidnapping of a woman and her
baby back in March.
The pattern of November 8 & 9, 1969, repeats itself now. On July 26, 1970, a long
letter is received by the Chronicle.
Months pass.
October 5, 1970, another tasteless card, with tongue-in-cheek sentiment, comes into
the Chronicle. The ZODIAC now claims 13 victims.
October 27, 1970, The ZODIAC’s Halloween Card is received at the Chronicle.
Months pass.
March 13, 1971, The ZODIAC sends a letter to the Los Angeles Times, boasting
of more unverified victims, bragging he is “crack proof,” and taking credit for the
Cheri Jo Bates cold case murder of 1966. He claims there are many more down in
southern California that the police know nothing about.
March 22, 1971, only a week later, another card is received boasting of having been
responsible for the disappearance of nurse, Donna Lass, in Tahoe.
Nothing for years until:
January 29, 1974, when the Chronicle receives his critique of the movie The
Exorcist.
Then two weeks later a little note on February 14, 1979.
Months go by.
May 8, 1974, a little card concerning the movie “Badlands.”
Two months later:
July 8, 1974, the “Red Phantom” Letter.
Then there is no more.
The pattern I wish to highlight here is several fold. One, the killings follow a strange spread and then grouping. The first murder (Lake Herman Road) in December 1968 is followed by nothing for 6 months until July 1969. The September murders are almost 3 months later. The last murder but a couple of weeks after that.
The killings are always on a weekend.
In the case of the Lake Herman Road murders we have a clue. From the timing provided by travelers in other cars, we deduce he must have fled toward Benicia— in other words, to the south.
Question: What if he kept on going? What if he continued on past the bridge, the city of Martinez, and even the whole Bay Area, and drove south on 680 to 101?
The same can be said for his strike at Lake Berryessa. He drives south for about an hour to Napa.
From the phone calls ZODIAC made (July 4 and Sept. 27, 1969), we know he had a minimal familiarity with the locations. After the attack at Blue Rock Springs, ZODIAC speaks for the first time, but he also reveals his ignorance of Blue Rock Springs’ very famous name. This is reiterated in a letter he sends in which he says he killed the kids near the golf course (Blue Rock Springs Golf Course is on the other side of Columbus Parkway). He is also very poor with directions, time of travel, and points of the compass when describing to the police where the park’s parking lot is. The same can be said at Napa. He has the operator call the Napa Police (wrong jurisdiction), not the sheriffs, and tells them the attack was north of Park Headquarters. Napa must guess he means Lake Berryessa. They immediately inform the sheriffs. ZODIAC once again misjudges distance in describing the location in relation to the headquarters. After Napa, what if ZODIAC continued to drive south and pick up Highway 80 or 680 and continue south, passing through the Bay Area, and continuing still further?
I ask this for a number of reasons. More than anything his letters support the theory he does not live around the Bay Area. Rather, they reveal groupings that indicate they are mailed as he is passing through or staying for short periods. When he sends one letter in the Bay Area, another one follows shortly, sometimes only a day or two after. Then there is a break. Sometimes there is a long break. The ZODIAC also seems remarkably unfamiliar with what transpires in San Francisco during those dearths he is not sending letters. For instance, he takes credit for the Kathleen Johns encounter months after-the-fact, but he had made no mention of it in previous letters that were written and received in April, much closer to the time of the supposed incident in March 1970. It’s as if he had only recently heard about it. He mentions one thing in his letter about the Johns’ incident which only appeared in the Modesto Bee, a city that serves the heartland of California and the foothills.
All the letters bear a postmark in San Francisco until March 13, 1971, when he sends a letter to the Los Angeles Times, in which he takes credit for the Cheri Jo Bates murder and boasts of more in southern California. This letter is postmarked Pleasanton, a town in the far East Bay along Highway 680. It is not my contention that he was heading south out of the Bay Area when he mailed the letter, but that he was arriving in the Bay Area along 680 after having been in southern California or in some heartland (San Joaquin Valley) city where the LA Times might also have been found. He writes his letter there, takes it with him, and mails it while passing through the Bay Area. This gives the appearance he is still residing in the Bay Area. His next letter is only a week away and is postmarked San Francisco. His July 8, 1974, letter is postmarked San Rafael, a North Bay city on the way to and from the farming communities of Novato, Petaluma and Santa Rosa.
My ultimate point being, of course, that ZODIAC was in the general area of the Bay Area on business or passing through. Perhaps it was farm business or other rural business. He could have lived in the heartland of California, around Fresno or Bakersfield, or even along the coast in Santa Barbara County. The unsolved double murder of Domingos and Edwards occurred there on June 4, 1963. No other killing bears as canny a resemblance to The Zodiac Murders in the Bay Area as this double murder of a teen couple.
There is more support for the idea The ZODIAC worked in a rural or farming enterprise. The survivor at Lake Berryessa, Brian Hartnell, described the assailant as wearing obsolete pants— peg-leg with pleats— hardly the fashion for 1969. He also seemed uneducated and spoke with a subtle but not identifiable drawl. SFPD Officer Don Fouke also described the suspect after the Stine murder on October 11. He said he was wearing dark pants that were baggy in the rear, matching the style of pants Hartnell described. These would be out-of-place in any occupation but the semi-casual world of a rural business. They would so stand out at the time that it seems unlikely someone would not report such a man wearing them in any other business and if he lived in the Bay Area.
We must follow this thread of reasoning with the SFPD sketch. The consistent corrections in the Amended Sketch support the idea it is a very good composite. The kids saw The ZODIAC from a second story window. Their directed sketch of him gives us a more angular face, longer, thinner nose and smaller ears— exactly what we should suspect eyewitnesses would see at that downward angle. Fouke also saw the assailant with his head down, but not to the same extent. The Amended Sketch, based on his input, gives us a fuller face, shorter nose and larger ears. These corrections, all consistent with the different angle, support the assertion that the sketch is very good, and the final Amended Sketch gives us a better level-on view of ZODIAC.
Put together, The ZODIAC should have been a suspect that informants would recognize and tun in. Yet none did. Could this be that ZODIAC lived nowhere near the Bay Area? In what rural occupation could someone routinely visit the outlying areas of the Bay Area and not have to have much contact with local people?
The ZODIAC could have carefully composed his letters in southern or central California and then post them while passing through San Francisco’s Bay Area or while visiting a relative while on business in the San Fran area. His letters bear San Francisco postmarks, usually PM, with 2 notable exceptions. These 2 are postmarked from towns— San Rafael and Pleasanton— which lie along main arteries through the Bay Area, to and from the farming communities.
There is, in fact, very little, if any, evidence that indicates The ZODIAC was excessively familiar with the Bay Area beyond that of a frequent traveler through it and a few areas of its back roads.
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