Arthur Leigh Allen

Born 18th December 1933 Died 26th August 1992
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 18th 1933, Arthur Leigh Allen became probably the most scrutinized of all the suspects attached to the case, but to this day the crime remains unsolved. Allen was also the only suspect to be served with search warrants by police.
But as yet no definitive evidence has directly implicated him in any of the crimes, despite several key pieces of circumstantial evidence pointing in his direction. Moreover, DNA and fingerprints lifted from several items connected with the crimes have failed to produce any match, including fingerprints retrieved from the taxicab murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 and a palm print lifted from the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974 - and in 2002 DNA (now widely discredited) extracted from stamps and envelopes from the Zodiac letters failed to implicate Allen or his former friend Don Cheney.

Don Cheney was the first to alert police to Allen as a possible suspect, after numerous conversations he had with Allen apparently suggested a link to the crimes, with Allen supposedly telling Cheney he wanted to 'kill couples at random', 'call himself Zodiac' and 'would use a flashlight attached to his gun to aid hunting at night'.

Another discrepancy attaching Allen to the Zodiac crimes is the fact the best known composite sketch of the killer bore little, if any resemblance to Arthur Leigh Allen. He also underwent handwriting tests that the police had prepared for him using the relevant pens and involving particular words found in the letters, with a handwriting expert determining there was no correlation between the Zodiac letters and the handwriting Allen submitted to them.

However, Allen did own a Zodiac watch adorned with the now infamous crosshairs symbol, given to him by his mother in 1967, and had connections with the US Navy after enlisting in 1957, which could have linked him to the 10.5 size Wing Walkers military style boot found to have made the footprint impressions during the Lake Berryessa attack on Bryan Calvin Hartnell and Cecelia Ann Shepard - and Allen wore 10.5 shoes. Additionally, in a confession to police, he revealed he was in possession of knives covered in blood on the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, but stated they were used to kill a chicken. On October 6th 1969, ten days after the Lake Berryessa attack, Sergeant John Lynch from the Vallejo Police Department interviewed Arthur Leigh Allen, with Allen stating that he traveled to Salt Point Ranch, located on the coast due west of Napa, on September 26th 1969 for a spot of scuba diving.

CLICK TO EXPAND

On September 27th 1969, the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, he claimed he returned to the Vallejo area and remained at home for the rest of the day. During further investigation, on August 4th 1971, Detective Jack Mulanax, along with Inspectors Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong headed to the place Arthur Leigh Allen now worked, an oil refinery in Pinole, California, made famous for the restroom interview featured in the 2007 movie Zodiac. He was once again questioned about his movements during the day of the Lake Berryessa attack, recalling his prior interview with Sergeant John Lynch, claiming that he had made conversation with a service man and his wife that day. Furthermore, he claimed he had spoken to an elderly neighbor William White in Vallejo at approximately 4:00 pm that afternoon. However, this could not be corroborated because William White had died only a week after this alleged conversation. They noticed he was wearing a Zodiac watch with the crossed circle logo. Allen appeared eager to divulge information, no matter that it only seemed to draw suspicion toward him.

Murder of Cheri Jo Bates

He stated he had read 'The Most Dangerous Game' at high school and had also been in the region of Riverside, California - an area possibly connected to the Zodiac case with respect to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates alongside the Riverside City College library on October 30th 1966 - and then parted with a veiled insult, looking forward to a time "when people no longer referred to police officers as pigs".

Investigators interviewed Arthur Leigh Allen's sister-in-law, Karen Allen, to collect as much information they could on their prime suspect - and although she found the Zodiac connection unlikely, Allen had some unsettling issues with children, apparently unable to cement any meaningful relationships with women of his own age. After being shown several pieces of Zodiac correspondence, in particular the Melvin Belli letter mailed to the Belli residence at 1228 Montgomery Street in San Francisco on December 20th 1969, it was claimed she pointed out that her brother-in-law would condense the spoken phrase "trigger mechanism" to "trigger mech", as well as having received a Christmas greeting card from Arthur Leigh Allen using the double 'S' spelling of Christmas. She also alluded to the fact that Arthur Leigh Allen was left-handed, but had learned to write with his right hand under pressure from his schoolteachers. Arthur Leigh Allen's brother, Ronald Allen, believed it was unlikely that Donald Cheney would make up stories if they were not correct. Their were further stories that Donald Cheney had confided to Ron that Arthur Leigh Allen had made an inappropriate sexual advance (involving touching the child) concerning one of his children, but in an interview by Tom Voigt with Donald Cheney's daughter it was revealed that this molestation never happened, with Donald Cheney remaining friends Allen years after the alleged assault. Therefore, the claims that Donald Cheney sent investigators in the direction of Arthur Leigh Allen as a form of revenge, does not hold any water.

He also owned a Royal typewriter, which police removed from Allen's home - similar to the one that produced the 'Confession' letter in connection to the unsolved stabbing of Cheri Jo Bates outside the Riverside City College Library on October 30th 1966, plus he was identified as the killer by Michael Mageau who survived the attack at the Blue Rock

THE FOOTPRINTS AT BERRYESSA. CLICK THE IMAGE TO EXAMINE IN LIGHTBOX

Springs Park in Vallejo on July 4th 1969. However, this identification from a photographic line-up more than two decades later (1991) was inherently flawed.

His residence at 32 Fresno Street was located just 10 minutes walk from the payphone at the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street, where the Zodiac made his first payphone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover just 40 minutes after the attack on Michael Mageau and the murder of Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th 1969. Both the Blue Rock Springs attack and the double murder at Lake Herman Road were within a 15 minute driving distance from the Fresno Street residence. For approximately six months, Allen was employed at the Arco Service Station in Vallejo before he was dismissed in the April of 1969, with his employer citing Allen's drinking problem and an unhealthy interest in small girls.

Darlene Ferrin murdered at Blue Rock Springs

Darlene Ferrin had worked at the International House of Pancakes on Tennessee Street, Vallejo, situated about one block, or short walking distance from the Arthur Leigh Allen residence at 32 Fresno St. A police report at the time highlighted that somebody by the name of 'Lee' was apparently often seen in the company of Darlene Ferrin. Don Cheney, a close associate of Arthur Leigh Allen, stated that Allen had mentioned to him that he was fond of a waitress at that restaurant. Arthur Leigh Allen often went by the name of 'Lee', actually spelling it in the shortened version.

Met by Detective George Bawart at Ontario Airport in California on August 16th 1991, Michael Mageau picked out Arthur Leigh Allen from a photographic line-up of 1968 driver's licenses, but this was undertaken twenty-two years after the attack at Blue Rock Springs Park, so has little evidentiary value. He also requested the search warrant for Allen's Santa Rosa trailer in Sunset Park in 1991, activated by Inspector Bill Armstrong and granted by a Sanoma County judge. When inspectors David Toschi and Bill Armstrong first arrived at the trailer park Allen was not at home, however, when they entered they found dead squirrels in a freezer, sexually explicit items and reading material scattered throughout. But more importantly, on Allen's return, were able to leave with samples of his handwriting which were later used to compare to the Zodiac letters. View the police report regarding the interview with Arthur Leigh Allen at the Sunset Trailer Park.

Between 1970 and 1974 Allen attended Sanoma State College, approximately thirty miles northeast of Pinole. It was this area that became synonymous with the coed killings or Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders that began on February 4th 1972 with the murders of Maureen Louise Sterling (12) and Yvonne Lisa Webber (12), who disappeared while hitchhiking along the Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa. The murders may have drawn to a close with the killing of Theresa Walsh (23) at Mark West Creek, a thirty-mile stream in Sanoma County on December 22nd 1973. All told, claiming the lives of at least seven women, but likely more. Allen was known for his predatory instincts. The Sunset Trailer Park in Santa Rosa lies close to the hitchhiker murders.

Santa Rosa trailer

On September 27th 1974 Allen was arrested by the Sanoma County Sheriff's Department for child molestation involving a young boy and sentenced on March 14th 1975. During this time period the Zodiac letters ceased, but after his release from the Atascadero State Hospital on August 31st 1977, the resumption of what is claimed to be another Zodiac one page letter surfaced on April 24th 1978, stating "I am back with you". SEE 1978 LETTER

Allen had also previously been fired from a teaching position at Valley Springs Elementary School for child molestation in 1968, the run up period before the first murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968 at Lake Herman Road in Benicia.

Click image to view 408 Cipher.

He also stated that his favorite story was 'The Most Dangerous Game', bearing in mind this was partially mentioned in the 408 cipher (man is the most dangerous animal). This short story by Richard Connell, first published in 1924, chronicled a man called General Zaroff who lived on Ship-Trap Island, where he indulged in capturing shipwrecked sailors, equipping them with a hunting knife and food, before releasing them with a three-hour head start. The "prey" would then be hunted down for sport by Zaroff until they were killed. However, if they survived for three days he would grant them their freedom.

General Zaroff had become bored with just hunting wild animals because as he alluded, it posed no challenge - with the 408 cipher stating "I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest".

In the November 9th 1969 Bus Bomb letter, the Zodiac stated ''What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use' and 'Take one bag of ammonium nitrate fertilizer + 1 gal of stove oil & dump a few bags of gravel on top + then set the shit off + will positivily ventalate any thing that should be in the way of the blast". On February 14th 1991, the Vallejo Police Department armed with a search warrant entered the basement of Allen's Vallejo residence, where they found bomb making diagrams, including the use of oil and ammonium nitrate, pipe bombs and a host of incriminating evidence - but Allen claimed they had been left there by a third party. No charges were filed against him as a result of their findings.

In the 2007 Zodiac Killer documentary His Name was Arthur Leigh Allen, George Bawart, a former Vallejo Police Department officer, commissioned with investigating the prime suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, discusses how he was approached by Ralph Spinelli in 1989. Ralph Spinelli, described by George Bawart as a small time crook from Vallejo, furnished him with an interesting story involving Arthur Leigh Allen, namely that he was approached by the aforementioned subject outside one of his nightclubs in Fairfield, California called the 'Crazy Horse Saloon'. Arthur Leigh Allen allegedly said to him that he could offer his assistance to Spinelli as a form of hitman, following this up by claiming "I'm Zodiac", and stating that he could kill people and take credit for it. Ralph Spinelli, rejecting Allen out of hand, was supposedly further told "I'll prove to you I'm telling the truth, I'll kill someone in San Francisco and you'll know its me".

Also, Donald Cheney, who first alerted police to his former friend as the likely Zodiac Killer, recalled Arthur Leigh Allen mentioning an Agatha Christie book, with which he had developed an interest in due to its intricate plotline. He said that Allen had not mentioned the book by name, but Cheney had identified it at a later date upon reading it. The book was called the ABC Murders.

In one of his final interviews, Arthur Leigh Allen rejected the notion he was Zodiac, talked of the police searches and refuted the claims by Ralph Spinelli, stating "They took a lot of my tapes, samples of my handwriting and screwed up a lot of my stuff here too, but they didn't take that. They took a couple of typewriters. I know who the guy was (referring to Spinelli), I never said a word to him, I didn't like the punk, and I said this guy must be on the hot seat for something, and they said (the police), 'Oh no, he just phoned down and volunteered this information.' When I found out the next day by a different police officer that yes he sure had, he was trying to plea bargain his 30 year rap on multiple armed robberies. I couldn't murder anyone, it's difficult as hell, and it can be terribly depressing....and if I deserved any of it, that would be something different, but I don't. There are two types of liars in the world, fishermen and policemen, and not necessarily in that order. And their function is lying to you, as to trip you up. They can't do it to me because I have nothing to trip over. I am not the Zodiac Killer. I know that, I know that deep in my soul. I've never been known for good luck, and I guess this is pretty much living proof of it. I couldn't murder anyone". Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch/1991.

Arthur Leigh Allen's residence 1980

The police had Allen on their radar for the Blue Rock Springs attack after Mageau identified Allen as the killer, but one month later Arthur Leigh Allen was found dead on the floor of his 32 Fresno Street, Vallejo residence.

Arthur Leigh Allen died of arteriosclerotic heart failure, brought about by diabetic renal failure on August 26th 1992. Although DNA and fingerprints (in particular, the blooded print lifted from Paul Stine's taxicab) provided no correlation and all appear to rule him out as a suspect, the book has not been closed on him by either the Vallejo or San Francisco Police Department.

Detective George Bawart would later say "The only reason I look in that direction and I am 95 percent sure it was him, is because so many coincidences point in his direction. What really bothers me about this case is that we were ready to charge Arthur Leigh Allen, with the idea in mind that it would be taken to trial so that 12 jurors could make that determination. But he died before we could do that".

In the subsequent years to 1978, Arthur Leigh Allen worked several jobs and spent a few years employed at Ace Hardware by Tennessee and Amador Streets in Vallejo. His role was a buyer for the garden and tool departments and will be remembered being portrayed by John Carroll Lynch in the closing scene of the David Fincher 2007 Zodiac movie, when amateur sleuth Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, enters the Ace Hardware store to set eyes on the man he is utterly convinced is the Zodiac Killer. But according to Robert Graysmith, the real story unfolded like so: "I'm following (Allen) around in an orange Volkswagen Rabbit and I park outside of Ace Hardware and obviously he's seen me from the big window and so I'm parked and he pulls alongside me so I can't get my door open and he gives me this look like you wouldn't believe".

Robert Graysmith was a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle when the Zodiac Killer story broke, becoming obsessed with the unfolding mystery - an obsession that would eventually cost him his marriage. His fascination with the case, along with detailed information he has collected down the years, led him to write his first Zodiac book, released in 1986, before following this up with Zodiac Unmasked in 2002. Robert Graysmith became utterly convinced of Arthur Leigh Allen's guilt, who he referred to under the pseudonym 'Robert Hall Starr' in his early writings, until the real name emerged after Allen's death in 1992. However, despite Allen being cleared forensically, Robert Graysmith was not about to drop his interest in a man he had vested so much interest into, not withstanding the two books he had painstakingly compiled.

In a later interview he stated that the Zodiac letters had been stored in plastic envelopes, enduring extremes of temperature for many decades, along with being handled by many people, thereby arguing his suspect was still a viable candidate for the Bay Area murders because evidence preservation of yesteryear was not as stringent by today's standards. He also questions that the Zodiac Killer would ever have licked a stamp, even back in 1969 - for although DNA testing was not available, the ability to procure blood type from the analysis of saliva was - and doubts that an intelligent killer, wearing gloves to conceal fingerprints, would not have been aware of this fact. Robert Graysmith has come under widespread criticism for his many inaccuracies and embellishments regarding the Zodiac case, but it must also be remembered that his contribution, is why we are, where we are today. His contribution to the Zodiac Killer story, without doubt, kept the case alive in the public domain.

Google Map view of the distance between 32 Fresno Street and the payphone at Springs and Tuolumne.
Robert Graysmith - Zodiac Unmasked http://murders.ru/zodiac%20unmasked.pdf
VIEW ZODIAC DOCUMENTARY- THIS IS THE ZODIAC SPEAKING