'sZodiac's Age, like a lot of other things about Him, is open to speculation and/or interpretation dependant upon who it is Your asking. Some will insist that this killer, like the FBI statistics seem to imply, will be a White Male, Mid Twenties to Early Thirties. He will, most say, fall within the 'Expected' age range that the FBI Profilers suggest Serial Killers will be when they begin their reign of terror. However, lets not turn to statistic, let's not rely on odds of probability, let's use the facts as we know them to be to determine what the likely age of this offender was in 1969.
First, let's look at Bryan Hartnell and His comments. It is commonly mis-quoted that He suggested His hooded attacker had a young and youthful sounding voice. This, like many other things in the Zodiac case, is untrue. First, Bryan was asked to go along to listen to the voice that called in to the Jim Dunbar show claiming to be the Zodiac Killer. Here is what Bryan said after being played the recording...
"That's not Him. The voice on that tape isn't even in the range of what I remember the Zodiac's voice as sounding like. The voice of the man who stabbed me was much deeper and older sounding than that man on that recording." The article continues and states that Bryan's opinion was: "Backed up by Napa's David Slaight and Vallejo's Nancy Slover who both had also heard the voice of the real killer."
So, that is age recognition via audible educated guessing, lets now turn to actual eye witnesses recollection of Z for age approximation. This eye witness is a witness with extra credibility! He isn't just your average man on the street eye witness, this is a trained observer and SFPD Patrol Officer, Donald Fouke. Lets examine both a statement He made mid Nineteen Eighties and then again in 2007. First, the earlier of the two:
"The individual I saw that Night was a White Male Adult, Thirty Five to Forty Five Years of age, Five ft Ten and weighing approx. 180 to 210lbs." Straight forward enough, in a nut shell, a middle aged white guy. Let's go to 2007:
"I noticed, on the North side of the street, A White Male Adult wearing a derby, or three quarter waist length jacket that had elastic at the waist and on the cuffs and regular flap down collar. He had a crew cut, He was wearing rust coloured pleated trousers which were unusual for that time. He had on engineering type boot, a lot cut show, tan in colour." Fouke gave no Approx. Age audibly here but a composite was shown while He described the male. This was the face of the WMA as remembered by Don Fouke, the trained observer:
First, let's look at Bryan Hartnell and His comments. It is commonly mis-quoted that He suggested His hooded attacker had a young and youthful sounding voice. This, like many other things in the Zodiac case, is untrue. First, Bryan was asked to go along to listen to the voice that called in to the Jim Dunbar show claiming to be the Zodiac Killer. Here is what Bryan said after being played the recording...
"That's not Him. The voice on that tape isn't even in the range of what I remember the Zodiac's voice as sounding like. The voice of the man who stabbed me was much deeper and older sounding than that man on that recording." The article continues and states that Bryan's opinion was: "Backed up by Napa's David Slaight and Vallejo's Nancy Slover who both had also heard the voice of the real killer."
So, that is age recognition via audible educated guessing, lets now turn to actual eye witnesses recollection of Z for age approximation. This eye witness is a witness with extra credibility! He isn't just your average man on the street eye witness, this is a trained observer and SFPD Patrol Officer, Donald Fouke. Lets examine both a statement He made mid Nineteen Eighties and then again in 2007. First, the earlier of the two:
"The individual I saw that Night was a White Male Adult, Thirty Five to Forty Five Years of age, Five ft Ten and weighing approx. 180 to 210lbs." Straight forward enough, in a nut shell, a middle aged white guy. Let's go to 2007:
"I noticed, on the North side of the street, A White Male Adult wearing a derby, or three quarter waist length jacket that had elastic at the waist and on the cuffs and regular flap down collar. He had a crew cut, He was wearing rust coloured pleated trousers which were unusual for that time. He had on engineering type boot, a lot cut show, tan in colour." Fouke gave no Approx. Age audibly here but a composite was shown while He described the male. This was the face of the WMA as remembered by Don Fouke, the trained observer:
Fouke did mention that a Senior Detective, possibly Dave Toschi but He couldn't be sure that is who it was, came out to speak with Him and presented Fouke with the sketch as provided by the Robbins Kids/witnesses. Fouke recalled telling His senior that the man in the sketch He was being shown, quote: "He looked similar to the man I had seen on Oct. 11th but I told Him the Suspect (as He remembered seeing Him) was older and heavier (than how they had Him appearing in the circulated composite drawing seen below:
So, how old was the Un-Sub we all seek to identify? Why is His accurate age important? Why would the above circulated composite do more harm than good? These questions are of extreme importance because if Fouke is correct and the above composite which is the standard accepted best know and most accurate depiction of the face of the man called Zodiac is wrong and He is actually older and heavier than He looks in the above drawing, then that sketch circulated could simply end up helping Zodiac evade detection because He could be sat in an interview room suspected of being Zodiac and have detectives look at Him, a heavy set male around 40 to 45 years of age and look down at the Zodiac composite of a thin faced, late 20's to early 30's age range and decide: "Na, that guy in there can't be Him. Too Heavy and too old. Let Him go."
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