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Richard Grinell, Coventry, England
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11/2/1975- THE BELMONT SLAYING

6/27/2018

 
The following is based on a very interesting post by Mike Morford on the Zodiac Killer Site forum.
Just past midnight on Sunday November 2nd 1975 a man walked up to a couple's vehicle on Monte Cresta Drive, Belmont, California and shot 17-year-old Carlmont High School student Anthony Vincent Bruno Jr to death. "According to Police Captain George Stephenson, Bruno and his girlfriend (16 years) had been parked on Monte Cresta Drive, above Barclay Way in an isolated area of western hills when a man opened the driver's side door and apparently without saying anything fired the shotgun. The girl, who was not identified by police, pushed Bruno's body aside and drove the car to her home from where police were notified. She described the assailant as white, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 140 pounds and wearing an Army green parka with hood, according to police. Stephenson said also that a late model brown pick-up truck, possibly a Dodge or Chevrolet, had been seen in the area at about the time of the shooting."
San Mateo Times.

Anthony Vincent Bruno was shot in the mouth from close range while the couple were parked on the rise of a hill, described as a lovers lane area. The weapon (believed to be 25+ years old and not made now) malfunctioned when the cut-down stock of the shotgun broke free from the weapon and was found 10 feet from the scene of the crime. The police said it had been taped to the barrel. "The killer then ran south on Monte Cresta from the dark hillside area, past a streetlight 50 yards away, and then possibly to a late model Dodge or Chevrolet pick-up truck". The area of isolated hillside continued for several hundred feet, ending in a dirt road. Here is a newspaper cutting from the actual crime scene and its modern day equivalent on Google maps.

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Click the image above to enter Google maps
A follow up San Mateo Times article dated December 11th 1975 stated 'The youth, Anthony Vincent Bruno of 213 Bayview Drive, San Carlos, died instantly, his body sprawled on the seat of the parked car beside his terrified 16 year-old girlfriend. The killer then turned, dropped the sawed-off stock of his weapon on the ground, perhaps by accident, and fled. It was disclosed Wednesday that about an hour and a half before the brutal slaying, a man was seen struggling to drag a box about two feet long and 18 inches wide up a steep rise about 100 feet from the slaying site. A rod, or perhaps a rope, protruded from the box, according to police, and the dragging was being done by a man in mechanic's overalls with longish, dark brown hair. Stephenson also confirmed that police are searching for the driver of a maroon pick-up truck, equipped with blackwall tires and white wheels; a vehicle which they have information to believe may have approached the parked couple 15 minutes before the slaying, stopped a distance away, made a u-turn, and apparently drove off.' The girl gave a follow up description "She saw a face but couldn't identify him. She couldn't see whether he was black or white, or anything other than he was 5'5", 140 pounds and wearing a green army-type parka".      
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Click the image above to enter Google maps
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"We've never had a case like this before. This is the bloodiest, most brutal killing I've ever seen", Belmont Police Chief William R Singer said as he surveyed the scene of Belmont's first potential murder case in over two years. "It could be another Zodiac", he added. '

Whether the description of the killer is accurate or not, it is an interesting addition from Mike Morford. The couple were attacked on an isolated lovers lane area while parked up in their vehicle at around midnight, and the killer may have approached their vehicle, left and returned 15 minutes later, not unlike the Blue Rock Springs Park attack on Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau. The attack appeared motiveless - and probably the most important thing of all, we shall come to at the foot of this article.

'Wednesday afternoon, Juvenile Division Detective Gary Sickman drove this reporter to the scene of the slaying and replayed what police have linked together about it so far. "This is a little-known lovers' lane", Sickman said. "Many of the kids I've talked with at Carlmont were unaware of it." Sickman drove the patrol car down a narrow dirt road connecting with Monte Cresta Drive; a chuckhole-pocked stretch traversing a ridge high above Belmont Canyon. At the end of the road, a half-mile from the slaying site, a teenaged couple embraced in a parked car. Sickman checked their identification and jotted their names in his notebook after giving them a little fatherly advice'.

This murder was the first in Belmont in over two years. The Zodiac Killer's last confirmed communication was on January 29th 1974, although there were possible Zodiac communications up to July 8th 1974 with the 'Red Phantom' letter. There would have been hoax letters purporting to be the Zodiac Killer subsequent to this, but one would assume the 'novelty' of Zodiac would have worn off in time and the hoax letters would have dropped off in frequency by the November of 1975. That is what makes a letter purporting to be from the Zodiac Killer, found in a phone booth likely on the day of the murder, all the more interesting. 

​Mike Morford stated, in reference to a San Mateo news article dated November 14th 1975 "The reporter, a man named Bob Foster, mentions that on the night of November 3, 1975, the 11 pm TV news on channel KGO, ran a story about a Zodiac letter being found in a phone booth. This is pretty interesting to me for a couple reasons regarding the timing. First of all because, the night before, on 11/2/75, a young man and his girlfriend were attacked on a lovers lane by a gun wielding man. The male victim, Vincent Bruno was killed, but his girlfriend survived. If I recall correctly, there may have been a letter & cassette tape found the same night in a phone booth not far from the attack site, from someone claiming to be Zodiac".

I would like to thank Mike Morford for the information regarding this story. All images are courtesy of the Zodiac Killer Site forum and the San Mateo Times. Here is a link to the thread on Mike Morford's site.  

Fall 1975- Zodiac letter in phone booth?
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Judith
6/27/2018 07:13:47 am

Yes this is very zodiac. Do we have the contents of the note or the cassette tape? The physical description roughly fits Peter. What I believe is this, Peter deliberately kept his weight very low throughout his adult life. He was heavier when he was younger. I also believe he wore padding during some of the murderers to disguise his appearance. He frequently would layer shirts one on top of the other to appear larger, but he always had a wide shoulder span and muscles in his arms. Not quite 5 foot 10 no more than 150 lb during our marriage. Shoe size 9 and 1/2 extra wide. Dark reddish brown hair. This quietness is terrible, it's more than I can stand.

Richard
6/27/2018 09:22:42 am

Unfortunately Judith we do not know the contents of the letter. If somebody would like to contact San Mateo/Belmont Police or KGO-TV they are more than welcome. But I doubt they would know anything about the letter or be willing to spend valuable time finding out.

Judith
6/27/2018 09:33:28 am

Interesting. The cassette tape could be the voice of the Zodiac?

Drew
6/27/2018 02:56:02 pm

Very interesting. A shotgun and a pickup doesn't exactly fit my expectation but using different weapons was definitely a consistent aspect of the Zodiac MO and everything else sure fits. Even the short stature described is only 3 inches off. In light of the sparseness of detail that the witness was able to provide the discrepancy is not too difficult to overlook. Although Hartnell believed Zodiac could be six feet tall most of us have assumed he was simply mistaken by several inches and he did implore analysts not to read too deeply into his description of his attacker's height - at 6'5" and laying on a hill I can understand Hartnell's assessment problem. Is it your understanding that the killer had to show mercy on the female passenger after the malfunction? That is how I read it anyway.

Considering this town had such a low crime rate (at least that seems to be the implication of the officer's comments) then it is hard to believe that the note or letter does not connect to the murder. Whether it was truly Zodiac attacking and writing and not another killer seeking to throw investigators off course is another matter. It was two or three years later that 'Zodiac' sent the letter with all of the tape references wasn't it?

Thanks for the write up - I had completely forgotten about this one and it is certainly one of the more compelling outliers.

Jill
7/2/2018 04:50:43 pm

I knew VInce, he was our neighbor. He was such a wonderful guys, always nice to us kids. I've reached out to BPD, wondering if the stock of the gun left at the scene was ever tested for DNA. I would love to see this case solved. Something my father suggested at the time was . a link to organized crime, based off of Vince's father's business. That said, I wonder why there hasn't been more interest solving this with the links to the zodiac killer.

Sandy
12/26/2018 10:37:57 pm

I was a school mate of both Vince and his girlfriend. Belmont was ill-prepared to investigate a crime of this nature and that is likely why it remains unsolved to this day.
There were a lot of theories. The Zodiac, An Angry Ex-Boyfriend, Targeted Hit Linked To Vincent Bruno Sr.'s Business.
I still hope there will ultimately be justice in this case.

Tom
4/22/2020 12:13:14 pm

Vince Bruno Sr. was my brother's Scoutmaster. I remember shortly after the killing, Vince Sr. came over to our house to question my brother (I was 10 and wasn't allowed in the room). From what I learned later, this was a revenge killing by the girl's ex-boyfriend, who followed them and shot Bruno. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the killer, but if I heard the name again, I'd know it.

Jill
4/22/2020 12:31:55 pm

That's interesting, although I wonder why that was not investigated further. With all the interest in cold cases through television and podcasts, I wish someone would take a second look and get justice for Vince.


Comments are closed.
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