On March 13th 1971 the Zodiac Killer insinuated his involvement down south when declaring in his Los Angeles letter "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there". The question police asked themselves, was whether the Zodiac Killer was blowing hot air, or were there really other victims in Riverside - possibly close to the murder site of Cheri Jo Bates. The police reviewed a case 3.9 miles (by crow) from Terracina Drive and the Riverside City College library on May 13th 1961, mysteriously pointed in that direction by a dead man's finger. The finger of a possible murder victim resting on a bible verse that spoke of "things to come".

Revered Charles Williams (66) was last seen alive driving on Twelfth Street in Riverside on Saturday, May 13th 1961 at approximately 2:55pm. Thirty-five minutes later he was discovered by four Norton AFB airmen in his blood-spattered car at 3:30pm on Canyon Crest Drive, 3/10ths of a mile (1584 feet) north of Alessandro Boulevard in an extremely rural area popular with target shooters and hunters. Found behind the steering wheel of his vehicle with a bible in his lap, Rev. Charles Williams was thought to have been shot at close range by possibly two bullets that entered the left side of his head and burst out the other side. Two .32 caliber casings were found in the car which police hadn't yet determined were from the gun that killed him. There were no signs of robbery (with twenty-seven dollars found in his wallet), and no appearance of a struggle with a potential assailant. The bible on his lap was opened to "The Epistle to the Hebrews" from the New Testament, with his finger either deliberately placed, or accidentally pointing at Chapter 11, Verse 20 reading "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come". Investigators considered a possible murder.  

Police questioned whether this was an accidental shooting or murder, but unequivocally ruled out suicide. Investigator's found a shattered bottle not far from the victim's car, so speculated that hunters may have been target shooting and accidentally shot Rev. Charles Williams, having not seen his vehicle because of the hilly terrain. An appeal for any hunters in the area at about 3:30pm to come forward failed to generate any response.

​Deputies found a .22 caliber rifle under the front seat of the vehicle and a .38 caliber pistol in the glove compartment, which tallied with information given by his wife, who told police he owned "a couple of guns". Fragments of the bullets found in Williams car were being checked to identify the gun they belonged to, but as of writing, I have been unable to find any results of this examination. If two shots struck the left side of the victim's head (that were connected to the two casings found in the vehicle), an accidental shooting because of errant shots aimed at a bottle, seems unlikely. Especially if the initial assessment by police of a bullet, or bullets entering from close range was correct.  

Had Rev. Charles Williams parked up in this remote area and was approached by somebody with murder on their mind, had he traveled to this area of Canyon Crest Drive with his eventual murderer in the passenger seat, or was this some freak accident from a stray bullet or two fired from the wilderness? Was his finger purposefully placed on this particular section of the bible to send a sinister message to police, or was he simply reading the bible when shot and his finger fell there accidentally?

The story of his hand being guided over a holy book by a murderer wanting to convey a biblical message to law enforcement, or the victim wanting to impart a final declaration before death, certainly makes for a more intriguing and compelling mystery, bearing in mind police briefly explored the possibility that the "cryptic" Zodiac Killer may have been involved. However, this may be a willingness on the part of investigators to fashion a layer of intrigue into an unexplained death where it isn't required. An eagerness to magnify an already puzzling mystery into divine murder through the guidance of a dead man's finger, so to speak.

Taking into account we have two .32 caliber shell casings in the car that were seemingly different to the two weapons owned by Rev. Charles Williams (according to newspaper reports), and early reports mentioned there may have been two shots to the left side of his head at close range, this is inconsistent with a murderer sitting in the passenger seat of the victim's car. On first look, it appears that Rev. Charles Williams was shot through the driver side window (based on the picture of a left hand drive in the top image).

​The location of his death is about a 6 to 10 minute drive from his last known location on Twelfth Street at 2:55pm (depending where on 12th Street he was last seen), so if he traveled directly to the remote location on Canyon Crest Drive, he would have likely been sitting in his vehicle for approximately 25 to 29 minutes before he was found dead by the four airmen. Detectives stated they had no particular reason to think that Zodiac was involved, but the above newspaper report from the Riverside Daily Enterprise on March 16th 1971 was published only three days after the Zodiac Killer's Los Angeles letter claiming more "riverside activity". 

There is little reason to forge a Zodiac connection to the murder of Rev. Charles Williams other than location. If the killer had deliberately placed the finger of the murder victim over the biblical passage of "things to come", a weak link could be created to the April 30th 1967 Bates' letters where the author wrote "there will be more", and the phrase "she went to the slaughter like a lamb" derived from Isaiah 53:7 and typed into the Confession letter on November 29th 1966. But this is undeniably stretching the bounds of reality and could never be proven without identifying the murderer, if indeed this was a wilful and deliberate act.

Having long claimed the murders of Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14), brutally stabbed in San Jose on August 3rd 1969, the Zodiac Killer had clearly been exposed as a fraud when their real killer, Karl Francis Werner, was interviewed and questioned about the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathie Snoozy​ and Debra Furlong at the end of April 1971. The Zodiac Killer's response was immediate, mailing the 148 character cipher and letter shortly afterwards, followed by the Monticello card on July 13th 1971. The Zodiac Killer was determined not to relinquish the two victims he had claimed in his running total on November 8th 1969, by compounding matters, and adding Kathy Bilek to his list on July 13th 1971. Karl Francis Werner, in his eyes, had stolen two of his victims, so he was going to steal back all three for his afterlife and vicariously live through the memories of the three young girls.
​
Upset with law enforcement and Werner, who the Zodiac Killer probably viewed with disdain, needed to reclaim the victims and threaten further action in the coming days or weeks. The 148 character cipher and letter laid bare his intentions by threatening to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over". This was straight from the playbook of Theodore Edward Gein, who roamed the graveyards of Plainfield, Wisconsin looking to exhume body parts to fashion grisly souvenirs from the skin and bones. His mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (who died on December 29th 1945), was a domineering woman with an intense hatred for females, but whose death from a stroke left Edward Gein devastated and alone in the farmhouse. Soon after his mother's death, Gein began to create a "woman suit" from pieces of skin so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". It appeared as though Edward Gein wanted to feel close to his dead mother and become the embodiment of her once life.     

Edward Gein's dark thoughts fashioned the idea behind the movie Psycho (1960), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Norman Bates, the lead character played by Perkins, had previously killed his mother, Norma, and her lover out of jealousy ten years earlier. For many years, Norma and Norman had lived together in the fictional small town of Fairvale, California "as if there is no one else in the world". Norma raises her son Norman with cruelty and forbids him to have a life away from her, and teaches him that sexual intercourse is sinful and that all women (except herself) are whores.

When Norman was a teenager, his mother met Joe Considine and planned to marry, who then convinces Norma to open a motel. Norman grows furiously jealous, believing that Norma has abandoned him for her fiancé, and murders them both with strychnine. He then stages it like murder-suicide, making it look as if Norma had killed Considine and then herself. Unable to bear the loss of his mother, Norman stole Norma's corpse and mummified it in the fruit cellar, and spoke to it as if his mother were still alive. He also spoke to himself in her voice and frequently dressed in her clothes. Norman Bates has effectively become his mother in order to escape the awareness of her death and the guilt of having murdered her". Wikipedia. 

​It is plain to see the similarities between Norman Bates and Edward Gein, both of whom were controlled by a domineering mother with a hatred for other females, whose male fantasies centered on their mothers living on after death. The following newspaper clipping from the Chicago Daily News on November 20th 1957 describes a mother who often told Edward Gein and his brother to "Watch out for women. They are evil". 

When you consider the specificity of the Zodiac Killer's statement to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over", shortly after the arrest of Karl Francis Werner, it should become obvious that the Bay Area murderer was condescendingly referring to Kathie Snoozy (15), Debra Furlong (14) and Kathy Bilek (18) as the three kids he wanted to make a skin suit from. 

​Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The pasted phrase of "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's Monticello card on July 13th 1971, was referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, not far from the Monticello neighborhood where Kathie Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer was tying both victims together under the banner of one postcard - and by extension - the murder of Debra Furlong. 

Any doubts that this was the case were expelled on September 18th 1973, when somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose and placed it in front of the cemetery gate. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. In the whole of California (and America) we have only one instance of a tombstone being removed from a cemetery with the pseudonym "Zodiac" being written on it - and it just happened to be from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose where Kathie Snoozy was buried. It's pretty obvious this deed was done by the Zodiac Killer, especially when you consider that the contents of the Monticello card were not publicly known on September 18th 1973. This was a Zodiac Killer who threatened to dig up the bodies of the three girls, who later visited the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy. This connection should have been made in 1973.

Fast forward to January 19th 1978, three months before the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter from the Zodiac Killer. A six-page letter was mailed to Mayor Tom Bradley in Los Angeles during the search for the Hillside Strangler. Its author has never been identified, but it carried the dominant word of "PLEASE" followed by two exclamation marks, not dissimilar to the dominant word "PLEASE" on the Zodiac Killer's "Channel Nine" letter on May 2nd 1978, also mailed from Los Angeles. The Channel Nine letter read "PLEASE hold the applause", followed by one exclamation mark. Both letters ultimately had a connection to Los Angeles Chief Daryl F. Gates.

I wondered whether the Zodiac Killer may have been responsible for this six-page letter, because we know of the Zodiac Killer's propensity to write multi-paged letters, often interjecting himself into murder investigations he had no involvement in. But it was something else in the January 19th 1978 letter that struck a chord. It reminded me of the movie "Psycho", based loosely on the story of Edward Theodore Gein. The letter told of a man who had killed his mother, who couldn't get her out of his head. A woman who told him to "kill those bad and evil ladys", just like the mother of Edward Gein, who told her sons to "Watch out for women. They are evil". The author of the January 19th 1978 letter claimed that his mother made his "head hurt", not unlike the character of Norman Bates in the movie "Psycho". We know that the Zodiac Killer referenced the movies and its award ceremonies throughout his communications, so did the film "Psycho" bridge the gap from 1971 to 1978 in the musings of one mind. Below is page one of the January 19th 1978 correspondence. 

The Zodiac Killer rode in the front of Paul Stine's cab is once again doing the rounds, despite the evidence pointing completely the opposite way. This claim was instigated by individuals who believed there was some sort of connection between their suspect and Paul Stine. The police report below clearly demonstrates that the police believed the latent prints that showed traces of blood were from the killer. If the police believed the prints from the outside right front door handle were from the killer, they must have shown traces of blood. Which is why they were circled with a red pen. Traces of blood were present on the dividing panel between the outside driver side door and left rear passenger door, and on the outside front passenger door handle. This means that the Zodiac touched both of these surfaces with bloody hands. 

A killer riding in the back of the taxicab upon shooting Paul Stine would have received some back spatter to his fingers. Even if he was wearing gloves, blood would have deposited onto the fingers of the gloves. Still holding the gun in say his right hand, he opens the right rear passenger door with his left hand (gloved or not) and exits the rear passenger door, pushing it shut with his left hand, arm, body or leg. The Zodiac Killer then puts the gun away and naturally opens the front right passenger door with his right hand, depositing blood from his hands or gloves onto the outside door handle. This is how blood got onto the outside front passenger door handle.

A killer riding in the front seat from the outset would have opened the front passenger door with clean hands (gloved or not). Therefore no blood would have been deposited on the door handle when the Zodiac Killer entered the taxicab. After shooting Paul Stine at the end of the journey and removing a section of Paul Stine's shirt, the Zodiac Killer would now have blood on both hands, whether wearing gloves or not.

He now has to use the inner front passenger door handle to exit the taxicab, thereby depositing blood onto the handle. But there is no mention of blood being found on the inner handle. If he used a handkerchief over bare hands to avoid putting bloody fingerprints on the inner door handle (which he wouldn't have done if he was wearing gloves), then how would he have deposited bloody fingerprints to the outside door handle when supposedly wiping it down using a handkerchief over his fingers? In wiping away his fingerprints deposited when entering the front passenger door, we would have to believe he accidentally deposited bloody fingerprints in a wiping motion through a handkerchief as he departed.. It simply isn't realistic.

​However, if he had deposited bloody prints on the front passenger door handle when exiting the rear of the taxicab and entering the front, it is possible that when he finally exited the taxicab for the final time, he attempted to wipe the outside front passenger door handle but inadvertently left a small print behind (or he didn't wipe it down at all). If gloves were used throughout (which is unlikely), there was never any need for a front passenger Zodiac Killer to touch the outside front door handle when he exited.. You would just push the door shut. Also, a back seat passenger entering the front of the taxicab would have no need to close the front passenger door when removing a section of Paul Stine's shirt, and therefore wouldn't need to touch the inner passenger door handle to leave the taxicab, which is why no traces of blood were mentioned as being present on the inner handle. There is a scenario for a back seat passenger to leave bloody prints on the outside front passenger door handle, whether he wiped it down later or not. For a front seat passenger, there were two options. [1] Leave the taxicab and simply push the door shut, thereby leaving no blood on the outer handle, or [2] Place a handkerchief over your fingers and hand and wipe the outer handle to remove the bloodless prints deposited when entering the taxicab. Either way, recognizable fingerprints deposited with a bloody hand is impossible in the first scenario, and extremely unlikely in the second.

A female student at Pacific Union College reported seeing Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard traveling south shortly after 5:15pm as she and a male companion were parked on Knoxville Road, approximately one mile south of the Lake Berryessa Marina. The Lake Berryessa Marina at 5800 Knoxville Road is about 1.4 kilometres northwest of the Dr. Rayfield sighting at around 6:30pm. Therefore, if the female student was parked up one mile south of this location, she was parked up about half a mile north of where Bryan Hartnell's Karmann Ghia was eventually found. Bryan Hartnett and Cecelia Shepard were about one minute away from parking up.

​The Pacific Union College student described Bryan Hartnett and Cecelia Shepard passing them shortly after 5:15pm, so I am going to attribute 10 minutes to this description of "shortly after" (you can adjust all future times by less or more depending how you interpret "shortly"). This would have our victims being spotted about 5:25pm. If we then add one minute for Bryan Hartnett and Cecelia Shepard to reach their destination, and about 9 minutes for them to gather their belongings and reach the shores of Lake Berryessa, we have them lying down on their blanket at approximately 5:35pm. 

In a revised timeline we had the Zodiac Killer finishing his attack and heading up the hillside at about 5:58pm. Bryan Hartnell stated that from the first time they spotted the man by the tree to the time he left, was a duration of 15 minutes by his estimation. That means the Zodiac Killer was hiding behind the tree at about 5:43pm. If he had spotted Bryan Hartnell's Karmann Ghia before heading down the hillside, the Zodiac Killer would have initially set eyes on their vehicle at least 6 or 7 minutes before he reached the tree. Going on the lower estimate, the Zodiac Killer would have first spotted the Karmann Ghia at 5:37pm, eleven minutes after Bryan Hartnell parked his vehicle at 5:26pm. Adjusting the definition of "shortly after" could easily alter this analysis ten minutes either way. For example, if "shortly after" was 20 minutes, it's possible the Zodiac Killer could have been trailing Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard in his vehicle as they arrived. However, if the Zodiac Killer was spotted by Dr. Rayfield & Son at approximately 6:30pm walking north at Smittle Creek, then this possibility evaporates.

A REVISED TIMELINE AT LAKE BERRYESSA

Zodiac researcher Jibberjabber has made an extremely good case that Ronald Henry Fong (39) (in his boat) heard the cries of Bryan Hartnell closer to 6pm, meaning that the attack on the young couple was likely just shy of the hour. In the statement of Ronald Fong the first time recorded for the cries for help was 6:00pm, corrected to 6:15pm. Bryan Hartnell stated that after the attack Ronald Fong had "stayed there watching us for about 15 minutes", with Ronald Fong stating that he didn't leave immediately because he thought it was a joke. So this may explain why we have the two times of 6:00 and 6:15pm in the report (see below).

If the Zodiac Killer had left the crime scene at say 5:58pm, it would have taken him about 7 minutes to walk 510 yards uphill to the 1956 White Karmann Ghia of Bryan Hartnell. Two minutes to write the message on the car door and remove/conceal his costume, has the Zodiac Killer signing 6:30 at approximately 6:07pm. The journey time walking north from the car of Bryan Hartnell to Smittle Creek Day Use Area (5600 Knoxville Road) is 0.8 miles. Police noted that this was the location of the Dr. Rayfield & Son sighting of a man walking north across the hillside.  Across less than favorable terrain, this journey time would have taken the Zodiac Killer approximately 25 to 30 minutes. This means that the Zodiac Killer would be passing Smittle Creek at about 6:32 to 6:37pm.

​In his submission to police "Dr Rayfield stated that about 6:30 pm the previous evening (September 27th), he and his son had parked their car north of Park Headquarters in the general area of the crime scene. They stated they went down towards the beach area when David noticed a white male adult subject walking in the area, described as about 5'10", heavy build, wearing dark trousers, a dark shirt with red in it, long sleeves". They had parked their vehicle at 6:30pm, but by the time they had got their belongings from the car, traveled down towards the beach and spotted the "subject at a distance of about 100 yards", it was likely closer to 6:32 to 6:35pm. The exact time the Zodiac Killer would have passed this area from the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia​.

The police report stated that "at 3:30 pm she and her two girlfriends parked their vehicle at a location two miles north of the A & W Root Beer stand on Knoxville Road". These were the three women from Pacific Union College who noticed the suspicious voyeur on the hillside. This location, 2 miles north of the A & W Root Beer stand at 5100 Knoxville Road, is at Smittle Creek. The same location that Dr. Rayfield & Son would notice the male subject 3 hours later. Two unusual occurrences, either side of a brutal stabbing, in which two independent sets of eyewitnesses at the same location, felt the need to report to police what they saw that day. An image of the man observed by the three women appeared in the newspapers.    

One of these girls described the man as having "straight dark hair neatly combed". Looking at the hairstyle in the image on the left, the front of the hair is shown being combed back. This hair only has to be a few inches long, so that when the executioner's hood is pulled over the head in preparation for the attack, the hair at the front is displaced and dragged forward. This may have been the dark, greasy hair spotted by the eyelets of the hood by Bryan Hartnell. 

This could suggest that the Zodiac Killer was stalking the hillsides of Lake Berryessa for upwards of 3 hours looking for suitable victims, just like he may have done at Lake Herman Road, parking his white Chevrolet Impala in the turnout and venturing into the adjoining fields in the hours before the double shooting on December 20th 1968. A murderer prepared to diligently look for victims over a protracted period of time. At Lake Berryessa we had three incidents reported to police spanning 3:30pm to 6:30pm, within 0.8 miles of one another, of which two were at the same location of Smittle Creek. But was it the Zodiac Killer stalking the hillsides that day, with a vehicle parked slightly north of the Rayfield sighting?
Thanks again to Jibberjabber.

Murder victim Doreen Gaul (19) lived at 570 Myrtle Avenue in Albany, New York, before relocating to 1032 South Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angeles, California. Her former address on Myrtle Avenue was only 500 meters from the Albany Medical Center, that would become the target of the Zodiac Killer on August 1st 1973, when he mailed another malicious communication.

She was brutally murdered alongside James Sharp (15), their bodies found viciously stabbed and beaten in an alleyway between  Arapahoe Street and Magnolia Avenue in Los Angeles on November 21st 1969. Coinciding with her death, a typewritten note was found in her residence stating "SO YOU THINK YOU CAN FOOL THE OLD KILLER HA HA. I KNOW ALL YOUR MOVEMENTS AND THE TIME THEY ARE MADE. TIME IS SHORT, ENJOY LIFE WHILE YOU CAN. YOU ARE TO BEAUTIFUL TO LIVE AND I MUST KILL YOU. THE ZODIAC KILLER". The phrase "you are too beautiful to live" from this typed communication stood out.

Like so many of the Zodiac Killer phrases such as "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1932 and possibly "it was about time for her to die" from 1888, he wasn't averse to sourcing distant newspaper archives to generate impact in his letters. As his July 31st 1969, March 13th 1971, January 29th 1974, April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters proved, he was quite prepared to use the movie industry as a source for inspiration. So, if the Zodiac Killer was responsible for this letter to Doreen Gaul, I decided to source newspaper archives regarding Hollywood and Los Angeles, famous for its movie industry, because this is where Doreen Gaul lived at the time of her murder. Again, I didn't have to look far. 

Born Reatha Dale Watson (born July 28th 1896), Hollywood beauty Barbara La Marr, an American film actress and screewriter who appeared in twenty-seven films between 1920 and 1926, was at 17 years of age once branded by a judge in 1914 as "you are too beautiful to live in a large city", who banished her to her home in El Centro, Los Angeles. Over the next several years, La Marr acted frequently in films, and became known to the public as "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful", after Adela Rogers St. Johns, a Hearst newspaper feature writer noticed the judge's comments. A book by Sherri Snyder was later released entitled "Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood". 

Had the Zodiac Killer (or another) likened Los Angeles resident Doreen Gaul to Hollywood actress Barbara La Marr, and taken (or remembered) this quote from yesteryear to compose his communication. Not only can Doreen Gaul be closely linked to two potential Zodiac Killer communications in Albany and Los Angeles, but the phrase "you are too beautiful to live" can now be linked to two Los Angeles women, one of whom was heavily connected to the movie industry, that the Zodiac Killer so often referenced.

​So was this phrase another purposeful addition by the Bay Area murderer? An "old killer" who delved into the newspaper archives once again.         

There is good argument to be had that the Zodiac Killer began the design of his July 31st 1969 letters and 408 cipher shortly after July 20th 1969, when the movie "Rampage" (1963), based loosely on "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932), was screened on television throughout the Bay Area. This was a film originally championed by movie posters, newspaper advertisements and the original Warner Brothers press book, carrying the slogans "The woman who was the most dangerous game of all", "The screen's mightiest excitements go on the rampage", "Big, Bold, Bob Mitchum is on a Rampage", "They lived, loved and fought by the code of the jungle" and "His code was to snare everything". It isn't difficult to see how the Zodiac Killer would then create a trinity of letters carrying the message that "man is the most dangerous animal of all" and that he would "go on a kill rampage". part enciphered within a code. This film, screened on American television just eleven days earlier, even had crosshairs featured in the opening credits of the movie. 

However, this movie was likely the inspiration for the Zodiac Killer to delve into the newspaper archives and conduct some research into the original film "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932), using tools such as library microfiche. I recreated this possible research and looked for the phrase "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1690 to 1969 and found only one result in 1932.

​Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of "The Most Dangerous Game" was interviewed upon its release, and he was quoted as saying "man is the most dangerous animal of all". The Zodiac Killer had effectively plagiarized this quote and embedded it into his code. It turned out that Merian C. Cooper, an avid game hunter and explorer, had done something similar, taking the phrase from a quote by Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne, another game hunter. 

​Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne had previously stated that "The most dangerous animal of all to capture is the gorilla", that was likely picked up by Merian C. Cooper because he was working on the movie "King Kong" at the same time he was involved in the making of "The Most Dangerous Game". "King Kong" was directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper.

​Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne and Merian C. Cooper had both worked for RKO Pictures inside of one year from one another. The movie company behind both "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932) and "King Kong" (1933) was RKO Pictures.

It appears as though DNA and fingerprint analysis has failed to bridge the gap between Riverside and the Bay Area murders, as has analyzing the text of the Riverside communications to forge a conclusive link in language between southern and northern California. This left one final option: discovering a commonality in design between the lengthy Riverside Confession letter and the July 31st 1969 letters mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald. In other words, was there a recent trigger that caused the Confession letter author to delve into the library microfiche for suitable quotes from yesteryear? Long suspected to be based upon "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932), the 408 cipher author just happened to harvest the exact quote from its associate producer, spoken in 1932. What are the chances that the Confession letter author would find a equal length quote for his November 29th 1966 typed letter, harvested from the year of "Jack the Ripper" in 1888, after mimicking the wording from a recent newspaper article mentioning Cheri Jo Bates and "Jack the Ripper"? (see article clipping above).  

The author of the Confession letter seemed to borrow phrases from The Press-Enterprise newspaper on November 24th 1966. The newspaper article generated in the above link stated that the man "grabbed her around the neck". The confession letter author typed "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth". The newspaper article stated "I could just hit you in the head with this piece of wood". The confession letter author typed "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up". Both the Confession letter author and the man featured in the above newspaper offered the woman a lift home. 
​
​After reading the newspaper article on November 24th 1966 quoting "Jack the Ripper", its easy to reconcile a Confession letter author typing "Ripper" like phrases such as "cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see", "finished the job out cutting her throat" and "I am stalking your girls now". Especially when the additional phrase of "it was about time for her to die", present in the Confession letter, could only be found in one newspaper article on December 11th 1888 (the year of "Jack the Ripper"), from newspaper archive searches spanning 1690 to 1966. December 11th 1888 being the same day it was reported that "Jack the Ripper" had possibly "cut the throat" of a woman on Bermondsey Street in London, causing great excitement in the neighborhood. 

As far as can be ascertained, it appears as though the white Chevrolet Impala described by Robert Connelly, Frank Gasser and Bingo Wesner in the Lake Herman Road police report never made it into the newspapers. This may have been held back to not encourage the driver of this vehicle to distance themself from it, as they attempted to track it down. However, subsequent to the second attack at Blue Rock Springs, the description of this vehicle, allied with the description of the man given by Michael Mageau, may have been useful in the public domain to gain assistance that was badly needed by police. Somebody may have known of an individual who had recently sold (or no longer drove) such a vehicle, had this person attempted to part company with the Chevrolet. A revised search could also have been done after Presidio Heights, when new descriptions of the killer were submitted by three sets of eyewitnesses within minutes of one another. 

This individual parked the Chevrolet Impala in the Lake Herman Road turnout sometime prior to 9pm and 10pm on December 20th 1968 and wandered off into the night, before returning. Had this been the Zodiac Killer hunting for victims in the adjoining fields, the description of a pencil flashlight mounted on a gun now doesn't seem so fanciful. Apart from the eyewitnesses in the police report, only the Zodiac Killer would have known of this vacant Chevrolet Impala (had it been his). In other words, the Zodiac Killer may have brought up the notion of gun-mounted illumination, because he knew the hunt for victims initially extended beyond the turnout perimeter. An additional source of illumination that wouldn't have been required had the Zodiac Killer arrived at the turnout shortly after 11pm and remained within the confines of the turnout throughout. His murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen could easily have been achieved in a similar manner to that used at Blue Rock Springs, employing the headlights from his vehicle and/or a handheld flashlight to illuminate his victims from close range. The use of a pencil flashlight buys into the notion of a hunter stalking the surrounding fields of Lake Herman, along with his use of the phrase "man is the most dangerous animal of all" in the 408 cipher, plagiarized from the words of two big game hunters in Merian C. Cooper and ​Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne, who both worked for RKO Pictures in the 1930s.

The vacant white Chevrolet Impala close to 9pm, and sometime after 10pm coincides with Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser hunting raccoons in the adjoining field, so this may explain why the owner of the Chevrolet Impala decided to abandon his plans for murder during this time period (to possibly target Bingo Wesner or another). The thought of encountering two hunters was probably something he hadn't bargained for, resulting in him leaving twice and arriving for a final time shortly after 11pm.

​This time he saw David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen parked up in their Rambler, making any venture into the surrounding fields unnecessary. No wonder he wrote on August 4th 1969 "there was no need to use the gun sights.  All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose". There was never any need to use gun sights in the turnout - but for a hunter stalking his prey in the fields of Lake Herman at distance, having left his vehicle for a protracted length of time - the marksmanship provided by gun sights would have come in much more useful. A Zodiac Killer driving a 1959/1960 white Chevrolet Impala, that he was only too glad to concede was brown in the very same letter.