According to the accepted story, the Zodiac Killer mailed the authenticated Los Angeles letter on March 13th 1971, then reappeared in the January of 1974. The Zodiac Killer was an extremely lucky serial killer, evading capture by a fortuitous series of events in the aftermath of the Paul Stine murder on October 11th 1969. But not half as lucky, when after nearly 3 years, he supposedly mailed the February 3rd 1974 SLA letter (writing about the Symbionese Liberation Army), just one day before the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) kidnapped Patty Hearst, granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Can you imagine the stroke of fortune that befell the Zodiac Killer, masquerading as a soothsayer, and just happening to write about the Symbionese Liberation Army the day before they pulled of their most high profile crime.

What is even more amazing, is that the Zodiac Killer began the SLA letter with "Dear" and ended the communication with "a friend". This letter was not published in the newspapers. Despite this, the Symbionese Liberation Army typed a communication to the Hearst family just seven days later, on February 10th 1974. It too began with "Dear" and signed off with "A friend". Not only was the Zodiac extremely fortunate to time his SLA letter the day before Patty Hearst's kidnapping, but seven days in advance, he predicted the opening and ending words in the February 10th 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army letter. The sarcasm dripping from my internet keyboard should be obvious, that I don't believe the SLA letter was authored by the Zodiac Killer - and neither was the Red Phantom letter.       

Having already stuck two fingers up to the father of Patty Hearst and the newspaper magnate's empire, it probably wasn't surprising that the Symbionese Liberation Army (in the Citizen card on May 8th 1974) invoked the "running of ads" in their next offering, akin to William Randolph Hearst and his protestations regarding his paper running advertisements for the Orson Welles movie Citizen Kane in 1941. However, it is the Red Phantom letter objecting to the newspaper column of Count Marco, mailed on July 8th 1974, that would become the paragon of imitation. The author of this communication managed to add "tails" to the address on the envelope, metamorphosing the SLA letter into the Red Phantom letter.

Because the SLA letter and envelope were not released to the public at the time, the author of the Red Phantom envelope had an uncanny knack of imitating the handwriting and format of the SLA letter. These are with little doubt the same author. If the Zodiac Killer was not responsible for the SLA letter, then he wasn't responsible for the Red Phantom letter either.

On April 20th 1970 the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle with three key components. [1] The Zodiac Killer stated "I hope you do not think that I was the one who wiped out that blue meannie with a bomb at the cop station.  Even though I talked about killing school children with one. It just wouldn't doo to move in on someone else's teritory". The Zodiac Killer was referencing the murder of San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970, who suffered devastating and sadly fatal injuries two months earlier, when a bomb packed with fence staples exploded on an outside ledge of Park Police Station in the Upper Haight neighborhood. He continued [2] "But there is more glory in killing a cop than a cid because a cop can shoot back". [3] The Bay Area murderer also included a bus bomb diagram, with a school bus traveling south in the morning and the sun rising to the east. The bomb was positioned on a steep embankment.

It therefore shouldn't be any surprise that his next letter on June 26th 1970 contained all three of these components in its design: [1] He claimed he had set a bomb by Ingleside Police Station, [2] claimed his "glory" by insinuating his involvement in the shooting death of Officer Richard Radetich and [3] his bus bomb diagram matched perfectly the bomb to be set by Ingleside Police Station. 

In the June 26th 1970 Button letter he stated "The Map coupled with the code will tell you where the bomb is set*. It is clear the bomb was to be set in San Francisco, the target for the majority of his communications and ire toward police. The code provided the inches and radians value, and the map was to provide the magnetic north value of 17 degrees in 1970 (to be set at Mag. N" - magnetic north - from his zero point clockwise). This was plainly evident when he provided the extra two clues in the following Little List letter on July 26th 1970.

The positioning of the bomb had to meet certain criteria. With a high degree of accuracy, Ingleside Police Station was situated 4 radians and magnetic north, and 5 inches from Mount Diablo. Even a line subtended from Mount Diablo passing over the neighborhood of Ingleside in San Francisco, when considered alongside the addition of SFPD=0, should have told us that the target for the bomb was likely the San Francisco Police Department in Ingleside. No other police station in San Francisco comes close to 4 radians and magnetic north, and 5 inches along the radians. The next task was looking for the exact location for the bomb to be buried. It most likely would have been set in the vicinity of the police station, just distant enough not to be observed.
 
The bus bomb diagram in the April 20th 1970 letter (shown above) depicted a school bus traveling from north to south in the morning, next to a steep embankment, with the sun rising to the east. This location is just 230 feet from Ingleside Police Station. School buses traveling from the northern and eastern edge of San Francisco to St.Thomas More Catholic School would travel the Southern Freeway, passing only 210 feet from Ingleside Police Station. From this location the bus would be traveling south in the morning to begin classes for the day, the sun would be rising from the east, and this location has a steep embankment mirroring exactly his bus bomb diagram of April 20th 1970. This portion of the Southern Freeway is flanked by the parking lot at the City College of San Francisco. This parking lot is the ideal location to access the embankment without parking on the freeway.        

Sgt Richard P. Radetich (25) was murdered on June 19th at 5:25 am, gunned down by three shots from a .38 caliber revolver at point blank range through the driver side window of his vehicle while in the process of serving a parking ticket. He was sat in his police car near 643 Waller Street, San Francisco in the Lower Haight District. Numerous magazine and newspaper articles covered his brutal execution and gave a background of the young officer's life. Officer Richard Radetich attended Balboa High School in San Francisco, before attending a criminology course at the City College of San Francisco with the express intention of joining the San Francisco Police Department. His first assignment was at Ingleside Police Station, before transferring to the Accident Investigation Bureau.  

The Zodiac Killer was an avid reader of the newspapers and had previously mentioned the murder of Officer Brian McDonnell on February 16th 1970, killed by a bomb placed on the ledge of Park Police Station. In the June 26th 1970 Button letter, the Zodiac Killer claimed his involvement in the murder of Richard Radetich, while giving us a location for the bomb that bisected Ingleside Police Station and the City College of San Francisco - two of the places Officer Richard Radetich attended prior to his murder, while serving in the Accident Investigation Bureau. Had the Zodiac Killer read about the murder of the young officer, and cynically positioned his claimed bomb on the Mount Diablo map at a location pertinent to Officer Radetich's life. Exactly between Ingleside Police Station and the City College of San Francisco? And the design of the bus bomb diagram was just a fortunate coincidence to this location.

The April 20th 1970 bus bomb diagram was penned two months before the murder of Officer Richard Radetich, so if this location was deliberately earmarked well in advance of his murder, it is unlikely the Zodiac Killer chose it because of the history of the young officer in the newspapers subsequent to June 19th 1970. But it wouldn't rule out the deliberate targeting of an officer connected in some fashion to Ingleside Police Station or an advance knowledge of their history, however implausible this may seem. Whatever the case, the primary focus of Ingleside Police Station and an attack on an officer, because "there is more glory in killing a cop" is a viable one. The location of a proposed bomb on the Southern Freeway by Ingleside Police Station, matches both the Mount Diablo map and code of 4 radians set to magnetic north, and 5 inches along the 4th radian. The location also matches perfectly the bus bomb diagram within the April 20th 1970 letter. These still stand, irrespective of any connection to Officer Richard Radetich, which may have no bearing whatsoever. 

The Ingleside Police District encompasses the area south of Cesar Chavez Street to the San Mateo County line and west from Highway 101 to Faxon Avenue. It is  home to the San Francisco City College campus and many diverse residential neighborhoods including Sherwood Forest, Mt. Davidson, Glen Park-Sunnyside, Diamond Heights, Bernal Heights, Upper Noe, Mission Corridor, the Excelsior and St. Francis Wood, St. Mary's Park, Visitacion Valley, Precita Park, Cayuga, Outer Mission and Holly Park.

Recently we covered the January 10th 2001 Happy New Year card, stating it was likely mailed by the same individual as the December 1990 Eureka card, When the individual authored the 2001 card and mailed it to the San Francisco Chronicle, we have to remember that the 1990 Eureka card wasn't made public until 2007. Therefore, he couldn't have been imitating the design of the 1990 Eureka card envelope. There has been over emphasis on comparing the handwriting between the two communications - obviously some believe the handwriting is a good match, while others disagree - and this is par for the course. To determine whether these communications were created by the same author (or the Zodiac Killer), we have to analyze their composition and their layout.

For those who strongly believe the 1990 Eureka card is the Zodiac Killer, this is an important question. If the communications can be linked, then advocates for the 1990 Eureka card must advocate for the 2001 Happy New Year card also. It would rule out any suspects dead or incarcerated subsequent to December 1990 and up to January 10th 2001 such as Theodore Kaczynski, who was arrested on April 3rd 1996 and given eight life sentences. It would also rule out high profile suspect Arthur Leigh Allen who died on August 26th 1992. Now obviously, staunch advocates of Theodore Kaczynski or Arthur Leigh Allen, who also believe that the 1990 Eureka card was Zodiac, will almost certainly reject the 2001 Happy New Year card by default, or now distance themselves from the Eureka card if it was proved it was linked to the 2001 card. Here is a comparison between the envelope handwriting before we move on.

Any hoaxer or copycat who wants to mail an imitation Zodiac letter, particularly in 1990 and 2001, has a wealth of genuine Zodiac communications to draw upon, including the envelopes. The November 16th 1970 Paul Avery newspaper article in the San Francisco Chronicle, was one such example of how to address an envelope in Zodiac fashion. The need to mimic and convince the reader you are the genuine Zodiac, would supersede the requirement of the real Zodiac to convince the reader he is the genuine Zodiac. The real Zodiac doesn't need to convince anybody he is the Zodiac Killer, because he knows he is. One can therefore argue, that a communication in 1990 or 2001 that is pertaining to be from the Zodiac Killer, that looks nothing like the Zodiac Killer, could very well be the Zodiac Killer. The need to mimic old communications is not a requirement for the real killer. So when researchers state that the 2001 Happy New Year card looks nothing like old Zodiac communications, they may very well be negating their own position of rejecting it. Why should the 1990 or 2001 handwriting look like the handwriting from twenty to thirty years ago. Handwriting varies over time and is easily manipulated.

The 1990 Eureka card and 2001 Happy New Year card, whether Zodiac or not, were mailed eleven years apart. We are not aware of any other Zodiac or copycat communications in between these years. If there has been any, they have not been released. We have to look at these two communications in respect to all the confirmed and suspected copycat letters from 1969 to 2001 (a span of 32 years). If these two communications were not the same author (and the 2001 author couldn't have copied the 1990 author), then it is unusual that these latter two communications are both festive greetings cards, never before mailed to the newspapers by the Zodiac Killer or a copycat in the thirty-two years prior. Not withstanding the handwriting, it is also the first time the Zodiac Killer or a copycat had employed the address format of "901 Mission Street" and the numbering "94103". So we have two communications, both are festive cards, and both use an envelope address format never employed in any previously publicized letters from the Zodiac Killer or otherwise. We have to ask the pertinent question of why a copycat would attempt to look nothing like the real killer. He is effectively imitating nothing the Zodiac Killer had done previously.      

The Zodiac Killer communications were often preceded by newspaper articles about him. The Zodiac Killer opened his letter-writing campaign to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969. Other than the questioned "Cars Make Nice Weapons" letter on October 28th 1987, the Zodiac Killer or an impostor hadn't written to the Vallejo Times-Herald for twenty-one years until the arrival of the Celebrity Cypher on September 25th 1990. If the Zodiac Killer (assuming him the author) was to remain fairly consistent in replying to the newspaper articles about him, then the August 16th 1990 article in the Vallejo Times-Herald may have been a likely trigger for the Celebrity Cypher, mailed just a few weeks later. A few days before the August 16th 1990 article, Pam Huckaby (sister of Darlene Ferrin) had appeared on the Sally Jessy Raphael Show, outlining a series of threatening and disturbing incidents that befell her in recent weeks. Her claims are widely disregarded, but could the real killer of Darlene Ferrin (as opposed to an impostor) have watched the show and/or read the article, and composed the Celebrity Cypher the following month. Below is the article with highlighted sections.

The article has a running theme of Pam Huckaby, who lives near Antioch, California, who has been sent cryptic messages. Notable passages are "The killer is called the Zodiac because of his cryptic messages, loaded with astrological symbols, to the news media and police investigators" and "Police in Antioch had been unresponsive to her earlier reports of death threats. Huckaby said there have been notes pinned to the door of her home - "cryptograms" and Zodiac signs". George Bawart stated "The Zodiac's success in his killing and the success of most serial killers are they have no connection with their victims". 

Did the Zodiac Killer react to this Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper article mentioning cryptograms, Antioch and the fact serial killers are usually unknown to their victims, by mailing a cryptogram to the Vallejo Times-Herald and possibly beginning with the words "Do you know me, my name is"?  Then creating a return address on the left side of the postcard of Antioch, Ca, so as to insinuate he is living very close to Pam Huckaby.             

Bryan Hartnell stated in the 2007 documentary "We went down to St Helena and I think we looked in a rummage sale or something - we got distracted - when we looked at the clock we realized we weren't going to make it to the city and back (San Francisco). I had some responsibilities I had to be back for that evening, so we decided instead to take the loop up to Lake Berryessa". Below is the route they took, departing from St Helena at approximately 4:30 pm. They traveled north through Angwin and Pope Valley before heading south along the Knoxville Road to the area of the crime scene. We can calculate their direction of travel and the approximate time of their arrival based upon a couple who knew them. John (22) and Marilyn (18) were parked up just one mile south of the Lake Berryessa Marina and just north of the eventual crime scene. Marilyn stated that shortly after they parked their vehicle (5:15 pm) "they observed the victims who were known to them, driving south on Knoxville Road in Bryan's white Karmann Ghia. She stated as the Hartnell vehicle drove by, Bryan waved out of the window and said "Hi John". Marilyn stated that they did not see the Hartnell vehicle any other time that day".

The three girls from Pacific Union College "parked their vehicle at a location two miles north of the A & W Root Beer stand on Knoxville Road". The Sugar Loaf Park A & W was situated at 5100 Knoxville Road. They would have parked their vehicle somewhere in or between the region of Smittle Creek Trailhead and Smittle Creek Day Use Area. They arrived at 3:30 pm. "After approximately one-half hour had passed (4:00 pm), they observed what appeared to be the same subject standing with 40 or 50 feet of them, apparently observing them. The subject hung around the area for approximately 45 minutes (4:45 pm) and then the girls observed him walk up the hill". Allowing 10 minutes for the girls to get their belongings from their vehicle and walk to the beach, the total time passed would have the man walking up the hill at around 4:55 pm (approximately 5:00 pm). However, one page later in the police report, it stated "The three girls left the area about 4:30 pm and the subject's vehicle was gone". Therefore, we have to estimate the man left that location sometime between 4:30 pm and 5:00 pm. This is the approximate area that John and Marilyn were parked up at 5:15 pm when they spotted Bryan and Cecelia heading south to the area of the crime scene. If the man spotted by the three girls was the Zodiac Killer, it is clear that Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were not trailed by their eventual attacker from St Helena.

If Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard had arrived at the crime scene (0.8 miles south of Smittle Creek Day Use Area) at about 5:20 pm, they would have laid out their picnic blanket at approximately 5:30 pm. The Zodiac Killer's appearance from beyond the tree was about 45 minutes in the making (6:15 pm arrival to 6:30 pm attack). So if this was the same person spotted by the three girls, we could be looking at just over an hour to 1 1/2 hours from last being spotted by the three girls at Smittle Creek (4:30 pm to 5:00 pm) to his arrival by the Karmann Ghia (but not necessarily). If he had been trawling the Knoxville Road between 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm in his vehicle (or the hillside on foot) looking for potential targets, he may very well have stumbled across Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard far earlier. If he arrived at the eventual crime scene (about 5:20 pm to 5:30 pm) shortly after the couple had parked up, had he circled the area in anticipation of an attack on Bryan and Cecelia, just like man observed by the three girls from Pacific Union College? They stated "the subject hung around the area for approximately 45 minutes and then the girls observed him walk up the hill". If this man had used the same "stalking his prey" technique before eventually approaching Bryan and Cecelia, then an arrival time of about 5:30 pm at the Karmann Ghia would have him approaching the couple 45 minutes later. This would have placed him behind the tree at approximately 6:15 pm, before culminating his attack at 6:30 pm (the time scrawled on the car door of the Karmann Ghia).

Is it a coincidence that just a short time later, Dr. Rayfield and his son observed a "white male adult subject walking in the area of Smittle Creek, described as about 5'10", heavy build, wearing dark trousers, a dark shirt with red in it, long sleeves. Dr Rayfield and his son stated that they did not notice a vehicle in the area of their vehicle and only this subject at a distance of about 100 yards. This location was approximately 8/10ths of a mile from the scene of the victim's vehicle. There are four coves of water between the scene of the crime and the area where the doctor saw the subject". They stated that they parked their vehicle at about 6:30 pm that evening and walked down to the beach, when they noticed the man approximately 100 yards away. If this was around 6:40 pm, we have a small discrepancy of about 10 minutes for a man to walk from the crime scene to Smittle Creek. An attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard slightly earlier, or Dr. Rayfield's time estimate a few minutes off, could easily account for this.  A suspicious character noted by two sets of eyewitnesses 0.8 miles north of the crime scene, before and after the attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard. Was this man the Zodiac Killer, trawling the hillsides of Lake Berryessa on foot looking for potential victims, before returning to his vehicle parked somewhere in the region of Smittle Creek?     

Professor D.C.B. Marsh told the San Francisco Examiner on October 22nd 1969: "The killer wouldn't dare, as he claimed in letters to the newspapers, to reveal his name in the cipher to established cryptogram experts. He knows, to quote Edgar Allen Poe, that any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Zodiac has not told the truth in his cipher messages to the Examiner, the Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. Zodiac has not done this, because to tell the complete truth in relation to his name - in cipher code - would lead to his capture. I invite Zodiac to send The American Cryptogram Association a cipher code - however complicated - which will truly and honestly include his name". According to Edgar Allen Poe, any cipher created by man can be solved by man. Which is why Zodiac created the apologetic "sorry no cipher".

The video has a minor error - the "rope" in the bottom right quadrant should look like the image on the left. Click to enlarge.

Not only did a shell casing go missing from the crime scene to the submitted items at the Department of Justice, but one bullet was also missing from both the police report and the Department of Justice records. Ten shots were fired that night - 5 shots to the back of Betty Lou Jensen (recorded at autopsy), 1 shot into David Faraday, 2 shots into the Rambler and 2 were unaccounted for, believed to have missed their intended target. Betty Lou Jensen had five entry wounds and three exit wounds, however, only two bullets were ever recovered from outside the body of Betty Lou Jensen. These were noted in the Supplemental Investigation Report and Department of Justice files (shown below). In total, only seven bullets were ever retrieved. One bullet is missing from the record. At autopsy it was determined that 6 bullets were fired into both victims - and with the two bullets retrieved from the Rambler it was determined 8 bullets had been fired in total - yet only 4 of the bullets related to Betty Lou Jensen were noted in the DOJ Report below.

Betty Lou Jensen Autopsy:
There are five bullet wounds of entry on the right side of the back: three on the posterior chest cage and two over the right lower posterior lumbar areas. From up downwards:
[1] The first is located in the 5th intercostal space, 3 and 3/4 inches right of the midline.
[2] The second is in the 8th intercostal space, 5 and 1/2 inches from the midline.
[3] The third is in the 9th intercostal space, 1 and 1/2 inches from the midline.
[4] The fourth in the tip of the right 12th rib, 3 and 1/2 inches from the midline.
[5] The fifth is over the crest of the posterior right iliac bone and 5 and 1/2 inches from the midline.
​There are three exit wounds:
​[1] The first is over the left interior chest laterally and left margin of the breast, in the 4th intercostal space and 5 and 1/2 inches from the sternum.
[2] The second is in the anterior abdominal wall, below the xyphoid process and 1/2 an inch from the midline.
[3] The third is laterally and 3 and 3/4 inches to the right of the umbilicus.

Heart: A bullet wound penetrates from right to left through both atrium.
Lungs: There are three through and through bullet wounds, corresponding to the three bullet wounds of entry on the right posterior chest cage and one bullet wound through the left lung, in line with the wound through the heart. They are associated with extensive hemorrhage of both lungs.
Abdominal Cavity: A bullet wound penetrates the liver. A bullet wound penetrates the right kidney, the left is normal.
Head: No injuries or skull fractures.
The bullet wound over the posterior iliac crest penetrates the deep muscles and exits to the right of the umbilicus. One bullet is recovered in the subcutaneous tissue of the base of the anterior neck (left side) and the other bullet in the subcutaneous tissue anterior to the right 7th rib, which it penetrated of the sternum. The entry wounds aperture 3/16 inch in diameter. The exit wounds are larger.

Here we will analyze the sequence of shots at Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968 from the perspective of two assailants and two shooters. When the Debut of Zodiac letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969, was the author recalling the murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen from his perspective only. The letter stated "All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights". In the video below, it is shown that the assailant who fired 9 shots was the person with the pencil flash light attached to his gun. He exclusively targeted the Rambler and Betty Lou Jensen. His accomplice executed a subdued David Faraday with one shot to the head at point blank range, who was not "sprayed" with a bullet as the author had implied. So was the author of the Debut of Zodiac letter the main protagonist that night, recalling the murders from his perspective only.

Kathleen Johns was purportedly abducted on March 22nd 1970 and taken on a 2-hour journey around the outskirts of Tracy, California, before emerging from the vineyards bordering Highway 132 and South Bird Road and rescued by some people from Missouri. The vineyards were only a few hundred meters from her disabled and burnt out vehicle, and the site of her abduction. This would have been one of the rare instances where an abductor actually returned the victim to the site of their abduction. There are people who don't believe Kathleen Johns was abducted at all, claiming it was pure fiction. I shall let you decide.      

Here is the new approach I shall adopt (for the most part) in presenting the Zodiac case, using a mixture of visual aids and dialogue. The presentation below is regarding the 2007 Zodiac documentary, and the movements of Officer Armond Pelissetti and Donald Fouke on the night of October 11th 1969. All the videos will be done on the fly, so expect some mistakes and hesitations along the way. When viewing the following video place it in full screen mode, as I will be using the mouse pointer as a directional aid. Hopefully things will get better as I learn to use the Bandicam tool. 

The first edition release of Robert Graysmith's book Zodiac was unveiled on January 1st 1986 with respect to the infamous Bay Area murders. Just over 4 months later, a letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle claiming the murders of Laotian couple Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40) just three miles north of downtown Sacramento. These murders had all the hallmarks of the Zodiac Killer's first two attacks in Benicia and Vallejo, along with a sprinkling of the disputed Kathleen Johns abduction in early 1970.

The couple had been ambushed in their vehicle on the hard shoulder of Highway 99 by an unknown assailant, who fired off fifteen rounds from a small caliber weapon through the driver side window of their car in a seemingly motiveless crime. The question arises, as to whether this crime was the actual Zodiac Killer re-energized by the publicity surrounding the Robert Graysmith book, or whether the Zodiac Killer or a hoaxer had noticed the limited newspaper coverage this crime had generated, and by sheer opportunism decided to lay claim to the double murder. Of all the crimes linked to the Bay Area murderer, these murders are the closest to his Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attacks (particularly the July 4th 1969 murder). The murders on April 22nd 1986 were exactly "two weeks" prior to the postmarked envelope of May 6th 1986, they occurred in "Sacramento" on a "freeway", and the murderer may very well have interacted with the "blue meannies" shortly after the crime.

The newspapers speculated that Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee may have pulled over onto the hard shoulder to take a rest, when they were possibly ambushed by another passing motorist. They were returning home from visiting their son in a Merced County hospital, an approximate journey of 3 hours from their residence in Dorman Avenue, Yuba City. However, their vehicle was discovered only 3 miles (and a handful of minutes) from downtown Sacramento, where it may have been a more logical place to pull over and seek rest from their journey. They were only 40-45 minutes from home, so passing a major city, where they could have sought comfort in food and a toilet break, only to continue for about 3 to 5 minutes and pull over onto a isolated and dark hard shoulder, seems an unusual choice. They may not have pulled over by their own volition at all - they may have been coerced to the highway edge in similar fashion to the Kathleen Johns abduction on March 22nd 1970 (a crime still not under the canonical Zodiac umbrella). Had Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee actually stopped at a diner in Sacramento and were followed the three miles to the site of their murder? Without knowing the time of their departure from Merced County and the estimated time of their murder, we cannot ascertain whether they had enough time for such a diversion into Sacramento. This timeline would be of crucial importance.  

Highway 99 and Merced County was in fact the route taken by Kathleen Johns some sixteen years earlier, before she broke free and headed west on Highway 132 from Modesto. This likely has no bearing on the 1986 double murder, but the possible ushering of the victims to the side of the road in both instances, is nonetheless noteworthy. Despite the usual hoaxer being touted for the 1986 letter, we have 15 small caliber bullet casings retrieved from this crime scene (along with the bullets) sitting in evidence. Was there any other contact in 1986 from the Zodiac Killer, hoaxer or the "hitchhiker" who flagged down an East Nicolaus Highway Patrol Officer and informed him of the accident (that turned into murders) at the said location. Not only did the 1986 double murder resemble the attack on Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin on July 4th 1969, the murders were also followed by immediate contact with the police. Was the "hitchhiker" toying with the police or giving assistance - and more importantly, was it the Zodiac Killer to whom the Highway Patrol Officer from East Nicolaus spoke to on April 22nd 1986.

Kristi Hawthorne unearthed a possible link to the Bay Area murders while searching through some old newspaper articles. Taxicab driver Ray Davis (29) on April 11th 1962 was discovered in an alley behind 1926 South Pacific Street in Oceanside, having been shot twice in his taxicab. The interesting part of the story lies in a telephone call to police two days before the murder, in which the anonymous male stated “I am going to pull something here in Oceanside and you will never be able to figure it out".  On April 16th 1962, it appears the same man rang the Oceanside Police Department once again, stating “Do you remember me calling you last week and telling you that I was going to pull a real baffling crime? I killed the cab driver and I am going to get me a bus driver next". This 1962 finding has understandably generated much interest in the Zodiac community and on television (and rightly so), yet here we have a potential Zodiac letter mailed twenty-four years later, in tandem with a crime bearing hallmarks to three previous Zodiac Killer cases, and likely thirty pieces of evidence still available for inspection. Despite having tried several times, getting a response from the Sacramento Police Department has proved fruitless - and these murders have been all but forgotten, apart from the family members of Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee, who no doubt yearn for a resolution to this case. Unfortunately, I won't be trying anymore, so hopefully somebody else reads this and picks up the baton.  

It is very likely that the Lake Berrryessa attack on Bryan Calvin Hartnell (20) and Cecelia Ann Shepard (22) was inspired by the newspaper articles in the August 4th 1969 San Francisco Examiner and August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle. Both ran major news articles on the brutal murders of Deborah Furlong (14) and Kathy Snoozy (15) in San Jose on August 3rd 1969, while the Zodiac Killer was relegated to the lesser pages, despite his three murders and boastful communications, that included his cryptic puzzles. He knew that a savage close-quarter knife attack was required - and the tactic worked - because law enforcement subsequently pondered a connection between the Zodiac crimes and the Snoozy and Furlong murders in San Jose. The Zodiac Killer also acquired his front page coverage and the added bonus of bolting two extra victims onto his total in the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969. He would further implicate his connection to the San Jose murders by threatening a widow in the November 21st 1969 San Jose code letter. However, it didn't stop there.

There is one crucial feature of the first eight Zodiac letters, in that none explicitly threatened the lives of law enforcement, other than the wording "If you cops think I'm going to take on a bus the way I stated I was, you deserve to have holes in your heads" in the November 9th 1969 Bus Bomb letter. Then, three unpublished letters and one particular phone call arrived. The San Jose code letter threatened a woman in San Jose on November 21st 1969, followed by the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter threatening cops in numerous cities, including San Jose. Both unpublished, yet both continuing the San Jose theme. It is also significant that the November 21st 1969 communication was mailed directly to the police in San Jose. In between the November 21st 1969 and December 16th 1969 letters was another Fairfield letter, mailed on December 7th 1969 and also threatening cops. It stated "I will kill again, so expect it any time the will be a cop". We now have three communications with a continuing theme of threatening police, none of which were published in the newspapers. Either these letters were from the Zodiac Killer, or a hoaxer had inferred the San Jose connection from the "Aug" month on the November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card all by himself. Bearing in mind the similarity between both Fairfield letters in handwriting and mailing location, and the "real" Zodiac mailing the Melvin Belli letter on December 20th 1969, pleading for "help" just like the December 7th 1969 Fairfield letter, it leaves little doubt of a single author throughout. But what of the phone call to police on December 19th 1969, the day before the Melvin Belli letter?    

On December 19th 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer again threatened cops, making a phone call to Sergeant Robert Rengsdorff of the San Jose Highway Patrol (see article on right), stating "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". This threat towards San Jose police and a family of five was issued on a Friday, exactly as was the November 21st 1969 letter, mailed to San Jose police threatening harm on a widow. After the threat on the widow was thwarted by 24-hour police surveillance on her residence, was this the response, to once again instigate fear in the San Jose community? We know he was threatening the lives of numerous police officers, but the threat on five members of a family appears chosen.

I now believe this was the Zodiac Killer. This telephone call came off the back of a previous direct correspondence with San Jose police just a month earlier. It also continued the theme of threatening police officers (five to be exact), just like the unpublished Fairfield letters -  in particular, the December 16th 1969 communication threatening the lives of up to 38 police officers. Two contacts from an individual just three days apart, both claiming multiple threats on police. For this to be two separate individuals, not only targeting San Jose police in such close proximity to one another, but also be separate to the author of the unpublished November 21st 1969 letter to San Jose police, would be quite something. There may be even more reason to believe the phone call to Sergeant Robert Rengsdorff was the Zodiac Killer.

The threat of killing "a family of five between now and Monday" is rather specific, almost as though he had earmarked a couple with three children. We know the Zodiac Killer read the August 4th 1969 San Francisco Examiner and August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle, which inspired his attack at Lake Berryessa and subsequent claim to the Snoozy and Furlong murders by the addition of "Aug" on the November 8th 1969 Dripping Pen card. This is an obsession he would carry forward into 1971, referencing the Snoozy and Furlong murders at least two more times, if not three. The August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article, entitled The Frenzy Of San Jose Girls Slayer, read under the banner of Children "The other Furlong children are Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11.  Furlong said he did not know and had not yet talked to Kathy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Snoozy. Both Snoozy, a carpet layer, and Mrs. Snoozy reportedly are in a state of collapse. Her funeral has been scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at the Place Funeral Home in Los Gatos. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Funeral services for Kathy will be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. at the Oak Hill Memorial Park Mortuary in San Jose. Burial will be at Oak Hill Memorial Park".  

The Furlong's had three surviving children called Glen, 16; Floyd, 12, and Pamela, 11, which ties in with the threat from the December 19th 1969 telephone caller to kill "a family of five between now and Monday". This would not only have continued the threat regarding the Snoozy and Furlong murders, but also the phone call was directed towards San Jose. The question to be asked is, did law enforcement consider this a possible connection to the Furlong family and offer them protection as had been given to the widow on November 21st 1969? We know of two certain Zodiac phone calls, so was this the third? The August 6th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article also contained the burial location of Kathy Snoozy at Oak Hill Memorial Park. The cemetery is situated in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose, which featured in Zodiac's July 13th 1971 Monticello card.  

Detective Terry Poyser of the Vallejo Police told The Bee that DNA from saliva may be recovered from the envelopes. If that happens, and “we get a good profile, then you start tracking back,” Poyser said. “It really comes down to DNA. Without it, you have nothing. It’s a 50-years-old case". Results from the DNA analysis are expected back in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately, the "coming weeks" has now extended to 2 1/2 years with limited hope of a resolution - but all is not lost. Searching for a killer in a pool of potentially millions of people, is like finding a needle in a field of haystacks. Identifying a person of interest and lego-building a case around them in the fashion displayed on the internet has spawned a growing list of suspects, cobbled together with weak circumstantial evidence and viewed through rose-tinted glasses by their promoter. Any inconvenient observation regarding that suspect, which pours huge doubt on their guilt, will be routinely dismissed - an essential prerequisite for anybody with a long-standing fixation or unfaltering conviction in their suspect as the Zodiac Killer. The healthy interest in a person as a likely candidate for the Bay Area murders often metamorphosizes into an unhealthy obsession, in which the author ends up creating something akin to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - a hideously manufactured humanlike creature that ultimately bears no resemblance to the Zodiac Killer or the facts of the case. The fact we have hundreds of Zodiac suspects in 2020, is testimony to how easy it is to manipulate the communications and crimes to fit our desired choice.

In a case stretching back 50 years, we have to play the odds and drain the ever-growing ocean of suspects by reducing the search field. We can do this by employing the useful tool of geographic profiling and creating a mental map of the killer. This is not a replacement for good old fashioned police work and forensics, but can prioritize where we begin our search, before extending outwards. Dr IPIP (Investigative Psychology for Investigative Practitioners) was created by Dr Susanne Knabe-Nicol, an investigative psychologist. She has created an excellent video playlist of investigative tools on Youtube, including a 53 minute interview with Kim Rossmo, a Canadian criminologist specializing in geographic profiling. This interview should give you an insight into all aspects of geographic profiling and its uses in a criminal investigation such as the Zodiac Killer. Dr Susanne Knabe-Nicol (Dr IPIP) can also be accessed via her website here.