Kathleen Johns, pregnant and accompanied by her 10-month-old daughter Jennifer, were traveling along Highway 132, west of Modesto, en route to Petaluma, California, when the routine journey she had taken many times before, was to become slightly less routine. She was to make the near fatal mistake of stopping on a deserted highway at approximately 11:15 pm at night, ushered to the side of the road by a passing motorist flashing his headlights and gesturing towards her 1957 Chevrolet.
Believing he was indicating a fault with her vehicle, Kathleen Johns pulled over to the side of the road. The man reversed his vehicle, described as a light tan, late model, American made, 2-door, with old style California plates, and pulled up behind her, before approaching her vehicle. He explained that her wheel appeared loose, offering to tighten the lugs, to which she duly obliged. This error of judgement was to begin a chain of events that are still not fully understood to this day and have initiated countless years of debate, on whether the man who approached Kathleen Johns car that fateful night was actually the Zodiac Killer - and the 'proposed madman' responsible for unleashing terror in the Bay Area of Northern California, and bringing the 'Summer of Love' into the summer of fear just two short years later.    

The man appeared to be tightening the lug bolts on Kathleen Johns 1957 Chevrolet, before bidding her farewell. However, after continuing her journey just a matter of yards along the road, she was forced to bring her vehicle to an abrupt full stop. It seemed that whatever the man had done resulted in her vehicle being temporarily disabled. A brief time later the man reappeared offering her further assistance and a lift to the nearest service station. Obviously, Kathleen Johns, stranded in the middle of nowhere with a 10-month-old infant, was left with limited options - and with an Arco Service Station nearby she reluctantly  reluctantly accepted.

In Robert Graysmith's book Zodiac, he stated that when the responsible offered Kathleen a lift to the nearest service station "Kathleen gathered up Jennifer and got into the man's car. Just as they were pulling out, she noticed that the lights to her car were still on and remembered that the keys were still in the ignition. The man smiled, went back to her car, snapped off the lights, and pocketed the keys." This is where her supposed ordeal began.

In the police report she described the man as a white male adult, approximately 30 years, 5'9", 160 lbs, dark hair, wearing dark rimmed plastic glasses, a dark ski jacket and dark bell-bottomed pants. He was clean cut, having the traits of a serviceman. During her ordeal in the car she recalled his highly polished shoes reflecting the yellow lights from the car interior, likening them to Navy shoes. The suspect apparently then drove Kathleen Johns around the outskirts of Tracy, California for approximately 1-2 hours, failing to stop at any service stations, claiming they were either closed or 'not the right ones'.  In the Stanislaus County police report on 3.23.1970 she said that her abductor "Drove around in the county area, possibly near Tracy for approximately one hour, to one and a half hours, and several times she had asked the suspect if he intended to stop at a station in order for her to seek help to have her vehicle repaired. Complainant stated the suspect was quite friendly with her, did not make any advances toward her, or threats toward her and when asked if he was going to stop he would merely elude the question and start talking about something else." On the flip side, she went on to say "She gets quite frightened, feeling that possibly the suspect intended to do some physical injury to her and that when the suspect stopped at a stop sign, the exact area or location unknown, she jumped from the vehicle carrying her daughter and ran into a field nearby, hiding from the suspect. Complainant said the suspect merely closed the door, and then had driven away." Kathleen Johns described the interior of the vehicle "as messy, she had noticed men's and children's clothing scattered about, books and papers, a black rubber handled flashlight, and two colored plastic scouring pads on the console dashboard.  Kathleen estimated that the smaller patterned T-shirts were of the age range 8-12 years."  

The Zodiac Killer had mercilessly slaughtered five victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Napa and San Francisco, either in total darkness, using a flashlight to limit his victims ability to recognize him or by the wearing of a disguise at Lake Berryessa, claiming that "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them. I look like the description passed out only when I do my thing, the rest of the time I look entirle different. I shall not tell you what my descise consists of when I kill". But in the instance of Kathleen Johns, we have a supposed abductor sitting right next to her for at least one hour, failing to do anything meaningful. He was in possession of "a black rubber handled flashlight", yet despite a pregnant Kathleen Johns, carrying her 10-month-old daughter, running into a field of darkness, "the suspect merely closed the door, and then had driven away." The Zodiac Killer was clearly losing his touch or he wasn't the Zodiac at all. The sheer fact that Kathleen Johns escaped at virtually the same location she was abducted, with at least 60 minutes of meaningless inaction in between, takes some explaining.   

Earlier in proceedings, Kathleen Johns stated in the police report that the suspect "went west on Highway 132 and pulled into a Richfield service station that was closed. It is believed by undersigned to be Chrisman Road," and "at one time they did come into a lighted city, which she believed to be Tracy". The question has to be asked - if the responsible wasn't really trying to assist her, why would he drive into a service station? If he knew in advance it was closed, one would assume he therefore drove into the service station and away from the road with malicious intent. But again, he did nothing.
   
The police report went on to read "Mrs Johns then got to a roadway or highway, this part is not clear to undersigned or to the Stanislaus Deputy, Mr Lovett, but finally did get back on highway or near Highway 132, where she was given a ride by some people from Missouri".  If Kathleen Johns was back on Highway 132, the suspect had effectively driven to Tracy for an extended period of time, achieved nothing, and then had doubled back to Highway 132.  After being rescued by the edge of the roadside, she was taken by "some people from Missouri" to Patterson Police Station, where she noticed the Presidio Heights sketch of the Zodiac Killer on the bulletin board and declared "that was the man who picked her and her daughter up." Her car would be eventually located by Deputy Lovett burnt out near Bird Road, slightly west of Interstate 5, at the exact spot she received assistance in the late hours of the previous night. It had not been moved, despite some claims you will read on the internet. Mr Reed of 'Reed and Son Towing Services' advised "that he personally had not observed any keys in the vehicle when he towed the vehicle in from Highway 132, just east of Bird Road." 

The 'abductor' of Kathleen Johns had apparently left her in the field and returned back to her car and torched it. In the police report it states "On the morning of 23rd March 1970, at about 02.30 hours Mrs Kathleen Johns was brought to the Patterson Police Department in a hysterical condition." Patterson Police Station is approximately a 20 minute journey from where her she was rescued.  Therefore she was likely rescued by the people from Missouri at about 2:10 am and taken southeast to the police station. This gives us a vague timeline.

Kathleen Johns entered the suspect's vehicle around 11:15 pm, then she was driven in and around Tracy for upwards of 90 minutes (according to her statement), before she managed to escape. This would place her in the field at 12:45 am at the latest, one hour and 25 minutes before she received help. Even at the higher end estimate of a 2 hour journey around Tracy, she is now in the field at 01:15 am, at least 55 minutes before help arrived. Had the suspect left Kathleen Johns and immediately traveled the short distance to burn her vehicle, it is reasonable to suggest that anybody rescuing her and driving on Highway 132 in a westerly direction, would have passed the torched vehicle. According to this timeline, she would have been in the field for 55-85 minutes, therefore by the time of her rescue, her car may have already been burning. She didn't mention the burning vehicle to law enforcement, so it's likely this route to Patterson Police Station was taken by the unknown people from Missouri, thereby avoiding Highway 132 and the burning vehicle. However, a burning car just a few hundred meters away, one could argue, would have been visible at night. The only other possibility, is the suspect waited a prolonged period of time before torching Kathleen Johns car - but why? 

​During the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside in 1966, it seemed strange that Cheri, after supposedly being offered assistance when her Volkswagen failed to start, would then leave her vehicle unlocked with the windows down, her study books on the seat and her keys still in the ignition, and then wander off down an alley. That's because it likely never happened the way it was conceived to have gone down. Likewise, Robert Graysmith stated "Kathleen gathered up Jennifer and got into the man's car. Just as they were pulling out, she noticed that the lights to her car were still on and remembered that the keys were still in the ignition. The man smiled, went back to her car, snapped off the lights, and pocketed the keys."  Why would she have left her lights on and the keys in the ignition? Understandably, she may have been panicking or upset, but when the man supposedly returned to his vehicle, he would have offered them to Kathleen, or at the very least she would have asked for them. The keys incidentally were never recovered.

Tracy is a 20 mile round trip from the intersection of Bird Road and Highway 132. What was the end game of the suspect: [1] apparently driving aimlessly around for 1-2 hours and ultimately ending up back at square one, [2] driving to the closed Richfield Station and [3] allowing Kathleen Johns, clutching her 10-month-old daughter, to evade his clutches so easily. We only have Kathleen Johns word that there was ever an abduction at all.

Then we have the mystery people from Missouri, who after supposedly finding the pregnant and extremely upset Kathleen Johns with a small child, seemingly couldn't be bothered to accompany her into Patterson Police Station for moral support. They had taken the time to rescue her and drive her the 20 minute journey to the police station, but couldn't walk the final few yards. They have never been located. It has been suggested that insurance was at the heart of this matter, but this seems rather an elaborate way of going about this, when there are far simpler ways - so one tends to dismiss this avenue.

​Admittedly, the account of Kathleen Johns may not be accurate in all details, which is totally understandable. By her statements, she had been abducted close to midnight, she was terrified and her fate lay in the balance throughout. Howard Davis wrote on the ZodiacKiller.com forum "I blame the police reporting and the fact that she, no doubt, was filled with emotion and did not remember every detail or sequence of events, as is demanded by some cold hardcore Zodiac researcher sitting in a stuffed chair behind the computer! Picture perfect testimony they demand. Well, many are not, due to mental/emotional trauma, etc. At one point in our interview, she had to stop when she was describing the abduction, as her eyes were filled with tears and her voice was choked with emotion." One cannot argue with that.     

According to Harvey Hines, a retired law enforcement officer, Kathleen Johns would in 1992 identify Lawrence Kane as the man who abducted her on March 22nd 1970. Hines details it in his report here. This can also be seen here in a Zodiac documentary entitled 'Hard Copy-Tracking the Zodiac Killer'. However, ​the problem with this identification, is that Kathleen Johns described the abductor in the police report at "approximately 30 years". Lawrence Kane was born in 1924, so would have been nearly 46 years of age by the time Kathleen Johns reported this incident. Furthermore, his likeness to the Presidio Heights sketch of the Zodiac Killer is questionable. It may be a case of over zealous enthusiasm on the part of Harvey Hines and Kathleen Johns eagerness to please. Attempting to identity your 'abductor' from a selection of photographs, some 22 years after the event, is fraught with danger, as Detective George Bawart did with Michael Mageau in 1992, in attempting to identity Arthur Leigh Allen as his attacker.

Four months after the Modesto abduction, the Zodiac Killer would lay claim to the Kathleen Johns abduction, stating in a letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 24th 1970 "This is the Zodiac speaking. I am rather unhappy because you people will not wear some nice Zodiac buttons.  So now I have a little list, starting with that woeman + her baby that I gave a rather intersting ride for a coupple howers one evening a few months back that ended in my burning her car where I found them." Although the letter writer provides no details of the abduction that weren't already described in the newspaper reports, one could suggest that this bolsters the case of the Zodiac Killer being responsible for the abduction of Kathleen Johns. Why would a previously merciless killer, who loved to boast of his exploits, admit to a crime where he was seemingly outfoxed by a young pregnant woman carrying a 10-month-old child? On March 22nd 1970 he failed to kill Kathleen Johns and appeared to allow her to easily escape across a field during a hesitation filled night. But then we are assuming his intention was to kill her all along, when maybe he didn't.
 
Several months prior to the Kathleen Johns abduction, Zodiac mailed a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on November 9th 1969 stating "I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc."  When he loosened the lugs on Kathleen Johns vehicle, maybe this was his idea of a 'fake accident', albeit a fake accident that never quite materialized as he had planned.

During the Lake Herman Road murders on December 20th 1968, one car, above all, was spotted by numerous eyewitnesses that night, including Bingo Wesner, Robert Connelly, Frank Gasser and William Crow, who saw the vehicle up close and personal, either in the turnout or adjacent to it, described in more detail in the police report as a white 1959 or 1960 4-door hardtop Chevrolet Impala. Just under seven months later, the second attack would occur at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th or 5th 1969, again involving a young couple. Unfortunately, this time the surviving witness Michael Mageau was less than confident on the description of the assailant's vehicle. He stated in the police report "He could not see the car too clearly, however the shape of the car looked similar to the car that Dea owns, a Corvair. He could not see the color or anything as it was very dark out there".  The killer clearly could have changed vehicle in the preceding months, but what is the likelihood Michael Mageau saw a white Chevrolet Impala?

The assailant's vehicle left no tracks at Lake Herman Road because the ground in the turnout was frozen solid under 22 degree Fahrenheit conditions. At Blue Rock Springs, the parking lot was Macadam paved, so in both instances this avenue of investigation was unable to generate any linkage between the two crimes. Michael Mageau described the assailant's vehicle as similar in shape to Dea's, and Darlene Ferrin drove a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair. The track width of a Chevrolet Corvair of the respective year, front and rear, is 54.5 to 55 inches. The track width being the distance from the center of one tire, to the center of the corresponding tire. This may be relevant, if any connection can be made to the tire tracks discovered to the rear of Bryan Hartnell's 1956 White Karmann Ghia at Lake Berryessa just under three months later, unless we assume the killer simply kept swapping cars.

The factory specifications show this 1960 model of Chevrolet was produced in Ermine White. The color has a distinctive brown hue, which is further enhanced under reduced light (see above). In respect of Blue Rock Springs, the glare of the assailant's headlights and carry handle flashlight, and Mageau's position throughout, makes it highly unlikely any worthwhile comparison can be made between Darlene Ferrin's vehicle and the killer's from the perspective of Michael Mageau, before or after the shooting.

​The third attack at Lake Berryessa, on September 27th 1969, yielded a further description of a vehicle. However, whether it is connected to the murder of Cecelia Shepard and attempted murder of Bryan Hartnell is unknown. Three young women in the preceding hours to the crime itself, painted a description of a young male hovering around the area as they were sunbathing. Their recollections are as follows;

​#1. "A subject driving a late model silver-blue Chevrolet, 2-door sedan. This subject was described as 6' tall, weighing 200/210 pounds, muscular build, rather nice looking". 
#2. "Vehicle described as a 1966 or 1967 light blue Chevrolet with California plates. Witness believes the vehicle was a 2-door sedan and described the headlights as long rather than round".
#3. "Subject was described as approximately 28 years of age, 6'1" to 6'2" tall, 200/225 lbs, black hair possibly styled, with a part on the left, rounded eyes, thin lips, medium nose, straight eyebrows, small ears, well built, rather nice looking".
#4. "Vehicle was described as a late model Chevrolet, sky blue in color. The rear taillights appeared to be long rather than round. She described the subject as 6' tall, stocky build, about 200 lbs, black short-sleeved sweater shirt, dark blue slacks, and straight dark hair neatly combed. She guessed his age at approximately 30 years". 

Was this the Zodiac Killer's first attempt that day, ultimately abandoning the idea, before finally settling on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard just two hours later? The descriptions of the young girls sound promising, but could the vehicle described as a late model Chevrolet be tied to the scene of the eventual crime, and the tire tracks behind Bryan Hartnell's Karmann Ghia?
​Or can we link the white 1959 or 1960 Chevrolet Impala spotted around Lake Herman Road to the murder and attempted murder on September 27th 1969 at Lake Berryessa?  

This is what it states in the Lake Berrryessa police report: "Reporting officer observed one set of tire impressions approximately 20 feet to the rear of the victim's vehicle. The suspect track nearer the fence measured approximately 4 1/2 inches in width and showed a parallel tread design. This tread design was photographed by Sgt T Butler and then a plaster cast was made by reporting officer. The tire impression furthest from the fence measured approximately 5 1/2 inches in width. The distance between the inside of the left tread to the inside of the right tread measured approximately 52 inches".
Track width is a measurement from tire center to tire center.

If you look at the specs of a 1959 or 1960 Chevrolet Impala, the tire width is 205 mm or 8.07 inches. This would mean that the center of the tire is situated at roughly 4 inches. It would be nice to think, that if we added the 4 inches of both tires to the 52 inches in the police report (measured to the inside of the tread above), we would get 60 inches track width, which happens to be the exact front width shown here of the 1960 Chevrolet Impala (although 59.3 in the rear). However, tire width and tread width are not the same (shown in the photograph above), where the rubber cambers off on the edge of the tire, meaning the tread width is often smaller than tire width. This is often different bearing in mind the aspect ratio of a tire, given as 75% on a 1960 Chevrolet Impala, in respect to rim size. Here is a brief explanation on Youtube.  If we take the median value of the tread impression widths (5 1/2 inches and 4 1/2 inches) stated in the police report above, we have an approximation of 5 inches tread width. This can vary front and back. 

The police report gave us 52 inches to the inside of the tread (left and right), depicted here on the left. The tread value of each tire is 5 inches, which is 2 1/2 inches to the center of each tire (excluding the camber shown in yellow). With two tires, that amounts to 5 inches. Therefore, the total track width (measured to the center of each tire) is 57 inches. This would suggest that the suspect vehicle, if it is related to the Berrryessa tire impressions at all, is not a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair with a track width of not greater than 55 inches - and shy of the 60 inch track width of a 1959 or 1960 Chevrolet Impala - seemingly ruling both vehicles out as being responsible for the impressions discovered by responding officers. Even taking the actual values of tread width of 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 inches, the track width would fall in between the specifications of both vehicles. 

The three girls descriptions, suggested a 1966 or 1967, late model blue Chevrolet, 2-door, with one highlighting long taillights. The question being, could this description be enough to provide a match to the tire impressions found close to Bryan Hartnell's vehicle. We are looking for a Chevrolet somewhere in the range of 57 inch wheel track width. Here are examples of the Chevrolet II Nova, beginning with the 2-door '66 model.    

Supplemental to this, is the Chevrolet Nova II SS 327.  Here is a Youtube video of a 1967 marina-blue Chevrolet Nova II 327, featuring front, side and rear views. It is 2-door, with long, rather than round taillights.

​If we take the median value of the tire impressions from the police report, then as already stated, we have a track width of 57 inches. If we take the low end estimate of the tire impressions of approximately 4 1/2 inches, this gives a track width of 56.50 inches. Here are the complete specs of the Chevrolet Nova II from two sources. Here and here.
 
The track width for the front is 56.80 inches, very close to the 57.00 inches estimated from the police report. The track width for the rear is 56.30 inches, very close to 'the suspect track nearer the fence, measured at approximately 4 1/2 inches in width.' This was the closest fit I could find, matching as many specifications as possible, including the color, make, year, taillights, door and track width, and combining both scenes at Lake Berryessa. It would have been highly advantageous to have a more positive identification of the vehicle at Blue Rock Springs, however, if it were a Chevrolet Corvair, we would have at least one running theme throughout the first three Zodiac crimes - that of make.

As a footnote, one major Chevrolet manufacturing facility was the Oakland Assembly situated in Elmhurst. 'It was the first automobile plant established in Northern California to build Chevrolet vehicles. In 1916, Chevrolet opened the auto industry's first West Coast assembly plant in Oakland. Production of the Chevrolet Series 490 began on Sept. 23, 1916, while World War I was taking place (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918). The plant remained in continuous service until the summer of 1963, when it was replaced by Fremont Assembly'. Taken from Wikipedia.
See locations on Google Maps.

The Chevrolet may have been integral to this story in some small way - and if so - was it from a standpoint of either work, or simply a love for one of America's most cherished automobiles. I'll let you decide.
http://www.novaresource.org/production.htm 

In the following we shall examine once again the timeline of the Lake Herman Road murders, specifically focusing our attention on the Chevrolet Impala spotted by at least seven eyewitnesses in the run up to the murders. This 'rogue' vehicle 'appeared' to be circling the area of Benicia and Vallejo, in particular the region of Blue Rock Springs Park and Lake Herman Road, suggestive of a killer or killers cruising the area on the lookout for victims. It is fairly reasonable to regard this vehicle as our starting point to identity the murderer/s of Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on December 20th 1968. Its location in the hours before the crime on a dark, freezing cold night, the whereabouts of its occupants and the vehicle's possible movements  along the lonely stretch of Lake Herman Road, only serve to ask the very real question, could this be the responsible? There is of course nothing to ascertain that the same Chevrolet Impala was viewed by all the eyewitnesses, but it's a distinct possibility. It is easy to cherry pick which witnesses we believe are correct or not - and if they saw and heard what they stated - so in this instance, we will try to create a plausible timeline of events sticking as closely to the eyewitness statements as humanly possible and see what manifests as a result.            

Let us start with the two local raccoon hunters Frank Gasser and Robert Connelly, who were in the vicinity of Gate #10 [the turnout] on that fateful night. These are statements from the police report.

[1] "Connelly and Gasser have been identified by Deputy Villarreal as raccoon hunters who were in the area of the Benicia Pumping Station and who have been identified by Mrs Your. They had their 1959 pick-up truck, red in color, with wood side-boards, parked inside the field of the Marshall Ranch. In this interview it was learned that they were hunting in the area from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm".
[2] "Mr Connelly was asked to pinpoint his activities closer on that day. He states he went to the Gasser Ranch at 6.00 pm. They sat around a while and didn't leave until several hours later. They arrived in the area of the pump station around 9:00 pm".
[3] They said when they arrived there at 9:00 pm, a white 4-door hardtop, 1959 or 1960 Impala was parked, and also, a truck coming out of the gate. This coincides with information from Bingo Wesher [sic], that when he came out of the gate, he saw the same Impala and also saw the red pick-up truck go by".
[4] Bingo Wesner stated; "Last night he was checking his sheep at approximately 10:00 pm and he observed a white Chevrolet Impala Sedan, parked by the south fence of the entrance to the pumping station. He also observed a red Ford pick-up truck with wood side-boards in the area".

It can be seen that on four separate occasions, 9:00 pm is confirmed as the time of the hunters arrival by Gate #10. The white Chevrolet Impala is further tagged at 10:00 pm, while Bingo Wesner is tending his sheep.  

The next witnesses are William Crow and his girlfriend.
[5] "Were in the Lake Herman area between 9.30 pm and 10.00 pm on 12/20/68. He stated he was driving his girlfriend's sports car and he was testing it out and adjusting the motor. He was parked in the open area by the pump station and he observed a blue car, possibly a Valiant, coming down the road from Benicia towards Vallejo. They passed his location, stopped in the middle of the road and he saw the white lights of the reverse come on and the car started backing up towards them. Mr Owen put the car in gear and took off at a high rate of speed and the car followed him at a high rate of speed. When they got to the turn off towards Benicia, Owen turned towards Benicia and the other car went straight ahead. The subjects were both Caucasian".

​What is crucial here, is that William Crow was in the area "between 9:30 pm and 10:00 pm", and he mentions no white Chevrolet Impala in the turnout of Gate #10 (the very turnout he was parked in). The white Chevrolet was present in the turnout at 9:00 pm, confirmed by three eyewitnesses, Robert Connelly, Frank Gasser and Bingo Wesner. However, it had apparently disappeared while William Crow was in the area - or had it? Well, not if it was the vehicle that chased him toward Benicia. William Crow would later state in an interview, that the Valiant he supposedly saw, was suggested to him by the interviewing detective. This is what he later claimed actually happened, with two interesting changes to his recollections.
[6] "I sped up. The car behind me also sped up, and at one point as I was looking over my shoulder, the car behind me came up on my side with its right front fender near the driver’s rear quarter panel and appeared to be moving toward making contact. I shifted to a lower gear and hit the gas. There is a fork in the road where one continues toward Benicia and the other more towards the freeway toward Vallejo. The other car was clearly chasing me and I waited until the last moment and then turned off. The larger car behind me could not make the turn. I went down approximately two hundred yards and stopped in the middle of the road. The other car had stopped shortly after the turn-off. Each of us sat there in the road. Again, youthfully stupid, I yelled about kicking his ---. After some moments, the other car turned around in the roadway and went back down the road from which we had come. I kept making macho statements, but not totally without some sense about me, I drove home. I did not see the car again. I could not see the passenger seat, but the driver was a man with short hair and glasses. I did not see his specific facial features. I never told the sheriff who interviewed me that the car I encountered was a Valiant. As I recall, as I was attempting to describe the car, the sheriff came up with a “Valiant”. In the years that have passed, when I have shared the events of that night, I have described the car as a four-door light-colored Chevy".
​
The interesting change is the "light-colored Chevy", that would now tie in nicely to the previous eyewitnesses - especially considering the location - although William Crow now appears to be favoring a single occupant. However, what does tally, is the timeline. If we take the time given by William Crow as accurate, he is now at the Reservoir Road intersection (shown here) at approximately 10:00 pm. If the "light-colored Chevy" then turned around as William Crow stated, and headed back towards Gate #10 in the direction of Vallejo, then it could conceivably have parked back up in the turnout by approximately 10:01 pm. This concurs nicely with Bingo Wesner observing the white Chevrolet once again at "approximately 10:00 pm" while tending his sheep. If this was the same vehicle throughout, then it parked up sometime around 9:00 pm or before, had left the turnout prior to William Crow arriving at 9:30 pm, but then returned from the Benicia end at approximately 9:59 pm, before chasing William Crow and resettling in the Gate #10 turnout just after 10:00 pm.     

The white Chevrolet Impala could not have remained in the turnout for more than 10 minutes or so, after 10:00 pm. The next eyewitness to come forward was Helen Axe. Here is the police report;

[7] "Miss Axe reports that she and her boyfriend, a sailor, were driving on Lake Herman Road. They passed the area of the pumping station, she recognized the Rambler and the victims, Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday. Stated that when she went by about 10.15 pm, the car was facing in towards the gate and when she returned about 15 minutes later after having gone to the end of the road and then came back, the car was turned around and the front was facing the field, a little to the side".

This tells us that between 10:01 pm and 10:15 pm, the white Chevrolet has once again exited the turnout - and during the same window of time, Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday have arrived at the turnout and parked up - which will ultimately become a scene of tragedy in about one hour from now. If Helen Axe is correct, this has a great impact on the statement of Officer Pierre Bidou, who was executing a drugs seizure at 'The Cottage', located 0.4 miles west of Gate #10 at the recreation area. In other words 0.4 miles towards Vallejo from the turnout. See here for location. Pierre Bidou, after finishing the drugs bust, headed back to Benicia Police Station. He stated in the 2007 documentary 'This is the Zodiac Speaking';

[8] "We were heading back to the police department to put the marijuana into evidence and as we drove by, we did not see or observe anyone in that area, because it's a turn there and your headlights shine right in there as you go by. I was pulling into the lot in the police department, we heard the Benicia police department dispatch about a call of a possible shooting and victims on Lake Herman Road, and described the location. My partner and I turned around at that time and responded to the call".
[9] "We felt we were only minutes from the crime scene when it actually happened and for the best of my recollection we did not pass any other vehicle or traffic. I'm pretty sure of that because that is one of the things we told the sheriff's office, that we did not see any other vehicles coming our way. What could have happened, depending on where a vehicle turned onto Lake Herman Road, if it came from behind us from Vallejo, we would not have seen them". He was also featured in the Benicia Herald;
[10] "Bidou and his partner had served a warrant on a Lake Herman Road cabin Dec 20 1968, and were on the way to deposit some marijuana in the police department's evidence locker, when they were dispatched back to Lake Herman Road".

It has been long considered that his timeline makes little sense. The journey time from 'The Cottage' to Benicia Police Department is 8-10 minutes duration - and bearing in mind the crime was called in at approximately 11:25 pm by Captain Daniel Pitta - this would put Pierre Bidou and his partner Steve Armenta passing the Lake Herman Road turnout at about 11:15 pm to 11:17 pm. The crime would be either in progress or over - and he would have observed at least one or two vehicles in the turnout - but most certainly the victims Rambler, which was spotted by Helen Axe as early as 10:15 pm and latterly around 11:00 pm by Peggy and Homer Your, along with the two raccoon hunters Frank Gasser and Robert Connelly.
​
​Remember, in statements [8] and [10] above, he claimed he literally turned around as he arrived at the Benicia Police Department. This would certainly have him passing the turnout with the Rambler in position. However, Pierre Bidou is correct when he stated his headlights would have illuminated the east side of the turnout. Had the Rambler been on the east side of the turnout, he could not have failed to spot it. So how do we explain this? He also stated "We felt we were only minutes from the crime scene when it actually happened" -  and he probably was. In fact, he likely passed the turnout only three minutes before the first shots were fired by the Zodiac Killer, having likely departed from 'The Cottage' at 11:11 pm and passed the Gate #10 turnout at 11:12 pm. Remember, these timelines are taken from the police report and sketches, from which we are attempting to construct a viable order of events that all fit together. It is perfectly conceivable that Pierre Bidou was traveling past Gate #10 at 11:12 pm, with the Zodiac Killer only one minute behind him - but enough to be out of sight. Then finally, James Owen, who is recorded on the police sketches as having passed the turnout at 11:14 pm and observing two vehicles. This means all three were traveling along Lake Herman Road simultaneously, likely from Vallejo, and each separated by one minute.     

The diagram on the left depicts Robert Connelly passing the turnout at 11:05 pm to 11:10 pm. He states contrary to James Owen and the Your's, that the Rambler is facing into the turnout on the west bank. This would mean that after the Your's departed the Marshall Ranch heading east to Benicia - and slightly before Connelly and Gasser exited the scene - the Rambler had shifted position from facing the eastern edge to its current position shown in the diagram.

​One possibility, is that David Faraday, having his Rambler constantly illuminated by passing vehicles on the east bank, decided to move the Rambler to an area where passing headlights didn't shine, such as the west bank. It was at this time Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser passed the turnout, spotting the Rambler in this position. It is not inconceivable, that although Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser spot the Rambler on the west bank, Pierre Bidou doesn't. He currently has his attention focused on the two suspects in the police car and the marijuana bust. A vehicle heading east to Benicia shines its headlights onto the eastern edge of the turnout, however, the western side and the Rambler would not be illuminated. Although the hunters saw the Rambler, they couldn't see any occupants in the vehicle. This is understandable, as the Rambler is not side on, and it is immersed in darkness. It is equally understandable that Pierre Bidou failed to notice the vehicle at all, possibly preoccupied with his recent drugs seizure.
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But how did the Rambler return from the west bank, to facing the eastern edge (the position it was found by police later that night), between Pierre Bidou passing and Zodiac arriving? This is where a leap of faith is required. One possibility, is the Zodiac drove into the turnout and approached the Rambler from behind, forcing or signaling David Faraday back across the turnout. Whatever the case, if the eyewitnesses are correct, then David Faraday definitely shifted position from the Connelly sighting to the arrival of James Owen. Shortly after James Owen passes the turnout, David Faraday prepares to leave, but Zodiac exits his vehicle, fires into the headliner of the Rambler (the sound James Owen hears 30 seconds past the turnout), and the rest is history.     

There is one more witness that night. Stan, a 14-year-old;
[11] "And a friend of his, a student from Solano College were going towards Blue Rock Springs on Columbus Parkway and an Olde 2 door, hard-top 88 (Don), blue in color and a 1963 Chevrolet Impala, blue, with two persons in it turned off Lake Herman Road onto Columbus Parkway, heading in the direction of Blue Rock Springs Park, this was approximately 10.30 pm".

​Although this description of the Chevrolet Impala is slightly different, it cannot be dismissed out of hand. We have the sighting of the Chevrolet Impala by a potential seven eyewitnesses. Robert Connelly, Frank Gasser, Bingo Wesner, William Crow and girlfriend, and Stan (14) and his friend. If this was the same Chevrolet Impala throughout, it could be argued that this vehicle was traveling back and forth along the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs regions for just over two hours and 15 minutes, with the occupant/s taking time to exit the vehicle, and leave the Chevrolet Impala vacated in the turnout for a period of time, as testified by Robert Connelly, Frank Gasser and Bingo Wesner earlier in the night's proceedings. This would be consistent with somebody stalking the area, looking for potential victims. The question being, was the mystery car parked alongside the Faraday Rambler, spotted by James Owen, the white Chevrolet Impala? It is a distinct possibility.
 
What this does is corroborate Pierre Bidou's account of that night, that he "felt he was only minutes from the crime scene when it actually happened". He left 'The Cottage' at 11:11 pm and passed the turnout at 11:12 pm, just shy of the actual murders, before arriving at the Benicia Police Department parking lot at 11:22 pm. After dropping off the marijuana seizure and suspects (possibly taking a few minutes), the call from Captain Daniel Pitta came in at 11:25 pm, meaning that Pierre Bidou literally swung his vehicle around and headed back to the Gate #10 turnout, the one he had just passed only 10 minutes earlier. Pierre Bidou, as he claimed all along, had missed the murders by a matter of minutes.        

Raymond Grant: "I think it's extremely unlikely that the killer was ever ushering the victims between the cars and getting them to cower down, for the simple reason that Owen saw no one in or around the cars, the doors were closed and all the lights were out. If the Zodiac had to jump out of his car and immediately fire a shot into the header above the right rear door, and then run forward and fire another shot into the right rear window to get them to stop and exit the car, wouldn't his own car door have been open? And wouldn't then the interior light of his car have come on? And wouldn't the passenger side door of the Rambler already have been open with the interior light on, as it was when Stella Medeiros came by? Or should we assume that the Zodiac stopped to shut his own door behind him, and then for some reason shut the front passenger side door after forcing the victims to exit, and then for some reason opened it again after he shot them? And let's not forget that the gun he fired at them, and with which he forced them out of his car, had a pencil flashlight at the end of it. So did all those lights magically get extinguished just prior to Owen passing them? I can't believe Owen wouldn't have noticed all those lights on a pitch dark road, in what should have been a deserted turnout."

Raymond Grant makes a valid point here about the Lake Herman Road murders on December 20th 1968. James Owen passed the turnout but a few short minutes, likely 4-6 minutes prior to Stella Medeiros. She spotted the teenagers lying on the gravel turnout with the right front passenger side door of their Rambler open. When James Owen passed, he observed two vehicles parked alongside each other and stated in the police report he saw nobody "in or around the cars." It has been suggested that as James Owen approached the turnout, Zodiac realizing he may be viewed committing his crime, forced the couple under gunpoint between the two vehicles out of sight, and once James Owen had passed the turnout and traveled a distance along the road, Zodiac resumed his attack. However, this has one major flaw as Ray Grant pointed out. The interior lights of both vehicles were not observed by James Owen, so the doors of both vehicles were presumably shut and therefore, once James Owen had passed the turnout and Zodiac had resumed his attack on the couple, what reason would he have for reopening the passenger door before exiting the scene? Also, as Ray Grant alluded to, why would the Zodiac Killer after pulling alongside the couple to attack them, with the gun presumably in his right hand, then take the time to shut the door of his own vehicle? These reasons alone pour huge doubt on the idea Zodiac was holding the couple under duress between the two vehicles.
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Then we have Peggy Your, who claimed she saw the young couple in the car, even describing their movement within the Faraday Rambler. She passed the turnout before both James Owen and Stella Medeiros, which creates a further problem. From Peggy Your, to James Owen, to Stella Medeiros, the young couple apparently vanished and then reappeared on the gravel turnout, because James Owen saw nobody "in or around the cars."  If they were not "in or around the cars," where the hell were they?
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Raymond Grant went on to say "The other two witnesses, Robert Connley and James Owen, said there was no one in or around the vehicle(s). One's headlights do NOT shine into the turnout when one is coming from the east, driving west. Peggy Your could only have been right if Homer had had his high beams on, in which case they would have hit the driver door window, which was up on a night with the temperature at 22°. So the high beams hit that window for a split second and bounce off, and how does Peggy make out what the teenagers inside that closed window were doing from 350 feet away? Peggy thought she saw the victims, just as Helen Axe thought she saw the Faraday Rambler when she went by at 10:15 pm. She didn't. But she knew she'd seen a car parked in the turnout, knew the victims were killed there, and somehow her mind just assumed she'd seen the victims moving around inside as she rode by. This phenomenon is called a false or self-generated memory, and it happens all the time to witnesses in criminal cases trying to remember what they saw. One of the more recent examples is that people watching news coverage of the September 11th attacks believe they saw the North Tower fall in real time. They didn't, because the video feed was showing something else as Tower 1 collapsed. What people saw first was the smoke and debris of the aftermath of the tower's collapse when the cameras cut BACK to it. The networks then showed a replay of the tower falling, but the first thing people saw was the aftermath."  

These are valid arguments - but if this were the case - then nobody actually saw the couple for the entirety of this part of the night until Stella Medeiros viewed the couple lying on the floor of the turnout. His views offer a different explanation to the crime from the one you may read on other platforms, and you can purchase his books by clicking on either or both of the images contained within this article.

From the perspective of a single shooter theory, we are left with the Zodiac Killer drawing up alongside the couple at some point during the late hours of December 20th 1968, exiting his vehicle and forcing the couple from their Rambler, before shooting them in cold blood. Yet, if neither Robert Connelly or James Owen spotted anybody "in or around the cars," just minutes before the murders and they were not being held under duress out of sight or between the vehicles, it opens up a whole range of new possibilities. James Owen claimed he heard a shot about a quarter of a mile past the turnout, which traveling at approximately 30 mph amounts to about 30 seconds. If this were true, it puts David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, and the killer or killers back in the turnout.

This would also pour doubt on the couple being held under gunpoint, out of sight, or in their own vehicle. For this to be the case, not only would Zodiac have closed his own driver side door (as stated earlier), but once James Owen had passed by, he would then need to have forced the couple to exit the Rambler from within, closed the doors of the Rambler and started shooting. This would then negate the idea of warning shots being fired into the headliner and rear window of the Rambler to initially drive the couple from the vehicle. Totally unnecessary if you are already in the Rambler. The pattern of events is debatable, but my guess is at least one or more of the eyewitness statements are factually incorrect and need to be re-evaluated to make sense of Lake Herman Road in the December of 1968.  

Subsequent to the 6:30 pm attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa, one key eyewitness, Ronald Fong, was circling the lake in his boat and responded to the cries of Bryan Hartnell. Ronald Fong turned his engine on and motored away to seek help at the Rancho Monticello Resort. It was at this point Ranger Sergeant William White received a call from Park Headquarters regarding the attack and proceeded to the Rancho Monticello Resort at 6:55 pm. It is here that Ronald Fong relayed his observations to Sgt William White as to the young couple in distress, and both, along with Archie White and Elizabeth White traveled via speedboat to the crime scene to offer assistance to both Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard. The time is now 7:10 pm. At this time Ranger Dennis Land arrived in his truck, carrying the stricken Bryan Hartnell, who had managed to crawl his way towards the road. At approximately 7:10 pm, or very shortly after, Sgt William White radioed Park Headquarters to summon an ambulance and deputies to the crime scene. We know the 7:10 pm estimate is about right, because help arrived via Piner's ambulance from Napa to the crime scene, and returned back to the Queen of the Valley Hospital arriving at 8:50 pm. That is an approximate journey time of 45 minutes each way, including 10 minutes negotiating the crime scene. Detective Sergeant Kenneth Narlow and Richard Lonergan were contacted regarding the attack at 8:20 pm - at which time the ambulance would have been approaching mid-route to the hospital - and both officers were sent to see if they could interview the couple.     

Deputy Ray Land and Sergeant David Collins were dispatched directly to the crime scene from St Helena and Napa respectively. Sgt David Collins spoke on the documentary 'This is the Zodiac Speaking': "It took us a half hour from Napa and/or St Helena to arrive at the location. And we later found out of course that crime had occurred at least half an hour before we were notified". They were notified at 7:10 pm and arrived en scene at approximately 7:40 pm. It would be a further 15 minutes before the ambulance would arrive at 7:55 pm - now of course 85 minutes after the attack - and both victims were in critical condition. The time of 7:40 pm is also the time the killer placed his call from the Napa Car Wash payphone. At this point the victims are being tended to by the respondents, including David Collins, who took a statement from Cecelia Shepard regarding the movements and description of the killer. At this point David Collins and both victims were unaware that this crime was the work of the Zodiac Killer, only that an assailant had brutally stabbed the young couple.

The caller from the payphone issued his declaration "I want to report a murder, no, a double murder. They are two miles north of Park Headquarters. They were in a white Volkswagen Karmann Ghia" and after a brief pause uttered the words  "I'm the one that did it". Strikingly similar in composition to the Blue Rock Springs phone call nearly three months earlier, where the murderer issued the words "I wish to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to a public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They have been shot by a 9 mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year.... Good-bye".  It has been suggested in certain quarters that the caller in the aftermath of Lake Berryessa may have been a hoaxer, having scanned police frequencies and delivered the message, yet it wasn't the actual killer. However, at 7:40 pm when the call was phoned in, the police were at this point unaware it was a Zodiac crime, having not yet examined the footprints and Karmann Ghia door. They were still by the shoreline tending to the victims - after all, this was their main priority at this point.

The question therefore, is how could the killer and the caller be separate people, without first hand knowledge of the crime as a Zodiac crime, suggested by the near identically structured message. The fact of the matter, is that the caller would be implying a Zodiac crime, even though nobody else has yet discovered it is. This suggests strongly that the killer and payphone caller are one and the same person - especially considering the time of the attack, the distance to downtown Napa and the time of the call - not to mention his direction of travel appears southwards toward Vallejo.

​It would be later that Sergeant David Collins would head towards the roadside to examine the tire impressions and car door. He said "After the ambulance took the victims to the hospital in Napa (remember it arrived at approximately 7:55 pm, so likely left around 8:05 pm, to arrive at the Queen of the Valley Hospital at 8:50 pm), and while waiting for detectives from the Sheriff's Department to arrive Deputy Land talked to the witnesses and obtained statements from them. I began a search for evidence and discovered a footprint that led from Berryessa Knoxville Road to the victims and back again, which was totally separate from the shoes that they were wearing. When I went to the roadway I saw the white Karmann Ghia and I saw tracks leading away from it". He further added "I looked at the Karmann Ghia, and on the passenger door the circle with the vertical and horizontal line through it was displayed on the door and there were several dates, and then it ended with September 27th 1969, 6:30 pm, by knife, which was our crime, so he had left his calling card, which is what he had done. I recognized the symbol on the door as being the same symbol she had described on the hood"." The roadway observations occurred after 8:00 pm, once the ambulance had departed the scene, making any Zodiac styled payphone message at 7:40 pm inextricably linked back to the crime scene, with one perpetrator of the crime and call.