Zodiac researcher Alex Lewis, after contacting Destry Hines, was able to secure the full and complete Harvey Hines report on his suspect Lawrence Kane, in addition to some useful information on the Zodiac case as a whole, including the Presidio Heights murder of Paul Stine and some details that may have been withheld by the police. This should not be considered subversive, as often pertinent details of a crime are kept under wraps by investigative bodies in an attempt to distinguish between the real perpetrator and hoaxer, with only details to them and the criminal known. This was the case at Lake Berryessa, when the wording "by knife" on the car door was not released to the press, so if the real killer had contacted them, they could verify his authenticity. Alex has kindly sent me the full report, but for now has asked me not to release it into the public domain under instruction, so for the time being this will be the case.

It has previously been highlighted that the Zodiac Killer was picked up by Paul Stine in the theater district of San Francisco on October 11th 1969, but more specifically outside the Westin St. Francis Hotel situated on Powell and Geary Streets in Union Square. Robert Graysmith, author of two Zodiac books and having limited access to official police reports stated "Here's the St. Francis," pointing to the hotel on Union Square. "That's where Stine was idling in his taxi".

The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913, initially as apartments for permanent guests. With its acquisition by Western Hotels, the hotel was changed from a home of elderly San Francisco socialites, some of whom lived in large suites in the hotel, to a modern hotel focusing on tourism and especially conventions. The old Mural Room, decorated by Albert Herter in 1913 with seven murals comprising The Pageant of Nations, a banquet and ballroom which had hosted many of America's famous big bands, was replaced in 1970 by a six hundred room tower, designed to help the St. Francis compete with The Fairmont, its rival on nearby Nob Hill. Architect William Pereira designed the new building which was completed in 1972. The murals were rolled up and removed to storage.The St. Francis became the hotel where Republican presidents stayed when in San Francisco, while Democratic presidents usually stayed at the Fairmont. President Gerald Ford was almost shot while leaving the hotel in September 1975 by a woman named Sara Jane Moore. A former Marine named Oliver Sipple moved her hand so that Ford was not hit. Taken fom Wikipedia.

It is clear that this was a luxury hotel and the Zodiac Killer requested his destination to be the Washington and Maple Street intersection in the affluent district of Presidio Heights, but whether we can infer anything from this is not clear. Had the Zodiac Killer just happened to be outside the St. Francis Hotel when he entered the taxicab, or had he resided in or visited this hotel specifically?

It is widely known that the Zodiac Killer made two phone calls to police: the first was received by police dispatcher Nancy Slover after the murder of Darlene Ferrin and attempted murder of Michael Mageau at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th 1969, with the killer stating "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".  The second call was received by Officer Dave Slaight, who took the call after the double stabbing at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969 and heard the killer utter these words: "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".  But there may have been a third phone call from the Zodiac Killer prior to the murder of Paul Stine. This is the phone call in which the Zodiac Killer ordered the taxicab prior to its fateful journey.

It seemed strange that Paul Stine upon approaching the San Francisco theater district and receiving a dispatch from the assistant traffic manager of the Yellow Cab Co, Leroy Sweet, to pick up a scheduled fare from 500 9th Avenue, he would then stop and pick up a random fare from the St. Francis Hotel. A random passenger flagging down a taxicab could in all probability have wanted to go anywhere, either north, south, east or west, so stopping your taxicab on the off chance he wanted to go somewhere near to your scheduled destination of 500 9th Avenue, just over three miles away, seems an unlikely scenario.    

What is more likely though, is that the Zodiac Killer was already in the rear of the taxicab when he received the dispatch from Leroy Sweet to go to 500 9th Avenue. knowing it was close to the Washington and Maple instruction he had already been given. The police report stated "Mr. Sweet further stated the last dispatch given the victim was at 9:45 pm to 500 9th Avenue. Victim allegedly never arrived at the above location as the dispatch was reassigned to another cab at 9:58 pm. Responding officers noted that the meter of the cab was running, indicating the victim possibly picked up another fare en route to his original assignment".

There is a possibility that Paul Stine had just picked up the Zodiac Killer as the 500 9th Avenue dispatch was offered to him from outside the St. Francis Hotel, and therefore Paul Stine, knowing that his current fare had requested Washington & Maple as a destination, was able to accept the request from Leroy Sweet.

The Harvey Hines report seems to suggest that the Zodiac Killer did order a taxicab from a public payphone at Union Square near to the St. Francis Hotel on the night of October 11th 1969. 

Alex Lewis was able to get access to the whole report and here is an excerpt where Harvey Hines refers to the Paul Stine murder:
"In looking at an area map of San Francisco, I found 217 Eddy Street appeared to only be two to three blocks from where Paul Stine picked up the Zodiac on October 11, 1969. I then called Inspector Dave Toschi at the SFPD and got more details on the Stine Killing. Toschi said that they had determined that the killer had called for a cab using the public payphone located at Union Square. Toschi said the cab then picked the killer up and drove to the corner of Washington and Cherry Streets." 

This could have been the Zodiac Killer's third phone call.

There has been much debate on which intersection the Paul Stine murder on October 11th 1969 was actually committed, but on this occasion we will make a case for Washington and Cherry being the site of the shooting, taking only the police report and fingerprint evidence as our guidelines. The two page Stine report states "The suspect then appeared to be wiping on the interior of the cab, leaning over the victim to the driver's compartment. The suspect then exited the cab by the passenger side front door, also wiping with a white rag, possibly a handkerchief. The suspect then walked around the cab to the driver's side and proceeded to wipe the exterior of the left door area. The suspect then fled north on Cherry Street." This would suggest that the killer had previously touched both the driver and front passenger side doors with ungloved hands, to seemingly negate his claim of using transparent fingertip guards, however, he was not observed wiping down either of the rear doors.  

In fact, he was never seen in the rear of the taxicab by the three teenagers. This may have generated speculation that the killer could have traveled in the front of the taxicab and may have been known to Paul Stine, but for that to have been the case we would have to explain why the killer after shooting Paul Stine and removing a piece of his shirt, he would then travel around the exterior of the taxicab and deposit blooded fingerprints on the post of the driver side door, if he had never opened either at this particular juncture.

​There have been reports quoting the three teenagers saying the killer opened the driver side door and attempted to prop Paul Stine up behind the steering wheel before exiting the scene - but here we will be concentrating on the facts only contained within the police report.
​
There is a possibility that the Zodiac Killer wasn't wiping down either the front passenger door handle or the driver side door, as the front passenger door handle was not visible from the three teenagers position across the street, and the driver side door handle area may have been obscured by the Zodiac himself, with the three teenagers just having interpreted his actions based upon him holding what was considered to be a white rag or handkerchief. It could simply have been the Zodiac carrying the section of Paul Stine's shirt. After securing a piece of shirt and exiting the front passenger side door, the Zodiac Killer could have immediately left the crime scene up Cherry Street, but he didn't. The fact that he traveled around the taxicab to the driver side door, without opening it, does not leave many options as to why he performed this action, other than wiping away fingerprints - and suggests the interpretation of events by the three teenagers was in fact correct.

If the Zodiac Killer rode in the rear of the taxicab did he also wipe down these doors? Did he wipe down the rear door he exited at the time he moved to the front section of the taxicab and prior to the three teenagers looking out of their window? But for that to happen the Zodiac may as well have used the white rag or handkerchief on his person to prevent placing fresh fingerprints on the front passenger side door as he entered it. The fact he was later seen wiping it down suggests to the contrary.

​Fingerprints were in fact discovered on the rear doors and any attempt to wipe these either failed or were never performed. Would fingerprints on the rear passenger doors prove to be incriminating evidence? - after all it was a taxicab. However, fingerprints on the front doors, in view of a piece of the taxicab driver's shirt being torn off, may have been a little harder to explain. 

There is a logical course of events that may explain a murder at Washington and Cherry Street, explain the blood pattern on Paul Stine's shirt and crucially the blooded fingerprints on the post to the rear of the driver side door.
As Paul Stine parked up at the Washington and Cherry Street intersection, the Zodiac placed the gun close to Paul Stine's head and fired. Back spatter from the wound would have struck Zodiac's hand and gun, depositing blood onto both. At this point, he could have just left the scene - but his objective was to secure a trophy - so he now had to access the front of the taxicab. In view of the blooded prints on the left post of the taxicab, this may suggest his possible route.

If Paul Stine had slumped immediately to the right side of the front passenger seat or passenger well, and the Zodiac Killer wanted to access Paul Stine's pockets or the rear of his shirt, the logical move would have been to exit the right rear passenger door and enter the front passenger door, where he could seat himself on the passenger side of the taxicab. The problem with this scenario, is not only the blood pattern on the shirt, but more importantly, there would be no reason for any blood to have been transferred to the driver side panel of the taxicab. ​There is another possible order of events but it is by no means conclusive.

After Paul Stine was shot he may have remained upright behind the steering wheel and the killer's quickest route to secure a trophy was to exit the left rear passenger door and access the driver side door. He opened and closed the left rear door with his blood free left hand. He then opened the driver side door with the same hand, but as he leaned into the taxicab to search through Paul Stine's pockets he may have supported himself by resting his blooded right hand on the taxicab panel/post between the two doors, inadvertently depositing his fingerprints into evidence. He then removed the wallet of Paul Stine. The idea of securing a piece of material from the rear of the driver's shirt was either preconceived or an afterthought, however, Paul Stine was upright, so he needed to push the taxicab driver over to the passenger side in order to facilitate access to his back of his shirt. He now closes the driver side door and travels around the taxicab to enter the front passenger side door. Enter the three teenagers at this point as they begin to observe the suspect from the upper window of their residence. Knowing fingerprints on the front doors of the taxicab could be interpreted as incriminatory, the Zodiac Killer, once he has secured the swatch of Paul Stine's shirt, then uses this material to wipe down the front passenger door before finally wiping down the driver side door and exiting north along Cherry Street. Crucially though, he forgot all about the driver side door post and the blooded fingerprints remained.

If you have failed to so far, a visit to http://340cipherhalloweencardconnection.blogspot.co.uk/ is a must for all Zodiac sleuths. The sites central core focuses on an overlay theory for the Zodiac ciphers and cards, taking visuals to a completely new level and this concept is explored in alarming detail. More recently the websites owner Randall Scott Clemons has branched out, covering the more standard Zodiac topics such as Paul Stine and Cheri Jo Bates, but again with a totally fresh approach, incorporating his overlay skills, along with moving images and bringing the crime scene images to life in full color.

Randall expanded on this concept:" The colors are right.. Except maybe the are with the greenish tint. I wasn't to sure what that are was. I found a photo just of Cheri Bates lying like that and it was already colored but the rest of the photo was not included. So I used that to color her and to find the color of the ground.It is hard to explain how I did it . I figured how to do it by accident. I colored a photo just of her using a color photo I found of her.. Then I got the idea I could use the same process to color other photos. I'll use the photo with the car for example. I figured out if I take the black and white photo and color it then I can use this overlay app I have on the luminosity setting and it just lets the colors from the photo under the black and white photo come through and nothing else. So if you get anywhere close to the real color it will work. The trees on the photo with the car I took pictures of real shrubs and put them over the black and white shrubs in the pic. The bricks.. I took pictures of real brick and put them over the black and white bricks...then the wood.. I found a picture of a wooden fence and put it over the wood.. Then the car, I found a picture of a green vw beetle and matched the color to it and colored the car.. For like skin color I used pictures of real skin and colored them in.. It takes a while to do but doing it like that you get real color.. Then I take the black and white photo I colored and overlay the black and white photo untouched over it .. Then I put it on the luminosity setting and it just lets the colors come through to the photo on top and it looks pretty good. The colors are right.. It would have been harder to color Cheri in the photo lying on the ground but like I said I found a color pic of just her on the ground and I used it to color a whole photo. I have only done it a few times. Those are my first attempts. I will get better. I have to do research and things to find out what the color of some thing are.. Black and white pictures already have the grey scale and if you get anywhere close to the actual color of the photo it will work.. but it just takes time.. it took me about 4 hours on each photo , but I just work on them here and there. Now that I learned how to do it , we could find old photos and do research on them and maybe take pics of the places the way they are today and use the colors from them .. You should try it out and play around with it .. I use an i-phone app that is free..it is just called overlay.. They have a bunch of different ones. I think it would be worth it to research this stuff and try to bring color to some of it . . The color picture I made of Cheri at the top of the blog page... I used a color photo I found of her to color her hair and skin".
This website is well worth a view, with each page being constantly updated to accommodate new findings. Below are some of his recent articles and updates. Please visit his website here or enter via the rss feed featured:
http://340cipherhalloweencardconnection.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Alex Lewis drew my attention to the following subject, concerning the description of a 'black male adult' being passed in the immediate moments after the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 at Presidio Heights and pours huge doubt on this widely held narrative ever happening, for a number of reasons. Whether Officer Donald Fouke stopped or didn't stop a viable suspect on Jackson Street is not the issue, it is the fact that this suspect was either let on his way after being questioned, or having been spotted supposedly entering a stairwell at 3712 Jackson Street, this was then not followed up, even after supposedly being informed of the amended description. If a mystery man was spotted on Jackson Street, it almost becomes acceptable to have passed him, if Officer Donald Fouke was looking for a black male adult, however, if Donald Fouke was looking for a white male at that point, his actions would have been hard to explain and the story of the dispatcher giving out a false description seems to alleviate this error. It wouldn't be the first time police closed ranks to cover up an error.  

Alex Lewis stated "I've said before that I really am sceptical of their claim of an incorrect NMA broadcast ever happening. Go back and look in the immediate post crime reports and nowhere will you find mention that the responding units had been given an initial incorrect suspect description. It's only when the Zodiac himself writes about a month after the incident 'PS 2 cops pulled a goof', do we hear the story of a Black Male description having been broadcast and when you think about it, isn't that exactly what you'd expect them to say after Zodiac has publicly 'rubbed their face in the boo-boo's'? I think it was damage limitation time for the SFPD after they read Zodiac had said he was stopped and spoken with. Imagine how the department would look if it were discovered they simply let a white guy walk away knowing the suspect was white? There's just no way they could admit this, as the public outcry would be unthinkable! So, if we simply say that we were told by some idiotic dispatcher (who, unlike Slover and Slaight) has never been named or identified that the suspect was black then this will save face and we can explain away why it was we never apprehended the white guy".

We have to believe that after the description given by the three teenagers of a white male adult, within seconds the dispatcher had incorrectly relayed a new description of a black male. It has been said that maybe the dispatcher misheard the teenagers or they were speaking quickly or frantically, but this is unlikely. When a dispatcher has a frantic or erratic call, they are often told to tell the person on the phone to take a deep breath and slow down, or if they didn't hear the person properly, to ask them to repeat the information. But somehow here, the error still occurred from this anonymous dispatcher. But that is not all. The teenagers rang in and described the suspect as a "white male, 5'8" in height, rimmed glasses, dark clothing, heavy build, reddish-blond hair and a crew cut". See here to view police report: http://www.zodiackiller.com/Stine.html. Well, the next logical step is for the dispatcher to pass this description in its entirety onto the police. It would make no sense to ignore the whole description and just pass on the part about a black male. So, if we take the claims at face value, the dispatcher incorrectly changed white male to black male. The description the dispatcher therefore sent out should have read "black male, 5'8" in height, rimmed glasses, dark clothing, heavy build, reddish-blond hair and a crew cut." and supposedly this made sense and was never questioned immediately. The late 1960's sported many hair cuts, but a black male with a reddish-blond crew cut sounds out of the ordinary, unless we are to believe only the skin color part of the description was relayed. 

Then we have Donald Fouke, who despite spotting a white male on Jackson Street for only a few seconds as they passed him, was able to give a very detailed description of the suspect, despite the fact he was white and they were supposedly looking for a black male. His description was a "35-45 WMA, barrel- chested, medium complexion, wearing a waist length, navy or royal blue zipper type jacket with elastic at the waist, and on the cuffs, he had a crew cut, brown wool pleated trousers, baggy in rear, engineering type boots, tan in color, low cut shoe and wearing glasses. Not bad when your looking for a black male.

Now let us accept the widely held view that the description the police received was that of a "black male, 5'8" in height, rimmed glasses, dark clothing, heavy build, reddish-blond hair and a crew cut." As Officer Donald Fouke passed the suspect on Jackson Street, he notices it's a white male - but hang on - the entirety of the remaining description fits, down to the crew cut, glasses, clothing, weight and height - only the color of his skin is wrong. Surely this man was still worthy of questioning, which I believe is exactly what happened. He was questioned by Donald Fouke that night, but the premise that a description of a black man was sent over the airwaves, simply never took place.

Thanks to Alex Lewis: https://welshchappie.wordpress.com/

Bus Bomb letter 11/9/69: "p.s. 2 cops pulled a goof abot 3 min after I left the cab. I was walking down the hill to the park when this cop car pulled up + one of them called me over + asked if I saw anyone acting suspicious or strange in the last 5 to 10 min + I said yes there was this man who was runnig by waveing a gun & the cops peeled rubber + went around the corner as I directed them + I disappeared into the park a block + a half away never to be seen again".  It can be seen the Zodiac Killer is claiming an encounter with two policemen only minutes after the murder of Paul Stine at Washington and Cherry Street in San Francisco.

In the 2007 This is the Zodiac Speaking documentary, Armond Pelissetti was clearly lending credence to this encounter when referring to Officer Donald Fouke, who supposedly spotted the Zodiac Killer by 3712 Jackson Street. Officer Pelissetti said "I spoke to Officer Fouke later that evening and was unaware that he had stopped anybody, black, white or any other color, however, in subsequent conversations with him, he told me that he did stop somebody". Donald Fouke denies that he stopped anybody. It is clear that the Zodiac Killer was not privy to this conversation, and the supposed stopping and questioning of a suspect was not featured in any newspaper articles prior to the November 9th 1969 Bus Bomb letter. The Zodiac claimed that the encounter occurred about 3 minutes after he left the taxicab, so let us examine the timeline of Donald Fouke and the Zodiac Killer that night.   

Armond Pelissetti stated in the documentary that he and Frank Peda responded "red light and siren" after the dispatcher's call at 9:58 pm.
So, let us surmise for now that the Zodiac left the scene at 9:56 pm. After about three minutes walking, the Zodiac Killer would have arrived close to the intersection of Jackson and Maple, by 3712 Jackson Street, at 9:59 pm - supposedly where this encounter happened.

Donald Fouke stated that he saw a white male entering the stairwell to 3712 Jackson Street. Donald Fouke also received the dispatcher's call at 9:58 pm, while he and his rookie partner Eric Zelms were traveling northbound on Presidio Avenue, having just passed Washington Street. Their journey time from this location is approximately 1 minute to 3712 Jackson Street, indicating that Donald Fouke would have arrived at 9:59 pm - the exact time the Zodiac would have been passing this location.
So, Zodiac's claim of this encounter holds up to the timeline - and bearing in mind Armond Pelissetti's claim that Donald Fouke stated to him that he stopped somebody - it appears to corroborate Zodiac's claim that "two cops pulled a goof".
 
Again, the Zodiac Killer was not privy to the police officers claims or statements prior to November 9th 1969, so it was either a extremely lucky guess on his part or he was telling the truth. It is easy for the police and newspapers to discredit the Zodiac Killer simply by saying "they are the claims of a madman" or "psychopath", but this fails to answer the question. The newspapers made no reference to the officers stopping or even viewing a suspect that night, while also claiming it was unlikely the Zodiac Killer had entered the park that night on account of the sniffer dogs employed in the search. But this appears not be the case. His claim above, of talking to Donald Fouke and Eric Zelms is likely true (as the timeline suggests) - and unless Armond Pelissetti was lying - it placed Donald Fouke in a direct path with the killer at 9:59 pm that night. Not withstanding the fact, that the Zodiac Killer knew nothing of Donald Fouke's route that night, which ties in perfectly. The embarrassment of questioning a suspect and then letting him on his way, may have been something that would be better glossed over, yet something the Zodiac was keen to capitalize on in his extensive Bus Bomb letter and insisting it must be printed in the newspapers. In other words, he wanted to highlight this fact - something that had clearly been kept under wraps. But if this were the truth, how many other of the Zodiac claims were true. Let's take a look. 

"The cops peeled rubber + went around the corner as I directed them + I disappeared into the park a block + a half away never to be seen again". This encounter was claimed to have occurred at 3712 Jackson Street, just before the intersection of Jackson and Maple. So, if the Zodiac disappeared into the park one block and a half away, we shall travel this distance. Although just under a block and a half, the nearest to this description is Spruce Street, shown here. From this location the Zodiac Killer could easily enter the park at a safer distance from any searches that may have materialized and distance himself from where he was initially spotted. It also lies closer to his initial claim of a murder by "Washington and Maple", if this was his original intended destination.

Of course, some of his claims to have been hiding in the park could have been bolstered by adding detail he subsequently read in the newspapers, but there is one thing he stated that not only boosts the idea he entered the park via Spruce Street and hid in the trees there, but is descriptive enough to provide us with a location. This is what the Zodiac Killer stated in the Bus Bomb letter: "I gave the cops som bussy work to do to keep them happy. I enjoy needling the blue pigs. Hey blue pig I was in the park -- you were useing fire trucks to mask the sound of your cruzeing prowl cars. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west + there was only 2 groups of parking about 10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west." The Zodiac Killer again backs up the idea he entered the park via Spruce Street saying "The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west". This suggests that if we travel just over two blocks west of the Spruce Street entrance to the park, this is where the police, fire trucks, motorcycles and dogs were milling around. See here. The Arguello Boulevard entrance to the park is just over two blocks. 

We now have Zodiac possibly entering the park at Spruce Street, but can we narrow it down further. In the topographic maps of 1968, the layout of the park's trees and hedges have altered little to affect this analysis and can be viewed here.

Many of the police would have flooded the park via the Arguello Boulevard entrance - this is the area of dense growth highlighted on the map by the red ellipse shown to the left. This activity was noted by the killer "Hey blue pig I was in the park -- you were useing fire trucks to mask the sound of your cruzeing prowl cars. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west". But he went on to add one further critical statement, that may have pinpointed his exact location within the park: "There was only 2 groups of parking about 10 min apart, then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west".

They were going from south to northwest. So what road was the Zodiac describing from his vantage point, allowing him to view this directional movement of traffic? There was elevation in the park - but his view would also have been masked by trees. This image on Google Maps shows part of the Arguello Boulevard masked by trees, however, a little further on it opens up. This section of Arguello Boulevard frees itself from the tree line and heads from south to northwest, just as the Zodiac stated in the Bus Bomb letter. All that is left for us to do is pinpoint his location, allowing him to clearly view this area. The police would certainly have focused on this area, as it was not only a key entrance to the park but also an area of dense growth, availing many possibilities to escape into. So, let us travel back to the entrance to the park from Spruce Street.

Knowing of the commotion to the west, logically the Zodiac Killer should have accessed cover immediately to the east after entering the park - somewhere in the region shown below. Notice the line of sight available to the Zodiac to that portion of Arguello Boulevard we mentioned earlier, running from south to northwest, thereby giving us a viable location for the Zodiac Killer on October 11th 1969, a matter of minutes after the crime. It may well be the case that if the Zodiac didn't have a car waiting somewhere by the intersection of Jackson and Maple, for fear of vehicle identification, then his claim of entering the park that night may well be true after all.

After viewing the police to the west, including any scent dogs, he may have cut his losses. He couldn't head west, and he surely wouldn't have re-entered West Pacific Avenue or Jackson Street, so the realistic option available to him, was to head eastwards toward Cow Hollow or the Marina District. But, bearing in mind he may have been covered in blood, is it possible he lived in a house backing onto the park or likely had his vehicle parked there, affording him a distinct separation from the Presidio Heights area? Or was the Zodiac Killer a liar as Chief of Inspectors Martin Lee contended, and the Zodiac Killer was never in the park at all?

"The San Francisco Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly". The Zodiac Killer's claim only two days after the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969, in a letter he mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, that would also give up a gruesome reminder - a piece of the blooded taxicab driver's shirt. The theory that our killer may have been connected to the military has been well documented, including Zodiac suspect and once army medic Richard Gaikowski, on account of the swatch of Paul Stine's shirt being torn neatly by hand - a practice used in emergencies and combat zones for use as tourniquets, bandages and such like. To read more on this visit Tom Voigt's message board. It has been questioned by many, that had Zodiac actually entered the park and watched proceedings as he claimed, then his capture would have soon followed. However, did he travel north through the park, toward the San Francisco Bay area to hole up, suggesting a familiarity with the area, along with the military facility of the Letterman Army Medical Hospital?  

The new Letterman Hospital was completed by Halverson and McLaughlin in 1968, a 550-bed facility, 445,000 square feet of floor, employing close to 2,000 personnel. It was crucial in treating soldiers injured from the Pacific Theater and the conflict in Vietnam, that lasted from 1955 to 1975 and the fall of Saigon.
In 1970, Letterman employees totaled approximately 1100 officers and 750 civilians. Patients were also shuttled from the Travis Air Base in Solana County to the Letterman Hospital using the Crissy US Army Airfield. After World War II a paved runway replaced the grass landing field and the Sixth Army Flight Detachment used Crissy Field for light utility and passenger planes, and helicopter operations. During the Vietnam war the Army used Crissy Field for liaison flights and MedEvac flights to transport wounded Vietnam soldiers 40 miles from Travis Air Force Base to the Presidio's Letterman Army Hospital, a trip by ambulance on surface roads would take too long and possibly be delayed by traffic into San Francisco. At the end of the Vietnam war in 1974 the Army closed Crissy Field to airplanes, though helicopter operations continued for several years. From Wikipedia.

Could the Letterman Hospital or Crissy Army Airfield supply any connection to our killer, either as employee or patient? Had our killer served in Vietnam during his 'quiet' periods? Was the Travis Air Force Base relevant? It is located near Fairfield, California, an area that supplied two dubious pieces of Zodiac correspondence on December 7th and December 16th of 1969. The December 16th letter contained the text "this state is in trouble..I will go for the Goverment life", suggesting more of a connection with the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, but in view of American intervention in Vietnam controversial with many, a threat towards officialdom would carry some weight with disgruntled servicemen and the like. The Wing Walker boots responsible for the footprints at Lake Berryessa were issued to military personnel, but were also sold as army surplus from the Travis Air Force Base at Fairfield. 

The Letterman Hospital connection is difficult to nail down without comprehensive employee records to cross check. One such employee was Donna Ann Lass, who worked as a nurse at the Letterman Hospital, before relocating to South Lake Tahoe in the summer of 1970, to work at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in Stateline, Nevada. She will forever be linked as a possible Zodiac victim, when the disputed Pines Card correspondence was received at the San Francisco Chronicle on March 22nd 1971, six months after her disappearance. Donna Lass went missing at the end of her shift on the Labor Day weekend of September 6th 1970. Her remains have never been found. However, there is another possibility regarding a second employee of the Letterman Hospital, murdered only 2 years and 9 months after Donna Lass disappeared. 

Rosa Vasquez (20) of 834 Bush Street was discovered close to the Arguello Boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973, the day after Memorial Day. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. This area was just one mile from the corner of the Washington and Cherry intersection. The murder of Rosa Vasquez has not been generally considered to be Zodiac related, having been grouped into other similar murders - notably Angela Thomas (16), Yvonne Quilantang (15) and Nancy Patricia Gidley (24). See here for more info.

Rosa Vasquez worked as a Keypunch Operator. A keypunch is a device for precisely punching holes into stiff paper cards at specific locations as determined by keys struck by a human operator. Now that rings a bell with the Zodiac, in particular the Pines Card, supposedly inferring the disappearance of Donna Lass. Could the killer have worked alongside both young women - two possible murders inside of three years with respect to employees of the Letterman Hospital - what are the odds? As it stands, this is still a weak association - and 'clutching at straws' comes to mind - but one has to keep trying.