The Lake Herman Road double murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968 were committed by more than one person, and quite possibly by somebody that they knew. These are some of the claims that have circulated the internet for many years - but what is the truth? The fact of the matter, is that nobody knows, because there are no living eyewitnesses to the crime. What transpired in the hours and days after the murders have shaped our understanding regarding the mechanics of the crime. It is claimed that the Zodiac Killer pulled into the turnout alongside the courting couple, immediately exited his vehicle and fired warning shots at the Rambler in order to force the young couple from the vehicle. Both David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen exited through the passenger side door and were summarily murdered by a callous and brutal murderer. David Faraday was executed at near point blank range through his left ear (evident by the powder burns detailed at autopsy), while Betty Lou Jensen was gunned down as she fled westwards across the turnout, eventually collapsing to her knees approximately 33 feet from the rear bumper of the Rambler, before falling backwards. The position of the bodies and ballistics evidence suggests this to be the truth, however, there is nothing to corroborate the notion the couple were ever forced from the vehicle at all. In an interview shortly after the murders, this hypothesis was ruminated upon by Detective Sergeant Les Lunblad and has pretty much stuck for fifty years, despite the fact it is equally possible they could have been attacked while returning to their vehicle. The shots to the rear window and headliner of the Rambler do not tell us whether both victims were in the station wagon during the initial attack. David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen could have been arriving back to their vehicle, and as David courteously opened the passenger side door for Betty, the attack began. The two shots may have been fired at the couple in the turnout but missed their intended target, or fired into the Rambler to show the assailant/s meant business.        

If we take the literal statement of James Owen to be the truth, that "He definitely saw two cars, a station wagon and another vehicle, parked approximately three or four feet to the right of the station wagon. He did not see anyone in the cars or around them. He stated as he traveled approximately one quarter of a mile beyond, he thought he heard a shot", then we have to conclude that the occupants of both vehicles were somewhere other than in or around the vehicles. Either concealed in the darkness on the west side of the turnout, or not in the turnout at all.

This is backed up by James Owen's approach to the turnout, in which he saw no vehicle (headlights or taillights) entering the turnout from either the east or west side. See here. Therefore, the vehicle sitting alongside the Faraday Rambler when he passed the turnout had been sitting there for at least 30 seconds without any attack beginning. If James Owen did actually hear a shot 30 seconds after he passed the turnout, this would indicate that the assailant/s in the unknown vehicle didn't begin the attack for at least one minute after arriving at the turnout. This length of time could be even longer if the rogue vehicle arrived shortly after the two raccoon hunters, Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser, had departed the scene. The two vehicles could have been sitting alongside each other for a maximum of 8 minutes (possibly unoccupied) before anything transpired. If a strange vehicle pulled into the turnout alongside David Faraday, with headlights on and engine running, why would David Faraday have resolutely sat there for one minute without pulling away, let alone several minutes. Unless of course, he knew the occupants of the second vehicle.

On page 53 of the police report it states "Responding officer talked to Debbie Faraday, WFJ 16 years, sister of David. She relates the following David told her on the afternoon of Friday 12/20/68 that he was going out to Lake Herman Road that night because a bunch of the kids were going out there that night." Was David initially comfortable or unconcerned by the arrival of the vehicle that James Owen observed? Were the couple even in the turnout at this juncture?    

The Zodiac Killer kept his victims at arm's length in his three other confirmed attacks. At Blue Rock Springs he fired immediately upon arriving at the brown Corvair while Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin were effectively trapped in the confines of their vehicle. At Lake Berryessa he kept his distance, handing the bindings to Cecelia Shepard to secure the most likely threat, Bryan Hartnell. At Presidio Heights it was a callous execution, blindsiding Paul Stine with a deadly shot to the right side of his head. Yet, at Lake Herman Road, the 'lone killer' did something completely different.

In his August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter he described his targeting mechanism for killing in the dark: "What I did was tape a small pencel flash light to the barrel of my gun. If you notice, in the center of the beam of light if you aim it at a wall or ceiling you will see a black or darck spot in the center of the circle of light about 3 to 6 inches across. When taped to a gun barrel, the bullet will strike in the center of the black dot in the light. All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights". Forming a circle of light 3 to 6 inches across, is suggestive of a killer who wanted to accurately target his victims in the dark turnout at distance, not suggestive of a killer who was going to negate the purpose of the flashlight targeting system, by approaching David Faraday and shooting him in the left side of his head from mere inches away. The caution he displayed in all his other three crimes, not only abandoned here, but totally disregarded, and completely at odds with the apparent preparation of his weapon for sighting purposes. He could easily have shot David Faraday from the front the moment he stepped from the Rambler, keeping a reasonable distance from him. Apparently, his targeting system seemed to work on Betty Lou Jensen, a moving target, as she fled across the darkened turnout, but in the case of a relatively static target in David Faraday, it required him to approach within touching distance to fire off one shot to the left side of David Faraday's head. It has been considered that possibly David Faraday fought with the assailant, but is it likely this would have transpired with a gun and flashlight focused on him at distance when he exited the passenger side door, and charged with a responsibility to safeguarding Betty Lou Jensen at just 17 years of age? There was never any need for the Zodiac Killer to ever get close to David Faraday. There was never any need to allow them to exit the vehicle in the first place, as he successfully demonstrated at Blue Rock Springs Park.   

The disproportionality of the injuries inflicted to David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, unlike the following two attacks, may indicate that David Faraday was secured by a second shooter, either from the front or rear. A shot fired from a gun pressed to his left ear from this position could feasibly eject a cartridge casing into the open door of the Rambler, either directly, or via the framework of the door. The cartridge casing found on the floorboard of the passenger side was likely the casing not tested at the Department of Justice, Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Remaining in the Rambler, it likely got separated from the other 9 casings. See here.

The Department of Justice report stated that the submitted items corresponded with the use of a J C Higgins 80 pistol, "although it must not be assumed that the exhibits must have been fired in such a weapon." However, it does state a crucial piece of information, that the bullet fired into David Faraday did not contain the same class characteristics as the other seven submitted bullets. What it actually said was 'All bullets submitted were Western copper coated .22 long rifle bullets, although some were damaged, it was possible to determine ALL but Item [1] had 6 right hand groove class characteristics.'  Item [1] was the bullet recovered from David Faraday. This means that the bullet recovered from David Faraday at autopsy and the casing untested at the Department of Justice could have been fired from a second weapon and second shooter, possibly securing David Faraday from behind. The would have been the person arriving from the distant (passenger) side of the second vehicle, and not responsible for the shots into the Rambler, the securing of Betty Lou Jensen (who exited the Rambler first) and the five shots that peppered the right side of her back when she was released. In other words, the accomplice had no sighting implement on his gun and was wholly responsible for securing David Faraday as he left the Rambler after Betty Lou Jensen. With Betty Lou Jensen secured first, David Faraday had little option but to comply.

This appears to have been confirmed by the killer, who incorrectly stated in the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter "All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights".  What the author of the letter should have said, was "All I had to do was spray her as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights". He was writing the letter from his perspective, not the perspective of his accomplice. This order of events is perfectly feasible, and can be backed up by the wording contained in the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter and by the ballistics evidence, or more accurately, the lack of ballistics evidence. Other than timing of the shots into the Rambler, the premise of two shooters in the Lake Herman Road murders is still applicable. The great big thorn in the pattern, or order of events, is the testimony of James Owen, which suggests that David Faraday hadn't left the turnout for upwards of one minute after the second vehicle arrived, and the assailant or assailants didn't begin the attack in the same timeframe. In fact, James Owen "did not see anyone in the cars or around them." David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen had limited time to walk any significant distance after being spotted by Peggy and Homer Your at approximately 11:00 pm. If they had left their vehicle (or turnout on foot) with the occupant/s of the second vehicle, would this be more likely with people they knew, or the Zodiac Killer, who subsequently never physically extricated the victims from their initial position?

Even if two people were responsible for the murders on December 20th 1968, this doesn't imply there were two killers throughout the four canonical attacks. They may, or may not have continued after this attack. They could have teamed up for the Blue Rock Springs attack, when an unknown vehicle parked alongside Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin minutes before eventual shooting began. They could have individually been responsible for the Lake Berryessa and Presidio Heights attacks, in an attempt to create the most daring attack of all, and hence the seemingly conflicting descriptions given. On the other hand, it may simply have been one individual, and we are looking for something that never was.  

Many attempts have been made to conclusively link the Riverside murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, along with the accompanying communications, to the Zodiac Killer. The three 'Bates' letters, on April 30th 1967, ended the Riverside chapter, with the three July 31st 1969 letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald, beginning the Zodiac chapter. But is the hidden identity contained within the 408 cipher (if it exists) somehow connected to the hidden author of the November 29th 1966 'Confession' letter? It is paramount to make a distinction between name and identity when attempting to formulate any cohesive link between the Confession letter and 408 cipher, because the Zodiac Killer claimed he wouldn't give us his name in the decoded 408 cipher, but did claim it would reveal his identity.

​When we take a close look at the decoded 408 cipher, it can be argued that he made a fundamental error when he encoded his original message, accidentally omitting the word "people" in the ciphertext. This is explained in 'The 18 Unsolved Characters [Pt3]'  This effectively created a shortfall of 6 characters in his 408 cipher, which had he not done, would only have left 12 unsolved characters at the end of the message. In view of the Bay Area murderer identifying himself as "Zodiac" just four days later, it was considered that his impatience may have compelled him to reveal his identity earlier than he would have liked, and "Zodiac" was integral to his identity in the 12 characters at the end of the 408 cipher. The hidden identity, therefore, the "Zodiac Killer". 

Had the 408 cipher read "the best part of it, is that when I die I will be reborn in paradice and all the people I have killed will become my slaves", and the last 12 characters contained his identity, then by extension, we should be looking backwards to Riverside for the previous time he used a form of cryptic or hidden message. The only letter that contained such an instance, was the November 29th 1966 letter beginning "The Confession by - - - - - - - - - - - -".  This contained 12 underscores of, presumably, the hidden name or identity of the killer. For those believing a connection from Riverside to the Bay Area, the potential murderer of Cheri Jo Bates may have cloaked his identity behind 12 underscores in the Riverside 'Confession' letter and 12 characters in his communication with the San Francisco Chronicle on July 31st 1969.  The 'Bates' letters correlated via a trinity of letters, whereby the 'Confession' letter correlated through the identity of twelve.

This analysis fundamentally fails to successfully bridge the divide from Riverside to the Bay Area, as many arguments have before - and the connection between the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and associated communications, to the Zodiac Killer, will remain a hot button topic for many years to come no doubt - but the search goes on.

We are nearly upon the 50th anniversary of the brutal murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen aside Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968. This crime was not featured in the 2007 David Fincher movie 'Zodiac', primarily because nobody knows for sure exactly how the crime unfolded. The widely held narrative, is of a killer who pulled up alongside the Rambler of the courting couple, exited his vehicle, and fired at least two shots into the Rambler to force them out onto the turnout. He immediately proceeded to shoot David Faraday at near point blank range in the head, then fired five shots into the back of Betty Lou Jensen as she fled across the turnout in a westerly direction. He then got back in his vehicle and headed off into the night. Had the David Fincher movie shown this version, it would have been pure fiction. 

James Owen was the last eyewitness before the murders and saw two vehicles parked alongside each other. He claimed "He did not see anyone in the cars or around them". 
The only moving vehicle James Owen saw that night passed him by the Borges Ranch heading towards Vallejo. He saw no vehicle in front of him on Lake Herman Road as he traveled towards Benicia, and saw no vehicle entering the turnout from the other end as he headed towards it. He would have had an unobstructed view of the headlights and taillights of another vehicle amounting to at least 30 seconds traveling in either direction, before it entered the turnout. Therefore, when he passed the turnout, the vehicle parked only 10 feet to the right of the Rambler had been there for at least 30 seconds, but could have been sitting alongside the Rambler for a maximum of 8 minutes. This is explained in more detail in the article 'The Impasse on Lake Herman Road'. 

The two raccoon hunters, Frank Gasser and Robert Connelly, exited the area at about 11:05 pm, with James Owen passing the turnout sometime between 11:10 and 11:14 pm, giving the Zodiac Killer a window of approximately 4-8 minutes to park in the turnout. The earlier he arrived, the longer his vehicle sat alongside the Rambler with no murder. The idea that the Zodiac Killer, having already forced the couple from the Rambler, then noticed James Owen approaching and hid David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen behind one of the vehicles, is extremely flawed. Why didn't James Owen hear the shots fired at the Rambler if he was close enough to the turnout for the Zodiac to notice him approaching? James Owen mentioned no doors open on either vehicle, and never saw "anyone in the cars or around them". This would leave the Zodiac Killer having to close both vehicle doors before James Owen arrived, and then reopen the Rambler door before he left, as this was how it was found by responding law enforcement. It would also require Zodiac 'escorting' the couple back to the original position they exited the Rambler, before shooting them - because this is where the bullet casings were grouped. It is these bullet casings that gave rise to the notion they were killed immediately upon exiting the vehicle.     

How long the vehicle sat beside the Rambler before James Owen arrived is unknown. If it was a few minutes, then we have to question the whole narrative of a killer pulling alongside the Rambler, immediately exiting his vehicle, and firing upon the young couple.

James Owen may have noticed both vehicles, but failed to notice the occupants. This would again rely on both Zodiac doing nothing the moment he parked alongside the Rambler, and David Faraday doing nothing for at least 30 seconds, when an unknown vehicle parked just 10 feet to his right in a dark lonely turnout. This is not the picture painted for the last 50 years. Had both vehicles been parked next to each other for several minutes before James Owen arrived, could we conclude that David Faraday knew the occupant/s of the second vehicle and therefore wasn't initially alarmed? Or were David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and the occupant/s of the second vehicle even in the turnout at this point in time? Either way, the narrative of a Zodiac Killer immediately acting upon his arrival at the turnout doesn't hold water. The double murder at Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968 will probably remain the most puzzling of all the four Zodiac attacks, testimony to the brutality shown that night, and ultimately beginning a search that hasn't ended nearly a half-century later.

Thirteen days after the Zodiac Killer mailed the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher on November 8th 1969, another letter and code purporting to be from the Bay Area murderer was mailed to the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969, possibly containing a threat on a "widow" in the San Jose area. Both mailings have so much in common, along with the December 7th and 16th 1969 Fairfield letters, which also contained rudimentary codes. The Zodiac Killer wrote the chronological months of his murders at the foot of the 'Dripping Pen' card: "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7". Bearing in mind that all but August were accounted for, it is now clear the card was inferring the murders of two young girls, Deborah Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathy Ann Snoozy (15), who were found savagely stabbed on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose. It is therefore no surprise that his next communication should be focused on San Jose just two weeks later. Below is part of the FBI file revealing some of its contents.

Placing "November=8" could be viewed as an extension to his "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7", indicating he was claiming another murder in November. He also began the communication with familiar words: "There's no doubt I will do my Thing". As the communication was mailed to the San Jose Police Department, we would now have three victims in San Jose to which he was laying claim to. The short code (shown above) was -- + 6 2 + --, containing two dashes either side, two pluses, and the numbers 6 and 2. Both Fairfield letters contained rudimentary codes pertaining to the 340 cipher, as though he was giving us a clue to its design. This may also have been the case when he mailed the Halloween card on October 27th 1970, intersecting the words Paradice and Slaves in a cross formation and writing "sorry no cipher" in similar fashion on the envelope. In fact, the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter contained a design similar to the Halloween card. The 340 cipher can be shown to accommodate the words Paradice and Slaves, bisecting the cipher horizontally and vertically across its mid-section. This opened up the possibility that the San Jose code was somehow connected to this design. Both Fairfield letters harked back to the 340 cipher, so why not the San Jose code also.  

The symbols contained in the San Jose code exactly mirror the order shown on the horizontal mid-section of the 340 cipher. The 10th line is where some believe the cipher could be divided, along with the possibility of the word Slaves residing. Not only do the dashes and pluses line up exactly with the San Jose code using the mid-section of the 340 cipher, but the numbers 6 and 2 would slot nicely in between. If we used basic number play, and converted 6 to F and 2 to B, both these letters can be found together on the 10th line also. All six characters from the San Jose code present on the Slaves line of the 340 cipher. 

This may very well be coincidence, but with "There's no doubt I will do my Thing", "November=8" and this correspondence immediately following the 'Dripping Pen' card and 340 cipher, one could argue the Zodiac Killer was dropping us hints to the mechanics of his "crackproof" cipher. Something he would again do with the arrival of both Fairfield letters in December.

The Zodiac Killer could wait only one month after the Button letter, to give us further clues regarding the bomb he claimed to have buried, when he wrote "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians". Why should the San Jose and Fairfield letters be any different?   

The Zodiac Killer, in all probability, was claiming the August 1969 San Jose murders in his November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card. The author of the Monticello card was insinuating his involvement in the Kathy Bilek murder. Thwarted, and proven a liar by the arrest and incarceration of Karl Francis Werner, was the murder of Janet Mallicoat a response by either, or the same person, in order to shed doubt on the arrest? The pouring of flammable liquid on the body may suggest otherwise and point to an altogether different individual. Miss Mallicoat, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Mallicoat, 1617 Noreen Drive, had 130 stab wounds to her head, neck and upper body in what seemed like a frenzied attack. However, the Santa Clara County coroner, John Hauser freely admitted that this was a conservative estimate.  

The San Jose Police Department, target of a potential Zodiac correspondence on November 21st 1969, was situated 3 miles northwest of 63 Keyes Street. The letter (with accompanying code) "after a cursory analysis, officers of the San Jose, California PD, believe widow in message may be Mrs (redacted), San Jose, California. San Jose PD instituting 24 hour surveillance on Mrs (redacted)".

This is a follow up to the article 'The Meaning Behind the Monticello Card'. I have placed the entirety of the original article below, under which I have place 'Part Two'. This is to complete the entire picture under one banner.  

​​On July 13th 1971 a pasted card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle with the words "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April".  Many have speculated on the location mentioned in the card as "Monticello" in Napa County, California, because of the Lake Berryessa attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard on September 27th 1969. It has been further speculated on whether "April" was a woman's name or the month of the alleged murder. After a comprehensive review of all the information, I believe the woman's identity, labelled as victim number 21, can finally be revealed, along with the exact location of Monticello.   

On November 8th 1969 the Zodiac mailed the 'Dripping Pen' card to the San Francisco Chronicle insinuating his involvement in the brutal stabbing of Deborah Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathy Ann Snoozy (15), who were found murdered on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose, in what can only be described as a barrage of knife wounds. The inference of his chronological list of months on the card was suggesting there were two murders attributed to him in August. This crime was ultimately attributed to Karl Francis Werner.
On November 21st 1969 a letter and code from the alleged Zodiac was mailed to the San Jose Police Department threatening a widow. Police responded by implementing 24 hour surveillance on her residence. 
Ten days later, on December 1st 1969, Elaine Davis (17), a Pleasant Hill High School senior disappeared from her 158 Pioneer Avenue home in Walnut Creek. The abductor had likely traveled through San Jose to dispose of her body at Light House Point in Santa Cruz.

On Sunday, April 11th 1971, Kathy Bilek (18) visited Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, having planned to read a paperback book (The Gabriel Hounds) and engage in a spot of bird watching in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back and 32 times in her chest and stomach, although her killer had taken care to avoid stabbing her breasts. Her murder was also attributed to Karl Francis Werner. Wikipedia. The brutal murder of Kathy Bilek would again be claimed by 'Zodiac', not only in the Monticello card, but in another alleged Zodiac letter, also mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle at about the same time as the Monticello card. Kathy Bilek was murdered in "April", exactly as mentioned in the Monticello card, and "in the woods" at Villa Montalvo (a wooded section of the park). Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, The appearance of San Jose once again. ​

If Zodiac created the Monticello card, the reason may have been  a response, albeit belated, to an article written by Paul Avery in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 13th 1971, suggesting a possible link between the murder of Kathy Bilek and the Bay Area murders. Karl Werner was  charged with the murders of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek over two months prior to the mailing of the Monticello card, so it's possible Zodiac saw the irony of claiming the Kathy Bilek murder, as he had done with the Deborah Gaye Furlong and Kathie Ann Snoozy murders some 20 months earlier. The final thing to examine in the July 13th 1971 pasted card, were the words "near Monticello". It was easy to get sidelined into believing Monticello was referring to Napa County, because the town was completely covered by Lake Berryessa, the site of Zodiac's third attack.

However, the "Monticello" the author is referring to in the pasted card, is again in San Jose. Monticello is a neighborhood in San Jose, California, just over 9 miles east of Villa Montalvo, the site of Kathy Bilek's murder.
​In other words, the author of the card was saying "I killed Kathy Bilek near Monticello, in the Villa Montalvo woods in April".
​To view the proximity of Monticello to Villa Montalvo click here.  

This wasn't the only communication to refer to the murder of Kathy Bilek.
Sometime in 1971, likely just after the mailing of the Monticello card, a questionable Zodiac correspondence and cipher was received by the San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked Fairfield, California. It read:
I'll DO IT TO BECAUSE I DONE IT 21 TIMES. I CAN'T STOP BECAUSE EACH ThAT I KILL MAKES IT WORSE AND I MUST KILL MORE. MAN IS ThE MOST PRIZED GAME. ILL NERVER GIVE MY NAME BECAUSE YOU dONT UNDERSTAND. NEXT TIME I WILL SEND A PATCH OF HUMAN SKIN if their is SOME Left OVER.

The Monticello card stated "Shought victims 21", referring to the Kathy Bilek murder, whereas, in this correspondence the author was claiming he had already "done it 21 times." The Monticello card was never released to the newspapers or public, so bearing in mind these two communications were both likely mailed at approximately the same time, there is a high probability they were mailed by the same author - or Zodiac himself.

"I killed Kathy Bilek near Monticello, in the Villa Montalvo woods in April".
"Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April".

The ​November 8th 1969 'Dripping Pen' card would not be the only communication insinuating his involvement in the murder of Deborah Gaye Furlong and Kathy Ann Snoozy, when the Monticello card arrived just over 20 months later, on July 13th 1971. The San Francisco Police Department had reason enough to place the Monticello card in 'suspected Zodiac correspondence' when searching for traces of DNA on potential Zodiac communications, so, from here on in I will refer to the Monticello card as though it was mailed from the Bay Area murderer to make things easier.

It is with little doubt that Karl Francis Werner was responsible for the murder of Deborah Furlong, Kathy Snoozy and Kathy Bilek in 1969 and 1971, but the overarching question is, why did the Zodiac Killer describe the location of Kathy Bilek's body as "near Monticello"? The neighborhood of Monticello is 9 miles east of Villa Montalvo. Why did the Zodiac Killer choose to pinpoint this particular location, rather than any other neighborhood in between Monticello and Villa Montalvo? He could have pasted "near Willow Glen", "near Oster", "near Carlton", or any other location closer than Monticello. It is arguable that he chose this particular location for a specific reason.      

My first thought, was the Zodiac Killer was simply not going to make things easy, and had used Monticello to confuse people in the search for meaning behind the card. Having attacked Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa (submerging the town of Monticello) on September 27th 1969, the possibility existed that the Zodiac Killer was attempting to divert the reader down this train of thought. However, something far more compelling came to light regarding the neighborhood of Monticello, not only that it was near the murder site of Kathy Bilek, but that it once again suggested his involvement in the murder of the two young girls on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose.

The neighborhood of Monticello sits right next to the Oak Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park, shown here. Here is an extract from the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on August 6th 1969: "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 funeral services and burial of Kathy Snoozy were held at Oak Hill Memorial Park at 300 Curtner Avenue, right next to the neighborhood of Monticello. This, in all probability, is why the Zodiac Killer chose "near Monticello" rather than any other location closer to Villa Montalvo. He was not only pinpointing this location to suggest he had a hand in the murder of the San Jose teenagers, but specifically chose the area by the gravesite of Kathy Snoozy because her forename was identical to that of Kathy Bilek. Not only was Kathy Bilek murdered in April, in the woods, near Monticello - but her name could be inferred in the Monticello card from the Oak Hill Memorial Park burial site of her namesake. The Pines card and '13 Hole' postcard were published in the newspapers, yet this card has always been withheld. What are the chances that the picture on the Monticello card contains sensitive material, deemed inappropriate for release by law enforcement, and may have something to do with Oak Hill Memorial Park.

The Pines card and Monticello card both contained similar wording, such as "pass lake Tahoe areas" and "near Monticello", as well as "around in the snow" and "in the woods". Harvey Hines, a retired detective from Groveland, believed that Donna Lass was likely buried on the Donner Ski Ranch. This area is extremely close to Donner Memorial State Park, as is Monticello to Oak Hill Memorial Park. Another uncanny connection in the murder of two innocent lives.

At about the same time as the Monticello card, in 1971, a questionable Zodiac correspondence and 148 character cipher was received by the San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked Fairfield, California. Bearing in mind Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Bilek were all stabbed innumerable times, disfiguring their bodies, it is rather telling that the author of the 148 character cipher and letter should threaten 3 more young people like so: "Tis the Zodiac Speacking. Why can't you stop me. I can't stop killing. Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin" and "next time I will send a patch of human skin if there is some left over".

With virtually no coverage of this crime on the internet other than a few newspaper clippings, I have attempted to expand on the murder of Patricia King (20) at Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill on March 5th 1970. The college layout has altered over the last 48 years, but we can pinpoint the key locations based on the wording in the newspapers. Patricia King of 2200 Lisa Lane, Pleasant Hill had attended Diablo Valley College for her gym class at 7:00 pm on Thursday evening. Her classmates informed investigators that Patricia usually only stayed for the first hour of her gym class, which is what transpired that evening, when the young woman left the building at approximately 7:50 pm. Her boyfriend was expecting her back at her home and became concerned when she didn't return by 8:15 pm. 

Patricia King's body was found by a workman, Ernest Ellington, at 7:20 am the following morning in the DVC Vikings football stadium. She was wearing a black blouse and three-quarter length coat and had been strangled with her own gym tights. The newspaper reports stated "A purse (handbag) with her identification was found on the front seat of her car, in a lot adjacent to the stadium. A pair of leather sandals were on the floorboard. Her car keys were found on the Pleasant Hill campus parking lot Friday afternoon". Detective Sergeant Sam Ginsburg said "it was impossible to tell at this time if the girl knew her slayer. There was no reason for her to go into the stadium area coming to or from the parking lot to the class". If the gymnasium is located in the same position today, it is a short 300 feet walk from her class to the parking lot. It was later reported that no identification was found in her purse (handbag), but she was identified by a bus pass found in her clothing. Her wallet was apparently missing according to the newspapers, although Contra Costa sheriffs were in the process of interviewing her friends to discover if Patricia normally left her purse in the car, taking her wallet with her.  

Although detectives initially thought she may have been sexually assaulted or raped, the chief medical examiner, Dr. William Bogart, said preliminary tests did not bear this out. Results were inconclusive.  

Based on three newspaper statements of "A purse (handbag) with her identification was found on the front seat of her car, in a lot adjacent to the stadium", "The purse was left in her car parked near the body" and "The body was found across the college stadium's sunken football field from the women's gym structure", we can create a map of the likely locations within the Diablo Valley College campus.

The yellow rectangle is the likely location of the parking lot adjacent to the Vikings football stadium, with the gymnasium just 270 feet north of the stadium. Patricia King's body was discovered at 7:20 am on Friday March 6th 1970, but according to the newspaper reports, her keys were not found until Friday afternoon. This would indicate that it took police in excess of four hours to locate her keys, suggesting they were not discovered in close proximity to her vehicle, If they were found in the parking lot, one could therefore conclude they were likely found a distance from her car, on the route she took from the gymnasium towards her vehicle. There are many scenarios, but here are a couple:  [1] She was attacked on the journey back to her car, or [2] She fled from her car dropping her keys as she was accosted heading in the opposite direction. The end result being, she was forced into the adjacent football stadium and murdered. Since she was murdered with her own gym tights, does this indicate that the murderer carried no weapon and it wasn't planned in advance, or that she knew her murderer?  

The journey time from the gymnasium to the parking lot is 90-120 seconds, so either Patricia King was extremely unlucky to have crossed paths with a merciless killer in this short space of time, somebody followed her out of the gymnasium, or somebody, knowing she usually remained in her gym class for just one hour, lay in wait outside. Few leads transpired. 

Just like the July 13th 1971 Monticello card, giving us clues and directions to the murder of Kathy Bilek in April, near Monticello in San Jose, California, the March 22nd 1971 Pines card, in similar fashion, may have been designed to direct us to the deposition or burial site of Donna Ann Lass (25), who disappeared from Stateline, Nevada on September 6th 1970 having finished her shift that day at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel. Harvey Hines, a retired detective from Groveland, believed that Donna Lass was likely buried on the Donner Ski Ranch. He stated "After studying the card, I drove to Nordin, located on old Highway 40, north of Lake Tahoe, and found the SIERRA CLUB. I learned the club was not called the Sierra Club. It was named the Claire Tappan Lodge and it was a private club for Sierra Club members only. I believed if I followed the directions on the postcard I would find Donna Lass' grave. I believe she was buried near the Sierra Club and most likely on the Donner Ski Ranch. I would later have the pictures of the Sierra Club developed. Then using a copy of Zodiac's card, I cut out the phrases he had pasted on his card. Using these phrases, I overpasted them on the copy of the Sierra Club picture. It was striking similar to the original card." [see below left].
​   

​A newspaper article stated that "the site depicted on the 'Pines Card' was from an advertisement published last Sunday by several newspapers. It was an artist's rendition of houses among the trees at a Boise Cascade Company project at Incline Village, where construction has just begun on the development. While much of the Sierra area is under several feet of snow, Incline Village has only two feet on the ground. Police went to the area to determine if a search is possible".

If we use the directions given by the card from Incline Village, it tells us to "pass Lake Tahoe areas". To pass the areas of Lake Tahoe we have to travel westward, until we reach Clair Tappaan Lodge, "a private club for Sierra Club members only". 

Howard Davis, a contributor to the ZodiacKiller.com message board can pick up the story here: "Incredibly, her [Lass] grave remained hidden until August 1976, when retired Norden postmaster Otto Fredricks is believed to have found it on Donner Summit. He was hiking past the SIERRA CLUB'S Claire Tappan Lodge, near Norden, when he came across the intricately contrived wooden symbols alongside the path: in the center was a triangle around a cross containing 13 stones, and that was surrounded first by a six foot square and then by a circle of wood with a 14 foot diameter". The October 5th 1970 '13 Hole' postcard contained 13 punch holes and a red crucifix.

When they dug near the location of Clair Tappaan Lodge they found a pair of green tinted glasses, similar to a pair believed to have been worn by Donna Lass. It is not known for certain whether these glasses belonged to Donna Lass, or that the configuration was constructed by her murderer. Some believe the stone and wood configuration to be Rosicrucian in design, whereas 'The Foreigner' thought that Harvey Hines had misread the finding and it was a YMCA "Ragger’s Point" creation. Nevertheless, it is curious that "pass Lake Tahoe areas" takes us to the "Sierra Club" members of Clair Tappaan Lodge along Donner Pass Road, where we can "peek through the Pines" at the entrance to the lodge, and find some g(lass)es buried in the ground. The entrance to Clair Tappaan Lodge looks extremely similar to the depiction of the 1974 Christmas card mailed to Mary Pilker, Donna Lass' sister.​ Once inside the grounds we search "around in the snow". This can be interpreted as "a round in the snow" meaning "a circle in the snow". The circle of wood containing the crucifix. The alternative to finding meaning in the phrases pasted on the Pines card, is to believe the author pasted the text for no reason whatsoever. The two communications immediately after the Donna Lass disappearance were the '13 Hole' postcard and the Halloween card, each containing an inference to the number 13. The punch holes in the October 5th 1970 '13 Hole' postcard from the front side, arranged in a 10:3 formation (October 3rd), which could specify when he arranged the wood and stone configuration, meaning look for 13 in the form of a circle. The following Halloween card using 13 eyes in the design, telling us to look for 13. However, it must be stressed, that searching for clues and meaning behind such communications is down to the interpretation of the observer, with the above ideas often finding a resting place in the ever expanding graveyard of Zodiac theories. 

The Monticello card was mailed four months later, by somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer, and referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek in San Jose on April 11th 1971.

San Jose is home to the "Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, devoted to Ancient Egypt, located at Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose, California, United States. It was founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC). The Rosicrucian Order continues to support and expand the museum and its educational and scientific activities. The museum holds the largest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the Western United States, and is located next to the Rosicrucian headquarters". Wikipedia. The museum also had a purpose-built planetarium, where a budding Zodiac could add a knowledge of astronomy and the night sky to his search for the afterlife.  

"Rosicrucian Grand Master Julie Scott talks about the ancient Egyptian concept of the afterlife and shows us around the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose California". link.

But what if the murderer of Donna Lass added further directions using the crucifix, triangle, square and circle symbols as clues. Harvey Hines believed Donna Lass "was buried near the Sierra Club and most likely on the Donner Ski Ranch". So, were the symbols somehow related to the Donner Ski Ranch? Had the murderer of Donna Lass occasionally vacationed at Lake Tahoe, using the trails of Donner Ski Ranch? From 1964 to 1968 ski trails were rated on difficulty using a colored triangle, square and circle. Did the designer of the stone and wood configuration place the crucifix within the triangle, square and circle, using the glasses, to signify that Donna Lass was buried on Donner Ski Ranch along one of the trails? If the bottom left of the Pines card is placed over Clair Tappaan Lodge, the punch hole in the top right corner is facing the northeast, exactly where the ski lifts and trails are located. Was this the deduction of Harvey Hines? 

I would have to say that 'The Foreigner' is most likely correct, with the wood and stone configuration likely created by somebody other than the author of the Pines card (or Zodiac), and most probably a Ragger's Point creation. However, this doesn't preclude the Zodiac or an impostor using a pre-existing configuration as a burial site for the glasses. The wood and stone configuration would have been a perfect marker to direct the police towards, using the Pines card phrases from Incline Village.     

On July 13th 1971 a pasted card was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle with the words "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April".  Many have speculated on the location mentioned in the card as "Monticello" in Napa County, California, because of the Lake Berryessa attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard on September 27th 1969. It has been further speculated on whether "April" was a woman's name or the month of the alleged murder. After a comprehensive review of all the information, I believe the woman's identity, labelled as victim number 21, can finally be revealed, along with the exact location of Monticello.      

On November 8th 1969 the Zodiac mailed the 'Dripping Pen' card to the San Francisco Chronicle insinuating his involvement in the brutal stabbing of Debra Gaye Furlong (14) and Kathie Ann Snoozy (15), who were found murdered on August 3rd 1969 in the Bay Area of San Jose, in what can only be described as a barrage of knife wounds. The inference of his chronological list of months on the card was suggesting there were two murders attributed to him in August. This crime was ultimately attributed to Karl Francis Werner.
On November 21st 1969 a letter and code from the alleged Zodiac was mailed to the San Jose Police Department threatening a widow. Police responded by implementing 24 hour surveillance on her residence. 
Ten days later, on December 1st 1969, Elaine Davis (17), a Pleasant Hill High School senior disappeared from her 158 Pioneer Avenue home in Walnut Creek. The abductor had likely traveled through San Jose to dispose of her body at Light House Point in Santa Cruz.

On Sunday, April 11th 1971, Kathy Bilek, 18, visited Villa Montalvo, in Saratoga, with the intent to read and engage in birdwatching in the seclusion of a remote, wooded portion of the park, near a small stream. Her body was found the next day by her father, Charles, while Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies searched nearby. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back, and 32 times in her chest and stomach, although her killer had taken care to avoid stabbing her breasts. Her murder was also attributed to Karl Francis Werner. Wikipedia. The brutal murder of Kathy Bilek would again be claimed by 'Zodiac', not only in the Monticello card, but in another alleged Zodiac letter, also mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle at about the same time as the Monticello card. Kathy Bilek was murdered in "April", exactly as mentioned in the Monticello card, and "in the woods" at Villa Montalvo (a wooded section of the park). Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, The appearance of San Jose once again. 

If Zodiac created the Monticello card, the reason may have been  a response, albeit belated, to an article written by Paul Avery in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 13th 1971, suggesting a possible link between the murder of Kathy Bilek and the Bay Area murders. Karl Werner was  charged with the murders of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek over two months prior to the mailing of the Monticello card, so it's possible Zodiac saw the irony of claiming the Kathy Bilek murder, as he had done with the Debra Gaye Furlong and Kathie Ann Snoozy murders some 20 months earlier. The final thing to examine in the July 13th 1971 pasted card, were the words "near Monticello". It was easy to get sidelined into believing Monticello was referring to Napa County, because the town was completely covered by Lake Berryessa, the site of Zodiac's third attack.

However, the "Monticello" the author is referring to in the pasted card, is again in San Jose. Monticello is a neighborhood in San Jose, California, just over 9 miles east of Villa Montalvo, the site of Kathy Bilek's murder.
​In other words, the author of the card was saying "I killed Kathy Bilek near Monticello, in the Villa Montalvo woods in April".
​To view the proximity of Monticello to Villa Montalvo click here. 

This wasn't the only communication to refer to the murder of Kathy Bilek.
Sometime in 1971, likely just after the mailing of the Monticello card, a questionable Zodiac correspondence and cipher was received by the San Francisco Chronicle, postmarked Fairfield, California. It read:
I'll DO IT TO BECAUSE I DONE IT 21 TIMES. I CAN'T STOP BECAUSE EACH ThAT I KILL MAKES IT WORSE AND I MUST KILL MORE. MAN IS ThE MOST PRIZED GAME. ILL NERVER GIVE MY NAME BECAUSE YOU dONT UNDERSTAND. NEXT TIME I WILL SEND A PATCH OF HUMAN SKIN if their is SOME Left OVER.

The Monticello card stated "Shought victims 21", referring to the Kathy Bilek murder, whereas, in this correspondence the author was claiming he had already "done it 21 times." The Monticello card was never released to the newspapers or public, so bearing in mind these two communications were both likely mailed at approximately the same time, there is a high probability they were mailed by the same author - or Zodiac himself.

"I killed Kathy Bilek near Monticello, in the Villa Montalvo woods in April".
"Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April".

Brought to the attention of the Zodiac community by Lyndon Lafferty's book 'The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: AKA The Silenced Badge', Shiri-Dine Bana (19) was reported missing by her mother on May 10th 1979. Her body was discovered at noon on Friday May 18th 1979 by a Solano County employee, lying in weeds less than a quarter of a mile south of Lake Herman Road, on the west side. I have estimated the location using the newspaper reports, to the area of Reservoir Road shown below. This location is just 860 meters from the turnout where David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were murdered by the Zodiac Killer on December 20th 1968.

Her 1969 light blue Ford Torino was first spotted at the Blue Rock Springs parking lot on May 12th by a Solano County Sheriff's Deputy and later on Monday May 14th by a caretaker (parked across three parking stalls). It was ticketed as abandoned on May 17th by a Vallejo Police Department officer,  only to eventually be identified as Shiri-Dine Bana's vehicle on the 18th. The young woman disappeared on her way to Napa Community College (now Napa Valley College) from her residence at 260 American Canyon Road No 4 in Napa. View on Google maps. Her clothed body was lying on its stomach, badly decomposed. However, at autopsy they determined she had been stabbed at least 25 times, and possibly struck over the head and strangled. One clue surfaced from her trouser pocket - a registration form for the Napa Community College listing one name. The Ford Torino was hauled away to the Department of Justice crime laboratory in Sacramento, but after a thorough examination of the vehicle they found no traces of blood present in the car, or anything significant pertaining to Shiri-Dine Bana.      

Detective Bob Fletcher speculated 'that Bana was murdered at the Reservoir Road site where the body was found. He partially based the assumption on the fact the woman's eyeglasses were still on her head when she was found. Eyeglasses would most likely have been jarred loose in transport had she been killed elsewhere and later dumped along Reservoir Road. "The facts show she was murdered where she was found" he said. The car was apparently returned to the park and abandoned. Fletcher was seeking assistance in the murder investigation: "Does anyone remember seeing this car parked at Blue Rock Springs between the evenings of May 11 and May 12?"  he asked.'

The idea painted by the above passage, could be interpreted as: Shiri-Dine Bana headed off to Napa Community College on May 10th and met her assailant at this location, whether known or unknown. She was then either forced under duress, or she willingly drove to the area of Reservoir Road where she was murdered. The killer then drove her vehicle west to Blue Rock Springs Park, abandoned it, and made his escape on foot or by use of a second waiting vehicle. 

The analysis of Detective Bob Fletcher, however, seems questionable, when we consider Shiri-Dine Bana was stabbed 25+ times in the neck, chest and back, along with the possibility of a blow to the head and strangulation. They must have been extremely sturdy eyeglasses to have remained on the young woman's face throughout such a ferocious attack (with no mentioned damage), in which Shiri-Dine Bana would have offered sustained resistance over a lengthy period against her attacker. If the murderer had committed this brutal murder in a grassy field, how did he manage to avoid any blood transfer to his body and/or clothing, and therefore the vehicle of Shiri-Dine Bana when he drove it the four miles to Blue Rock Springs?

If the young woman had been murdered elsewhere, the eyeglasses could have easily been transported along with the body to Reservoir Road and placed back on her head a few feet into the field (or had remained on her head throughout the journey). The fact that the body was discovered just six feet in from Reservoir Road by a Solano County employee responsible for trimming the roadside weeds, could be more suggestive of a dump site rather than the location of her murder. The killer could have placed the victim's glasses back on her head to give the impression she was murdered here (but if he did, made an error in doing so). The extent of the injuries inflicted on the young woman, in what was obviously a brutal assault, makes it almost unbelievable that her eyeglasses could have remained on her head throughout. If Detective Bob Fletcher surmised that her "eyeglasses would most likely have been jarred loose in transport had she been killed elsewhere", then how could he square this with her eyeglasses not being "jarred loose" after a viscous and prolonged attack of 25 or more stab wounds. The Solano County deputy coroner Mark Berto stated that "it would take a lot of strength to first force a knife through the sternum, and then be able to remove the blade as well." This strength would have come in useful when the perpetrator was required to remove the body from a second vehicle and carry it six feet into the field. If we take a look at the location of the first quarter of a mile into Reservoir Road, there doesn't appear any accessible parking areas to pull over, and with virtually no coverage from a tree line, a killer attacking a woman just six feet or thereabouts into the field for a prolonged period of time, is taking an inordinate risk in the commission of the crime. With the body being discovered so close to the roadside edge, it gives the impression the murderer literally carried the body just two or three steps into the field.  

The Vallejo Times-Herald stated "she was reported missing by her mother on May 10 after she disappeared on her way to classes at Napa Community College." The wording appears to suggest she never arrived at her classes. She may very well have been abducted while parking up or shortly thereafter, by use of a second vehicle, murdered elsewhere and dumped along Reservoir Road. The need to then relocate her vehicle after the fact, away from the college, could suggest a perpetrator known to the victim and possibly somebody studying at the same college. The fact that the vehicle was dumped in the vicinity of the body deposition site, could have specifically designed to focus attention in the Vallejo/Benicia area. "Benicia Police Chief Pierre Bidou said Tuesday that despite the woman being a Napa resident, the investigation is solely Benicia's responsibility because the body was found here." The Napa Community College registration form found in the dead woman's pocket may hold the answers to her last known location, and center the focus back on the area of the college - the direction she was presumably heading before she disappeared.     

The obvious Zodiac connections have been drawn, with the body and vehicle having been found at virtually the same locations of Zodiac's first two attacks on December 20th 1968 and July 4th 1969. Napa Community College is also less than two miles from the 1231 Main Street, Napa payphone, where the Zodiac Killer confessed to the attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard on September 27th 1969.

Cosette Ellison (15) disappeared from her 423 Canyon Road, Moraga residence (near Walnut Creek) on Tuesday March 3rd 1970, believed to have been forcibly taken from outside her home after getting off the school bus from Campolinda High School. She was dropped off by bus driver, Eugene Yee, at 3:20 pm, who saw her cross the road and remove some letters from the mailbox before heading along the driveway. The bus driver noticed a man sitting in a truck near the residence. On his return journey 10 minutes later, the truck had edged closer to the driveway of the Ellison household but the occupant was no longer inside. Thirty minutes later, at approximately 4:00 pm, Mr and Mrs Richard Ellison returned to an empty house. Cosette's school books were not in their usual place and no mail had been brought into the house, suggesting something untoward had happened close to the time Eugene Yee passed the Ellison residence. 

Three months earlier, on December 1st 1969, Elaine Davis (16) had been abducted from her 158 Pioneer Avenue residence in Walnut Creek. She was later found floating off Light House Point in Santa Cruz on December 19th 1969.

Police investigating her disappearance were contacted by a resident of North Gate Road, approximately 4 miles east of Elaine Davis' residence, stating her 17-year-old daughter was being harassed. The Contra Costa Times stated "A resident of Northgate Road reported to the sheriff's office Tuesday that the man, described as between 30 and 35 years old, has been following her daughter for almost a week. Last Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, deputy sheriffs said, the man followed the petite mini-skirted high school girl home from a school bus stop. They said she received two suspicious phone calls Saturday morning, each time the caller attempting to find out if her parents were home. The girl finally told the caller her 19-year-old brother was home, although she has no brother. She received no more phone calls. On Sunday, she was riding her horse in the yard of her home when the same man drove past in a small blue car. He later returned, stopped his car, but did not get out. About 6 pm, Monday, a car drove past the residence three times while the girl's parents were shopping. After the third time, there was a knock at the door and a man repeatedly said "I know you are home alone. Can I use your phone-my car has broken down". Lieutenant Holthus said the home was staked out but the man did not show up." 

​Was the man described above stalking this girl by trailing the school bus? Cosette Ellison had just been dropped off home after returning from school, when she went missing. North Gate Road extends right into the Mount Diablo State Park foothills, which will become extremely relevant when we consider the location Cosette Ellison's body was discovered    

On January 1st 1971, nearly a year after the disappearance of Cosette Ellison, her body was found in a ravine of the Mount Diablo foothills. The residences of 423 Canyon Road and North Gate Road are extremely rural and spread, with a reduced chance of being overseen in the commission of an abduction. This may have been a consideration for the perpetrator, who likely followed school buses to a more remote setting. The risky nature of forcibly removing somebody from outside their residence necessitates a lack of eyewitnesses.

Shortly after the Elaine Davis abduction on December 1st 1969, a resident of North Gate Road reported a suspicious male hovering outside their residence and stalking their daughter. Was North Gate Road familiar to the suspicious male - somewhere he would return three months later in depositing the body of Cosette Ellison in the foothills of Mount Diablo? The method employed by the perpetrator in both cases is eerily similar, choosing remote locations and likely trailing, or waiting for the school bus to deliver his victim to him. 

On December 10th 1969, Leona Roberts was abducted from her boyfriend's 749 Tormey Avenue, Rodeo residence. This deviates a little from the two cases above, however, in this case the perpetrator again targeted a residence and was observed numerous times between the front door and a blue station wagon, his likely getaway vehicle.  

If you have any pertinent information regarding the abduction and murder of Cosette Ellison, please contact the Moraga, California, Police Department via their website. Thank you.               

With extensive work done by AK Wilks on this topic, I would like to take a further look at the letter and code mailed to the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969. This came just ten days before the abduction of Elaine Davis from Walnut Creek on December 1st 1969. Her abductor traveling from the Bay Area, depositing her Navy peacoat just 26 miles south of San Jose, likely passing through it on his way to Light House Point in Santa Cruz. If the Zodiac was responsible for both letter and murder, then San Jose is a worthy avenue of interest. AK Wilks asked a pertinent question of the forum: "Does someone know of a recent murder case in San Jose that left someone a widow? Or a prominent widow who lived in San Jose in 1969? The police were seemingly able to determine who it was, so perhaps it was a well known case or person". The brief text in the letter clearly contained enough information for police to identify the woman and implement 24 hour surveillance on her residence. Was the author threatening to kill the 'widow' or abduct her from her residence?

The Zodiac Killer (or copycat) mailed a menacing postcard to Dr, Edward Adams in Orinda, California (near Walnut Creek) on October 12th 1970 stating "The Zodiac is going to change the way of committing murders. I shall announce when I shall commit my murders, The Adamses are Next you taught me to Mean it. ADAMS YOU ARE NEXT. ZODIAC."
As shown on the ZodiacKillerSite forum, Dr. Edward Adams and his wife featured in the newspapers prior to this threatening communication, so it is perfectly feasible that the author of the San Jose letter and code had identified his target in the days, weeks or months prior to the November 21st 1969 correspondence. Because of the nature of the redacted text, it appears that this letter was addressed specifically to a titled officer (possibly a Sergeant or Chief) of the San Jose Police Department. Bearing in mind the target of a 'widow' mentioned in the text, the author may be referring to a newspaper article involving the death of her husband, featuring commentary by the police official the letter is addressed to. The officer's name could be any number of characters in length depending on the title he holds, with the widow's surname just 5 or 6 characters in length. 
Was the widow a prominent member of society as suggested by AK Wilks, possibly a policewoman or politician, titled like Dr. Edward Adams. On December 16th 1969 the Zodiac Killer had set his sights on a cop or "government life". 

On the left is a December 22nd 1969 newspaper report from the San Mateo Times of somebody identifying himself as 'Zodiac' and threatening to kill five patrolmen and a family of five over the weekend, not dissimilar to his written threats in his trinity of July 31st 1969 letters: "I will cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend". 
The phone call was received on Friday December 19th 1969 by San Jose police dispatcher Shirley Searcy.

The disputed December 7th and 16th 1969 Fairfield letters (not published in the newspapers) both contained threats to murder cops for the first time, with the latter threatening to murder one policeman in San Jose. Three days later, this call to a San Jose Highway Patrol station threatening to murder police is remarkable timing. Was the caller responsible for both Fairfield letters - and more importantly - was it the Zodiac Killer?

I have searched high and low for the identity of this woman, but without a newspapers.com account to aid in the search I have failed to make any inroads. The author of the San Jose letter (if Zodiac) certainly didn't need a valid reason to target anybody, as shown by his murderous assault in the Bay Area, but the identity of the 'widow' could help to add legitimacy to both Fairfield letters mailed in December, dependent on her profession or previous relationship. The November 21st, December 7th and December 16th communications all contained short codes, the amateurish nature of which has led many to believe these three letters are the work of an impostor. But these features may actually bolster the argument for Zodiac involvement, as all three were never attempting to mimic the previously polished 408 and 340 cipher, which somebody attempting to mimic the Zodiac would surely have done.

UPDATE: THE DRIPPING PEN CARD AND SAN JOSE CONNECTION 
                 THE STORY OF SAN JOSE

On December 1st 1969 Elaine Davis (17), a Pleasant Hill High School senior disappeared from her 158 Pioneer Avenue home in Walnut Creek, believed to have been forcibly removed from the residence by one or more assailants, while in the presence of her three year old sister, Heidi. Her glasses and her purse containing four dollars were still in the home. Her parents described Elaine as shy, with no boyfriend or relationship problems at the time of her disappearance. Her mother had driven to nearby Concord at 10:30 pm to pick up her husband from work and was out of the residence for just 45 minutes - and it is during this period of time that Elaine Davis vanished. Willingly leaving the house late at night, without her purse or glasses, leaving a three year old child alone in the residence was troubling for both parents, whose concerns would ultimately grow into fear in the coming hours. Elaine's father, a night manager of a Concord service station, speculated that "somebody has had his eye on her for a long time and just found his chance. That is all I can think of." But admitted that Elaine would have shared any concerns with them had she had any, and had never mentioned being trailed or stalked by anybody. Neighbors described seeing several strange vehicles in the vicinity of the Davis residence in the recent days, including a Volkswagen, but saw nothing on the night of Elaine Davis' kidnapping, which is how the police were now classifying this crime.   

The police had very few leads, when on Friday December 5th, one of Elaine Davis' brown loafers with a gold buckle was discovered on a freeway ramp of Stone Valley Road at Highway 680 in Alamo, and identified by her mother. An extensive search of the Danville-Alamo area under the guidance of Detective Sergeant James Battles unearthed no other clues in the disappearance of Elaine Davis - and despite numerous offers of rewards by a generous public - the case was generating little headway. 

On December 16th 1969, after an extensive search in and around the Walnut Creek home, a gold brass button believed to have come from the Navy-style peacoat of Elaine Davis which she was wearing at the time of her disappearance, was discovered behind her house. On the same day, a resident of North Gate Road, approximately 4 miles east of Elaine Davis' residence reported that her daughter had been stalked by a 30-35 year old male for several days. The young girl had been trailed to and from her high school bus stop, from which she traveled to Ygnacio Valley High School. She also received two disturbing phone calls asking if her parents were home. On the Monday at 6:00 pm "a car drove past the residence three times while the girl's parents were shopping. After the third time, there was a knock at the door and a man repeatedly said "I know you are home alone. Can I use your phone-my car has broken down". Lieutenant Holthus said the home was staked out but the man did not show up.".   

Then, a San Jose housewife, Mrs Jeffield Sullivan revealed she had found the Navy-style peacoat worn by Elaine Davis on the day of her disappearance. She had actually discovered it on December 3rd 1969, only two days after the young girl's disappearance, on a remote stretch of Highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, the woman at the time of its discovery was unaware of its connection to the Elaine Davis case, and after taking the coat home she took it to be dry cleaned, effectively wiping away any potential forensic evidence. The missing button found behind the Davis residence was matched to the other buttons on the coat, thereby determining unquestionably that the coat was that of Elaine Davis. The police stated the coat was discovered 65 miles south of San Francisco, a mile from Santa's Village, just shy of Scotts Valley. Santa's Village was a Christmas-themed amusement park located in Scotts Valley, California, United States.

On December 19th 1969 the body of a young woman (in 2000, eventually identified as Elaine Davis after an exhumation) was discovered floating off Light House Point near Santa Cruz, CA. The body was decomposed with extensive damage, described as a partial torso with arm-bones and parts of the legs. Santa Cruz's deputy county coroner, Luther Young stated "We'll work on this case until we run out of leads, but right now we have nothing that would indicate any identification. I wouldn't venture to say the body is that of Elaine Davis. We have never ruled on that possibility and we have never ruled it out."  

Had the abductor and murderer of Elaine Davis killed the young woman on December 3rd 1969 near the location of Santa's Village where her Navy-style peacoat was discovered? Had the abductor kept her alive for several more days, eventually depositing her body at Light House Point in Santa Cruz, before ditching the coat on Highway 17 near Scotts Valley on his return to the Bay Area? This avenue was examined as a possibility by detectives investigating the baffling case. The peacoat and brown loafer were found 64 miles apart.

This case is extremely similar to the December 10th abduction and murder of Leona Roberts, only 9 days after the abduction of Elaine Davis. She too was abducted from a residence - that of her boyfriend Greg V. Valo, at 749 Tormey Avenue in Rodeo. The residence of Elaine Davis and Greg Valo are only 13 miles apart (as the crow flies). Both murder victims were forcibly removed from their residence (likely by vehicle), both were presumably kept alive for an undetermined period, and both were eventually found in coastal regions. In the case of Leona Roberts, she was found at Bolinas Lagoon, Marin County, 42 miles from the 749 Tormey Avenue residence. Elaine Davis was discovered 79 miles from her 158 Pioneer Drive residence. Was the killer stalking the region of Contra Costa County, but making sure to deposit the bodies as far from 'home' as possible in an attempt to focus the investigation out of town?

In both cases however, it does seem an awfully long way to travel to deposit a body, unless of course, the perpetrator came from out of town and was driving back towards home. If Elaine Davis had been murdered relatively close to the time of her abduction, then there are a multitude of places the killer could have disposed of her body on his way to Light House Point in Santa Cruz, rather than risk the more populated area around West Cliff Drive. Looking at the trail of evidence it is easy to assume the killer traveled from Walnut Creek to Alamo, through Pleasanton and San Jose, towards Santa Cruz. Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County where the Zodiac Killer mailed the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter. However, it is the city of San Jose we shall focus on - situated just 26 miles by road from the area the peacoat was discovered on December 3rd 1969. 

Only ten days prior to the abduction of Elaine Davis on November 21st 1969, the Zodiac Killer or somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the San Jose Police Department. The FBI file read "Re Butte tel to Bureau 11/21/69. Enclosed herewith for the FBI laboratory are two copies of the letter received by (redacted) San Jose PD, San Jose, California on this date. As noted, the message reads (redacted). The laboratory is requested to have the Cryptogram Section attempt to immediately decipher the message and furnish the results to the San Francisco Office. For the information of the Bureau and Sacramento, after a cursory analysis, officers of the San Jose, California PD, believe widow in message may be Mrs (redacted), San Jose, California. San Jose PD instituting 24 hour surveillance on Mrs (redacted)". From the tone of the wording, it appears that the letter was in someway threatening towards a woman in San Jose, resulting in police providing 24 hour surveillance at the woman's residence. Was the author threatening to abduct the woman from her home, and police believing the letter was from the Zodiac Killer, took the threat extremely seriously and instituted round-the-clock protection? If the letter was mailed from San Jose, or the Zodiac Killer had reason to be in San Jose on November 21st 1969, then it is extremely relevant that the abductor of Elaine Davis just ten days later in the Bay Area, would again be heading to San Jose on his way to Light House Point. If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the abduction and murder of Elaine Davis, he would have took her through or near to San Jose on his way to the coast. Was he living or working there during this period, or had reason to be in the San Jose area. The San Jose letter and cryptogram, one could argue, places him in San Jose on November 21st 1969. If he returned there only ten days later it may be significant. ​      

Howard Davis stated on the ZodiacKiller. com message board "I can say now, she was probably sitting on her porch smoking (her father was a military man and quite strict so she would hide this habit) and the perpetrator could have followed her to her home, as she and her mother were shopping at the outdoor Concord Mall that day and he may have spotted her there. The perpetrator may have walked by the house and asked her for a cigarette and/or light and once he got close to her she was grabbed and abducted - and possibly strangled and dumped in water. Her shoe and other clothing were found by the roadside as given." This is extremely relevant when we consider the abduction and murder of Leona Roberts on December 10th 1969, who left her job at the White Front Discount Store in Pleasant Hill, near Concord (560 Contra Costa Boulevard) at approximately 5:00 pm for the eleven mile journey to her boyfriend's apartment at 749 Tormey Avenue, Rodeo. Both Leona Roberts and Elaine Davis were abducted from a residence after having previously been at a mall in or near Concord.

Could the Zodiac Killer have been responsible for both the Elaine Davis and Leona Roberts abductions on December 1st and December 10th respectively, dumping both the bodies in coastal regions? Certainly, the San Jose letter and cryptogram provides a tantalizing connection to the murder of Elaine Davis and her discovery at Light House Point. If you have any information pertinent to the murder of Elaine Davis, please contact the Walnut Creek Police Department.