When interviewed about the release of the movie "The Most Dangerous Game" in 1932, its associate producer, Merian Caldwell Cooper (born 1893) replied "man is the most dangerous animal of all". Merian C. Cooper wasn't only known as a filmmaker, actor and producer, he was an officer with the United States Army Air Service and Polish Air Force, who began his fledgling movie career as part of the Explorers Club, traveling the world and thoroughly documenting his adventures.

As a young 6-year-old, he decided that he wanted to become an explorer after reading stories from the book "Explorations and Adventures in Equitorial Africa". Cooper would eventually realise those ambitions. He was also a big game hunter, so when the script for the upcoming movie "The Most Dangerous Game" was presented to him, it obviously appealed greatly to his penchant for adventure, detailing a psychotic big game hunter who deliberately strands a luxury yacht on a remote island, where he plans to hunt its passengers for sport. This movie title has been touted as the inspiration for the Zodiac Killer's wording in the 408 cipher, but it seems that the quote given by Merian C. Cooper to a reporter of "man is the most dangerous animal of all", was the likely origin for the Zodiac Killer's choice of words in his lengthy cryptogram. Something that he could only reasonably have found by trawling through microfiche reels in the library. Currently, I have only found this exact quote in three newspapers, all from America in 1932. 

However, "The Most Dangerous Game" wasn't the pinnacle of his movie career, because in 1933 the much acclaimed movie "King Kong" was released by RKO Radio Pictures, directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. Cooper was inspired to create the character of King Kong, a giant ape, after developing a scenario for a “gorilla picture” in 1929. Cooper's original concept for the film involved a giant gorilla who kidnaps a woman, fights dragons, and is defeated by modern technology. His fascination for adventure and hunting would coalesce to produce a film praised by critics and the viewing public for its stop-motion animation and score.

​But did the conception of "King Kong" and his love of big game hunting play any part in his quotation of "man is the most dangerous animal of all"? There is a strong likelihood that the Zodiac Killer took this phrase from Merian C. Cooper, but did Cooper develop this phrase from somebody else before him? Somebody who was also an adventurer and big game hunter, who came face to face with a gorilla in Africa. An adventurer who would almost certainly have been known to Merian C, Cooper.  

To cover the story of Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne (born 1877) would take forever, so here is a condensed version of this infamous character, described as a soldier, big game hunter, journalist and spy, who fought with the Boers in the Second Boer War and as a secret agent for Germany during both World Wars, and became known as the man who killed Lord Kitchener, a British Army officer and colonial administrator. Duquesne was an advisor to US President Theodore Roosevelt on big-game hunting, as a publicist in the movie business, as a journalist, as a fictional Australian war hero and as head of the New Food Society in New York. As a youth, Duquesne became a hunter like his father. His hunting skills proved useful not only in the African landscape, but also later in life, when he would publish articles about and give lectures on big-game hunting. Below is a newspaper cutting from 1912 describing one of Roosevelt's hunts in Africa, with the sub-headline "The First Hunt for Buffalo, the Most Dangerous Game in Africa". In numerous statewide articles in America throughout the years, Frederick Duquesne was featured in countless stories, including full page spreads on big-game hunting.​ One of which we'll get to soon.

During the Second Boer War, Duquesne was under orders to assassinate Frederick Russell Burnham, the American acting as Chief of Scouts for the British Army. After the war, Burnham remained active in counter-espionage for the British, and much of it involved keeping track of Duquesne. In 1910 he and Representative Robert Broussard founded the New Food Supply Society to import useful African wildlife into the US as a solution to a serious American meat shortage, and Broussard selected Duquesne as an expert. In support of this plan, Broussard introduced H.R. 23261, also known as the American Hippo Bill, attempting the appropriation of $250,000 to import hippopotamus into the Louisiana bayous as a food source and to control the water hyacinth then clogging Southern river systems. Former US President Theodore Roosevelt backed the plan, as did the US Department of Agriculture, as well as editorial writers in The Washington Post and The New York Times, which praised the taste of hippopotamus as "lake cow bacon". Duquesne's expert testimony on this subject before the House Committee on Agriculture is recorded in the Congressional Record. The bill fell just short of passing, and the New Foods organization was disbanded. Wikipedia. 

​Duquesne was wanted by His Majesy's government for murder on the high seas, but fled to Mexico and Europe. In 1926 he moved back to New York and assumed a new identity as Frank de Trafford Craven. He worked for Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO Pictures), and later RKO Pictures in 1928, as part of the publicity staff. As part of this job he moved back to Manhattan, where he was well-known under his real name. In 1930, Duquesne moved to the Quigley Publishing Company, a producer of movie magazines, and called himself Major Craven. This is just the tip of the iceberg, so if you want to read the rest of his life story, click here.

​Both Merian C. Cooper and Fredeick Duquesne worked for RKO Pictures, with Cooper joining RKO Pictures in 1931, just before the release of "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932) and "King Kong" (1933). With their common lifelong interest in adventure and big-game hunting, and both employed by RKO Pictures during a similar time period, it is not difficult to see how Merian C. Cooper came upon the words "man is the most dangerous animal of all". In one of Frederick Duquesne's many ventures into Africa, he spoke of a "Blood Curdling Gorilla Hunt" in 1909 that was covered extensively in US newspapers, stating that "The most dangerous animal of all to capture is the gorilla". 

​The filming for "The Most Dangerous Game" and "King Kong" by RKO Pictures overlapped in 1932, so it can be strongly argued that Merian C. Cooper took the quote of "The most dangerous animal of all to capture is the gorilla" from Duquesne, and during the filming of "King Kong" he repackaged it to read ​"man is the most dangerous animal of all" to fit the narrative of "The Most Dangerous Game", which replaced hunting animals with the hunting of humans. So the phraseology of the Zodiac Killer in his 408 cipher on July 31st 1969 may have its roots as far back as 1909 in the words of Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne. The Zodiac Killer's wording of "I like killing people because it is so much fun, it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all", now makes a lot more sense. His claim of using a pencil flashlight on his gun on August 4th 1969 so he could hunt victims, is in keeping with his trinity of letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald.

​Anybody reading the numerous Lake Herman Road newspaper articles would have been aware that one eyewitness reported seeing a second vehicle in the turnout with the Faraday Rambler, but nobody would have been aware of the empty Chevrolet Impala parked in the turnout at 9pm and 10pm on December 20th 1968, except the police and each of the eyewitnesses that night - and probably the killer. If the occupant of this vehicle had traveled into the adjoining fields on two occasions, looking for victims, they would have required additional illumination such as a carry flashlight or gun-mounted flaslight.

If this was the murderer's vehicle he would have known this. Therefore, the claims of the August 4th 1969 letter writer stating that he used a pencil flashlight for extra illumination is extremely noteworthy. Extra illumination would not have been required in the turnout when you have the use of headlights from your vehicle, along with the illumination from within each vehicle. Also, extra illumination would certainly not have been required if the murderer had kept the couple penned inside their vehicle. The only person that would have required additional illumination (either carried or gun-mounted) would have been somebody venturing into the fields surrounding the turnout. Such as the driver of the white Chevrolet Impala, who apparently never came forward. ​There is a distinct possibility that this Chevrolet owner wrote the "Debut of Zodiac" letter, because this person had a viable reason to carry additional illumination as he distanced himself from his vehicle that night. Not once, but twice, on a freezing dark night in Benicia. Possibly an individual, who on July 31st 1969, would promote the idea of hunting humans in the wilderness because it was more fun than killing wild game in the forest. 

The wording of "I saw and think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy" in the January 29th 1974 letter was an immediate response to the movie winning four Golden Globes on January 26th 1974, receiving the awards for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". The wording of "I am waiting for a good movie about me" in the April 24th 1978 letter was a belated response to the April 3rd 1978 Academy Awards (as was the Channel 9 letter on May 2nd 1978). Both of these letters on January 29th 1974 and April 24th 1978 were intrinsically bound to the movie industry, and both carried the Jack the Ripper style valediction of "yours truly", in the form of "yours truley" in 1974 (which was spelled incorrectly) and "yours truly" in 1978 (which was spelled correctly). This form of valediction is clearly not appropriate in the context of a threatening letter, so the use of this "act of farewell" is relatively unusual in this respect.

​Therefore, I looked for something on TV or in the movies that contained both elements of "Jack the Ripper" and "Yours Truly", and found the 1943 short story by Robert Bloch, subsequently made into a fifty minute TV thriller in 1961 entitled "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", hosted by Boris Karloff and starring John Williams, Donald Woods and Edmon Ryan. On the Internet Movie Database it is described as follows: "70 years after the Jack the Ripper killings in London, Sir Guy tries to convince the police that Jack may still be alive, eternally young, and still killing, currently in New York". After a  hiatus of several years, Jack the Ripper had returned to begin killing again in New York. 

The same has been argued in the Zodiac case, where the Bay Area murderer appeared to take a hiatus from 1971 to 1974 and returned with the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The same can be said of his inactivity between 1974 and 1978, when he returned to mail the 1978 letter with the introduction "I am back with you". So it is noteworthy that he appeared to use the "yours truly" valediction from the book and TV episode of ​"Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", which presented the story of a killer returning after a period of inactivity. 

​Another interesting feature of the Exorcist letter was the final paragraph where the Zodiac wrote "Ps. If I do not see this note in your paper, I will do something nasty, which you know I'm capable of doing". You will notice that he described the communication as a "note" and not a letter. Bearing in mind that the TV episode of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" featured Jack the Ripper taking his crimes from Whitechapel in London to New York, I looked for a Jack the Ripper "note" mailed in New York on the date of January 29th. A search of the newspaper archives didn't disappoint. The following newspaper article (among many) describes a "Jack the Ripper in New York", who wrote a "note" to Police Captain Ryan on January 29th 1889 promising that the streets of his precinct would soon be filled with murdered women.

In an odd turn of events, the script of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" may have been turned on its head by the Bay Area murderer, because the previous letter claimed to have been mailed from the Zodiac Killer was postmarked August 1st 1973 from Albany, New York, six months before the arrival of the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. The letter, addressed to the Albany Times Union newspaper, stated he was "going to start killing again".

Robert Bloch, the author of "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" also wrote "The Thing" in 1932 and "Psycho" in 1959, the latter of which the Zodiac Killer featured in his 148 character cipher and letter in the middle of 1971. The 1971 letter stated that he would "skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin" if his cipher was not printed on the front page of the newspaper. This phraseology was reminscent of the murderer Edward Gein, who professed a desire to make a "skin suit" from his dead mother, and the movie "Psycho" that hit cinema screens in 1960 and featured the seated corpse of Norman Bates' dead mother. An arguable case can be made for Robert Bloch inspired letters from 1971 through to 1974, whether one was intended or not.

On January 19th 1889, ten days before the Jack the Ripper "note" on January 29th 1889, it is likely that the same individual first announced his presence to Captain Ryan in a letter (described in the newspaper cutting below), by stating "Do you think that Jack the Ripper is in England?", before promising to kill by next Thursday and signing it with the familiar valediction of "Yours truly, Jack the Ripper".

​CONNECTING RIVERSIDE TO THE ZODIAC USING JACK THE RIPPER [IN 7 PARTS]

On October 31st 1966, the body of Cheri Jo Bates was discovered lying in a driveway adjacent to the Riverside City College library, stabbed six times in her upper torso and right arm, before being slashed seven times across her neck in a callous and senseless murder. This murder would be accompanied by six communications in the form of a desktop poem, two typed Confession letters and three handwritten notes promising "there will be more". Although no further mutilation of the body occurred, the possibility exists that the person who murdered the young 18-year-old college student, was a ruthless individual inspired by a far more sinister series of events seventy-eight  years previous. 

In 1888, a densely populated area in London spawned the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper, claiming the canonical murders of Mary Ann Nichols on August 31st 1888, Annie Chapman on September 8th 1888, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes on September 30th 1888, described as the double event, and Mary Jane Kelly on November 9th 1888. Apart from Elizabeth Stride, in which the murderer was likely disturbed in the act, the other four women were extensively mutilated with disembowelment and the removal of organs an abhorrent feature of these attacks. Other disturbing findings, such as the Thames Torso Murders between 1887 and 1889, and the Pinchin Street Torso Murder on September 10th 1889, have also been suggested as possible Jack the Ripper murders. Undoubtedly, being the most high profile murders in recorded history, it isn't surprising that future murderers may have been influenced by the depravity that came before them. This may not have been the case in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, however, there are some disturbing features of this crime that deserve a closer look. Could the individual who murdered Cheri Jo Bates have had an unhealthy interest in the Whitechapel murders of 1888? 

Whether from the hand of the killer or the press, the Jack the Ripper murders spawned many letters during 1888 and beyond, and caused fear and panic in the East End of London. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates made contact with the authorities and the newspapers six times in only five months - possibly beginning on November 29th 1966 and ending on April 30th 1967. These writings undoubtedly glorified in the thought of knifing women, by revelling in the imagery of blood "spurting, dripping and spilling" over a young girl's dress, and the inevitable pleasure of a "next time".where the victim wouldn't be so lucky.

The Confession letters to the Riverside Police and Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper ramped up the terror by further glorifying in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, whose author appeared to gain satisfaction from the pain he inflicted on the obviously terrified young woman. Phrases such as "she is now battered and dead", "she went to the slaughter like a lamb", "I said it was about time for her to die", "she squirmed and shook as I choked her" and "I finished the job out cutting her throat", should leave you with no doubt that this individual was a warped sadist, who enjoyed the physical and emotional suffering he caused through the act of murder (if indeed the murderer and writer were the same person). And in true Rippereseque fashion threatened to "cut off female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". Every Jack the Ripper victim had their throats slashed, but unlike Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, the injuries to the neck of Cheri Jo Bates were far greater in number.

​The main focus of the Riverside attack was above the nipple line, with three of the five wounds to her front torso striking her breasts. The Confession letter author even made a point in typing "Her breast felt very warm and firm under my hands", so it isn't difficult to conclude that this attack was sexual in nature. The unusual wording of "I finished the job out cutting her throat. I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game", is not dissimilar to the workmanlike language seen in the Ripper communications such as the "Dear Boss" letter on September 27th 1888, which stated "How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with, but it went thick like glue and I cant use it". 

Did the abductor and eventual attacker of a 19-year-old UCR college student on November 22nd 1966 recognise the brutality of the Cheri Jo Bates murder while tempting the hesitant female into his vehicle? Who, after mentioning the recent October 30th 1966 slaying to the University of Riverside student during conversation, uttered the words "Well, after all, I'm not Jack the Ripper". This encounter, detailed extensively in the Press-Enterprise newspaper on November 24th 1966, seemed to catch the interest of the Confession letter author, who plagiarized several key phrases from the wording used by the attacker in the newspaper article. Assuming they were different people. 

Aside from this mimicry, one thing in the Confession letter looked contrived. Having remembered the use of movie quotations in the 3-page JonBenet Ramsey ransom letter from 1996, I wondered whether the author of the Confession letter, having typed "I shall cut off female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see", had borrowed a quotation from the times of Jack the Ripper to insert into his Confession letter.

​The section of the letter which read "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die", appeared like he had deliberately teed up the final line (and it wasn't an original thought). So I placed the phrase "it was about time for her to die" into a newspaper search engine from 1690 to November 29th 1966 and got only one result. It was from the year of Jack the Ripper, in an article entitled "The Sturdy Beggar" on December 11th 1888. Had the Confession letter author been searching for suitable Ripper quotes to place in his letter, when he stumbled across this story and its memorable quote during the microfiche searches he conducted at the Riverside library? (or elsewhere). I was not expecting any results from a search of eight consecutive words, but was flabbergasted when it returned a hit from 1888 (the exact year I had hoped for).

​It's even more surprising when you can replicate this feat from a search of "man is the most dangerous animal of all", which I have found in only three newspapers from 1932. Uttered from the mouth of Merian C. Cooper, the assocate producer of "The Most Dangerous Game" upon release of the movie in the same year - and used by the Zodiac Killer in his 408 cipher on July 31st 1969..The author of the Confession letter and 408 cipher, both seemingly delving into the distant past to plagiarize a distinctive phrase to place within a menacing communication. Unless these individuals were one and the same person. Two confessions to murder on November 29th 1966 and July 31st 1969.

If the Riverside Confession letter author borrowed the wording "it was about time for her to die" from December 11th 1888, I wonder if he searched nine days after "The Sturdy Beggar" article and discovered the murder of Rose Mylett, another proposed Jack the Ripper victim, on December 20th 1888? The day and month his murders began in the Bay Area of northern California. 

​CONNECTING RIVERSIDE TO THE ZODIAC USING JACK THE RIPPER [IN 7 PARTS]

I would like to revisit the abduction of Kathleen Johns (22) just west of Modesto on March 22nd 1970, considered by many the primary outlier beyond the canonical four in the Bay Area. After the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 his brother, Joe Stine, issued a combative challenge to the Zodiac Killer on television and in the newspapers to come and hunt him down, giving the address of his workplace at 706 Sutter Avenue, Modesto, and the location of La Von's Walking Chicken where he lunched at noon most days. His open invitation of the Zodiac to Modesto was heavily frowned upon by investigators because authorities believed it endangered the lives of people around him and the wider community. The thought being that the Zodiac Killer may have opted to accept the challenge and target Modestans to prove he could murder anywhere.

​This is why the claimed attack on Kathleen Johns cannot be overlooked, who stated in the police report that she thought she had been trailed by a vehicle from Modesto to the area of South Bird Road on Highway 132, a distance of approximately 19 miles. Although her recollections are often contradictory, it must be considered significant that she may have been followed by a suspicious vehicle from Modesto, that she later claimed was the Zodiac Killer, who could have chosen his fifth attack anywhere in California, but began his "hunt" in the very city that Joe Stine laid down his challenge. Modesto is 90 miles from the murder site of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights, so what are the chances this was pure happenstance? How likely is it that Kathleen Johns had read or seen the challenge by Joe Stine in October 1969 and waited five months to concoct a story of abduction, putting her 10-month-old daughter and unborn child through unnecessary hardship to initiate this elaborate hoax? 

Furthermore, her route from San Bernardino to Highway 132 had been achieved by traveling on Highway 99, which passed only 4,600 feet from the 706 Sutter Avenue workplace of Joe Stine, where he worked as a mechanic at the Richfield Service Station. La Von's Walking Chicken was slightly closer at 4,375 feet from Higway 99. Admittedly, this would have been late at night on a Sunday when these premises were shut, but if this was the Zodiac Killer, where had he been in the 48 hours previous? Had he picked up her trail in this location and decided to enact an alternative crime to his original intentions? 

​If the Zodiac Killer had trailed Kathleen Johns from Modesto, then it isn't inconceivable that he passed right by the workplace of Joe Stine five months after being issued the challenge. Another striking feature of the challenge was that the accompanying pictures in the many newspapers on October 23rd 1969 (including the San Francisco Chronicle), showed Joe Stine working at the Richfield Service Station close to the wheel of an elevated vehicle (it may have been the right rear wheel). Especially when we consider that the "Zodiac Killer" operated as a mechanic on the rear wheel of Kathleen Johns vehicle, five months later. Originally, Kathleen Johns claimed that the Zodiac Killer had turned onto South Chrisman Road and entered the Richfield Service Station/ARCO gas station, two miles west of her abandoned vehicle. However, finding it closed, the unidentified "Good Samaritan" continued on Highway 132 towards the city of Tracy. This detail was curiously dispensed with in some of her current and later retellings of the story.

​Had this been true, we would have had Joe Stine working near the wheel of a vehicle at the Richfield Service Station in the newspapers, which Zodiac passed by 5 months later, who then disabled the wheel of Kathleen Johns vehicle, before taking her two miles down the highway to a Richfield Service Station. All the ingredients for a good story was available in the newspapers, either concocted by Kathleen Johns or fashioned by the Zodiac Killer. If this seemed too clever a belated design by Kathleen Johns, it certainly wasn't for the Zodiac Killer, who we know liked a challenge.

Kathleen Johns was quoted in the police report, saying that the suspect "went west on Highway 132 and pulled into a Richfield service station that was closed. It is believed by undersigned to be Chrisman Road". Whether or not she identified the gas station as Richfield or ARCO, free from equivocation, would have been useful information to know. There was a large glowing sign above the gas station on South Chrisman Road identifying it as an ARCO, so anybody traveling on Highway 132 would have known where to refill, but they wouldn't necessarily know it was a Richfield Service Station unless they were familiar with this location (because it was over 800 feet from Highway 132). 

​ARCO was established in 1966 as the Atlantic Richfield Company, an independent oil and gas company formed from the merger of Atlantic Petroleum and the Richfield Oil Corporation. If Kathleen Johns had literally told police her abductor drove her to a "Richfield Service Station", then this may have made her story more credible, because from Highway 132 it would only have been recognisable as an ARCO for a first time visitor (unless signposted). Or she was given this name by her abductor. If her story was completely fabricated and no abductor existed, there would have been no need to invoke the name "Richfield", that the "undersigned" believed to be the gas station on Christman Road. That is why the story of her abductor taking her to this gas station, being omitted from her later stories, is unusual. It tends to support her story rather than negate it. Especially considering this gas station would have been unidentifiable from 2 miles away (from slightly east of South Bird Road), where the presumed abduction began. Maybe the story of a seemingly helpful man at this point in time didn't fit the menacing narrative wanted to be portrayed in later accounts. It must be stressed that the police reports also carried the story of an abductor who never made any attempts to visit a service station, making this case extremely difficult to formulate any consistent narrative. 

Four months after the Kathleen Johns affair, on July 24th 1970, the Zodiac Killer admitted that he "gave a rather intersting ride for a coupple howers one evening a few months back that ended in my burning her car where I found them". On October 27th 1970 he incorporated "by fire" into his crime methodology within the Halloween card, which he followed up by a further communication on March 13th 1971, mailed from Pleasanton. The city of Pleasanton would have been a location passed by the Zodiac Killer had he set "fire" to Kathleen Johns vehicle and headed back to the Bay Area.

​If this abduction was committed by the Zodiac Killer, it is extremely unlikely he took a 180 mile round trip from the Bay Area just for the sole purpose of randomly abducting a woman nearing midnight. Either there was a more sinister purpose to his visit over the previous hours or days in Modesto that failed to transpire - or knowing he had upcoming business dealings or relations in this area, seized the opportunity to bring his terror to the very location where Joe Stine lived (we know that Chester Clark Klingel lived in Hughson, close to Modesto, subsequent to 1970, and had relatives in Turlock prior to this year). Did Chester Clark Klingel cross paths with the Zodiac Killer on one of the killer's continued dealings in this locality? 

Despite this presentation making a case for the Zodiac Killer being in Modesto on March 22nd 1970, it is extremely difficult to see past the many inconsistencies in the story of Kathleen Johns - not only at the time - but in the dramatized account portrayed in the Zodiac book by Robert Graysmith, that actually weakened her case still further. However, the sheer fact that the brother of Paul Stine (Zodiac's last known victim) laid down a challenge to the Bay Area murderer to come to Modesto - and the next major Zodiac story had its roots in Modesto - has to raise some eyebrows. Either Kathleen Johns, after reading the challenge by Joe Stine, deliberately fashioned a story about being followed from Modesto, to be subsequently abducted by the Bay Area murderer, or the Zodiac Killer specifically targeted this area of California after reading the bravado exhibited by Joe Stine many months earlier. But how would Kathleen Johns have known that a sketch of the Zodiac Killer would have been conveniently available to her at the Patterson Police Department, for her to say "that is the man that abducted me"? In absence of the sketch, she would have had to initiate the story using her knowledge of the sketch from elsewhere. For many Zodiac researchers, the jury is still out on the abduction of Kathleen Johns.

One of the eyewitnesses on Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968 was James Owen, who described seeing the Faraday Rambler parked on the east bank with an unidentified vehicle to its right, approximately 10 feet away in his first statement and 3-4 feet away in his second statement. He recalled seeing nobody "in the cars or around them". If James Owen had seen between the vehicles, which were just a short distance apart, with no persons in between them, then it's significant that he made no mention of the Rambler passenger door being wide open (as found by responding officers later that night).

Many have speculated that the Zodiac Killer, after extracting the couple from the Rambler, saw the approaching vehicle of James Owen, shut the Rambler door and forced them out of sight behind the vehicles. Once James Owen had passed the turnout he re-emerged with David and Betty and killed them fairly promptly (James Owen thought he heard a shot about 30 seconds after he passed Gate #10). However, this version of events is almost certainly false, because the shell casing found on the front passenger floorboard of the Rambler by investigators could not have entered the Rambler through a closed door. The passenger door had to be open when the Zodiac Killer began firing.

​If the couple were not concealed behind the vehicles, but were in the turnout, then the only logical answer is that the Zodiac Killer forced the couple over to the west bank, where an approaching vehicle's headlights heading towards Benicia would not illuminate the trio. They would be hidden in darkness. Once James Owen had passed the turnout, the Zodiac Killer once again forces the couple back across the turnout, to the illuminated area around the vehicles and begins his murderous exploits. But the Rambler door should have been open in this scenario also. Something that James Owen should have noticed.      

One might expect that a killer standing in front of the open passenger door and forcing the occupants to exit this door, would have to usher Betty Lou Jensen to his left, with David exiting second, having been positioned to the right side of Betty Lou Jensen. However, David was found lying on the turnout floor with his feet touching the right rear wheel, with Betty running across the turnout in a westerly direction from somewhere near the open passenger door, having been murdered after David Faraday and shot 5 times to the right side of her back.

​The grouping of casings, the position she waa found in the turnout and the bullet pathways discovered at autopsy, clearly shows her direction of travel that night. This apparent switching of positions, with Betty Lou Jensen to the right of David Faraday, when the opposite may have been expected, suggests that they were not murdered immediately after leaving the Rambler. In fact, the possible switching of positions would support the notion of the couple being hidden from view when James Owen passed, who were then relocated back to the side of the Rambler as James Owen disappeared into the distance. This would explain why Betty was to the right of David when the shooting began. 

If James Owen saw two vehicles alongside each other with the doors closed, there appears little reason for the Rambler door to be reopened once the Zodiac Killer, Betty and David returned to the side of the Rambler. The Zodiac Killer sent no souvenirs from the victims, and I doubt that the couple attempted to re-enter the vehicle with a gun at their backs. The only reasonable conclusion is that the Rambler door remained open throughout, and James Owen either didn't recollect this piece of information, or he wasn't asked and didn't mention it. If the account of James Owen was correct, that he saw two unoccupied vehicles with nobody in or around them, then David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were probably being held under duress in the shadows of the west bank. Other than being removed into the fields beyond and returned to the turnout to be killed (which makes little sense), there really is no other option - apart from James Owen completely fabricating his sighting of a second vehicle. But what does this all mean?

It suggests that when the Zodiac Killer had forced the couple from the Rambler and was about to murder them, he either heard and/or saw the approaching vehicle of James Owen heading up the hill. Trying to avoid being seen by the occupant/s of this vehicle, the Zodiac Killer had about 20 seconds to shepherd the young teenagers to the west bank and out of sight. Why he didn't murder them here and chose to relocate them back to the Rambler may have been a matter of light, or a matter of control. His statement on August 4th 1969 of "all I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights", may have indicated that he didn't want to rely on his pencil flashlight on the west bank, so moved back to the more favorable area between the vehicles, illuminated on both sides.  

​​RAY GRANT'S ROAMING CHEVROLET IMPALA
RAY GRANT'S ROBERT CONNELLY TIMELINE
THE CONNELLY AND GASSER SIGHTING OF THE CHEVROLET IMPALA WAS 9PM
HUNTING BY THE BENICIA PUMPING STATION
​CONNELLY AND GASSER NEVER SAW WESNER
WAS THE HELEN AXE SIGHTING WRONG?

If the police come knocking at your door to ask what time you went to the movie theater last night, or went for a walk in the countryside, you would usually furnish them with the time you set out or arrived at your destination, not the time you made your way home. We must take this into account when we read the statement of sheepherder, Bingo Wesner, who told investigators that "he was checking his sheep at approximately 10:00pm and he observed a white Chevrolet Impala Sedan parked by the south fence of the entrance".

It can be strongly argued that this was the time given for his arrival at the field beyond the Gate #10 turnout, not the time he was leaving to go home. In other words, he went to check his sheep at 10pm and noticed the white Chevrolet Impala when he entered the turnout gate. I sincerely doubt that Bingo Wesner had traveled to his place of work that night, entered the double-sided gate, drove up the dirt road and parked up, left his vehicle and traversed the extensive field checking his flock of sheep, before returning to his vehicle and leaving Gate #10 in just 15 minutes. Although not impossible, it isn't realistic. 

One of the eyewitnesses that night was Helen Axe, who described seeing the Faraday Rambler and the victims inside the vehicle, which was facing in towards the gate at 10:15pm as she and her boyfriend headed towards Benicia. Upon their return at 10:30pm, they again noticed the Faraday Rambler, which had now turned around and was facing the field. If this really was the Faraday Rambler, it's safe to assume that David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen remained in this position until Peggy and Homer Your spotted them at 10:55pm when they went to check pipes at the Marshall Ranch. They described the Rambler facing the field. Therefore, we assume that the Rambler was still in the same position as last seen by Helen Axe. However, if Bingo Wesner arrived at the Gate #10 turnout that night at 10pm to check his sheep and had spent longer than 15 minutes performing his duties, by the time he left, he almost certainly would have seen the Faraday Rambler in the turnout. But he didn't. On the other hand, if Helen Axe had seen the Chevrolet Impala in the turnout at 10:15pm and 10:30pm, which was turning around to leave at 10:30pm, then when Bingo Wesner had finished checking his sheep that night and had left at the more reasonable time, somewhere between say 10:35pm and 10:50pm, he quite possibly would have seen no vehicles in the turnout. It must be noted that he made no mention of any vehicles in the turnout as he left to go home

​Bingo Wesner told investigators "he was checking his sheep at approximately 10:00pm and he observed a white Chevrolet Impala Sedan parked by the south fence of the entrance", but what he didn't say, was that "he observed a white Chevrolet Impala Sedan while leaving the turnout at 10pm to go home". So it's safe to assume he saw no Rambler or Chevrolet when he exited the Gate #10 turnout. Had Helen Axe's sighting been correct, he realistically should have seen the Rambler had he left the turnout at 10:15pm or beyond, yet he never recalled seeing any Rambler that night. He presumably didn't even see the Chevrolet when he left the turnout, because this isn't what he told police. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that Bingo Wesner went to check his sheep at 10pm that night and left beyond 10:30pm - and before David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen entered the turnout. If Bingo Wesner arrived to check his sheep at 10pm and spent longer than 15 minutes doing so, this is the only logical conclusion. If Bingo Wesner arrived at 10pm to check his sheep and left before 10:15pm, then he wasn't doing much checking.

Ray Grant's assertion that Helen Axe's sighting of the Rambler was a case of her reading the newspaper reports of the murders and placing the Faraday Rambler in the turnout instead of the Chevrlet Impala, effectively interjecting herself into the case, now seems likely. If so, we now have a Chevrolet Impala arriving in the turnout sometime before 10pm and leaving at 10:30pm, or slightly after. We have somebody vacating their vehicle for upwards of 30 minutes on a freezing cold night, just 40-45 minutes before an unknown vehicle parked alongside the Rambler of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, carrying an occupant with murder on his mind.  

RAY GRANT'S ROAMING CHEVROLET IMPALA
​RAY GRANT'S ROBERT CONNELLY TIMELINE
THE CONNELLY AND GASSER SIGHTING OF THE CHEVROLET IMPALA WAS 9PM
HUNTING BY THE BENICIA PUMPING STATION
​CONNELLY AND GASSER NEVER SAW WESNER

In the immediate days after the Lake Herman Road murders on December 20th 1968, investigators appealed for any eyewitnesses who traveled the route that night and saw any activity in the area. The newspapers reported that "Sheriff's Det Sgt Leslie B. Lundblad today asked all such persons to contact him immediately. He's interested in any other vehicle you saw on that road, any person, any shots you may have heard, in fact any activity that may have occurred".

​That night, an empty white 1959/1960 Chevrolet Impala was spotted in the turnout by Robert Connelly & Frank Gasser at 9pm and Bingo Wesner at 10pm. It sat idle in pitch darkness on an extremely cold night (22°F) on two occasions in an extremely remote location, yet there appeared to be no newspaper coverage of this Chevrolet Impala, asking the public if they saw such a vehicle anywhere else in the vicinity that night (or requesting assistance to locate it). Investigators questioned the workers at nearby Humble Oil to see if they passed the turnout that night, therefore common sense should have meant they would have questioned everybody in and around the Benicia Water Pumping Station, including the Marshall Ranch, Frank Dotta Ranch (and others), to determine whether any had an association with an individual connected to a 1959 or 1960 white Chevrolet Impala. This should have been routine police work, yet we have read nothing beyond the sighting of Frank Gasser, Robert Connelly and Bingo Wesner. 

​Without the aid of headlights, the owner of this vehicle would have required the use of a flashlight to venture any substantive distance into the surrounding fields beyond the Gate #10 turnout. If we believe the account of Robert Graysmith, the Chevrolet Impala was spotted at 9pm when Robert Connelly & Frank Gasser passed the turnout on their way to the Marshall Ranch, and several minutes later on foot, when they headed towards the Benicia Pumping Station to go raccoon hunting, with Frank Gasser seemingly shining a flashlight into the empty vehicle.

​At 10pm, Bingo Wesner also noticed the Chevrolet Impala while walking the adjoining field, tending to his sheep. Or he noticed the Chevrolet Impala when driving into Gate #10 to check his sheep. Clearly, this was unlikely a motorist relieving himself on two occasions for an extended period. A furher eyewitness, William Crow, was parked up in the turnout for a brief time between 9:30pm and 10pm, without seeing the Chevrolet. So it's fairly obvious that the driver of the Chevrolet had twice parked up in the turnout that night, and vacated the vehicle on both occasions. The only reasonable conclusion is that its occupant (or occupants) entered one of the surrounding fields. But seemingly, with no follow up regarding this vehicle in the police report, the only logical conclusion is that nobody in the vicinity of the turnout could shed any light regarding its owner. So why is at least one individual wandering the adjoining fields in freezing temperatures in pitch darkness, if not for nefarious reasons?    

Anybody reading the numerous Lake Herman Road newspaper articles would have been aware that one eyewitness reported seeing a second vehicle in the turnout with the Faraday Rambler, but nobody would have been aware of the empty Chevrolet Impala parked in the turnout at 9pm and 10pm on December 20th 1968, except each of the eyewitnesses that night, and probably the killer. If the occupant of this vehicle had traveled into the adjoining fields on two occasions, looking for victims, they would have required additional illumination such as a carry flashlight or gun-mounted flaslight.

If this was the murderer's vehicle he would have known this. Therefore, the claims of the August 4th 1969 letter writer stating he used a pencil flashlight for extra illumination, is extremely noteworthy. Extra illumination would not have been required in the turnout when you have the use of headlights from your vehicle, along with the illumination from within each vehicle. Also, extra illumination would certainly not have been required if the murderer had kept the couple penned inside their vehicle. The only person that would have required additional illumination (either carried or gun-mounted) would have been somebody venturing into the fields surrounding the turnout. Such as the driver of the white Chevrolet Impala, who apparently never came forward. ​There is a distinct possibility that this Chevrolet owner wrote the "Debut of Zodiac" letter, because this person had a viable reason to carry additional illumination as he distanced himself from his vehicle that night. Not once, but twice, on a freezing dark night in Benicia. Possibly an individual, who on July 31st 1969, would promote the idea of hunting humans in the wilderness because it was more fun than killing wild game in the forest.    

​​RAY GRANT'S ROAMING CHEVROLET IMPALA
RAY GRANT'S ROBERT CONNELLY TIMELINE
THE CONNELLY AND GASSER SIGHTING OF THE CHEVROLET IMPALA WAS 9PM
HUNTING BY THE BENICIA PUMPING STATION
​CONNELLY AND GASSER NEVER SAW WESNER
WAS THE HELEN AXE SIGHTING WRONG?