Desert Sun Newspaper, November 10th 1969: Arsenic Is Found In Soft Drink MARTINEZ (UPI) -- 'A young schoolteacher who received threatening telephone calls for 10 days thought the caller was a crank who was pretending to be the Zodiac killer. But police took the threats seriously after 24-year-old Daniel Williams found a lethal dose of arsenic in a bottle of soft drink in his refrigerator.
Williams, a teacher at Salesian High School in Richmond, told police the caller talked of how he intended to kill several persons, then last; Sunday said: “You’re the dead duck.” Williams went out and when he returned home found someone had pried open the screen on a back door. However, a police search showed nothing was missing. But after the officers left and Williams took a drink from a bottle of opened soft drink in his refrigerator, he found it tasted “metallic” and immediately spat it out. Police reported Friday that the bottle contained more than enough arsenic to kill a human being. Williams said the caller identified himself as the still sought Zodiac Killer of five, but police discounted the idea. The caller would “sob and complain of headaches". Williams said, and on one occasion said he had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there. Williams said the caller told him: “I’m too smart for them".
Williams, a teacher at Salesian High School in Richmond, told police the caller talked of how he intended to kill several persons, then last; Sunday said: “You’re the dead duck.” Williams went out and when he returned home found someone had pried open the screen on a back door. However, a police search showed nothing was missing. But after the officers left and Williams took a drink from a bottle of opened soft drink in his refrigerator, he found it tasted “metallic” and immediately spat it out. Police reported Friday that the bottle contained more than enough arsenic to kill a human being. Williams said the caller identified himself as the still sought Zodiac Killer of five, but police discounted the idea. The caller would “sob and complain of headaches". Williams said, and on one occasion said he had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there. Williams said the caller told him: “I’m too smart for them".
On the face of it, this seems like a hoaxer, bearing in mind the imposter on the October 22nd 1969 Jim Dunbar Show imitating Zodiac and complaining of headaches. However, the discovery of a lethal dose of arsenic in his soft drink clearly elevated this to more than just an idle threat or malicious phone call. The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article on the same subject on November 8th 1969, stating "The string of sadistic calls began on October 23rd 1969 (the day after the Jim Dunbar Show call). On one occasion, the caller told Williams he had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but had left when he found police there. Another time, the teacher said the caller, whose voice he described as muffled as if speaking through a handkerchief, said he was going to "kill the lady in the blue house".
One famous blue house, built in 1886 and immortalized by French singer Maxime Le Forestier, was located at in the Castro District at 3841 18th Street, San Francisco, near Haight-Ashbury. The nearest claimed Zodiac crime to the "blue house" was the murder of San Francisco Police officer Richard Radetich, who was gunned down by three shots from a .38 caliber revolver at point blank range through the driver side window of his vehicle while in the process of serving a parking ticket. He was sat in his police car near 643 Waller Street. This location is less than a mile from the blue house.
One famous blue house, built in 1886 and immortalized by French singer Maxime Le Forestier, was located at in the Castro District at 3841 18th Street, San Francisco, near Haight-Ashbury. The nearest claimed Zodiac crime to the "blue house" was the murder of San Francisco Police officer Richard Radetich, who was gunned down by three shots from a .38 caliber revolver at point blank range through the driver side window of his vehicle while in the process of serving a parking ticket. He was sat in his police car near 643 Waller Street. This location is less than a mile from the blue house.
There are and were several "blue houses" in San Francisco, but this one apparently stood out enough to be forever remembered by Forrestier in one of his many songs. "San Francisco", one of his best known songs, begins with the line: "C'est une maison bleue adossée à la colline" (meaning "It's a blue house with its back to the hill"). In 1971, a young Le Forestier was living in a hippie commune, called "Hunga Dunga", in a blue house situated at 3841 18th Street in San Francisco. The anthemic song was written as a fond tribute to Le Forestier’s housemates and hippie friends, and the names mentioned in the song refer to real people. These include Phil Polizatto, who recalls with great affection Le Forestier’s stay in the blue house, in a critically acclaimed book entitled “Hunga Dunga: Confessions of an Unapologetic Hippie”. Was this "blue house" located somewhere the Zodiac Killer may have passed by and noticed, resulting in him threatening the "lady in the blue house" in his phone call to Daniel Williams. After all, most of Zodiac's threats were focused in San Francisco. The school teacher lived at 1234 Bush Street, Martinez (just 2.34 miles from Benicia), so possibly the threat was focused towards a woman living in a blue house in close proximity to Daniel Williams, of which, one may have particular relevance to the phone-caller in 1969
The only reason I have covered this topic of the famous "blue house" at 3841 18th Street in San Francisco, is because of two San Francisco Examiner advertisements dated February 23rd 1962 and March 6th 1962, from a resident of 4117 19th Street, San Francisco, selling oil paintings under the pseudonym of "Zodiac". The first advertisement stated "16 CENT. Catholic-Spanish oil, $750. ZODIAC, 4117 19th St". The second advertisement stated "16 CENT, oil painting of Christ, $750. Zodiac, 4117 19th St". This residence was situated only 562 meters from the "blue house" in San Francisco. Irrespective of whether any connection exists to the "blue house" at 3841 18th Street, these are an interesting pair of advertisements using the pseudonym "Zodiac" in San Francisco. The next time we would see the pseudonym appear in an advertisement pertaining to the Zodiac case, was the Deep Real Estate message placed on August 26th 1976 in the San Francisco Chronicle, to run for one week.
The following newspaper cuttings in relation to their proximity to the "blue house" were brought to my attention by Cragle, a regular contributor to the Zodiac Killer Site and Zodiac Killer Message Board forums.
The only reason I have covered this topic of the famous "blue house" at 3841 18th Street in San Francisco, is because of two San Francisco Examiner advertisements dated February 23rd 1962 and March 6th 1962, from a resident of 4117 19th Street, San Francisco, selling oil paintings under the pseudonym of "Zodiac". The first advertisement stated "16 CENT. Catholic-Spanish oil, $750. ZODIAC, 4117 19th St". The second advertisement stated "16 CENT, oil painting of Christ, $750. Zodiac, 4117 19th St". This residence was situated only 562 meters from the "blue house" in San Francisco. Irrespective of whether any connection exists to the "blue house" at 3841 18th Street, these are an interesting pair of advertisements using the pseudonym "Zodiac" in San Francisco. The next time we would see the pseudonym appear in an advertisement pertaining to the Zodiac case, was the Deep Real Estate message placed on August 26th 1976 in the San Francisco Chronicle, to run for one week.
The following newspaper cuttings in relation to their proximity to the "blue house" were brought to my attention by Cragle, a regular contributor to the Zodiac Killer Site and Zodiac Killer Message Board forums.
San Francisco Examiner advertisements dated February 23rd 1962 and March 6th 1962
San Francisco Chronicle advertisement dated August 26th 1976
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