SGT LUNDBLAD AT THE CRIME SCENE Virtually every communication the Zodiac Killer mailed had an inspiration that can be traced back to recent newspaper articles about him. The first letters mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969 may have their roots in a Times-Herald (Vallejo) newspaper article written by Frances Flaherty on March 30th 1969, entitled "Teenagers' Slayer Still at Large".
This was the last meaningful coverage of the Lake Herman Road murders before the Zodiac Killer began sending his communications, by writing "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo. To prove I killed them I shall state some facts which only I + the police know". But rather than just announcing he killed David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen and taking the opportunity to glorify in their murders, the Zodiac Killer immediately provided a list of details only known to him and the police. There is a strong possibility he was responding directly to Sheriff's Sergeant Leslie Lundblad's cryptic utterance below.
This was the last meaningful coverage of the Lake Herman Road murders before the Zodiac Killer began sending his communications, by writing "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo. To prove I killed them I shall state some facts which only I + the police know". But rather than just announcing he killed David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen and taking the opportunity to glorify in their murders, the Zodiac Killer immediately provided a list of details only known to him and the police. There is a strong possibility he was responding directly to Sheriff's Sergeant Leslie Lundblad's cryptic utterance below.
Lundblad was effectively saying there was plenty more information about the double murder that hadn't been released into the newspapers---which the killer would be able to inadvertently provide if he talked to him. So the Zodiac Killer spared him the effort, by wilfully speaking to Lundblad through the Bay Area newspapers and giving him four key details about Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968, and three about Blue Rock Springs on July 4th/5th 1969---which happened in the interim. The use of the word "cryptically" at the end of the newspaper article is rather fitting, because if Lundblad could address the audience in a cryptic manner, then I suppose the murderer could reply in kind. Lundblad conceded that after almost 100 days they were only slightly closer to solving the grisly slayings at Lake Herman Road on Friday night in December. The Zodiac Killer would however promise more slayings, to begin on "Fry night" in August.
Despite the concise nature of facts and promises offered by the Zodiac Killer in his July 31st 1969 written text, the content of the 408 cipher deviated markedly by rambling about his victims becoming his slaves in paradise (and the afterlife). So why did the Zodiac Killer present two vastly contrasting sides to Lundblad, which included the divulgence of facts, but was cloaked in a disparate layer of fantasy reminiscent of a madman? The answer may have been shaped by the March 30th 1969 Times-Herald newspaper article which described him as a "hopelessly deranged person" and a "nut on the loose". If this is what they believed the murderer was, the Zodiac Killer may have opted to play to the gallery and send Lundblad a cryptically charged message describing a deranged vision of the afterlife. The newspaper may have [1] shaped a man who was prepared to supply facts only known to him and the police, [2] given the Zodiac Killer the opportunity to become the madman they already believed he was, and [3] Seeded in the mind of a killer to continue his search for "over a dozen people" to murder on "Fry night" and into the weekend--- and follow the theme of the two murders he had already claimed on "Friday night in December" (and July).
The March 30th 1969 newspaper article began on page one and concluded on page four, with Lundblad stating "If I talk to a suspect, I'll know positively whether he was there that night", he said cryptically. Sergeant Lundblad could not have known that the identity of the killer was but mere inches away. A simple glance to the right would have revealed the Zodiac pseudonym.
The March 30th 1969 newspaper article began on page one and concluded on page four, with Lundblad stating "If I talk to a suspect, I'll know positively whether he was there that night", he said cryptically. Sergeant Lundblad could not have known that the identity of the killer was but mere inches away. A simple glance to the right would have revealed the Zodiac pseudonym.
SUNDAY TIMES-HERALD (VALLEJO), MARCH 30TH 1969
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