On December 20th 1969, the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter to the home address of Melvin Belli at 1228 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, pleading for help and claiming he was in danger of murdering a ninth and tenth victim. After this letter, the communications ceased for exactly four months, until the April 20th 1970 letter containing his 13-Symbol code arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. So did the Zodiac Killer leave California during this period, or leave the state to visit family or friends over the festive period?

​Newspaper articles from Paul Avery intensified over the months of October, November and December 1969, with two articles in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 29th 1969 and December 30th 1969, entitled "Urgent Appeal By Belli to Zodiac" and "Belli Sure Zodiac Will Talk To Him" respectively. "On Sunday (December 28th), Belli made an appeal to Zodiac to contact him by writing or telephoning the Chronicle". Melvin Belli stressed that any letter and/or telephone call would be treated with the strictest confidence. Therefore, any letter urgently mailed by the Zodiac Killer at the end of December being released into the newspapers, could have possibly scuppered any meeting with Melvin Belli or further contact with the newspaper. So did we have any Zodiac Killer letters at the end of December, mailed in urgency and withheld from the public?  

Sandy Betts contacted me regarding a possible "Zodiac" envelope she managed to get an image of while being given a tour of the San Francisco Chronicle offices a few years ago. Sandy stated "Reporter Kevin Fagan gave us a tour and showed us the drawers where they kept what Zodiac had sent over the years. I somehow missed noticing one of the envelopes which was addressed to Paul Avery, thinking it was the one which was made public, so no big deal.  But while going through my pictures, I looked closer and saw it was sent "Air Mail" from New York, NY on Dec 30th, 1969, it was most definitely written by Zodiac with his blue felt pen".

"During 1969, after he sent a letter to Melvin Belli on Dec 20th, there wasn't any communication from Zodiac until April 20th, 1970.  Being in New York, NY for four months, could explain why. That would also eliminate several suspects, we know were still in California during that time. Did he go there to spend Christmas with family, or friends, or was it because he had a job there?".

The following envelope, with two affixed 6c Franklin D. Roosevelt stamps, was sent to me by Sandy, postmarked in the afternoon of December 30th 1969 from New York and addressed to Paul Avery. The use of "Air Mail" may have been the urgent and immediate response to the appeal by Melvin Belli, featured in the San Francisco Chronicle by reporter Paul Avery. An envelope not released into the public domain, which underlined the newspaper reporter's name, just like the Halloween card envelope on October 27th 1970, ten months later. 

Thanks to Sandy Betts for supplying the following image and accompanying information. 

Further analysis of Paul Stine's shirt shows that the left rear side is relatively free of blood staining apart from the patch I've highlighted in green (see below). This cannot have been deposited there from blood descending from above. However, with Paul Stine's "upper torso in the passenger side, head resting on the floorboard, facing north", his left side and back was accessible to the killer. The highlighted patch of blood is just above where the cut was initiated. Where the shirt on the left side may have been pulled upwards to create tension in the shirt and allow the killer to make his initial cut through the front and back of the shirt simultaneously.

​If the killer had manhandled Paul Stine's upright body around the shoulders, from the driver seat to the right side of the taxicab, with his head falling into the passenger footwell, he probably received some blood transfer to his hands. So when he gripped the left side of the shirt with his left hand to create tension, he very likely transferred this patch of blood just above the cut line. There is very little reason why this blood staining should be present on this area of the shirt, other than from the hand of a killer. Medical personnel would have arrived at the crime scene with clean hands and pulled Paul Stine around his shoulder area to extricate him from the passenger footwell (to his position shown in the below crime scene photographs). There would have been no need to grab the lower half of Paul Stine's shirt to lever him from the footwell.

The claim by some, arguing that the removed section of shirt piece could have occurred in the morgue at a later time doesn't withstand scrutiny. A person sneaking into the morgue for the express purpose of removing a section of Paul Stine's shirt, not only wouldn't have made a simultaneous cut through two layers of fabric on the left side of the shirt, they would have arrived at the morgue with clean hands and not deposited this patch of blood just above the cut line, had they even began cutting at this location.

The autopsy of Paul Stine began on Sunday, October 12th 1969 at approximately 9:30am, when photographs would have been taken of the fully clothed body, before they were removed for a more thorough examination. The clothing was then dried, given an identification tag, photographed, and then turned over to the property clerk's office to be secured. Unless some unauthorized person gained access to the body in the eleven hour window before the autopsy, or knew the location of where the property clerk had secured the clothing, there is practically no way a nefarious actor could have gained access to the shirt, to have mailed it within the next 24 hours or so. The practice of making up a story without evidence or justification, to then somehow attribute validity to it because nobody can disprove the story, is common and flawed reasoning in the Zodiac community.  

AN INITIAL CUT TO THE LEFT SIDE [PT1]

The following is a preliminary look at the Paul Stine shirt piece, either removed from the crime scene with the aid of a knife or pair of scissors on October 11th 1969. When Paul Stine was found in the taxicab by Armond Pelissetti he "immediately checked the interior of the cab and found the victim to be slumped over the front seat with his upper torso in the passenger side, head resting on the floorboard, facing north". This meant that the left side and back of Paul Stine was facing upwards. Paul Stine was in this position when the Zodiac Killer started cutting his shirt (I believe with a pair of scissors). If this was the case, it would show premeditation on behalf of the killer, who knew in advance of the murder he wanted to remove a piece of clothing to mail to the newspapers, to ultimately prove that the letter postmarked October 13th 1969 was mailed by the killer.

If you take a close look at the shirt below (the red rectangle), you will see the likely point that the Zodiac Killer began his cut that night - on the left side of Paul Stine's body and shirt (which was his nearest accessible point). The killer likely pinched the shirt and pulled it upwards with his fingers on the left side to began his cut through the front and back of the shirt at the same time. In other words, he cut through two layers of fabric simultaneously. Why else would there be a cut on the front right side? (as viewed in the below left image) Once he had made this initial cut, he probably repositioned his left hand (pulling the back side of the shirt upwards to create tension) and then cut out a rectangular piece of the shirt from the back left side towards the right side of the shirt rear, In the image below the man's left hand is not positioned next to the back of the shirt, because this part of the shirt was removed by the Zodiac Killer. His hand is positioned by the left inner front portion of the shirt. In the black and white image below, it would be the backside of the right front as we view (the section with the label on). I have placed green arrows showing two matching areas of blood staining from the inner and outer lining of the shirt front. Their size slightly altered because of how the shirt is layed out  The blue circle and blue square both show the same front section of the shirt.

Some individuals have claimed that Paul Stine's shirt was intact at the time the Zodiac Killer left the crime scene, and a portion of his shirt was removed at a later time in either the ambulance or morgue. If this was the case, there would have been no need to cut through two layers of fabric at the same time on the left side of the shirt. A body positioned on its front or back would make the shirt perfectly accessible from its front or back side. If the shirt was off the body, there would again be no need to cut through two layers of fabric to retrieve one rectangular piece of shirt. The "delayed shirt piece removal", one of the central arguments of the Zodiac Killer hoax theory, has gained little traction over the years because it's a theory conjured from the mind and not of evidence. Hopefully the analysis presented above finally relegates this claim to the cobwebs of history.   

On the same day, March 13th 1978, that somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer rang a man in the Mission District of San Francisco declaring "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco" (which was recorded on an answering machine), somebody threatened a woman in the Taraval District of San Francisco. This person pinned a note and a flower on the front gate of her single dwelling with the message "You're next (The Zodiac Killers)". At a time when Zodiac occurrences should have been dwindling, two threats on the same day targeting individuals just a few miles from one another, could be argued as the same perpetrator. When you consider the similarity in messages between the March 13th 1978 phone call of "Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco", to the April 24th 1978 letter of  "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here", it is not unreasonable to conclude one responsible for all three events. Whether this was the case or not.

​The police logged the time of the threat in the Taraval District between 7:00am on March 13th 1978 and 12:30am on March 14th 1978. Therefore, the flower and threatening note must have been placed on her front gate during a 16 1/2 hour window of time. Sunset in San Francisco was 6:15pm, so if the perpetrator applied some caution, it is likely the note was pinned on her front gate sometime between 6:15pm and just after midnight. The phone call to the man in the Mission District was logged at 11:00pm, falling between these two times. Therefore, it is possible that these two "Zodiac Killer events" occurred  within a reasonable time of one another - with 10pm to midnight being prime time for the Zodiac Killer under the cover of darkness. The individual who threatened the woman in the Taraval District could easily have made the phone call from this location. There was no need to travel to make the phone call to the Mission District.  

On November 29th 1966, one month after the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, somebody (possibly the Zodiac Killer) mailed two typed Confession letters to the Riverside Homicide Detail and Riverside Press Enterprise. In each correspondence the claimed killer stated "She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake nights thinking about my next victom. Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven". If the woman in the Taraval District of San Francisco was known to the perpetrator, had he targeted her with the express knowledge that she wasn't at home at the time, so as to avoid identification. She had been absent from her residence on March 13th 1978 because she was babysitting that day. Maybe he "did make that phone call to the man also". 

​If the author of the threatening note was the Zodiac Killer, did he target a random person, or did he choose somebody of significance that he knew would generate a response from the police and hopefully make its way into the newspapers. The last time a Zodiac note was found on a public street was on October 21st 1969, having been thrown from a car on Lake Mendocino Drive at 3:00 pm, just north of Ukiah, California (see newspaper clipping below). The note, attached to a twig, was thrown towards an eight-year-old girl with the crudely printed message "You're next - Z". The only difference between the note in the Taraval District of San Francisco and the note in Mendocino County was the signature, morphing from ​"You're next - Z" to "You're next (The Zodiac Killers)". The note in Mendocino County, whether the Zodiac or not, was seemingly piggybacking off the October 13th 1969 threat by the Zodiac Killer to target schoolchildren.

​So did the woman he targeted with a note and flower in 1978 carry any significant value in his quest to hit the newspapers once again? Or did he just select a random member of the public, hoping his pseudonym alone was enough to generate the publicity he so badly craved? Or was it a hoaxer with nothing better to do with his life, who used the term "Zodiac Killers" to suggest he was separate to the original killer? Were the two occurrences in San Francisco on March 13th 1978 just coincidence? If not, we are back to where we started with two connected events, in which one appeared to pre-empt the message on the April 24th 1978 letter.  

*The Taraval District is the city’s largest and most populous police jurisdiction, encompassing a large part of southwestern San Francisco. It is bordered by Golden Gate Park to the north, Ocean Beach to the west, Daly City to the south, and 7th Avenue down to Interstate 280 to the east. The district includes the inner and outer Sunset neighborhoods, as well as Parkside, Golden Gate Heights, Balboa Terrace, Ingleside Terrace, Monterey Heights, St. Francis Wood, Ingleside, Oceanview, West Portal, Lakeshore Acres, Country Club, Merced Manor, Park Merced, Edgehill, Laguna Honda, Lakeside, Merced Extension, Mount Davidson Manor and Sunset Heights. link.

Although the Zodiac Killer mailed at least four communications in 1971 and one in 1973, it appeared as though his contact with the newspapers dried up after the Exorcist letter on January 29th 1974. No other confirmed communications have been verified between 1974 and 1978, with the newspaper coverage of the Zodiac Killer thinning out during this period. That was until the four year anniversary of the Exorcist letter, when Tim Reiterman, a San Francisco Examiner reporter, announced on Sunday, January 29th 1978 in the San Francisco Chronicle that the following day he would be taking a second look at the Zodiac Killer mystery (see right image). 

The following day, January 30th 1978, Tim Reiterman probably wrote one of the longest and most extensive newspaper articles on the Zodiac Killer in history (in part shown below), including a comprehensive interview with Inspector David Toschi of SFPD, the lone investigator on the Zodiac case. There is no way this San Francisco Examiner article escaped the attention of the Zodiac Killer - and could be argued was the reason he addressed David Toschi three months later when he mailed the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter, writing "This is the Zodiac speaking I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here, I have always been here. That city pig toschi is good - but I am smarter and better he will get tired then leave me alone. I am waiting for a good movie about me. who will play me. I am now in control of all things".  

However, six weeks after this January 30th 1978 newspaper article by Tim Reiterman, on March 13th 1978, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer telephoned a man in the Mission District and used language that pre-empted the wording on the April 24th 1978 letter, announcing over the phone "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco". The phrase of "Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco" would become "I am back with you. Tell herb caen I am here" just 42 days later. To my knowledge, this phone call wasn't released into the newspapers. Things got interesting when the name "Reiterman" appeared only once in the San Francisco directory in 1977 and 1978, with an address of 805 Hampshire Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. This seemed like it could be the answer, but the forenames were Frank and Katherine in 1978, and the initials were M F in 1977. To be clear, Frank Reiteman was the listed resident in both years, not Tim Reiterman of the San Francisco Examiner.  

​We don't know for certain the identity of the individual who rang the "man in the Mission District" on March 13th 1978, but the fact the telephone caller requested that the man "Tell the press", could indicate that this man had industry connections enabling him to pass the message on to the newspapers  Something that Tim Reiterman could have done had he been the individual in question. If the Zodiac Killer made this phone call, it is unlikely he was going to telephone a random member of the public, he was going to contact somebody who had the capability to pass on his message to the newspapers and be taken seriously, such as an editor or reporter. Other possibilties could be somebody previously connected to the case, a law enforcement officer, or a celebrity who would make the story newsworthy.
 
After reading the comprehensive newspaper article by Tim Reiterman on January 30th 1978 interviewing David Toschi, would it be surprising if the Zodiac Killer had attempted to send two similarly phrased messages such as the ones on March 13th 1978 and April 24th 1978 that would involve Tim Reiterman and David Toschi respectively. ​A newspaper reporter and a detective that Zodiac likely knew interacted with each other at the end of January. This newspaper article must have convinced the Zodiac Killer that his arch nemesis "pig toschi" was good, despite the fact he couldn't resist the opportunity to remind everybody that he was "smarter and better".​

According to the later research of Robert Graysnith in his 1986 book "Zodiac", he stated that David Toschi looked over the case of the suspicious phone call in 1978, therefore it is highly unlikely after reading the transcript of the message, he would then effectively plagiarize the wording and insert it into the April 24th 1978 letter in a slightly different format to commit a hoax. Especially if there was a limited number of people aware of the Mission District case.

​The name "Reiterman" is considered a very uncommon surname, likely only found in small pockets of populations, primarily due to its unique combination of elements and potential origin as a variation of the German surname "Reiter" which itself isn't particularly widespread. Did the Zodiac Killer make a mistake and ring the address at 805 Hampshire Street in the Mission District believing it to be the household of Tim Reiterman, despite his name not being listed as the owner? When a male voice answered did he just deliver his simple message of "This is the Zodiac. Tell the press that I am back in San Francisco", and then hang up?

Tim Reiterman seemed the most logical recipient of the phone call on March 13th 1978 because of its similarity in language to the message on April 24th 1974, and his recent interview with David Toschi. However, we could be looking for an entirely different target for the "Zodiac Killer" phone call. So if you have knowledge of any high profile candidates and can prove they lived in the Mission District in 1978, please leave your suggestions in comments. This can be another mystery solved with your help.

CONTINUED: A FLOWER ON THE FRONT GATE 

Thanks to Sandy Betts for her hard work and continued investigation into this matter.  

In previous articles I attempted to show the common methodology employed by the Zodiac Killer and the Riverside author of the Confession letter through the use of historical microfiche searches, such as "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1932 (The Most Dangerous Game), and "it was about time for her to die" from 1888 (Jack the Ripper). This unusual approach possibly being the product of one mind and one author. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates and the typist of the Confession letter on November 29th 1966 (if one person) would have been somebody who savagely cut the throat of Cheri Jo Bates seven times. The author of the letter stated that they would "cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see", had "finished the job out cutting her throat", threatened that he was "stalking your girls now", and possibly used a phrase from "The Sturdy Beggar" newspaper article from 1888 of "it was about time for her to die". A phrase (other than the reporting of the Confession letter) was only found in one publication in 334 years. The notion that the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates was influenced by "Jack the Ripper" now didn't seem so fanciful. So I took a look at the media events in 1966. 

There was some standard fare, such as the release of the movie "A Study in Terror", with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on the trail of Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel. Although a 1965 release in the United Kingdom, it made its American debut on August 10th 1966 in the USA, about eleven weeks before the murder of Cheri Jo Bates. "A Study in Terror" was also made into a book in 1966, featuring the fictional detective Ellery Queen. However, 1966 became a significant year in the story of Jack the Ripper, when long lost Ripper letters were released into the public domain by Dr. Francis Camps, Britain's leadng murder pathologist. Letters that hadn't seen the light of day for nearly 80 years, and told of a sender who promised that "The next job I do I shall clip the lady's ears off and send them to the police" (corrected for spelling).

The Jack the Ripper letters were unearthed by a man sent to search through old files in a London hospital, who turned them over to Dr. Francis Camps. Understanding their historical value he first published them in the London Hospital Gazette, before they were more widely circulated in the public domain. Numerous newspapers throughout America carried the message of the Jack the Ripper letters being published, so it is noteworthy that the Confession letter author typed "I then finished the job out cutting her throat. I am not sick. I am insane. But that will not stop the game. This letter should be published for all to read it. It just might save that girl in the alley. But that's up to you. It will be on your conscience. Not mine. Yes I did make that call to you also. It was just a warning". Confessions to murders and warnings ever present in the released Ripper letters. On September 25th 1888 a letter addressed to the police commissioner stated that "You will soon hear of me and my funny little games", A game that the Confession letter author promised would not stop.

Were the Riverside Desktop Poem, the Confession letter and Bates' letters the product of mimicry from a disturbed mind, who wanted to replicate the terror of Whitechapel's Jack the Ripper to the streets of Riverside, warning the residents to "Keep your sisters, daughters and wives off the streets and alleys", and that they would "cut off female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see". 

The final trigger may have been The Press newspaper on November 24th 1966, which compared the abduction of a 19-year-old girl to that of Cheri Jo Bates, five days before the Confession letter arrived. The unknown perpetrator in that case, after the young woman declined an offer of a ride in his vehicle, remarked  "Well, after all, I'm not Jack the Ripper". How much influence, if any, did the release of numerous Jack the Ripper letters and postcards in 1966 have on the Confession letter author - along with the accompanying Riverside Desktop Poem and Bates' letters? This was a momentous year for many Ripper enthusiasts, who could now cast their eyes over these grizzly new published communications. But was the Riverside author, possibly responsible for all three offerings in 1966, one of them? A killer who may have taken his "dangerous game" to the unsuspecting residents of the Bay Area of northern California. 

JACK THE RIPPER- A SEVEN PART EXPLORATION TO RIVERSIDE AND THE BAY AREA  

Previously it has been shown how the Zodiac Killer drew inspiration from current and historical newspaper coverage to fashion any recently prepared communications he was about to mail. Two possible examples were the phrases "man is the most dangerous animal of all" and "it was about time for her to die". Another simpler example was the January 29th 1974 letter, which was a reaction to "The Exorcist" film winning four awards at the Golden Globe ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974,  for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". Which is probably why the Zodiac Killer.began his letter with a snarky rebuttal of the Exorcist film, by writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy". The following presentation shows some similarities to the kidnapping of Donna Lass and the resulting "Pines Card" mailed on March 22nd 1971, with the overlapping use of phraseology such as "around in the snow".

On December 8th 1963, an individual was kidnapped from Harrah's Casino in Stateline, Nevada, situated just a few hundred feet from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino where Donna Lass was last seen on September 6th 1970. This person was blindfolded and bundled into the boot of a car, with the abductors making a phone call subsequent to the kidnapping. At the time, this news story was plastered all over American newspapers and heavily featured on television - and in 1963 - was the second largest ransom payoff in US history of $240,000, which ultimately secured this person's release after days of negotiations. That person was Frank Sinatra Jr. (19). In a conversation with the kidnappers and his son, Frank Sinatra Sr. (48) relayed the message he had on the phone (shown below), stating "They took him out of the motel without socks and let him wander around in the snow with just a T-shirt on". The "around in the snow" phrase was featured in dozens of newspapers throughout the country.  

The kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. and Donna Lass both occurred on a Sunday in South Lake Tahoe by the California-Nevada border, both possibly taken from two casinos separated by no more than a few hundred feet, in which a kidnapper (in both instances) rang authorities making reference to the absent person. Frank Sinatra Jr. relayed a message to his father how he was made to walk "around in the snow", and the Zodiac Killer pasted the same message in the Pines Card on March 22nd 1971. A more mature Zodiac Killer would have almost certainly been familiar with this story of the Sinatra kidnapping, so had he delved through the library microfiche once again to select this odd phrase to add to his pasted communication, hoping that somebody might make a loose connection between the two crimes in South Lake Tahoe? To access this phrase in cutting form, the Zodiac Killer didn't have to go back to 1963, because it was readily available in more contemporary newspaper articles from 1971, shown here.     

Cal Neva Resort & Casino, previously known as the Calneva Resort and Cal-Neva Lodge, is a resort and casino straddling the border between Nevada and California on the shores of Lake Tahoe. The original building was constructed in 1926 and became famous when the national media picked up a story about actress Clara Bow canceling checks she owed to the Cal-Neva worth $13,000 in 1930 ($244,700 today). After burning down in a fire in 1937, the structure was rebuilt in only 30 days. In 1960, entertainer Frank Sinatra purchased the resort with several others, including singer Dean Martin and Chicago mobster Sam Giancana. Wikipedia. 

It is noticeable that the 0.5 inch bruise to the left side of David Faraday's neck is consistent with the muzzle of a gun being forcibly pressed into the victim's neck as he was being restrained by the right rear wheel of the Rambler, with David facing away from the Rambler. A killer looking into David's eyes, pressing a gun into the left side of his neck could only have been performed by a right-handed killer. It is not difficult to understand at the moment of the shooting, that the killer shifted the position of the gun behind his left ear flap and pulled the trigger to deliver a devastating head shot to the helpless young man. The entry point of the bullet is not consistent with a left-handed killer standing by the open door of the Rambler with an outstretched left arm (or bent arm). Not only would the gun unlikely be positioned behind the flap of the left ear, but the killer (if alone) would have had his back turned to Betty Lou Jensen (see here)..

After collapsing to the turnout floor, David Faraday's feet were literally touching the right rear tire (and both feet were in line with the bodywork of the vehicle), indicating that the killer was not left-handed and standing behind David Faraday. This could have produced a bullet entry point behind his left ear, but the killer's standing position would have created a buffer zone between David Faraday and the vehicle, preventing his body falling with his feet touching the right rear wheel. Everything points to David Faraday crumpling to the ground where he stood, with his back pressed firmly against the right rear window. The ejected casing from this shot likely landing on the front passenger floorwell of the Rambler (either directly, or via the angled open door).     

​There are comminuted fractures of both left and right temporal bones and sphenoid bones.
A "comminuted fracture of both left and right temporal bones and sphenoid bones" refers to a severe head injury where both the left and right temporal bones, as well as the sphenoid bone at the base of the skull, have fractured into multiple pieces. In other words the bullet, as stated in the autopsy report, followed a straight horizontal course from left to right, angling forward as it went (through the anterior margins of the left temporal lobe). This is consistent with a gun being pressed behind the left ear, horizontally positioned, slightly angled towards the front of David's head. Again, inconsistent with a killer standing to the right side of David Faraday, pointing a gun left-handed towards his head. The entry wound behind the ear flap, and the angle the shot was delivered, would not be natural for a left-handed shooter   

If the Zodiac Killer had correctly signed the car door at Lake Berryessa at approximately 6:30pm (only a few minutes after the attack) and traveled immediately south to the payphone at 1231 Main Street, Napa, the journey time from this area of the Knoxville Road to the payphone is about 43 minutes. Allowing some leeway of 40 to 50 minutes (and no stops on the way), the Zodiac Killer should have arrived at the payphone between 7:10pm and 7:20pm, thereby making the call to police 20 to 30 minutes earlier. However, he made the call at 7:40pm, so where did this time go?

In a previous article a new timeline was examined courtesy of Zodiac contributor Jibberjabber, where the Zodiac Killer left the car door at about 6:07pm and walked 0.8 miles north, to be spotted by Dr. Rayfield & Son at around 6:30pm by Smittle Creek Day Use Area (where the "voyeur" was spotted by the three women earlier that day). "Dr Rayfield stated that about 6:30 pm the previous evening (September 27th), he and his son had parked their car north of Park Headquarters and noticed a white male adult subject walking in the area, described as about 5'10", heavy build, wearing dark trousers, a dark shirt with red in it, long sleeves". If this was the Zodiac Killer, I suspected that he may have been walking back to his vehicle just north this location, about 2 minutes journey time to a turnout. This would have had him entering his vehicle at around 6:32pm.

The Zodiac Killer would have been aware that 34 minutes had now elapsed since he left the scene of the double stabbing (5:58pm), and knew the location of Park Headquarters, just south of the crime scene. He may have thought it unwise to head south, back towards the crime scene and Park Headquarters in possession of the gun, knife, costume, and possibly with blood transfer to his clothing. The logical choice under these circumstances may have been to travel north towards Pope Canyon Road and Pope Valley, and then head south on Chiles Pope Valley Road (built between 1845 and 1846). The Zodiac Killer would then pass Lake Hennessy and take the Silverado Trail towards Napa. The journey time from his vehicle to the payphone via this route would be about 67 minutes after entering his vehicle at 6:32pm. The Zodiac Killer would have arrived at the payphone in Napa at 7:39pm, one minute before the phone call was logged at 7:40pm. So was this the Zodiac Killer spotted by Dr. Rayfield & Son?​ 

On March 13th 1971 the Zodiac Killer insinuated his involvement down south when declaring in his Los Angeles letter "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there". The question police asked themselves, was whether the Zodiac Killer was blowing hot air, or were there really other victims in Riverside - possibly close to the murder site of Cheri Jo Bates. The police reviewed a case 3.9 miles (by crow) from Terracina Drive and the Riverside City College library on May 13th 1961, mysteriously pointed in that direction by a dead man's finger. The finger of a possible murder victim resting on a bible verse that spoke of "things to come".

Revered Charles Williams (66) was last seen alive driving on Twelfth Street in Riverside on Saturday, May 13th 1961 at approximately 2:55pm. Thirty-five minutes later he was discovered by four Norton AFB airmen in his blood-spattered car at 3:30pm on Canyon Crest Drive, 3/10ths of a mile (1584 feet) north of Alessandro Boulevard in an extremely rural area popular with target shooters and hunters. Found behind the steering wheel of his vehicle with a bible in his lap, Rev. Charles Williams was thought to have been shot at close range by possibly two bullets that entered the left side of his head and burst out the other side. Two .32 caliber casings were found in the car which police hadn't yet determined were from the gun that killed him. There were no signs of robbery (with twenty-seven dollars found in his wallet), and no appearance of a struggle with a potential assailant. The bible on his lap was opened to "The Epistle to the Hebrews" from the New Testament, with his finger either deliberately placed, or accidentally pointing at Chapter 11, Verse 20 reading "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come". Investigators considered a possible murder.  

Police questioned whether this was an accidental shooting or murder, but unequivocally ruled out suicide. Investigator's found a shattered bottle not far from the victim's car, so speculated that hunters may have been target shooting and accidentally shot Rev. Charles Williams, having not seen his vehicle because of the hilly terrain. An appeal for any hunters in the area at about 3:30pm to come forward failed to generate any response.

​Deputies found a .22 caliber rifle under the front seat of the vehicle and a .38 caliber pistol in the glove compartment, which tallied with information given by his wife, who told police he owned "a couple of guns". Fragments of the bullets found in Williams car were being checked to identify the gun they belonged to, but as of writing, I have been unable to find any results of this examination. If two shots struck the left side of the victim's head (that were connected to the two casings found in the vehicle), an accidental shooting because of errant shots aimed at a bottle, seems unlikely. Especially if the initial assessment by police of a bullet, or bullets entering from close range was correct.  

Had Rev. Charles Williams parked up in this remote area and was approached by somebody with murder on their mind, had he traveled to this area of Canyon Crest Drive with his eventual murderer in the passenger seat, or was this some freak accident from a stray bullet or two fired from the wilderness? Was his finger purposefully placed on this particular section of the bible to send a sinister message to police, or was he simply reading the bible when shot and his finger fell there accidentally?

The story of his hand being guided over a holy book by a murderer wanting to convey a biblical message to law enforcement, or the victim wanting to impart a final declaration before death, certainly makes for a more intriguing and compelling mystery, bearing in mind police briefly explored the possibility that the "cryptic" Zodiac Killer may have been involved. However, this may be a willingness on the part of investigators to fashion a layer of intrigue into an unexplained death where it isn't required. An eagerness to magnify an already puzzling mystery into divine murder through the guidance of a dead man's finger, so to speak.

Taking into account we have two .32 caliber shell casings in the car that were seemingly different to the two weapons owned by Rev. Charles Williams (according to newspaper reports), and early reports mentioned there may have been two shots to the left side of his head at close range, this is inconsistent with a murderer sitting in the passenger seat of the victim's car. On first look, it appears that Rev. Charles Williams was shot through the driver side window (based on the picture of a left hand drive in the top image).

​The location of his death is about a 6 to 10 minute drive from his last known location on Twelfth Street at 2:55pm (depending where on 12th Street he was last seen), so if he traveled directly to the remote location on Canyon Crest Drive, he would have likely been sitting in his vehicle for approximately 25 to 29 minutes before he was found dead by the four airmen. Detectives stated they had no particular reason to think that Zodiac was involved, but the above newspaper report from the Riverside Daily Enterprise on March 16th 1971 was published only three days after the Zodiac Killer's Los Angeles letter claiming more "riverside activity". 

There is little reason to forge a Zodiac connection to the murder of Rev. Charles Williams other than location. If the killer had deliberately placed the finger of the murder victim over the biblical passage of "things to come", a weak link could be created to the April 30th 1967 Bates' letters where the author wrote "there will be more", and the phrase "she went to the slaughter like a lamb" derived from Isaiah 53:7 and typed into the Confession letter on November 29th 1966. But this is undeniably stretching the bounds of reality and could never be proven without identifying the murderer, if indeed this was a wilful and deliberate act.

Having long claimed the murders of Kathie Snoozy (15) and Debra Furlong (14), brutally stabbed in San Jose on August 3rd 1969, the Zodiac Killer had clearly been exposed as a fraud when their real killer, Karl Francis Werner, was interviewed and questioned about the murders of Kathy Bilek, Kathie Snoozy​ and Debra Furlong at the end of April 1971. The Zodiac Killer's response was immediate, mailing the 148 character cipher and letter shortly afterwards, followed by the Monticello card on July 13th 1971. The Zodiac Killer was determined not to relinquish the two victims he had claimed in his running total on November 8th 1969, by compounding matters, and adding Kathy Bilek to his list on July 13th 1971. Karl Francis Werner, in his eyes, had stolen two of his victims, so he was going to steal back all three for his afterlife and vicariously live through the memories of the three young girls.
​
Upset with law enforcement and Werner, who the Zodiac Killer probably viewed with disdain, needed to reclaim the victims and threaten further action in the coming days or weeks. The 148 character cipher and letter laid bare his intentions by threatening to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over". This was straight from the playbook of Theodore Edward Gein, who roamed the graveyards of Plainfield, Wisconsin looking to exhume body parts to fashion grisly souvenirs from the skin and bones. His mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (who died on December 29th 1945), was a domineering woman with an intense hatred for females, but whose death from a stroke left Edward Gein devastated and alone in the farmhouse. Soon after his mother's death, Gein began to create a "woman suit" from pieces of skin so that "he could become his mother and literally crawl into her skin". It appeared as though Edward Gein wanted to feel close to his dead mother and become the embodiment of her once life.     

Edward Gein's dark thoughts fashioned the idea behind the movie Psycho (1960), produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Norman Bates, the lead character played by Perkins, had previously killed his mother, Norma, and her lover out of jealousy ten years earlier. For many years, Norma and Norman had lived together in the fictional small town of Fairvale, California "as if there is no one else in the world". Norma raises her son Norman with cruelty and forbids him to have a life away from her, and teaches him that sexual intercourse is sinful and that all women (except herself) are whores.

When Norman was a teenager, his mother met Joe Considine and planned to marry, who then convinces Norma to open a motel. Norman grows furiously jealous, believing that Norma has abandoned him for her fiancé, and murders them both with strychnine. He then stages it like murder-suicide, making it look as if Norma had killed Considine and then herself. Unable to bear the loss of his mother, Norman stole Norma's corpse and mummified it in the fruit cellar, and spoke to it as if his mother were still alive. He also spoke to himself in her voice and frequently dressed in her clothes. Norman Bates has effectively become his mother in order to escape the awareness of her death and the guilt of having murdered her". Wikipedia. 

​It is plain to see the similarities between Norman Bates and Edward Gein, both of whom were controlled by a domineering mother with a hatred for other females, whose male fantasies centered on their mothers living on after death. The following newspaper clipping from the Chicago Daily News on November 20th 1957 describes a mother who often told Edward Gein and his brother to "Watch out for women. They are evil". 

When you consider the specificity of the Zodiac Killer's statement to "skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and mail "a patch of human skin if there is some left over", shortly after the arrest of Karl Francis Werner, it should become obvious that the Bay Area murderer was condescendingly referring to Kathie Snoozy (15), Debra Furlong (14) and Kathy Bilek (18) as the three kids he wanted to make a skin suit from. 

​Kathy Bilek was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Debra Furlong in the Oak Wood Cemetery in Santa Cruz, and Kathie Snoozy in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The pasted phrase of "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April" in the Zodiac Killer's Monticello card on July 13th 1971, was referencing the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971 in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, not far from the Monticello neighborhood where Kathie Snoozy was buried. The Zodiac Killer was tying both victims together under the banner of one postcard - and by extension - the murder of Debra Furlong. 

Any doubts that this was the case were expelled on September 18th 1973, when somebody removed a tombstone from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose and placed it in front of the cemetery gate. The tombstone had the pseudonym "Zodiac" written on it in crayon. In the whole of California (and America) we have only one instance of a tombstone being removed from a cemetery with the pseudonym "Zodiac" being written on it - and it just happened to be from the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose where Kathie Snoozy was buried. It's pretty obvious this deed was done by the Zodiac Killer, especially when you consider that the contents of the Monticello card were not publicly known on September 18th 1973. This was a Zodiac Killer who threatened to dig up the bodies of the three girls, who later visited the gravesite of Kathie Snoozy. This connection should have been made in 1973.

Fast forward to January 19th 1978, three months before the April 24th 1978 "I am back with you" letter from the Zodiac Killer. A six-page letter was mailed to Mayor Tom Bradley in Los Angeles during the search for the Hillside Strangler. Its author has never been identified, but it carried the dominant word of "PLEASE" followed by two exclamation marks, not dissimilar to the dominant word "PLEASE" on the Zodiac Killer's "Channel Nine" letter on May 2nd 1978, also mailed from Los Angeles. The Channel Nine letter read "PLEASE hold the applause", followed by one exclamation mark. Both letters ultimately had a connection to Los Angeles Chief Daryl F. Gates.

I wondered whether the Zodiac Killer may have been responsible for this six-page letter, because we know of the Zodiac Killer's propensity to write multi-paged letters, often interjecting himself into murder investigations he had no involvement in. But it was something else in the January 19th 1978 letter that struck a chord. It reminded me of the movie "Psycho", based loosely on the story of Edward Theodore Gein. The letter told of a man who had killed his mother, who couldn't get her out of his head. A woman who told him to "kill those bad and evil ladys", just like the mother of Edward Gein, who told her sons to "Watch out for women. They are evil". The author of the January 19th 1978 letter claimed that his mother made his "head hurt", not unlike the character of Norman Bates in the movie "Psycho". We know that the Zodiac Killer referenced the movies and its award ceremonies throughout his communications, so did the film "Psycho" bridge the gap from 1971 to 1978 in the musings of one mind. Below is page one of the January 19th 1978 correspondence. 

The Zodiac Killer rode in the front of Paul Stine's cab is once again doing the rounds, despite the evidence pointing completely the opposite way. This claim was instigated by individuals who believed there was some sort of connection between their suspect and Paul Stine. The police report below clearly demonstrates that the police believed the latent prints that showed traces of blood were from the killer. If the police believed the prints from the outside right front door handle were from the killer, they must have shown traces of blood. Which is why they were circled with a red pen. Traces of blood were present on the dividing panel between the outside driver side door and left rear passenger door, and on the outside front passenger door handle. This means that the Zodiac touched both of these surfaces with bloody hands. 

A killer riding in the back of the taxicab upon shooting Paul Stine would have received some back spatter to his fingers. Even if he was wearing gloves, blood would have deposited onto the fingers of the gloves. Still holding the gun in say his right hand, he opens the right rear passenger door with his left hand (gloved or not) and exits the rear passenger door, pushing it shut with his left hand, arm, body or leg. The Zodiac Killer then puts the gun away and naturally opens the front right passenger door with his right hand, depositing blood from his hands or gloves onto the outside door handle. This is how blood got onto the outside front passenger door handle.

A killer riding in the front seat from the outset would have opened the front passenger door with clean hands (gloved or not). Therefore no blood would have been deposited on the door handle when the Zodiac Killer entered the taxicab. After shooting Paul Stine at the end of the journey and removing a section of Paul Stine's shirt, the Zodiac Killer would now have blood on both hands, whether wearing gloves or not.

He now has to use the inner front passenger door handle to exit the taxicab, thereby depositing blood onto the handle. But there is no mention of blood being found on the inner handle. If he used a handkerchief over bare hands to avoid putting bloody fingerprints on the inner door handle (which he wouldn't have done if he was wearing gloves), then how would he have deposited bloody fingerprints to the outside door handle when supposedly wiping it down using a handkerchief over his fingers? In wiping away his fingerprints deposited when entering the front passenger door, we would have to believe he accidentally deposited bloody fingerprints in a wiping motion through a handkerchief as he departed.. It simply isn't realistic.

​However, if he had deposited bloody prints on the front passenger door handle when exiting the rear of the taxicab and entering the front, it is possible that when he finally exited the taxicab for the final time, he attempted to wipe the outside front passenger door handle but inadvertently left a small print behind (or he didn't wipe it down at all). If gloves were used throughout (which is unlikely), there was never any need for a front passenger Zodiac Killer to touch the outside front door handle when he exited.. You would just push the door shut. Also, a back seat passenger entering the front of the taxicab would have no need to close the front passenger door when removing a section of Paul Stine's shirt, and therefore wouldn't need to touch the inner passenger door handle to leave the taxicab, which is why no traces of blood were mentioned as being present on the inner handle. There is a scenario for a back seat passenger to leave bloody prints on the outside front passenger door handle, whether he wiped it down later or not. For a front seat passenger, there were two options. [1] Leave the taxicab and simply push the door shut, thereby leaving no blood on the outer handle, or [2] Place a handkerchief over your fingers and hand and wipe the outer handle to remove the bloodless prints deposited when entering the taxicab. Either way, recognizable fingerprints deposited with a bloody hand is impossible in the first scenario, and extremely unlikely in the second.

A female student at Pacific Union College reported seeing Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard traveling south shortly after 5:15pm as she and a male companion were parked on Knoxville Road, approximately one mile south of the Lake Berryessa Marina. The Lake Berryessa Marina at 5800 Knoxville Road is about 1.4 kilometres northwest of the Dr. Rayfield sighting at around 6:30pm. Therefore, if the female student was parked up one mile south of this location, she was parked up about half a mile north of where Bryan Hartnell's Karmann Ghia was eventually found. Bryan Hartnett and Cecelia Shepard were about one minute away from parking up.

​The Pacific Union College student described Bryan Hartnett and Cecelia Shepard passing them shortly after 5:15pm, so I am going to attribute 10 minutes to this description of "shortly after" (you can adjust all future times by less or more depending how you interpret "shortly"). This would have our victims being spotted about 5:25pm. If we then add one minute for Bryan Hartnett and Cecelia Shepard to reach their destination, and about 9 minutes for them to gather their belongings and reach the shores of Lake Berryessa, we have them lying down on their blanket at approximately 5:35pm. 

In a revised timeline we had the Zodiac Killer finishing his attack and heading up the hillside at about 5:58pm. Bryan Hartnell stated that from the first time they spotted the man by the tree to the time he left, was a duration of 15 minutes by his estimation. That means the Zodiac Killer was hiding behind the tree at about 5:43pm. If he had spotted Bryan Hartnell's Karmann Ghia before heading down the hillside, the Zodiac Killer would have initially set eyes on their vehicle at least 6 or 7 minutes before he reached the tree. Going on the lower estimate, the Zodiac Killer would have first spotted the Karmann Ghia at 5:37pm, eleven minutes after Bryan Hartnell parked his vehicle at 5:26pm. Adjusting the definition of "shortly after" could easily alter this analysis ten minutes either way. For example, if "shortly after" was 20 minutes, it's possible the Zodiac Killer could have been trailing Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard in his vehicle as they arrived. However, if the Zodiac Killer was spotted by Dr. Rayfield & Son at approximately 6:30pm walking north at Smittle Creek, then this possibility evaporates.

A REVISED TIMELINE AT LAKE BERRYESSA

Zodiac researcher Jibberjabber has made an extremely good case that Ronald Henry Fong (39) (in his boat) heard the cries of Bryan Hartnell closer to 6pm, meaning that the attack on the young couple was likely just shy of the hour. In the statement of Ronald Fong the first time recorded for the cries for help was 6:00pm, corrected to 6:15pm. Bryan Hartnell stated that after the attack Ronald Fong had "stayed there watching us for about 15 minutes", with Ronald Fong stating that he didn't leave immediately because he thought it was a joke. So this may explain why we have the two times of 6:00 and 6:15pm in the report (see below).

If the Zodiac Killer had left the crime scene at say 5:58pm, it would have taken him about 7 minutes to walk 510 yards uphill to the 1956 White Karmann Ghia of Bryan Hartnell. Two minutes to write the message on the car door and remove/conceal his costume, has the Zodiac Killer signing 6:30 at approximately 6:07pm. The journey time walking north from the car of Bryan Hartnell to Smittle Creek Day Use Area (5600 Knoxville Road) is 0.8 miles. Police noted that this was the location of the Dr. Rayfield & Son sighting of a man walking north across the hillside.  Across less than favorable terrain, this journey time would have taken the Zodiac Killer approximately 25 to 30 minutes. This means that the Zodiac Killer would be passing Smittle Creek at about 6:32 to 6:37pm.

​In his submission to police "Dr Rayfield stated that about 6:30 pm the previous evening (September 27th), he and his son had parked their car north of Park Headquarters in the general area of the crime scene. They stated they went down towards the beach area when David noticed a white male adult subject walking in the area, described as about 5'10", heavy build, wearing dark trousers, a dark shirt with red in it, long sleeves". They had parked their vehicle at 6:30pm, but by the time they had got their belongings from the car, traveled down towards the beach and spotted the "subject at a distance of about 100 yards", it was likely closer to 6:32 to 6:35pm. The exact time the Zodiac Killer would have passed this area from the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia​.

The police report stated that "at 3:30 pm she and her two girlfriends parked their vehicle at a location two miles north of the A & W Root Beer stand on Knoxville Road". These were the three women from Pacific Union College who noticed the suspicious voyeur on the hillside. This location, 2 miles north of the A & W Root Beer stand at 5100 Knoxville Road, is at Smittle Creek. The same location that Dr. Rayfield & Son would notice the male subject 3 hours later. Two unusual occurrences, either side of a brutal stabbing, in which two independent sets of eyewitnesses at the same location, felt the need to report to police what they saw that day. An image of the man observed by the three women appeared in the newspapers.    

One of these girls described the man as having "straight dark hair neatly combed". Looking at the hairstyle in the image on the left, the front of the hair is shown being combed back. This hair only has to be a few inches long, so that when the executioner's hood is pulled over the head in preparation for the attack, the hair at the front is displaced and dragged forward. This may have been the dark, greasy hair spotted by the eyelets of the hood by Bryan Hartnell. 

This could suggest that the Zodiac Killer was stalking the hillsides of Lake Berryessa for upwards of 3 hours looking for suitable victims, just like he may have done at Lake Herman Road, parking his white Chevrolet Impala in the turnout and venturing into the adjoining fields in the hours before the double shooting on December 20th 1968. A murderer prepared to diligently look for victims over a protracted period of time. At Lake Berryessa we had three incidents reported to police spanning 3:30pm to 6:30pm, within 0.8 miles of one another, of which two were at the same location of Smittle Creek. But was it the Zodiac Killer stalking the hillsides that day, with a vehicle parked slightly north of the Rayfield sighting?
Thanks again to Jibberjabber.

Murder victim Doreen Gaul (19) lived at 570 Myrtle Avenue in Albany, New York, before relocating to 1032 South Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angeles, California. Her former address on Myrtle Avenue was only 500 meters from the Albany Medical Center, that would become the target of the Zodiac Killer on August 1st 1973, when he mailed another malicious communication.

She was brutally murdered alongside James Sharp (15), their bodies found viciously stabbed and beaten in an alleyway between  Arapahoe Street and Magnolia Avenue in Los Angeles on November 21st 1969. Coinciding with her death, a typewritten note was found in her residence stating "SO YOU THINK YOU CAN FOOL THE OLD KILLER HA HA. I KNOW ALL YOUR MOVEMENTS AND THE TIME THEY ARE MADE. TIME IS SHORT, ENJOY LIFE WHILE YOU CAN. YOU ARE TO BEAUTIFUL TO LIVE AND I MUST KILL YOU. THE ZODIAC KILLER". The phrase "you are too beautiful to live" from this typed communication stood out.

Like so many of the Zodiac Killer phrases such as "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1932 and possibly "it was about time for her to die" from 1888, he wasn't averse to sourcing distant newspaper archives to generate impact in his letters. As his July 31st 1969, March 13th 1971, January 29th 1974, April 24th 1978 and May 2nd 1978 letters proved, he was quite prepared to use the movie industry as a source for inspiration. So, if the Zodiac Killer was responsible for this letter to Doreen Gaul, I decided to source newspaper archives regarding Hollywood and Los Angeles, famous for its movie industry, because this is where Doreen Gaul lived at the time of her murder. Again, I didn't have to look far. 

Born Reatha Dale Watson (born July 28th 1896), Hollywood beauty Barbara La Marr, an American film actress and screewriter who appeared in twenty-seven films between 1920 and 1926, was at 17 years of age once branded by a judge in 1914 as "you are too beautiful to live in a large city", who banished her to her home in El Centro, Los Angeles. Over the next several years, La Marr acted frequently in films, and became known to the public as "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful", after Adela Rogers St. Johns, a Hearst newspaper feature writer noticed the judge's comments. A book by Sherri Snyder was later released entitled "Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood". 

Had the Zodiac Killer (or another) likened Los Angeles resident Doreen Gaul to Hollywood actress Barbara La Marr, and taken (or remembered) this quote from yesteryear to compose his communication. Not only can Doreen Gaul be closely linked to two potential Zodiac Killer communications in Albany and Los Angeles, but the phrase "you are too beautiful to live" can now be linked to two Los Angeles women, one of whom was heavily connected to the movie industry, that the Zodiac Killer so often referenced.

​So was this phrase another purposeful addition by the Bay Area murderer? An "old killer" who delved into the newspaper archives once again.