Michael Mageau was struck by four bullets on July 5th 1969. One was removed from his left thigh during surgery by Dr. Shirai. One bullet had exited his hip and was noted on the ground by his side when responding officers arrived at the crime scene, which had likely trapped in his clothing and fell to the floor when he exited the Corvair. The remaining 2 bullets exited his jaw and right shoulder (through skin), and had struck Darlene Ferrin seated to his left.

​The first responding officer to the Blue Rock Springs parking lot shortly after 12:10am noted that it was evident Michael Mageau was in pain, with blood visibly running from his mouth and lower left leg, Officer Richard Hoffman, who immediately summoned an ambulance upon his arrival, described Michael Mageau as coherent, before asking him a series of questions and acquiring some limited information about the shooter and his vehicle, which was broadcast over the air to all police units. Sometime around 12:25am an ambulance arrived, extricated Darlene Ferrin from the Corvair - and along with Michael Mageau - departed the crime scene with both victims around 12:30am and headed to Kaiser Foundation Hospital at 2600 Alameda Street in Vallejo, where Darlene Ferrin was pronounced dead upon arrival at 12:38am. Officer Richard Hoffman was also present, having traveled with both victims.  

Michael Mageau was initially attended to by Dr. Jantzen, before he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit in critical condition. However, during this time he was still being questioned regarding the attack at Blue Rock Springs, recalling that "A white man drove up in a car, got out, walked up to the car, shined a flashlight inside and started shooting. Man was older than me, window was down. After (he) stop shooting I got out of car. I tried to get the people to come over but they drove off. After finally ten minutes the policeman came". Michael Mageau would have arrived at the Intensive Care Unit at about 12:45am. Despite Michael being described as critical, he was extremely fortunate that no major organs were struck, and his femoral and popliteal arteries in his legs were not severed. Otherwise, he could have been dead within minutes. This means that Michael Mageau was lucid and conscious for at least 45 minutes after the shooting. When the Zodiac Killer described these events in the parking lot in his letter to the San Francisco Examiner newspaper on August 4th 1969, he wrote "When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time, thus spoiling my aim. He ended up on the back seat then the floor in back thrashing out very violently with his legs; that's how I shot him in the knee". 

The two dynamic verbs used by Zodiac to describe Michael Mageau's actions immediately prior to him leaving the crime scene, were "leaped" and "thrashing". In fact, the Zodiac Killer noted that Michael Mageau was "thrashing about very violently" when he shot him in the back seat of the Corvair. Not the descriptors of a young man teetering on the edge of death, despite the braggadocio exhibited by the Zodiac Killer when making the payphone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover, in which he claimed a double murder.

​"Thrashing about very violently" as Zodiac shot him in the knee does not equate to somebody who is dead. Far from it. Michael Mageau was answering questions up to 45 minutes later. This is why it makes no sense that the Zodiac Killer would drive away from Blue Rock Springs and park his vehicle on the street in the local area for close to 40 minutes, before making the payphone call from the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolomne Streets (with his car in tow). A limited description of him and his vehicle was broadcast to all police units shortly after Officer Richard Hoffman arrived at the crime scene (about 12:15am). The Zodiac Killer, in his vehicle, in possession of the gun and possibly stained with blood from leaning into the Corvair, is extremely unlikely to have sat in his parked car for nigh on 40 minutes, before driving to a payphone just 819 meters (by crow) from the Vallejo Police Department.   

Zodiac researchers will claim that the Zodiac Killer probably thought that Michael Mageau would likely die from his wounds before being discovered, so didn't worry about remaining in his vehicle for this length of time. This would have been an extremely risky and unnecessary gamble when your entire future rests upon it - and totally flies in the face of Zodiac's own words, describing Michael Mageau as very much alive when he departed the crime scene. The Zodiac Killer was a psychopath, but he was certainly no fool. A phone call made nearly 40 minutes after he left Blue Rock Springs, from a payphone that should have only taken 9 minutes to reach, strongly suggests a killer who had access to a residence within a mile radius of that payphone (quite possibly a lot closer). From which he likely walked to the payphone. There are numerous other reasons to support the idea of a killer living close to the intersection of Springs & Tuolumne. See below.
​
WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT1]    WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT2]
​WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT3]    WATCHING THE POLICE AT THE PAYPHONE

Most of the following has been covered before, but I felt it was important to take a deeper look at the Blue Rock Springs attack.

Page 7 of the police report read "On initial arrival, RO requested by radio an ambulance and an investigator at the scene & upon returning to Off. Hoffmann RO went to assistance of subject on ground, as Off. Hoffman was with a subject that was sitting on left front seat behind wheel that was also injured. This subject later identified as Darlene E. Ferrin, WF, 19, of 864 Beechwood. On preliminary examination of Mageau, it was apparent that he had been shot a number of times, he had blood all over his face & blood coming from his mouth as well as his left leg with blood. RO said it was necessary to question subject inspite of the fact the subject was in great pain. Subject was coherent & RO asked him, "do you know who shot you?" & he replied "no". RO then asked Mageau to give some type of description & he replied that he can't. RO then asked a series of questions & was told by Mageau that the responsible was a white male, young, heavy set by himself & that he was in a brown vehicle".  

Shortly after responding officers arrived at the Blue Rock Springs parking lot they had a description of the perpetrator and the vehicle he was driving, given to them by a badly injured but "coherent" Michael Mageau. The Zodiac Killer must have known that there was a significant probability these details would be broadcast to all units in the immediacy after the crime was discovered. Despite his braggadocious nature claiming a "double murder" over the phone to Nancy Slover at 12:40am, he must have known that Michael Mageau was very much alive when he left the parking lot 38 minutes earlier. He even admitted as much in his August 4th 1969 letter, stating "The window was rolled down all ready. The boy was origionaly sitting in the front seat when I began fireing. When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time, thus spoiling my aim. He ended up on the back seat then the floor in back thashing out very violently with his legs; that's how I shot him in the knee".   

The Zodiac Killer knew that Michael Mageau was thrashing about very violently before he shot him in the knee - and he knew that a shot to the knee was not (in isolation) a terminal injury. So, it's with little doubt the Zodiac Killer left the parking lot that morning (12:02am) with the acute awareness that one of his victims was probably still alive and had the capability of giving details about him to police. The killer had spent upwards of two minutes in close proximity to Darlene Ferrin's Corvair and had fired off nine shots, therefore it's highly unlikely, knowing a victim may have survived, that he would casually drive around Vallejo (or park somewhere on the street) for approximately 40 minutes, before making a phone call at the Springs & Tuoloumne intersection in close proximity to the police station. Michael Mageau also reported to police that the assailant's vehicle had a California license plate. Is the Zodiac Killer really going to park himself and his vehicle only 833 feet from the police station, 40 minutes after a double shooting, with Michael Mageau likely still alive, who could have given police his license plate number? The Zodiac Killer was many things, but believe me, I sincerely doubt he was this stupid.  

The August 4th 1969 letter was carefully crafted to give police the impression he was still driving his vehicle. The Zodiac Killer stated "When I hung the phone up the damn X@ thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". The addition of "my car" appears completely superfluous to this section of text, so was probably placed there to drive home the notion of him still being in his vehicle at the payphone, when in fact "drive home" is exactly what he did after leaving Blue Rock Springs.  ​

The Zodiac Killer was all about "proof" up to November 9th 1969. He gave us extensive details about his first two crimes on July 31st 1969, wrote on the car door of Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa on September 27th 1969, mailed in a piece of a taxicab driver's shirt on October 13th 1969, and made two phone calls within an hour of the second and third attack. His words were testament to this, because when Vallejo Police Chief Jack Stiltz "urged the writer to send more letters, with more facts to prove his connections to the crimes", the Zodiac Killer immediately responded by giving more details about the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attacks. His October 13th 1969 letter stated "I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt", and his "Bus Bomb" letter on November 9th 1969 stated "To prove that I am the Zodiac, Ask the Vallejo cop about my electric gun sight which I used to start my collecting of slaves." He was fully cognisant of the fact that "proof" was required by the police for his claims to be taken seriously.

​This was fully evident in the first part of his August 4th 1969 letter, when he was in the infancy of trying to prove he wasn't a liar. The letter described the car door closed and the window of the Corvair down at Blue Rock Springs when he first approached the vehicle, described the area his first shot was delivered to the body of Michael Mageau, and described (albeit slightly wrong) where he shot Mageau in the back seat. It would have made little sense to provide all these details on July 31st 1969 and August 4tth 1969, attempting to prove to police he was the responsible, to then blatantly lie about seeing a black man talking to police on July 5th 1969.

​He stated "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed. I was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking by". If the police had not spoken to a "negro male" on July 5th 1969, then this would have been fairly obvious to them, and would have hurt Zodiac's previous claims. It is now clear that this "negro male" was not an invention by the Zodiac Killer to alibi his car being present at the payphone, it was a detailed description of a "negro male" offered by the writer of the letter, so that when police cross-checked with the officer who responded to the payphone that morning, the description given by the Zodiac Killer matched with that of the officer. He gave a detailed description of the black man's age and clothing to "prove" he was near the payphone when the officer responded from Blue Rock Springs.
​
​The section of police report below describes a responding officer (RO) traveling from the crime scene to the payphone after being informed that the perpetrator had called police (12:40am). If the responding officer took 9 minutes to arrive at the payphone, a traced call at approximately 12:41am, would mean that the Zodiac Killer observed the interaction between the "negro male" and officer at about 12:50am. Long after he had finished talking to police dispatcher, Nancy Slover. The location of the payphone was the only logical place the Zodiac Killer could have seen police talking to anyone. Had the responding officer's superiors confirmed his interaction with "a negro about 40-45, rather shabbly dressed" at the payphone, it would have added credence to Zosiac's claims that the black man also saw his "brown car". A vehicle that was likely never at the payphone, because the Zodiac Killer had gone home after the attack, separated himself from his vehicle, changed his clothes, ditched his weapon, and walked back to the payphone to deliver his sinister message to Nancy Slover. If he was unlikely to be at the payphone at 12:40am with his vehicle, then he most certainly wouldn't have been at the payphone in his vehicle at 12:50am or beyond. Fifty minutes after a shooting that he couldn't have been certain both victims were dead.

It appears that when the Zodiac Killer left the payphone at around 12:41am, he became aware that its location was going to be traced (how much the black man played in this is unknown), so he could easily have remained close by in the shadows (or viewed proceedings from a residence) to later recount in his letter the policeman by the payphone. This is probably the meaning behind his August 4th 1969 letter when he wrote "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed".

​If the "negro male" had passed him by at approximately 12:40am when he made the phone call to Nancy Slover, then it makes sense that this was the same man who spoke with police a short time later. Had police verified this by talking to the responding officer who arrived at the payphone, it would explain why the Zodiac Killer added his car into the equation. Because without a car - calling police from a payphone 38 minutes after the double shooting, from a location only 9 minutes from the crime scene, would have focused investigators attention to residences in close proximity to that payphone. Watching the police at the payphone at least 9 minutes after he finished the call with Nancy Slover, would have raised even more eyebrows. That is why the Zodiac Killer may have made special emphasis of his car and its color on August 4th 1969. 

If you are one of the people who doesn't believe the Zodiac Killer lived by the payphone (or in Vallejo), then you have to accept that the Zodiac Killer, who last described Michael Mageau thrashing around on the back seat and clearly not dead, just decided to hover around Vallejo for 38 minutes at the grave risk of capture. The police report on page 7 stated that police got the description of the shooter and his vehicle from Mageau just after they arrived (circa 12:20am) and broadcasted these details to all units. A Zodiac Killer driving around aimlessly in Vallejo (or parked up) was obviously never detected by police between 12:20am and 12:40am.. So had he concealed his vehicle at his residence to mitigate this risk? The idea that he drove out of Vallejo, only to return to the danger zone to make the phone call, also makes little sense. We have to accept, that in Zodiac's own words, Michael Mageau was last described as thrashing about on the back seat of the Corvair, just before he drove away from the crime scene. Knowing this was the case, why on earth would he choose to remain in his vehicle for the next 38 minutes and travel such a limited distance?     

Kim Rossmo stated: ​​"The San Francisco murder differs significantly from the Zodiac's other crimes. Up to this point he was hunting in locations that had a good probability of containing his desired victims. Target selection was a function of area, not of an individual. However, it is unlikely the Zodiac was successful in all his searches; serial killers typically engage in extensive hunting activities, and for every attack there are many unsuccessful search attempts".

This may have been the case with the white Chevrolet Impala spotted by Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser when they passed the gate #10 turnout at 9pm on their way to the Marshall Ranch to hunt raccoons in the area of the Benicia Pumping Station. Later, spotted by sheepherder Bingo Wesner at 10pm as he walked the field tending his sheep near the turnout. Or he noticed the Chevrolet Impala when driving into Gate #10 to check his sheep. The question has always been: was this the vehicle of the Zodiac Killer, armed with a sighting attachment to his gun or rifle? Shooting kids in or by a vehicle, aided by headlights, doesn't really necessitate the use of a pencil flaslight. However, if his intention that night was to park in the turnout by the pumping station and head off into the dark fields to hunt potential victims connected to the businesses and ranches in that area, a sighting implement may have been much more beneficial. 

​On at least two occasions (possibly more), the Chevrolet Impala was observed empty over a minimum of one hour. It was observed by Robert Connelly, Frank Gasser and George "Bingo" Wesner at 9pm and 10pm, parked facing the gate on an extremely cold night in December. What purpose could the owner of this vehicle have for being in this area over this protracted length of time? Undoubtedly, police should have interviewed local ranches and businesses in the area of that turnout to see whether anybody had any late night dealings with somebody who owned a white 1959 or 1960 Chevrolet Impala. To this day, we have had no confirmation that this vehicle has been cleared from the investigation.

The Zodiac Killer could have parked his Chevrolet in the turnout sometime before 9pm and ventured into the area by the pumping station to search for victims, but was later disturbed by the arrival of Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser, armed with guns and dogs. He may have thought it wise to temporarily vacate the area and return to his vehicle. Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser reported that they "treed either a cat or raccoon in the area of the Dotta Ranch. While they were there they saw some sort of activity up there, all the lights were on, but they were a little distance away". The Zodiac Killer may have got back into his vehicle and cruised around the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs areas looking for alternative victims. The "extensive hunting activities" described by Kim Rossmo. Failing to find any victims he reverts back to his original plan and heads back to the gate #10 turnout, where he may have "encouraged" the decision by William Crow and his girlfriend to relinquish the turnout (Crow in a later account described the car that chased him as a four-door light-colored Chevy). The alternative is that Zodiac arrived after the William Crow incident. Parking back up sometime before 10pm, he once again ventures back into the field beyond the gate to resume his hunt. While he is scouting the area by the pumping station, Bingo Wesner notices his vehicle at 10pm in the turnout while walking the field tending his sheep. After seeing the vehicle has no occupants he resumes his duties. 

​Meanwhile, the Zodiac Killer has noticed Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser are still in the area, so once again returns to his vehicle at about 10:30pm. Helen Axe has previously passed the turnout heading to Benicia and possibly notices the Chevrolet facing the gate at 10:15pm, but just before she returns up the road at 10:30pm, the Zodiac Killer has changed the posiition of the Chevrolet in the process of leaving the turnout. This shift in position is noted by Helen Axe. The Zodiac Killer leaves the turnout once again, but is determined to begin collecting his slaves for the afterlife.

​After the Zodiac Killer leaves the turnout, Bingo Wesner, who has now finished tending his sheep, leaves through the vacant turnout sometime after 10:30pm. Approximately 45 minutes after Zodiac had left the turnout, he returns for a third time at about 11:15pm and notices the Faraday Ramber in the turnout. The rest is history. Later, he would recall in his August 4th 1969 letter, that "All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights". There may have been no need to use the "gun sights" because these murders were not his original plan.

There was some conflict in the statement of Helen Axe according to police, who noted that when Miss Axe first contacted them, she described a Rambler backed into the gate, and then changed her story to a Rambler facing the gate before turning around. Ray Grant may have a good case for arguing that Helen Axe saw the Chevrolet Impala, who ultimately convinced herself she had seen the Faraday Rambler after the story of the murders broke in the newspaper. The shifting position of a Chevrolet facing the gate, to turning around, would effectively describe a Zodiac Killer returning from his excursion into the field at approximately 10:30pm. Her first sighting of a vehicle at 10:15pm facing into the gate would have been only 15 minutes after the sighting of an unoccupied Chevrolet in the turnout by Bingo Wesner, facing into the gate. For her sighting to be the Faraday Rambler, the owner of the Chevrolet facing the gate, would have had to return to the vehicle shortly after 10pm, leave the turnout, to be replaced by the Faraday Rambler minutes later, which also parked facing the gate at 10:15pm. This seems less likely than it being the same Chevrolet in the turnout at 10pm, 10:15pm and 10:30pm. The final time being the Chevrolet after turning around to leave.

If this were true, we would now have a Chevrolet Impala being spotted in the gate #10 turnout from 9pm to 10:30pm, just 45 minutes before the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, by the occupant of a vehicle parked alongside their Rambler in the same turnout. It's quite amazing what can happen in one turnout over a 2 hour and 15 minute period. So is it likely that these were separate and coincidental events, or the dogged determination of a killer searching for his first victims before Christmas?

There is also the possibility that Helen Axe mistook the color of the vehicle she observed, because the factory color of some Chevrolet Impala's made in 1959 and 1960, were painted in ermine white, which in dark and subdued lighting can appear light brown. The very color that Michael Mageau described as the color of Zodiac's car on July 4th/5th 1969, viewed in less than favorable light. The reason that Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser described the vehicle as white, was that Frank Gasser, while hunting that night, later revealed he had approached the Chevrolet Impala and shone a flaslight at it (noticing it was unoccupied). Bingo Wesner, tending his sheep at night, also noticed the Chevrolet while walking in the field. Bingo Wesner absolutely required visibility to do his job, so it is quite reasonable to conclude he was in possession of a flashlight too. ​The following section is from a previous article, suggesting that there is a possibility Zodiac used the same vehicle during his second attack

Shortly before midnight on July 4th 1969, Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin pulled into the parking lot at Blue Rock Springs and sat there talking for a while. A vehicle, that most people believe was Zodiac, came from the direction of Springs Road according to Michael Mageau, entered the parking lot and parked alongside the left side of their Corvair for about one minute, about 6 to 8 feet away. The vehicle, that Michael thought was driven by a single male, then left the parking lot and headed back towards Springs Road. He estimated that 5 minutes later the vehicle returned from that direction, once again pulled into the parking lot, but this time positioned itself to the rear of Darlene Ferrin's Corvair.

After exiting his vehicle the Zodiac Killer approached the Corvair and began shooting the couple. Subsequent to the attack (at about 12:02am on July 5th 1969) he got back in his vehicle and then drove away towards Springs Road for a second time. Michael Mageau was able to recall the assailant's vehcle had a California license plate. The Zodiac Killer, without knowing the automobile proficiency of the couple in the Corvair, especially after parking his vehicle alongside theirs for about one minute - and entering and exiting the parking lot twice - must have been aware that there was a reasonable possibility the couple had recognised the make and color of his vehicle. He even drove away from the crime scene slowly according to his story.

The Zodiac Killer, if he was familiar with Blue Rock Springs, also knew that there was a reasonable possibility that the nine shots he fired that morning may have been heard by the caretaker and/or residents of the house approximately 800 feet from the parking lot. George Bryant stated that "he could hear laughing and a few firecrackers being set off. And at approximately midnight he heard what appeared to be a gunshot. This was much louder than any of the firecrackers. A short time later he heard what appeared to be another gunshot. After another short pause he heard rapid fire of what appeared to be gunshots. He then heard a car take off".

The Zodiac Killer's vehicle had been viewed by Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin for at least 2 minutes that night/ morning, and he had fired off 9 shots in total. If he had planned to make a phone call that morning, the obvious choice was to do this immediately before police were alerted and his vehicle description was sent out over the airwaves throughout Vallejo. But wait I hear you say; Zodiac probably thought the couple were dead. After all, his phone call to Nancy Slover stated ​"I want to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east...... On Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find the kids in a brown car". This gives the impression that he thought he had killed two people - but this claim was bullshit - and he knew there was a distinct possibility he had only killed one person that morning.​  

​He knew this because he gave himself away on August 4th 1969 when he sent a letter to the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. In it he wrote "The boy was origionaly sitting in the front seat when I began fireing. When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time, thus spoiling my aim. He ended up on the back seat then the floor in back thashing out very violently with his legs; that's how I shot him in the knee. I did not leave the cene of the killing with squealling tires + raceing engine as described in the Vallejo paper. I drove away quite slowly so as not to draw attention to my car". 

Michael Mageau was last described by Zodiac as thrashing around violently in the back seat when he shot him in the knee. The Zodiac Killer must have known that a knee shot was not a terminal injury, knew that there was a strong possibility that Michael Mageau was still alive when he left the parking lot at Blue Rock Springs, knew that Michael Mageau had the ability to have seen his vehicle for at least two minutes, knew there was a possibility his 9 shots were heard in the vicinity of Blue Rock Springs, and understood that the crime scene may have been discovered fairly quickly,

​Understanding all this and knowing the make and color of his vehicle could be all over the Vallejo airwaves fairly quickly, is it reasonable to conclude he drove around Vallejo for approximately 40 minutes, before parking his vehicle adjacent to a payphone, only 830 meters from the Vallejo Police Department? He also leaned into the Corvair to target Michael Mageau in the back seat, leaving two spent casings on the rear floorboard of the vehicle, which had the potential to transfer blood to his shirt from the passenger seat.

Taking all these circumstances into account, it is far more reasonable to conclude he drove home, concealed his vehicle, ditched the smoking gun, changed his clothes, and then headed to the payphone on foot to make the call. This would explain why the phone call to Nancy Slover was logged at 12:40am, when the journey time to the payphone from the murder scene was only 9 minutes. If the Zodiac Killer had made these obvious assumptions described above, it would have been reckless to have been driving around or parked up on the streets of Vallejo for approximately 40 minutes after the attack. He would have been right to conclude this, because a limited description of him and his vehicle was given to officers by Michael Mageau at the crime scene, who broadcasted this information over the airwaves. But the Zodiac Killer couldn't have been sure how limited this description would be. He knew his face was shielded by the glare of the flashlight, but his vehicle was afforded no such protection.          

​In his August 4th 1969 letter the Zodiac was giving police details about the Blue Rock Springs crime scene to prove he was the killer. He immediately jumped into a detailed description of a "man who told police that my car was brown (and) was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed". This description could have easily been verified by police had the Zodiac been telling the truth, so it would have been pretty pointless the Zodiac Killer giving this information had it not been true. But if the Zodiac Killer saw police talking to a negro male, then it was likely by the payphone that Zodiac had earlier claimed he was walking by. Which Zodiac described by stating "I was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking by. When I hung the phone up the damn X@ thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". 

We know that after the payphone call was traced, a responding officer was sent from Blue Rock Springs to the payphone to secure it for fingerprint testing, so it is logical to conclude that this is where the Zodiac saw police talking to the black man. If so, then the Zodiac Killer stil had eyes on that payphone at least 10 minutes after his call to Nancy Slover. Because if the payphone call was traced as early as 12:41am, it would have taken the responding officer from Blue Rock Springs about 9 minutes to reach that payphone, at approximately 12:50am. The longer the trace took, the longer the Zodiac Killer was hanging around the vicinity of that payphone. If the phone call was traced at 12:47am, the responding officer would arrive at the payphone at about 12:56am.

​The police may have suspected that a payphone call at 12:40am from Sptings & Tuolumne, when its journey time from the crime scene was only 9 minutes, opened up the possibility the Zodiac Killer could have lived nearby. The Zodiac Killer must also have realized this possibility, so he attributed the presence of his vehicle to the negro male, who Zodiac claimed saw it while walking by the payphone at 12:40am, and who at 12:50am (or later), Zodiac claimed he believed, had given the color of his vehicle to the police. By adding in the color of his vehicle as brown into his August 4th 1969 letter, the Zodiac can mischievously corroborate the testimony of Mageau, when in fact, it was an ermine white Chevrolet Impala.  Even if the police were not told by the negro male he had noticed the vehicle of the man in the payphone, the accuracy of the negro male's description by Zodiac (if true), would have added validity to the Zodiac Killer's claims his vehicle was present. Another reason why the Zodiac had to ensure his description of the black male was accurate, was because if this information couldn't be verified, the rest of his story loses validity. The Zodiac Killer, in his August 4th 1969 letter, was effectively telling police he was still present near that payphone when they responded to it. He was nearby, and had hung around the area after ending the call with Nancy Slover. By claiming he was still in his vehicle during and after the payphone call, he was suggesting to the police that he had the capability to travel anywhere. But everything described above, should tell you that this may very well have been a lie. His vehicle was never at that payphone (and it wasn't brown) - and the real negro male was the conduit for this deception.

On December 20th 1968 we had a Chevrolet Impala, as yet unidentified, present in the turnout on two separate occasions at 9pm and 10pm. If Helen Axe mistook the vehicle she saw and subconsciously attributed her sighting as the Faraday Rambler, then we have three sightings between 9pm and 10:30pm. When we consider what occurred about 40 to 45 minutes later, this 1959 or 1960 white Chevrolet Impala has to be strongly considered as the suspect vehicle viewed by James Owen as he passed the turnout sometime between 11:10pm and 11:15pm that night. Unfortunately, he was unable to give a satisfactory description of the vehicle parked alongside the Rambler. Had he described a Chevrolet Impala in the turnout, it could be argued that the Zodiac Killer's designs that night, bore closer resemblance to a man that thought killing people was more fun than "hunting wild game in the forest". He would have been hunting people on the hillsides of Benicia, armed with a pencil flashlight for that very purpose. What was the "activity" described by Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser at the Dotta Ranch on the south side of the lake? Was it at this point the Zodiac Killer abandoned his plans after noticing the flashlight carrying raccoon hunters in the distance?

At Presidio Heights three similar descriptions of the Zodiac Killer's clothing were given by three sets of eyewitness in a six minute window, during the time the killer left the taxicab and entered the Presidio park. But their description of his age were extremely significant. The teenagers described a man in his early forties. Officer Donald Fouke described a man between 35 and 45. The sighting of a man running into Julius Kahn playground was given an estimation of about forty. Bearing in mind the small window of time that these three descriptions were given, they have to be considered as the likeliest age of our killer. Coalescing the arguments above for Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs and Presidio Heights, there is a reasonable argument to be had, that we should prioritize our search for a man aged about 40, who drove a white 1959 or 1960 Chevrolet Impala, who lived within a one mile radius of the Springs & Tuolumne payphone in Vallejo. Such a record search in 1969 may have had a fighting chance of identifying the Zodiac Killer. But was it done?

RAY GRANT'S ROAMING CHEVROLET IMPALA
THE CONNELLY AND GASSER SIGHTING OF THE CHEVROLET IMPALA WAS 9PM
CONNELLY AND GASSER NEVER SAW WESNER
WAS THE HELEN AXE SIGHTING WRONG?

In the last three articles entitled "When The Black Man Was Walking By" [1], [2], [3], I examined the possibility that the Zodiac Killer lived near the payphone at Springs & Tuolumne and walked there (absent of his vehicle), which I will examine further here.

One reason often given why it was unlikely that the Zodiac Killer lived close to the payphone, is he would not want to draw attention to the neighborhood in which he lived. Many people argue they would opt for a payphone distant to where they lived. If the Zodiac Killer thought the police had the same mindset, then choosing a payphone close to his residence is the perfect bluff. However, when I am claiming there is a strong possibility that Zodiac lived close to the payphone, I am talking about a considerable area approximating 4 square miles. That would be one mile north, east, south and west of the payphone, and anywhere in between. The Zodiac could live one mile, or as little as 160 feet from the payphone. The image below uses a residence at the intersection of Tuolumne Street and Valle Vista Avenue as an example, which is nearly one mile from the payphone.    

A journey from the parking lot at Blue Rock Springs to this address would be 9 minutes, so if the Zodiac Killer lived here and left the crime scene at the estimated time of 12:02am, he would arrive home at about 12:11am. If he took 10 minutes to conceal/park his vehicle, change his clothes, wash his hands/arms, and hide the smoking gun, it would now be 12:21am and leave him 19 minutes to walk to the payphone and make the call to Nancy Slover (which is the journey time on foot shown by Google maps).

Obviously, a car journey from Blue Rock Springs to different addresses within the red square will marginally affect the available time somebody has remaining to spend at home and walk to the payphone, so the area highlighted above must be viewed as a rough guide, representing an approximate area of 4 square miles. We are not talking about a small area to search, but it's a lot better than placing a dragnet over the entire Bay Area or northern California to identify the Zodiac Killer. All I am suggesting, is that there is good reason to prioritize this location - and if the search for potential suspects doesn't unearth any likely candidates, we can move on to alternative locations. For reference, Arthur Leigh Allen's residence at 32 Fresno Street was 9 minutes walking distance to the payphone. 

​If the Zodiac Killer did live in this area, one other thing we have to consider, that we can only ponder, is how far was the Zodiac Killer prepared to walk from his residence to the payphone and back? The Tuolumne Street and Valle Vista Avenue address would take 38 minutes walking time, whereas an address such as Arthur Leigh Allen's would take 18 minutes. Did the slayer of three factor in a buffer zone from his residence to the chosen payphone, or did he play the bluffing game, that nobody would ever believe he would be so daft to make an admission of murder so close to home? The insertion of his "brown car" into the letter on August 4th 1969, described by the negro male walking by the payphone, may have been an attempt to shift the focus away from the area surrounding the payphone. A killer still in his vehicle while making the phone call can literally travel anywhere.

At the Lake Herman Road turnout Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser stated "that when they arrived there at 9:00 pm a white 4-door hardtop, a '59 or '60 Impala, was parked there, and also, a truck coming out of the gate. This coincides with information from Bingo Wesner that when he came out of the gate he saw the same Impala and also saw the red pick-up truck go by". This make of Chevrolet Impala was manufactured in "ermine white", often described as cream colored, sometimes with a tinge of very mild browm. Many vehicles online described as "ermine white" just look white, while some have this slight hint of brown. Illuminated by the vehicle headlights driven by Robert Connelly, Frank Gasser and Bingo Wesner, could this 1959/1960 Chevrolet Impala (in ermine white) at Lake Herman Road have appeared white, but not illuminated by the headlights of Darlene Ferrin's Corvair at Blue Rock Springs, appeared light brown in color when in the dark parking lot? The below images show how an "ermine white" Chevrolet Impala changes to light brown in dark conditions. On page one of the police report Michael Mageau describes the assailant's vehicle as medium light brown, but It was clear by his further statements that he wasn't sure what type of vehicle was driven by the Zodiac Killer, who was perfectly happy to confirm his vehicle was brown when he sent his August 4th 1969 letter. The question being, was he in an "ermine white" Chevrolet Impala at Blue Rock Springs. The vehicle parked in the Lake Herman Road turnout as early as 9pm or 10pm (or both). The police report is ambiguous. 

Shortly before midnight on July 4th 1969, Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin pulled into the parking lot at Blue Rock Springs and sat there talking for a while. A vehicle, that most people believe was Zodiac, came from the direction of Springs Road according to Michael Mageau, entered the parking lot and parked alongside the left side of their Corvair for about one minute, about 6 to 8 feet away. The vehicle, that Michael thought was driven by a single male, then left the parking lot and headed back towards Springs Road. He estimated that 5 minutes later the vehicle returned from that direction, once again pulled into the parking lot, but this time positioned itself to the rear of Darlene Ferrin's Corvair.

After exiting his vehicle the Zodiac Killer approached the Corvair and began shooting the couple. Subsequent to the attack (at about 12:02am on July 5th 1969) he got back in his vehicle and then drove away towards Springs Road for a second time. Michael Mageau was able to recall the assailant's vehcle had a California license plate. The Zodiac Killer, without knowing the automobile proficiency of the couple in the Corvair, especially after parking his vehicle alongside theirs for about one minute - and entering and exiting the parking lot twice - must have been aware that there was a reasonable possibility the couple had recognised the make and color of his vehicle. He even drove away from the crime scene slowly according to his story.

The Zodiac Killer, if he was familiar with Blue Rock Springs, also knew that there was a reasonable possibility that the nine shots he fired that morning may have been heard by the caretaker and/or residents of the house approximately 800 feet from the parking lot. George Bryant stated that "he could hear laughing and a few firecrackers being set off. And at approximately midnight he heard what appeared to be a gunshot. This was much louder than any of the firecrackers. A short time later he heard what appeared to be another gunshot. After another short pause he heard rapid fire of what appeared to be gunshots. He then heard a car take off".

The Zodiac Killer's vehicle had been viewed by Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin for at least 2 minutes that night/ morning, and he had fired off 9 shots in total. If he had planned to make a phone call that morning, the obvious choice was to do this immediately before police were alerted and his vehicle description was sent out over the airwaves throughout Vallejo. But wait I hear you say; Zodiac probably thought the couple were dead. After all, his phone call to Nancy Slover stated ​"I want to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east...... On Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find the kids in a brown car". This gives the impression that he thought he had killed two people - but this claim was bullshit - and he knew there was a distinct possibility he had only killed one person that morning.​  

​He knew this because he gave himself away on August 4th 1969 when he sent a letter to the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. In it he wrote "The boy was origionaly sitting in the front seat when I began fireing. When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time, thus spoiling my aim. He ended up on the back seat then the floor in back thashing out very violently with his legs; that's how I shot him in the knee. I did not leave the cene of the killing with squealling tires + raceing engine as described in the Vallejo paper. I drove away quite slowly so as not to draw attention to my car". 

Michael Mageau was last described by Zodiac as thrashing around violently in the back seat when he shot him in the knee. The Zodiac Killer must have known that a knee shot was not a terminal injury, knew that there was a strong possibility that Michael Mageau was still alive when he left the parking lot at Blue Rock Springs, knew that Michael Mageau had the ability to have seen his vehicle for at least two minutes, knew there was a possibility his 9 shots were heard in the vicinity of Blue Rock Springs, and understood that the crime scene may have been discovered fairly quickly,

​Understanding all this and knowing the make and color of his vehicle could be all over the Vallejo airwaves fairly quickly, is it reasonable to conclude he drove around Vallejo for approximately 40 minutes, before parking his vehicle adjacent to a payphone, only 830 meters from the Vallejo Police Department? He also leaned into the Corvair to target Michael Mageau in the back seat, leaving two spent casings on the rear floorboard of the vehicle, which had the potential to transfer blood to his shirt from the passenger seat.

Taking all these circumstances into account, it is far more reasonable to conclude he drove home, concealed his vehicle, ditched the smoking gun, changed his clothes, and then headed to the payphone on foot to make the call. This would explain why the phone call to Nancy Slover was logged at 12:40am, when the journey time to the payphone from the murder scene was only 9 minutes. If the Zodiac Killer had made these obvious assumptions described above, it would have been reckless to have been driving around or parked up on the streets of Vallejo for approximately 40 minutes after the attack. He would have been right to conclude this, because a limited description of him and his vehicle was given to officers by Michael Mageau at the crime scene, who broadcasted this information over the airwaves. But the Zodiac Killer couldn't have been sure how limited this description would be. He knew his face was shielded by the glare of the flashlight, but his vehicle was afforded no such protection.          

In his August 4th 1969 letter the Zodiac was giving police details about the Blue Rock Springs crime scene to prove he was the killer. He immediately jumped into a detailed description of a "man who told police that my car was brown (and) was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed". This description could have easily been verified by police had the Zodiac been telling the truth, so it would have been pretty pointless the Zodiac Killer giving this information had it not been true. But if the Zodiac Killer saw police talking to a negro male, then it was likely by the payphone that Zodiac had earlier claimed he was walking by. Which Zodiac described by stating "I was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking by. When I hung the phone up the damn X@ thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". 

We know that after the payphone call was traced, a responding officer was sent from Blue Rock Springs to the payphone to secure it for fingerprint testing, so it is logical to conclude that this is where the Zodiac saw police talking to the black man. If so, then the Zodiac Killer stil had eyes on that payphone at least 10 minutes after his call to Nancy Slover. Because if the payphone call was traced as early as 12:41am, it would have taken the responding officer from Blue Rock Springs about 9 minutes to reach that payphone, at approximately 12:50am. The longer the trace took, the longer the Zodiac Killer was hanging around the vicinity of that payphone. If the phone call was traced at 12:47am, the responding officer would arrive at the payphone at about 12:56am.

​The police may have suspected that a payphone call at 12:40am from Sptings & Tuolumne, when its journey time from the crime scene was only 9 minutes, opened up the possibility the Zodiac Killer could have lived nearby. The Zodiac Killer must also have realized this possibility, so he attributed the presence of his vehicle to the negro male, who Zodiac claimed saw it while walking by the payphone at 12:40am, and who at 12:50am (or later), Zodiac claimed he believed, had given the color of his vehicle to the police. Even if the police were not told by the negro male he had noticed the vehicle of the man in the payphone, the accuracy of the negro male's description by Zodiac (if true), would have added validity to the Zodiac Killer's claims his vehicle was present. Another reason why the Zodiac had to ensure his description of the black male was accurate, was because if this information couldn't be verified, the rest of his story loses validity. The Zodiac Killer, in his August 4th 1969 letter, was effectively telling police he was still present near that payphone when they responded to it. He was nearby, and had hung around the area after ending the call with Nancy Slover. By claiming he was still in his vehicle during and after the payphone call, he was suggesting to the police that he had the capability to travel anywhere. But everything described in the first part of this article, should tell you that this may very well have been a lie. His vehicle was never at that payphone - and the real negro male was the conduit for this deception   

WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT1]
WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT2]

The earliest estimates of the payphone trace in Vallejo fall between 12:41am and 12:47am, meaning that the responding officer from Blue Rock Springs arrived at the Springs & Tuolumne payphone at approximately 12:50am to 12:56am. If the police officer was talking to a scruffily dressed black man around 40 to 45 years old, then the Zodiac Killer was still in the area observing this interaction. If the Zodiac Killer had earlier experienced this black man while talking to Nancy Slover, why was this individual still in the area of the payphone at least 10 minutes later?

​Had he passed the Zodiac Killer in the payphone to go somewhere and was returning home along the same sidewalk when police arrived? Did he live in the area and approached police to offer assistance when they pulled up at the payphone? Had he noticed the dangling receiver and spoken to the operator, who asked him to remain at the scene? Was he just hanging around the area, or was he homeless? There could be innumerable possibilities, but if the police arrived at the payphone and saw a black male in the area (or anyone else for that matter), it would have been correct police procedure to question the person to find out if they had seen a white male using the payphone in the recent past. If police did talk to the black male as Zodiac contended, then the obvious conclusion is that it was in the vicinity of the payphone. Only the police know for certain if they spoke to this black man, and only the police know if he matches the description given by the Zodiac Killer - and they have never openly confirmed or denied this interaction. 

The attack at Blue Rock Springs culminated shortly after midnight, on July 5th 1969, yet the phone call to Nancy Slover was placed at 12:40am, despite the journey time from the park being only 9 minutes. This opened up the possibility that the Zodiac Killer went home, changed his clothes and stashed his gun, before walking to the payphone absent of any incriminating evidence. This would mean that the August 4th 1969 letter which stated "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed" and "When I hung the phone up the damn X@ thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". was designed to misdirect police into believing the Zodiac Killer was still in his vehicle - and as such - he was not giving away the fact he was now on foot and thereby lived nearby.

​If the police encountered a black man by the payphone who matched the later description given by Zodiac in the August 4th 1969 letter, then adding his absent vehicle into the equation wouldn't detract from the verifiable characteristics of the man described by the Zodiac Killer, if the black male simply couldn't recollect a vehicle near the payphone. When reading "The man who told police that my car was brown", the police, if they knew that Zodiac's description of the black male was extremely accurate, may have assumed the Zodiac in his letter had just believed that the eyewitness saw and described his vehicle, when in fact he had not. If this was the case, this wouldn't harm his claims, it would further benefit the Zodiac story.

The Zodiac Killer hiding nearby on foot, observing the police talking to the black male by the payphone, would have been the far safer option for somebody now separated from their vehicle, the smoking gun, and their clothes, which could potentially have received blood transfer from leaning into the open window of Darlene Ferrin's Corvair. Conversely, absent of a residence (or accessible workplace nearby), the Zodiac Killer remaining in the area after the phone call for upwards of 10 minutes, with the car, gun and clothing he committed the crime with, would have presented far more risk for the Zodiac Killer. If he really did spot the black male talking to police by the payphone, it can be argued that he likely arrived at the payphone on foot to place the call to Nancy Slover.

​The million dollar question is, did the Zodiac Killer describe the man as "a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed" because he was selling us a fictional character who spotted the vehicle of Zodiac, or did he give this overly detailed description of the man to taunt law enforcement or give them proof of his presence, because he was watching the responding officer talk to this individual when he arrived at the payphone? I doubt he inserted this black man into his letter for no reason whatsoever, but honesty. This "negro male" made an appearance in his August 4th 1969 letter because it benefited the Zodiac Killer in some way. I doubt we will ever get the true answer.

After the challenge by Vallejo police chirf Jack Stiltz in questioning whether the recent letter writer was the killer, the purpose of the following  August 4th 1969 letter was to provide law enforcement with details they could verify. The Zodiac Killer was correct that he did not open the car door, and was telling the truth that the window was already rolled down and Michael Mageau leapt into the back seat of the Corvair. Although he was incorrect about the exact point of entry of one of his bullets, he knew that Mageau was shot in the leg while in the backseat. This can be shown to be true because two firearm casings were found on the floorboard of the back seat.

​The Zodiac Killer then moved the clock forward by describing a shabbily dressed negro male about 40 to 45 years of age, who investigators could easily have verified existed by speaking to the police officers designated to the payphone in the aftermath of the double shooting. All of the above details were able to be checked by investigators. The one thing they couldn't verify for certain was whether the Zodiac Killer was still in his vehicle when the "negro male" spotted him. For that the police would have been reliant on the black man, who the Zodiac may have known could never have seen and described his vehicle, because he wasn't in one. But by adding into the equation that the negro male told police that his car was brown, he was selling the story a little more. The August 4th 1969 letter after confirming details at the crime scene, immediately jumped to "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed". This suggested one continuous sequence of verification regarding the events on July 5th 1969 - and something the Zodiac Killer knew police would be able to corroborate by interviewing the responding officer to the payphone. Why follow up the truth about the crime scene with an immediate lie and negate your credibility with something that was easily falsifiable?    

The potential presence of Zodiac near the payphone 10 or more minutes after speaking to Nancy Slover is probably one of the most, if not, the most important questions in the Zodiac case. A murderer still present near that payphone approximately 50 minutes (or more) after the Blue Rock Springs attack would be extremely important to know with regards to where he lived. If he was there, he was far safer without his vehicle and the smoking gun. The search parameters for the Zodiac Killer would narrow demonstrably.

WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT3]​

There were multiple newspaper articles between July 4th 1969 and August 4th 1969 that mentioned Michael Mageau's description of the Zodiac Killer's vehicle, including its brown color, so what was the purpose of the August 4th 1969 letter when it stated "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed", rather than just attributing this observation to Mageau? The obvious answer is that the Zodiac Killer was conjuring up an imaginary eyewitness to back up the earlier description by Mageau and misdirect us to the true color of his vehicle, which was anything but brown. To make this "negro male" more believable the Zodiac Killer may have added the "40-45 rather shabbly dressed" description to bring this fictional character to life. 

​However, if the police hadn't spoken to anybody other than Mageau regarding the color of Zodiac's car, then this attempt to misdirect the police would have been less than convincing and immediately disregarded. His efforts at misdirection would have been a complete waste of time and ink. Bearing in mind that the Zodiac Killer placed the negro male eyewitness observing him at the payphone as he was "walking by", the logical inference when he stated "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro", was that the Zodiac Killer saw the negro male chatting to police somewhere in the vicinity of the payphone at a later time. We know that a responding officer left the Blue Rock Springs crime scene after the location of the payphone was traced in order to secure the location until an I.D. technician could dust it for potential fingerprints. 

It can be argued that the over-descriptive nature of "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed", highlighting his approximate age and attire, and selecting a minority demographic, was designed to bring this person to life. But what if the Zodiac Killer described the man in detail to prove to police he was actually observing their interaction with him by the payphone, meaning that Zodiac still had eyes on that payphone at 12:50am, or even later. Even if the payphone call (at 12:40am) was traced almost immediately, a police officer traveling from Blue Rock Springs to that payphone, couldn't have arrived much earlier than 12:50am. Did the Zodiac Killer live nearby, and/or did he just hide in the area to observe police activity around the payphone, hitting upon gold when he saw the black male, who was still in the area, conversing with the responding officer. As stated earlier, if no such interaction took place between police and a negro male by the payphone, then his claims in the August 4th 1969 letter would have had little impact with law enforcement. On the other hand, the Zodiac Killer taunting police in a letter by providing evidence he was still near the payphone at least 10 minutes after the call to Nancy Slover, may have been a little jarring. A negro male that police wouldn't want to confirm to the newspapers, just like they concealed the police sighting of a potential Zodiac on Jackson Street two months later.   

There may be other circumstantial evidence to support an eyewitness being present at the payphone that morning. How realistic is it that operators at PT&T called back that payphone immediately, as opposed to a delay of 10, 20, 30 or 60 seconds. Although Robert Graysmith was much maligned, he did offer something interesting regarding this matter. In his 1986 book "Zodiac" he wrote "When he said "good-bye", the man's voice deepened and became taunting  Nancy heard the sound of the receiver being replaced. She was left listening to the empty hum of the line. After he hung up, the killer must have stood for a minute in a lighted phone booth. Suddenly the phone began to ring; a middle-aged black man in shabby clothes who was passing by looked over and saw the stocky man in the booth. Turning his head away, the killer opened the door of the phone booth, plunging it into darkness. To stop the phone from ringing he unhooked it and let it hang. After a moment, he briskly walked off into the night".

Robert Graysmith may have had some knowledge of the operators actions that morning when he stated "After he hung up, the killer must have stood for a minute in a lighted phone booth". One would have expected the Zodiac Killer after declaring he was responsible for four murders from a payphone close to the police station, to have left the payphone immediately and headed back to his vehicle, which he claimed was alongside him in his August 4th 1969 letter. Yet according to Graysmith he waited in the payphone for at least one minute before it began to ring. The only logical reason why the Zodiac Killer was still in the payphone after a minute to hear it ring and subsequently remove the receiver, was if he saw the black man heading in his direction and used the payphone sides as a shield to his identity. He had just made a phone call to police claiming murder, so it would have been human nature upon seeing an approaching black man to remain concealed in the payphone, head down, and open its door to extinguish the payphone lights, rather than head out onto the sidewalk and risk being observed in close quarters by the black male. This would explain his reluctance to leave the payphone immediately and why he was still in it up to one minute after replacing the receiver. The fact he was still in the payphone after 10 seconds or more, rather than back at his vehicle and/or driving away, can be explained by the unwanted presence of an eyewitness "walking by" the payphone. An eyewitness he described in detail in his letter, who he later claimed he saw talking to police (probably by the payphone). When the PT&T operator rang the payphone back it briefly drew the attention of the black male to him and his car, irritating the Zodiac Killer and shaping his actions when he completed the payphone call to David Slaight from Napa after the Lake Berryessa attack.

WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT2]  
WHEN THE BLACK MAN WAS WALKING BY [PT3]

It has now been established that when Betty Main (or another) rang back the payphone at the intersection of Springs & Tuolumne, the Zodiac Killer pulled the receiver from the hook and left it dangling when he left the scene, which kept the line open and allowed Betty Main to trace the "silent" call. However, did she (or somebody else) speak to the shabbily dressed negro male, who the Zodiac Killer claimed saw him and his vehicle when he initially hung up the phone? Despite Betty Main being identified as the female who traced the payphone call, why would her supervisor "not allow her to give a statement to police at this time"? After all, somebody had just rang Nancy Slover and claimed four murders - and all Betty Main had seemingly done was keep the line open to effect the trace. Did Betty Main have some extra information that her supervisor wanted to first discuss with police? 

When the Zodiac Killer rang Nancy Slover at 12:40am he stated "I want to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east...... On Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9 mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year.... Good-bye". His phone call would have ended at approximately 12:41am  The details behind this call were then relayed by Mrs Johnson PT&T operator to police at 12:47am, while we assume the trace by Betty Main on the open line was still ongoing. When the trace was effected (estimated at 12:56am in the previous article), police at Blue Rock Springs were informed of the payphone location. This is assuming a trace took 15 minutes in 1969.     

But why would police initially be informed as late as 12:47am about something so important, some six minutes after the call ended? Once the Zodiac Killer ended the call, it appears that Betty Main rang back the payphone, while Mrs Johnson was sought and informed of the details given by the Zodiac Killer. This may explain why several minutes elapsed between the end of the Zodiac call and police being informed. If the police report is to be read a different way and the phone call location was traced at 12:47am (and didn't require 15 minutes from the time the Zodiac unhooked the receiver), then there is another possibility.

When Betty Main (or another) rang back the payphone, Zodiac removed the receiver and left the scene. However, where was the negro male at this juncture? If he was hanging around the area at the time, he may have belatedly noticed the hanging receiver and heard Betty Main on the other end, resulting in him picking up the receiver and talking to her. She may have immediately asked him to provide the location of the payphone, which he did at 12:47am. This could explain how Betty Main "traced" the payphone call in only six minutes and why the Zodiac Killer stated on August 4th 1969 "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed". If the Zodiac Killer saw the negro male picking up the receiver at 12:47am and providing Betty Main the payphone location, it would mean that the Zodiac Killer still had eyes on that payphone six minutes after he unhooked the receiver. 

But remember, the Zodiac Killer stated in his letter that "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro", not "The man who told operators that my car was brown was a negro". If the payphone was traced via the negro male, Betty Main may well have told this individual to secure the payphone and wait until police arrived. If the call was traced at 12:47am, then the responding officer from Blue Rock Springs would have arrived at the payphone at approximately 12:56am. If the Zodiac Killer saw this policeman talking to the black man by the payphone, it is easy to understand why the Zodiac Killer believed the negro male who saw his vehicle relayed this information to police. But this would place the Zodiac Killer at a location where he still had eyes on the payphone 15 minutes after he ended the menacing call to Nancy Slover. So did the Zodiac Killer live nearby, or did he simply fabricate the story of the negro male?

​This question hinges on how long it took to trace a payphone in 1969. If it was traced at 12:47am, yet this process took at least 15 minutes in 1969, then the negro male becomes far more important to this story, bearing in mind he was placed at the payphone by the killer himself. Did the negro male request anonymity and why Betty Main's supervisor didn't immediately allow her to give a statement to police? The supervisor freely told police that Betty Main had traced the call, so what else happened on that open line that made her reluctant to allow Betty Main to be interviewed. Was it her conversation with the negro male? 

If the payphone location was traced before 12:47am (by the operator being given its phone number) and this time was only relevant to when Mrs Johnson called the police, then the responding officer from Blue Rock Springs could have been informed of the payphone location shortly after the Zodiac Killer initially hung up the phone. This would have placed a police officer at the payphone several minutes earlier (approximately 12:50am). But was the Zodiac Killer still in the area, observing the negro male converse with the officer?

THE PAYPHONE TRACE IN VALLEJO [PART ONE]

With the invaluable assistance of Zodiac researcher Jibberjabber who contacted various agencies on the specifics of tracing calls back in 1969, including the Connections Museum, we can now establish that when police first arrived at the payphone at Springs & Tuolumne the receiver was off the hook, just like at Napa. The Connections Museum wrote "If the caller hung up before the trace was complete, then no, the operator could not keep the line open from their end (and thereby trace it). It could be that he (the Zodiac) left the phone off the hook in the booth after making the call, so then the operator just had to stay on the line as well until the trace was complete".

​After the Zodiac Killer had finished speaking with Nancy Slover at approximately 12:40am, the Zodiac Killer hung up the phone, effectively ending the call. However, they could ring the payphone back, which Zodiac claimed alerted the negro male to him and his car. His response was to yank the payphone receiver off the hook and leave it dangling. But this effectively kept the line open as Zodiac walked away, such that the operator only had to wait a period of time to effect the trace. Robert Graysmith wrote in his book Zodiac "After he hung up, the killer must have stood for a minute in a lighted phone booth. Suddenly the phone began to ring. To stop the phone from ringing he unhooked it and let it hang". 

The Blue Rock Springs police report stated that at 12:47am Mrs Johnson PT&T operator called, not that the phone call was traced at 12:47am. According to the 2007 Zodiac movie a caller had to be kept on the line for 15 minutes to establish a trace according to Pacific Telephone. So if the Zodiac Killer yanked the receiver off the hook at approximately 12:41am and walked away, it would mean that Betty Main, who rang back the Springs & Tuolumne payphone, had to sit on this open line for 15 minutes subsequent to 12:41am to achieve a trace and discover the location of the payphone. If the movie was correct in claiming 15 minutes was required, then the payphone was identified at 12:56am. According to the police report, this was relayed to the Blue Rock Springs crime scene and a responding officer headed to the payphone. He would have arrived at the intersection of Springs & Tuolumne at approximately 01:05am to secure the payphone for fingerprint testing. The action of the Zodiac Killer yanking the ringing receiver from the hook in Vallejo likely shaped his actions at Main Street in Napa, where he pre-empted this possibility. Thanks to the work of Jibberjabber, I was able to revise the timeline of events surrounding the payphone trace.. 

THE PAYPHONE TRACE IN VALLEJO [PART TWO]

In previous articles it has been considered that the shabbily dressed male about 40 to 45, described by the Zodiac Killer in his August 4th 1969 letter, may have been conjured out of thin air to alibi the claim that the Zodiac Killer was in his vehicle when he made the 12:40am phone call to Nancy Slover at the Vallejo Police Department on July 5th 1969. This being done to disguise the fact that he lived nearby and had walked to the payphone from his residence. The Zodiac stated "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed. I was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking by. When I hung the phone up the damn X@ thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". This statement appears to suggest that the Zodiac Killer had observed or knew that the black male had interacted with police, despite this individual not being mentioned in the police report or the newspapers prior to August 4th 1969. So if this individual was really passing the payphone on July 5th 1969, what can be extrapolated from this information?

​If the black male was in the vicinity of the payphone at 12:40an, it is not inconceivable that he could have picked up the latter part of the message that the Zodiac Killer was dictating to Nancy Slover when he said "I want to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9 mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year.... Good-bye". In other words, the black male may have overheard the Zodiac say "They were shot with a 9 mm Luger", which he would later relay to police as "I shot them. I used a 9mm automatic". This version of the phone call was reported in several newspapers alongside the Nancy Slover version. When responding officers at Blue Rock Springs received the information that the payphone at Springs & Tuolumne had been identified as the location of the call, they immediately drove to the payphone to secure it for fingerprint retrieval. Had they scanned the area for potential suspects, it is not inconceivable that they located the black male, questioned him, and received some limited information about the payphone caller and the tail end of his message, which marginally differed from the recollection given by Nancy Slover. This information may have been withheld to protect the eyewitness.         

The big problem is that the phone call wasn't traced until 12:47am according to police reports (after Mrs Johnson was called). So if police had responded to the location of the payphone from Blue Rock Springs (as stated in the police report), they were not going to arrive at the payphone any earlier than 12:54am, at least 13 minutes after the Zodiac call ended. If the Zodiac Killer had observed a black man talking to police somewhere in the vicinity of the payphone and assumed he had told police about his brown car, then the Zodiac Killer must have still have been in the vicinity of the payphone himself. Could he have been observing the interaction between the police and this black male from his nearby residence? It's extremely unlikely his vehicle would have been openly parked on the street if his car had been observed by this eyewitness.

It is inconceivable that the payphone would have been rang at 12:47am with the Zodiac Killer still at the payphone, because he would have been standing at, or within earshot of the payphone for a minimum of 6 minutes. However, he must have heard the payphone ring because this detail wasn't released in the newspapers (unless he knew, or surmised that "ringback" was the method of tracing the call). So if he heard the payphone ring at 12:47am and saw the black male being questioned by police beyond 12:54am, one could argue that he was either in the neighborhood on foot, viewing proceedings from a clandestine location, or he was "peeking through his curtains" from a residence or building close by. A killer making a phone call at 12:40am while still in possession of his vehicle, should have been long gone by 12:47am. At the very least, a murderer not local to the area, should have put a reasonable distance between himself, his vehicle and the payphone by the time either of the above scenarios had unfolded. If there was no black male that morning, one has to question the reasoning behind this convenient eyewitness that Zodiac detailed so well.        

A while ago I had a discussion with Thomas Horan on the YouTube channel of Ross Geraci called Planet X Filmworks, in which Thomas claimed that Michael Mageau was shot four times while in the backseat of Darlene Ferrin's Corvair and was never in the front seat of the vehicle. Here is that part of the discussion. Thomas also claimed that ten bullets had been fired (and therefore ten casings must have been ejected). Even though only nine casings were detailed in the police report, I will go with the notion that ten bullets were fired into the Corvair and show how it is impossible (even with an extra bullet) that Michael Mageau was shot while located exclusively in the backseat of the vehicle. 

The autopsy report clearly details 5 entry wounds to the mid-axillary and posterior-axillary line of Darlene Ferrin's right side. This means that 5 bullets entered the right side of her body. If Michael Mageau was shot four times in the back seat (because he had 4 entry wounds), this means that there is a total of 9 entry wounds and 9 bullets fired so far. We now have one bullet remaining (to complete the ten shots fired) to produce 4 entry wounds and four exit wounds to Darlene Ferrin's right and left arm, which again was detailed in the autopsy report here (or see below). Thomas Horan's claim of Michael Mageau being in the backseat throughout is therefore impossible from a ballistics standpoint. It's cannot happen with ten shots, never mind nine.

​The reason Darlene Ferrin had 9 entry wounds and 7 exit wounds is because the two shots fired at Michael Mageau in the front seat, passed through his body and entered Darlene Ferrin. They were two of the bullets that entered her right side, producing 5 entry wounds to her torso. Add these 5 entry wounds to the 4 entry wounds in her arms and we have a total of 9 entry wounds. Of the 5 entry wounds to her torso, 3 exited her body on the left side. Add these 3 exit wounds to the 4 exit wounds in her arms and we have a total of 7 exit wounds. Michael Mageau had to be in the front seat during the initial part of the attack to produce the wounds of Darlene Ferrin noted at autopsy. Anybody telling you otherwise is just plain wrong. 

Above is page 20 from the Blue Rock Springs police report detailing the removal of two "slugs" from the inside of the vehicle, including the seat where Darlene Ferrin was positioned (driver side), and the left hand door. Two bullets remained in Darlene Ferrin's body. One bullet remained in Michael Mageau's left thigh. One was discovered by his person when lying outside the Corvair (that exited his body in the back seat and was trapped in his clothing until he vacated the vehicle, where it fell onto the parking lot). This means that a total of six bullets are accounted for. Where are the other three bullets? By knowing where these three bullets ended up, could shed light on whether Darlene Ferrin was shot first and whether her hands were on the steering wheel when the Zodiac Killer began firing that morning. There was an entry wound 3.5 inches above her right wrist and an entry wound 2 inches above her left wrist, strongly suggesting her wrists were in alignment with one another when the Zodiac Killer took his first shot (with Darlene possibly holding the steering wheel). As she turns away with her right arm coming across her body, the second shot is fired. The approximate images below brings to life this concept. If anybody can shed light on these three remaining bullets, feel free to post in comments.   ​

There were 9 entry wounds and 7 exit wounds to the body of Darlene Ferrin noted at autopsy. There were 2 bullets recovered from her torso at autopsy. The right arm has 2 entry wounds; one is 5 and 1/2 inches above elbow on right lateral side, fracturing the humerus shaft and exiting anteriorly and medially 1 and 1/4 inches distal to the elbow. The second entry wound to the right arm is behind the forearm, 3 and 1/2 inches above the wrist (exiting opposite side).

The left arm has two entry wounds; one is medially located in the upper arm, 3 and 1/4 inches above the elbow and exiting the opposite side. The second entry wound is located medially on the forearm, 2 inches above the wrist, fracturing the radial and ulnar bones, and exiting above and laterally at 3 inches above the wrist. ​

Bearing in mind Michael Mageau was shot 4 times (and had 4 entry wounds), many have asked why did Darlene Ferrin have 9 entry wounds, when it is reasonable to conclude she should have had 5 entry wounds, due to 9 bullets being fired into the vehicle. The Corvair of Darlene Ferrin was in gear, the ignition switch was turned to "on", the handbrake was off, and her hands were possibly holding the steering wheel when the Zodiac Killer arrived at the passenger side window. There was an entry wound 3.5 inches above her right wrist and an entry wound 2 inches above her left wrist. If she had turned away at the point of receiving these injuries, with her right arm coming across her body, it isn't too difficult to understand how a second bullet would strike 5.5 inches above the right elbow, exit 1.25 inches distal to the right elbow and enter 3.25 inches above the elbow on her left arm. The 2 bullets fired towards her arms created 4 entry and 4 exit wounds. Her torso showed 5 entry wounds and 3 exit wounds. That is 9 entry and 7 exit wounds in total (as noted at autopsy). This shows that Darlene Ferrin was struck by 7 bullets, two of which passed through Michael Mageau into her. These bullets likely lost momentum and, as a result, remained in the body of Darlene Ferrin, as shown in the depiction. These can be observed as [2] and [4] in the diagram above. 

If the first shot fired by the Zodiac Killer that morning (just past midnight) struck Darlene Ferrin's right and left wrist, she would have instinctively turned her right side away from the perpetrator, thereby exposing the "posterior axillary line" of her right torso (shown in the accompanying diagram). This explains why the 5 bullets that entered her right side, entered the posterior side of her trunk and right shoulder.  

Michael Mageau was struck by 4 bullets. One was removed from his left thigh during surgery by Dr. Shirai. One bullet had exited his hip and was noted on the ground by his person when responding officers arrived at the crime scene. This had likely trapped in his clothing and fell to the floor when he exited the Corvair. The remaining 2 bullets exited his jaw and right shoulder (through skin), and struck Darlene Ferrin seated to his left. I suspect the bullet that struck Michael Mageau's right shoulder region was the bullet that created pathway [2] in the anatomy diagram above. While the one that struck his jaw region created pathway [4]. 

It cannot be claimed with certainty that Darlene Ferrin was targeted first that morning, but the coinciding bullet wounds to her right and left wrist, in addition to her vehicle being "primed" to drive away, could suggest an uneasiness in Darlene Ferrin caused by the approaching man at Blue Rock Springs. If the Zodiac Killer had suspected this, it would have made sense to target the driver first.

A WHISKER AWAY FROM ESCAPE 

In the early minutes of July 5th 1969, the Zodiac Killer stood close to the passenger side of Darlene Ferrin's 1963 brown Corvair and unleashed seven shots in total. His final two shots were probably aimed at Michael Mageau as he tried vainly to avoid being hit in the back passenger compartment of the vehicle. The two casings found on the rear floorboard of the Corviair were testimony to a killer who leaned into the vehicle to deliver these final shots (or sixth and seventh shots), striking Michael Mageau in the hip and thigh. Even though the killer fired the first seven shots in extremely close proximity to the passenger side window, not one casing ejected over the Corvair or into the open window.

​The seven shell casings were discovered to the right side of the Corvair. To facilitate shooting Michael Mageau in the hip and thigh, it's extremely likely the killer had to lean into the window and over the passenger seat of the Corvair. The top of the passenger seat positioned exactly where Michael Mageau was struck with the first two shots aimed at him. He was struck in the jaw and shoulder, producing 2 entry wounds and 2 exit wounds. Both of these bullets exited his body and struck Darlene Ferrin, who suffered 9 entry wounds in total. With four wounds in total to the upper part of his body at this point, there is a high probability that this created blood transfer to the Corvair's front passenger seat. A passenger seat that Zodiac had to likely lean over in order to aim a gun at Michael Mageau's lower extremities when he took refuge in the back passenger seat area. Very likely on the floorboard itself. This would adequately explain the two stray casings located here. 

The Zodiac Killer was described as wearing a blue shirt, so unless he had the foresight to bring a jacket or change of clothing, he would have been wearing this same shirt nearly 40 minutes later when he made the phone call to police from the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street at 12:40am. The payphone was no more than 10 minutes journey time from the crime scene, so did the Zodiac Killer really just drive aimlessly around, or park up somewhere for approximately 40 minutes, possibly covered in blood from the crime scene? Or did he drive home and change clothes before placing the call (either by car or on foot), thereby placing his residence at a measurable radius from the payphone, or extremely close to it?  

The trajectory of the first seven ejected casings that morning, suggests the gun ejected to the shooter's rear, took a neutral pathway, or bounced off the Corvair's bodywork back to the right side, with all seven casings noted by investigators to the right side of the vehicle. No casings could reasonably have ejected into the open window and been transferred by Michael Mageau into the rear of the vehicle, because less than seven casings would have been found on the parking lot floor. And it's highly unlikely a killer leaning deep into the vehicle and obscuring most of the open window, would eject a shell casing past his body and back out of the window. He also would have been most fortuitous to avoid blood transfer to his shirt. Without a ready change of clothing, or disposal of the shirt nearby, the first port of call would likely be home if you lived nearby.

The nature of the attack, keeping the victims within the vehicle at arms length (unlike Lake Herman Road when he shot David Faraday outside the vehicle at close range through his left ear), seems to suggest that the Zodiac Killer likely never envisioned any close interaction with the victims and the need for a change of clothing during his second attack. However, the Zodiac Killer likely made one crucial error, in returning to the Corvair for a second time when he heard Michael Mageau crying out on the back seat, delivering two more shots into the badly injured young man by leaning into the blood-soaked vehicle. This may have changed his desired plans and ultimately, the timing of the phone call to police dispatcher, Nancy Slover. 

​Had he not leaned into the vehicle, he could have made the payphone call at approximately 12:10pm before the victims were even discovered. This would have been the much safer option - and the question of the roughly 40 minute delay in making the payphone call and where the Zodiac Killer lived - would never have arisen.  

The Zodiac Killer pulled up approximately 10 feet to the rear of the couple and exited his vehicle just after midnight on July 5th 1969, approaching the passenger side door of Darlene Ferrin's brown 1963 Corvair. He shot five times through the open window into both victims, as Michael Mageau propelled himself into the rear of the Corvair. The Zodiac Killer then retreated, before returning to shoot both victims twice more.

Seven bullet casings were found to the right side of the car (not marked on the police report). Two bullet casings were discovered on the rear floorboard of the Corvair, because the killer had leaned into the vehicle to take aim at Michael Mageau who had sought refuge there. When investigators arrived they found this:

The turn signal lever is moved up to signal right and moved down to signal left, so it's very likely Darlene Ferrin struck or intentionally depressed this lever subsequent to Zodiac beginning the attack. The police report stated the handbrake was not secured, the ignition was set to on, and the transmission was in first gear. The ignition switch of a Corvair is turned to START when firing up the engine. Once the engine starts the ignition switch must be released immediately. The ignition switch then returns to ON position for normal operation of the vehicle. Darlene Ferrin's Corvair was in the ON position. The engine will not start if the transmission is in gear. The gear shift lever must be placed in neutral before starting the engine.

Here is the drawing of the crime scene at Blue Rock Springs. Described as Bullet Slug, this is drawn at the back end of the Corvair, several feet to its right side (at least 10 feet from the passenger door). A slug is a term used for a bulky solid ballistic projectile. It is "solid" in the sense of being composed of one piece; the shape can vary widely, including partially hollowed shapes. The term is occasionally applied to bullets (just the projectile, never the cartridge as a whole). This is probably one of the bullets that struck Mageau in the rear seat, passing through his hip and becoming trapped in his clothing, before falling from his trousers once outside. He was struck four times. Two passed through his upper body and struck Darlene Ferrin, and one was recovered by Dr. Jantzen from his left thigh during surgery. The one depicted on the parking lot floor, near Michael Mageau, was likely the fourth.

Michael Mageau described a vehicle pulling alongside the couple about 5 minutes prior to the actual shooting: "The driver turned the lights off on the car and pulled around to the left or east side of their car, approximately 6 or 8 feet away and sat there for a minute. He asked Dea if she knew who it was and she stated "Oh, never mind". When either the same vehicle, or another vehicle arrived several minutes later and parked behind them, Darlene Ferrin may have understandably been unnerved.

There is a strong possibility she prepared the Corvair for departure, not fully confident that the man approaching the passenger side of her vehicle was law enforcement. She may have released the handbrake while in neutral, turned the engine on, depressed the clutch pedal and placed the Corvair into 1st gear as a precautionary measure, while having her hands readied on the steering wheel. The approaching Zodiac Killer, fearing the driver may have been preparing to drive away, opened fire the instant he reached the passenger side window of the vehicle. He would have targetted Darlene Ferrin first, as she was the person who could foil his successful attack. She is immediately struck by two bullets in the arms, causing four entry and four exit wounds. Her foot disengages from the clutch pedal and the vehicle stalls. Responding officers would find her Corvair with the handbrake released, ignition on and transmission in 1st gear.      

Darlene Ferrin received nine entry wounds and seven exit wounds, despite only being struck directly five times. The first two shots that night were likely aimed at Darlene Ferrin because she was the principal threat to thwarting Zodiac's plans. The killer fired off the first of two shots into the vehicle, striking Darlene Ferrin just above the right wrist as she was gripping the steering wheel. This traveled straight through both arms just above the wrist. Her right arm came across her upper body towards her face (either manually or by the resultant force), as the second bullet entered her right upper arm 5 1/2 inches above the elbow on the lateral side, exiting and striking her left upper arm 3 1/4 inches above the elbow. The whole story is explained extensively in the article Blue Rock Springs-The Sequence of Shots.

There is every chance that Darlene Ferrin was spooked by the approach of a vehicle behind them in the Blue Rock Springs parking lot and made the neccessary steps for a quick exit from the scene. The notion that both Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin just sat passively in the Corvair readying their identification to display to the approaching man, is not backed up by the ballistics evidence or the condition her vehicle was found in by responding officers that morning. Darlene Ferrin's preparatory steps suggest she was within a whisker of driving away that night, and the Zodiac Killer was fully aware of that possibility. Had this not been the case, then the events of Blue Rock Springs may have unfolded exactly as they did at Lake Herman Road, only six-and-a--half months earlier.

Within one or two minutes after the Zodiac Killer departed the scene, Jerry, Roger and Debbie, who were heading along Columbus Parkway looking for a girl who Roger knew, entered the area of Blue Rock Springs from the northwest. Scouring the parking lot, they noticed the brown Corvair without any lights on. Debbie brought their vehicle to a stop on the road, as they decided whether to check on the Corvair's occupants for Roger's friend. It was at that point the Corvair's lights burst into life, followed shortly thereafter by the sound of somebody screaming. Debbie backed up her vehicle and positioned it so that her high beams shone in the direction of the stricken couple, noticing Michael Mageau lying beside the open passenger door of the Corvair. When Jerry approached the severely injured Mageau, he begged Jerry to get help, stating "I'm shot, the girl's shot, get a doc". All three left the scene and drove the 2.5 mile journey to Jerry's home at 938 Castlewood Drive in Vallejo and made the call to police at 12:10 am.

The statement of George Bryant (caretaker's son), who lived only 800 feet from the parking lot, stated that he heard shots at about midnight. Jerry, Roger and Debbie likely arrived at the parking lot at approximately 12:04 am, with the Zodiac Killer having left the crime scene only a matter of minutes earlier. They would have departed the parking lot at 12:05 am for the four minute journey to 938 Castlewood Drive, so as to place the call to police about a minute later, at 12:10 am. This suggests that despite Darlene Ferrin having sustained nine entry wounds and seven exit wounds, which included four entry and exit wounds to her wrists and arms, she had the presence of mind to valiantly switch on her main lights and left blinker lights to attract attention to both her and Michael's desperate plight as Debbie's vehicle stopped on the road. This act may have encouraged Debbie to reposition her vehicle on the road and shine her main beams toward the Corvair, ultimately highlighting the hapless Michael Mageau in the darkness of the parking lot. It is without doubt the actions of Darlene Ferrin helped save the life of Michael Mageau, but unfortunately, actions that would come too late to save her.

Covered many times before, I would like to highlight what I believe is the most important aspect of the case with respect to locating and identifying the elusive Zodiac Killer (and because I've run out of material). This analysis is far from foolproof, but it relies on the instincts of a killer in the immediate aftermath of an attack or murder. I remember an episode of Dark Minds featuring M. William Phelps and John Kelly, in which an incarcerated serial killer stated his primary objective after the murder of a stranger, was to put as much distance between the victim and himself as soon as possible. Without any personal connection to his victim, there was no need for extensive concealment of the crime or interaction subsequent to the murder. The longer you linger in the near vicinity, the greater the risk of capture. This is exactly what happened at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 5th 1969, in which the Zodiac Killer failed to put the necessary distance between him and the crime scene that was available to him. He took 40 minutes to reach a payphone only 8-10 minutes away, effectively wasting 30 minutes in the interim. It has been suggested that the Zodiac Killer possibly parked up his vehicle and watched the unfolding events from a discreet location, or even went for a drink or bite to eat. While this is not impossible, is it the most realistic choice after a brutal attack near midnight on July 4th 1969?  

If you take a look at the Blue Rock Springs parking lot in the police report, it shows the bullet casings (slag) marked to the left of the passenger door, as though the bulk of the casings ejected to the shooter's left. Seven bullet casings were retrieved from this location, with two casings discovered on the back floorboard of the Corvair. This indicates that the killer must have leaned a considerable distance into the Corvair when returning and targetting Michael Mageau for the second time. At this juncture, Darlene Ferrin had been struck three times and Michael Mageau twice, having thrust himself backwards over the rear of the front passenger seat. There is a high probability that a killer leaning into the vehicle and over the front seat to sight Michael Mageau for the final two shots, would receive blood transfer from the vehicle interior onto his short-sleeved blue shirt. If the firearm continued to eject casings laterally, the gun would likely have to be some distance inside the vehicle for two of the casings to remain in the back passenger area of the Corvair. Any blood transfer from the seating to the perpetrator would now be a problem (whether the murderer has a jacket or not). Would a killer now choose to remain in the area 30 minutes longer than necessary in a public setting, seek refuge or place as much distance between himself and the crime scene as conceivably possible?         

A killer living in San Francisco would greatly diminish his chances of getting caught by heading home immediately, and making any desired phone call to police from somewhere equidistant to the crime scene and his residence (such as Richmond or Novato), rather than linger in the near vicinity he was last seen heading by Michael Mageau. He risks vehicle identification, along with incrimination through blood transfer to his clothing and gunshot residue. Not withstanding, he may still be in possession of the firearm. If the killer had originally intended to make the phone call to police from the Springs and Tuolumne payphone immediately (before the crime had been discovered), then something changed those plans. He effectively took 40 minutes to accomplish a task that should have taken no more than 10 minutes. Visible blood transfer to his arms and clothing may have been the deciding factor. Head home and separate yourself from the vehicle, blood transfer, gunshot residue and clothing. Then, without any visibly incriminating evidence, head back to the nearest payphone to make the telephone call you so badly wanted to make. This is also not without risk, but significantly lower than being spotted covered in blood. 

Law enforcement would very likely have canvassed the area around the Springs and Tuolumne payphone for eyewitnesses to the call, and scoured the near vicinity for any vehicle identified by Michael Mageau. The Zodiac Killer probably used the appeal from Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz, who requested the writer to send a further correspondence "with more facts to prove it", as an opportunity to put distance between his residence and the payphone. He sent a correspondence to the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969 with some very useful information to help police. Having never mentioned any of his victims by name, or dwelled on their actual killings, before or since, he was extremely helpful in providing police with a extremely detailed and convenient eyewitness to his payphone call. Not only did this eyewitness see Zodiac make the telephone call, but he was very helpful in providing police with the color of the Zodiac Killer's vehicle. The problem is, the police don't seem to have any recollection of this "shabbily dressed negro male, about 40-45 years of age" in the police report, or in the subsequent 51 years. Despite the fact an admission of his existence and his contact with police, would place him in no jeopardy whatsoever in 2020, there has been no report or spoken word that this negro male ever existed. The over descriptive nature of this helpful eyewitness by Zodiac, seemed designed to convince the reader that Zodiac was driving around in a brown car 40 minutes after the Blue Rock Springs attack.       

Why does a killer have to invent an eyewitness to his telephone call, if not to achieve a purpose? If law enforcement had been canvassing the local area, this was the perfect opportunity to redirect the police's attention. You first create a credible eyewitness by detailing his ethnicity, age range and what clothing he was wearing. Then your eyewitness can corroborate the testimony of Michael Mageau, who had on numerous occasions described his attacker's vehicle as brown. This adds validity to the claim of Zodiac, who is effectively cementing the notion of him driving around in a brown car. However, if police knew that no negro male had come forward with this information, then understandably they would have realized that the Zodiac Killer was selling them a story and justifiably have come to the conclusion that his vehicle wasn't brown at all. I highly doubt any serial killer voluntarily surrenders incriminating or helpful information to narrow the police search. In fact, the Zodiac Killer may have been doing quite the opposite.

It is my contention that the purpose of the section of letter highlighted above was primarily designed, not to throw police a curveball about the color of his vehicle, but to sell a story that he was still driving around in his vehicle. Why would a killer still be in this vicinity only 10 minutes from the Blue Rock Springs parking lot, 40 minutes later? Especially if he hadn't distanced himself from numerous pieces of incriminating evidence. The mention of my "car was brown" wasn't designed with the color of his vehicle in mind, it was designed to indicate that an eyewitness had corroborated he was still in possession of his vehicle through the testimony of Michael Mageau. The emphasis was placed on an eyewitness "walking by" to conveniently spot Zodiac as the phone rang, which drew his "attention to me + my car". The Zodiac Killer stated in the August 4th Debut letter, that "When I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". The mention of his car in this sentence is not required, other than to convince the reader he was still in tandem with his vehicle and could drive anywhere after the payphone receiver had been hung up. He chose his words carefully, so not to reveal he had walked to the payphone from a residence nearby. A residence he had to travel to immediately after the attack, because of blood transfer to his person from leaning inside the Corvair of Darlene Ferrin. The cries of Michael Mageau may have been his undoing.