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. 

Evan from Texas has recently uploaded a video to Youtube exploring the claims of Thomas Henry Horan and adding some very interesting extra information. This material is extremely relevant, bearing in mind a recent article on this site entitled Squealling Tires and Raceing Engine. The column in the July 6th 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper with regard to the Blue Rock Springs attack, quoted George Bryant as saying he heard "the car take off at a high rate of speed, peeling rubber and cutting corners". The police added that "He wasn't sure, but he thought it was headed to the freeway". It was believed that the Zodiac Killer was responding to this newspaper article in the August 4th 1969 Debut letter, when he stated "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". However, he used the words "squealing and tires" in identical fashion to the Blue Rock Springs police report of "he then heard a car take off at super speed and it burned rubber and was squealing its tires as it sped along the road".  This has led some to believe that the killer had access to the police reports.  

Below I will cover just a small part of Evan's excellent video, with respect to somebody who may have had access to the police reports when compiling his July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969 letters. The entirety of the video can be viewed here. It contains a lot more information on this topic, presented over 32 absorbing minutes.

There are two snippets from the police reports below, which includes the Captain Daniel Pitta police report from Lake Herman Road and page 20 of the Lake Herman Road police report. The Zodiac Killer could be argued to be copying the police reports when writing his July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969 letters, just switching or reversing the odd word to disguise the fact. The Captain Daniel Pitta police report in respect to David Faraday, stated "Victim #2 was lying face up". The Zodiac Killer wrote "the boy was on his back". The Captain Daniel Pitta police report in respect to David Faraday, stated he was found "with his feet to the right rear wheel". The Zodiac Killer wrote that David Faraday was left in the turnout "with his feet to the car". He had changed "face up" to "on his back". He had changed "his feet to the right rear wheel" to "his feet to the car".

In respect to Betty Lou Jensen, the Captain Daniel Pitta police report stated she was found with her "head to the east". The Zodiac Killer wrote that Betty Lou Jensen was left in the turnout with her "feet to the west". He had changed "head" to "feet". He had changed "east to west". The Blue Rock Springs police report stated "The girl was lying on her side facing the road". The Zodiac Killer wrote in the July 31st 1969 Examiner & Vallejo Times-Herald letters, that "the girl was on lyeing her right side". He had added the word "right".

This means, that through two sets of communications on July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969, the Zodiac Killer provided an uncanny selection of facts that appeared to mimic the wording in the Lake Herman Road police report, Captain Daniel Pitta police report and Blue Rock Springs police report. When Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz asked the claimed killer of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and Darlene Ferrin for "more facts to prove it", did the Zodiac Killer go back to the police reports once again, using the word "squealling" in his reply on August 4th 1969? Or is this one big coincidence?

The Zodiac Killer chose to describe Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs as wearing "patterned pants" and "paterned slacks". The Blue Rock Springs police report on page 13 described her as a "WFA wearing a white and blue flowered slack dress" - and wearing a "slack dress" on page 2.

We also know that 10 shots were fired at Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968, because that too is in the police report. The Zodiac Killer also described the brand of ammo as Super X, which can be found in the Department of Justice report here.
When the Zodiac Killer wrote in the October 13th 1969 letter "This is the Zodiac speaking. 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", was he aware of the Washington and Maple destination on the taxicab trip sheet? This destination was not mentioned in the October 12th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article, or anywhere prior to the Zodiac Killer mailing the Paul Stine letter.

Evan from Texas plans to do some follow up work on the Zodiac Killer in upcoming videos. Please stay tuned. 
Zodiac Killer Peer Review on Youtube

The Zodiac Killer, being the narcissist he was, very likely kept the newspapers or cuttings of his reported crimes. It can be seen from the above excerpts that the Zodiac Killer carefully crafted his responses to particular sections of the newspaper text. That is, until he completely deviated off script when writing "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". There was no mention whatsoever of a negro male adult identifying the vehicle of Zodiac, either from the police or in any newspaper by the time the Zodiac Killer sent his August 4th 1969 letter. The Zodiac Killer, who carefully read every detail about himself during a 6 1/2 month period (from December 23rd 1968 to July 6th 1969 in the examples above), had suddenly and apparently crafted a "negro about 40-45, who was rather shabbly dressed" out of thin air, in total contrast to his specific responses to the San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald. 

The following will examine the claim that the author of the August 4th 1969 Debut of Zodiac letter may have acquired his information directly from the Blue Rock Springs police report and not the Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper, as the August 4th letter stated. If this were true, it could mean that [1] The Zodiac Killer had access to the police reports, or [2] The author of the Debut of Zodiac letter was not the killer, but somebody laying claim to the two attacks thus far under the Zodiac pseudonym. Either way, this would have major ramifications regarding the Zodiac story as a whole. Below is a newspaper cutting from the Vallejo Times-Herald on July 6th 1969 (two days after the attack at Blue Rock Springs Park).  

George Bryant lived just 800 feet from the parking lot at Blue Rock Springs and recalled the firecrackers and gunshots that night. As the murderer's vehicle left the scene, George Bryant described "the car take off at a high rate of speed, peeling rubber and cutting corners. He wasn't sure, but he thought it was headed to the freeway". The author of the Debut of Zodiac letter claimed this is where he read about the version of events by George Bryant, retorting "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". 

There is a subtle difference between the two accounts, in that the Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper article refers to peeling rubber, whereas the Debut of Zodiac letter alters this to squealling tires. When we take a look at page 15 of the Blue Rock Springs police report regarding George Bryant, it states that after the gunshots ceased "he then heard a car take off at super speed and it burned rubber and was squealing its tires as it sped along the road". 

It can be seen that the "Zodiac Killer" in the August 4th 1969 Debut letter described squealling tires, while the police report on July 7th 1969 described the car as squealing its tires. Is this an unfortunate coincidence of common phraseology, or did the author of the Debut of Zodiac letter inadvertently use the language he had read in the Blue Rock Springs police report?.

The Zodiac Killer placed a phone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover at 12:40 am on July 5th 1969, reporting his attack on Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs Park, while also stating he was responsible for the Lake Herman Road double murder on December 20th 1968. Although universally regarded as a payphone call with incorrect directions from Zodiac, this was never the case. The directions he gave were totally accurate and make perfect sense by the addition of one full stop in the message, described as the "substance of the statement" and not a verbatim transcription in the police report. The full explanation can be found here - but here is a depiction of what should have been transcribed by police.  

Recently, the phone call "trace" has been discussed again on the Zodiac forums, which I believe is probably the most important topic regarding the home address of the Zodiac Killer. The original transcription of the payphone message is below, containing two crucial times. 12:40 am: The time the payphone call from Zodiac was received, and 12:47 am: The time Mrs Johnson notified police that the call had been traced to a payphone at the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street in Vallejo.    

How they achieved the trace in 1969 will not be discussed here, suffice to say, they located the correct payphone. The Zodiac Killer stated in his August 4th 1969 letter, that "when I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car". It is therefore very likely that this trace resulted in the payphone being rung back by PT&T opersators, much to the annoyance of Zodiac. If it wasn't rung back, then it's clear that the Zodiac Killer used this story to invent an eyewitness who saw his "brown car" as a ruse. Assuming the payphone was contacted by a PT&T operator, we have to consider the time that this occurred. Let us evaluate two scenarios, bearing in mind the Zodiac phone call would have lasted no longer than 30 seconds.

[1] The phone call by Zodiac was completed at 12:40:30. Let us assume that Betty Main traced the call very quickly, at about 12:41 am. She would have done this in full knowledge of the seriousness of the call, possibly regarding four murders. So if she understood the gravity of the call and the need for police to respond quickly to the payphone at the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street, why did the police get the call from PT&T operator, Mrs Johnson, six minutes later? Are we to assume that they just sat on their hands for six full minutes. This makes no sense.

Before the advent of the Rigel software system, utilizing the geographic profiling techniques of criminologist Dr. Kim Rossmo, a rudimentary form of geographic profiling was used by Stuart Kine before the capture of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe. This is mentioned by Dr. Kim Rossmo in a 1998 NCIS Conference, stating "I’m sure people in this room are familiar with this case. This is an example of an investigation going awry because of geography. The tape that was sent to the investigators from someone claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper led to analysis of the accents, they felt there was a Geordie accent, the person was from the Sunderland area, and they focused on that part of England which was about a hundred miles away from where the crimes were occurring. That was wrong. Sutcliffe lived close to the area. Interesting, and I’m not sure how many people are aware of it, but shortly before Sutcliffe’s arrest through work by some patrol officers, a Home Office scientist by the name of Stuart Kine did a sort of basic geographic analysis of the crimes and was quite successful as it turned out in his predictions".  He was in fact very accurate, bearing in mind the size of the killing field - and by literally sticking pins in a map - highlighted an area somewhere by Shipley, only 6 miles from the 6 Garden Lane, Bradford address of Peter Sutcliffe. View geoprofile.

Covered extensively in previous articles, had the Zodiac Killer worked a conventional Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 profession and had lived in the Vallejo area at the time of his murders, we would expect to see his first two Friday attacks relatively close to his home base. Unconstrained by time on Saturday, the Zodiac Killer would be able to venture further afield for his attacks - which is exactly what happened. However, we now have another tool in our arsenal, highlighted in this short but informative video by BCU professor Craig Jackson. Here is a small extract: "Wherever the Yorkshire Ripper was based, the time of his murders would be a vital clue to where he lived. So, if one of the Yorkshire Ripper's victims was murdered in the early evening, 8 o' clock or 9 o' clock at night, that individual could be based very far away from where the Yorkshire Ripper's base was. But if the victim was murdered in the very small hours, midnight, or one or two in the morning, that victim would probably be very close to where the Ripper's base was, assuming that the Ripper would have to be home at a reasonable time to be with their partner or families, or friends who they lived with". The type of victim targeted, the areas they frequented and their availability also has to be factored into the target backcloth. Therefore, we will use the Zodiac Killer's four attacks and see if they conform to a home base in Vallejo.

If the Zodiac had left his house to search for victims on a Friday in the area of Columbus Parkway and Lake Herman Road, then he likely had a knowledge that young courting couples or lone individuals may be found in these remote locations. He has a mental map of the area and an optimal time he would like to return to his residence - but he knows that this sort of victim targeting is unreliable. Sometimes the opportunity may present itself immediately, while other times he may have to do several passes before a suitable target or targets appear. He has to factor this into his thinking when leaving his residence. In other words, if he wants to arrive home no later than 12:15 am, he has to allow for this when leaving his residence. In respect to Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs Park, he could have left his residence at 10:00 pm to allow for this "hit and miss" technique of trawling the eastern edge of Vallejo. This may have accounted for the earlier suspicious sightings on December 20th 1968, prior to the eventual double murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen.

If we apply the model of professor Craig Jackson to our killer, then an attack at approximately 11:15 pm at Lake Herman Road and midnight at Blue Rock Springs Park, would suggest a killer who lived close by and was aiming to return home sometime in the late evening to early morning hours. If the Zodiac Killer had lived near to the Springs Road and Tuolumne Street payphone, he would have arrived home at around 11:30 pm on 12/20/68, and 12:15 am on 07/04/69. The Zodiac Killer's attack at Presidio Heights would not have been affected by a "hit and miss" targeting technique. Had the murder of taxicab driver Paul Stine been planned ahead of time, he would know where he was to find his victim, where he was going to murder the taxicab driver and where his escape route lay before him - including his journey time back to Vallejo. Paul Stine was murdered shortly before 10:00 pm on 10/11/69. The Zodiac Killer (had he parked his vehicle near the Presidio Park) would have about 5-15 minutes of walk time, followed by a 50 to 60 minute journey home via the Golden Gate Bridge. At the latest, he would arrive home at approximately 11:15 pm. Therefore, his window of time to arrive back at his residence after three of his attacks, would fall within one hour of each other (between 11:15 pm and 12:15am) - although it may be slightly more.     

The Lake Berrryessa crime is altogether different. If we believe that the Zodiac Killer targeted areas he was familiar with, then he knew that the outskirts of eastern Vallejo, in the secluded areas of Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs during the weekend or holiday season, was likely rich pickings for courting "couples" or "stray people" in the night. The sheer fact he wrote about killing "over a dozen people" at the weekend, showed an element of confidence in these surroundings, despite the obvious braggadocio displayed.

The Presidio Heights area must also have been familiar to him, to risk such an audacious attack in a built-up area of San Francisco. Dr. Kim Rossmo summed it up perfectly: ​​"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. In San Francisco, however, the Zodiac controlled the situation through his selection of victim type. The need for such control could be indicative of the distance the Zodiac had to travel to the crime site. Criminals who travel longer distances to offend are less likely to use uncertain target selection techniques".

His familiarity with Lake Berryessa (09/27/69) was also obvious. The Zodiac Killer knew on this occasion that a targeted attack in the late evening hours (close to midnight), similar to Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs Park, was wholly uncertain with respect to finding a suitable victim or victims in this location. But he knew that a late afternoon or early evening attack within the expanse of Lake Berryessa, would be the safest bet, The location, on this occasion, effectively governed the earlier attack time. When this constraint was unburdened during his first, second and fourth attacks (assuming he lived in Vallejo and went directly home), his arrival time to his residence would have always fell within a 60-75 minute window of time. If the Zodiac Killer had a preconceived time he wanted to return home by, then Vallejo by the payphone was a perfect fit for a good night's sleep - as well as not arousing suspicion - had he been married (with children).     

The circumstances of a payphone call 40 minutes after the Blue Rock Springs attack, being made from a location only 10 minutes journey time from the crime scene, has generated the idea of a killer who lived extremely close to the Springs and Tuolumne intersection in Vallejo. The over-detailed description of a negro-male eyewitness, generously offered by the author in his August 4th 1969 communication, appeared to corroborate that the murderer was making the phone call accompanied by his car, His unnecessary use of phraseology such as "when I hung the phone up the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car", can be construed as a man attempting to sell us the idea that he was not on foot. This formulated the notion of a ruthless killer who separated himself from his vehicle, weapon and clothing, before making the risky phone call so near to the Vallejo Police Department. He also admitted to hearing the 'trace' on the payphone, indicating that he was still within earshot of the payphone when it rang. This is important, because if the ring-back hadn't occurred within approximately 20 seconds, he would have been long gone in his vehicle. 

There is also a distinct possibility the slayer of Darlene Ferrin had blood transfer on his t-shirt, as he leaned over the passenger side seat of the 1963 brown Corvair in order to shoot Michael Mageau as he took refuge in the rear of the vehicle. Michael Mageau later described a heavyset man of 26-30 years, standing at about 5'8'' tall, beefy build, but not blubbery fat, possibly 195-200 pounds, short curly light brown hair, almost blond. He stated the assailant's vehicle was similar to Darlene's brown Corvair, possibly lighter in color. The accuracy of these statements must be seen in context to the very brief time he was given to view the subject. Nevertheless, these were his recollections documented in the police report. 

Nearly one month after the attack on July 31st 1969, three letters were mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald threatening more murder and mayhem. Speculation inevitably arose after the Blue Rock Springs attack, as to whether Darlene Ferrin was specifically targeted by the killer, after three further suspicious phone calls were received in the early morning hours of July 5th. Much has been discussed regarding these phone calls, received at the 1300 Virginia Street residence of Darlene Ferrin, and the 930 Monterey Street residence of Mr Arthur J Ferrin and Mrs Mildred Ferrin at approximately 01:30 am, just one and a half hours after the murder of Darlene Ferrin and attempted murder of Michael Mageau at Blue Rock Springs.

Using the descriptors above, I went in search of a young male, heavyset, brownish hair, around 5'8", driving a vehicle similar or the same as the brown Corvair of Darlene Ferrin. This subject must also have had the ability to drive from Blue Rock Springs to a residence close to the payphone, so he could ditch his vehicle, weapon and clothing, and still walk to the payphone by 12:40 am and place the call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover. The murderer issued the message "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". The wording of the killer gave the impression that he was unaware of the crime having already been discovered. Was he a resident close to the Vallejo Police Department and had not heard or seen the 'surge' of patrol cars heading along Solano Avenue to Springs Road?- which didn't happen. The answer to all the above observations already lay on page 42 of the Blue Rock Springs police report.  

Page 42: At 12:55 pm on 9-9-69 an anonymous letter was received at Vallejo PD stating "Badly rusted beat up Corvair getting a bright green paint job at 909 Georgia. Owner about 25, 5'9", over 200 lbs, brownish thinning hair, sloppy fat, strange acting. Lives with parents. Calif BTU 179". Sgt Kramer observed this car parked in the Mobile Station at the corner of Georgia and Monterey Streets, BTU 179. Car has maroon (brownish red) top, light green hood and dark green panels. Car is 1963 Corvair 2-door. Checked the registration of the car and it reflects that Patrick, 909 Georgia Street. Went to that address and contacted Patrick Dennis, WMA, 23 years, dob 3-19-46. Is employed as a stevedore at Port Chicago.

Patrick states that on 7-4-69 he went to the fireworks display at the waterfront and from there he went home. States that he parked his car in front of the house at 11:30 pm and did not leave after that time. Patrick's mother Delores was present and verified Patrick's statement. Patrick doesn't own a gun and he did not know Darlene Ferrin. Patrick states that the car can be started without a key but he is sure no one else used the car as it was in the same place in the morning as it was the night before. This car apparently has a bad oil leak as the street in front of the house showed oil on the pavement as though the car was leaking oil.

The similarities are likely unconnected, but 909 Georgia Street is the type of residence we should be looking for - if you buy into the notion of a killer walking to the payphone that morning. An approximate 10 minute drive home, 10 minutes to ditch the vehicle, weapon and clothes, before readying onself for the 15-20 minute journey to the payphone and placing the 12:40 am call to Nancy Slover. And... in a location to have not seen or heard the patrol cars leaving the Vallejo Police Department up Solano Avenue. This location (as the crow flies) is 400 meters from the Vallejo Police Department, 600 meters from Darlene Ferrin's residence, 400 meters from Solano Avenue, 500 meters from the old Vallejo Times-Herald office and 5/8 of a mile from the Springs and Tuolumne payphone. However, if the August 4th 1969 letter wasn't selling us one big red herring, then all of the above is superfluous.  

I have recently read Zodiac researcher Mike Rodelli's new book 'The Hunt for Zodiac: The Inconceivable Double Life of a Notorious Serial Killer'. In it he tackles the payphone call from the Springs and Tuolumne intersection to the Vallejo Police Department in the early morning of July 5th 1969. He takes the widely perceived directions given by the killer to identify the location of St John's Mine Road along Columbus Parkway, from which investigators would be led 'one mile east' to the location of the crime scene. The Zodiac Killer chose this location because he was creating radian angles using the payphone as a vertex to St John's Mine Road and the Lake Herman Road murder site.

This theory relies entirely on the transcription of the message given by Zodiac being written and recorded correctly, despite the fact that police dispatcher Nancy Slover and the Zodiac Killer were talking over each other for part of the message. The police report clearly stated "Writer received call from male subject who did not identify himself. Substance of statement was as follows". The 'substance of statement' reference, indicates that this is not necessarily a verbatim transcription of the spoken message, just the overall substance of the call. The above theory also relies on these locations being predetermined to create the necessary radian angles, and supposes that the killer already had 'radians' in his mind one year in advance of his letter proclaiming the use of such a term. The killer has once again been elevated to a master criminal, creating a labyrinth of puzzles from the terrain of northern California. This is the truth - or there is a much simpler and far more mundane answer.
The idea that the Zodiac Killer was just a ruthless killer scouring the Bay Area for victims using 'hit and miss' tactics, isn't half as appealing as the Moriarty style puzzle merchant he has metamorphosed into in recent years.
What is the likelihood that a killer calling the Vallejo Police Department from a payphone near the police station, was directing the police to the crime scene from their location, rather than creating an elaborate puzzle from a predetermined position along Columbus Parkway to manufacture radian angles? This is for you to decide. 

Thomas Horan, author of 'The Great Zodiac Killer Hoax of 1969', admits that the Nancy Slover police report statement of the message is not a verbatim transcription, but goes on to say "Blue Rock Springs is not one mile east of Vallejo Police Department." Despite this, he then uses the transcription to identify a fire station one mile west of the crime scene in his following hypothesis. Both theories rely on the wording and context of the message having been recorded exactly as it was spoken by the killer. The crime scene is neither 'one mile east' of the fire station or St John's Mine Road. A significant portion of the journey would be traveling closer to south than east. At best (as the crow flies), southeast would be the more accurate determination.  

Zodiac researcher Gian Quasar also tackled this problem on his website 'The Quester Files'.  He stated "The Zodiac does not know the name of the park. Nor was he in a state to notice the sign. Feigning ignorance would buy him nothing. Not knowing the name or just pretending he didn’t know the name would not indicate he was a stranger. Under normal circumstances a stranger would have noticed the park sign. When he calls the police, he actually gives them directions. But even in these he is quite wrong. He is really not aware of directions and distances.
Blue Rock Springs was neither 1 mile east of where he called, nor a mile east of the junction of Springs Road and Columbus Parkway. It is north of Springs Road by about 1 mile and 3 miles away from where he had called. Instead of simply saying the name of the park, which would tell all and sundry the location, The Zodiac gives instructions and doesn’t really have a grasp on distance and direction. He didn’t stalk his ground much at all. Nor was he in a state to notice the sign. He could not have been a Vallejoan."

​This statement makes the assumption that Nancy Slover recalled and recorded the spoken message of Zodiac 100% correct, while just assuming that Zodiac was incorrect with his payphone message. It doesn't consider the possibility that Zodiac was 100% correct and Nancy Slover recalled and recorded the message incorrectly. This same bias was not applied to either party at Presidio Heights, regarding the incorrect negro male adult description given to responding personnel. We will show later that the message by Zodiac was in all likelihood correct - and Nancy Slover also got the wording of the message correct, but with one crucial mistake. Reading into the message and claiming Zodiac was feigning ignorance by only mentioning the word 'park' is a stretch, and again the same argument could be applied to "The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly". Using the word 'park' is not proof of Zodiac knowing the area or not. 

Here is a newspaper article statement regarding the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966.
A Mexican-American student who noticed Cheri Jo Bates close to opening time, stated "he knew Cheri Jo Bates and had noticed her in the library the night in question. He said he saw the girl "writing something with a ball point pen in her blue spiral school notebook." The boy told us he was outside about 5:30 pm, waiting for the library to open at 6:00 pm, and it was then he saw the girl". This statement is confusing, as it can be read in two different ways - did he see Cheri at 5:30 pm or 6:00 pm. 

Let us consider the three teenagers at the corner of Washington and Cherry Streets, and assume they had a direct hotline to Officer Armond Pelissetti one mile west on Washington Street. They are viewing Zodiac heading up Cherry Street, so they call Officer Pelissetti and state "If you go one mile east, on Cherry Street you will see Zodiac." In the second instance they call Officer Pelissetti and state "If you go one mile east on Cherry Street you will see Zodiac." Both statements are composed of the same words, but mean two different things entirely. The only difference is intonation or the use of a slight pause or break, making the first statement correct, while the other giving the impression of directional unawareness. 

Applied to the Blue Rock Springs call, we go from "If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find the kids in a brown car" to "If you will go one mile east. On Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find the kids in a brown car." The wording hasn't changed, but the meaning of the payphone call has changed entirely. The Zodiac Killer is instructing police to head east to Columbus Parkway, from where they will find the stricken couple at the public park. All this is achieved by a simple full stop. Why would he be directing Vallejo police from a point on Columbus Parkway, when he is ringing the police station near to the payphone?  Police traveling from the station along Solano Avenue to Springs Road, would then have to travel 1.34 miles east before reaching Columbus Parkway, on which they would head north towards the crime scene. Do you want this boring answer, or do you want something far more exciting? The choice is yours. 

Here I will tackle the question of the Blue Rock Springs phone call, traced to the Springs Road and Tuolumne Street payphone on the morning of July 5th 1969. The Zodiac Killer stated in the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter, that "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 thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car." Despite the fact that there was no mention of this individual in the police report, along with any supposed eyewitness description of Zodiac in the newspapers, the debate regarding the existence of this negro male adult rages on.

This negro male individual became the perfect eyewitness for Zodiac, tying the phone call and brown car into one neat package. The Zodiac Killer attempted to authenticate this individual by giving us his color, age and mode of dress - along with the convenient timing of a phone call which drew attention to him and his brown car. How absolutely unfortunate for the Zodiac Killer to have his vehicle confirmed by this individual as brown, just like the recollection of surviving victim Michael Mageau. This selling job should be viewed with skepticism, when we consider the tracing of the phone call by ring-back.

The Zodiac Killer described in his own words, that once he "hung the phone up" it began to ring. This must have happened almost immediately, because the negro male (according to Zodiac) was "walking by" the payphone when it rang, which caused him to notice both Zodiac and his vehicle together. The premise of the following reasoning, is that Zodiac is selling us a big fat red herring and he was never in his vehicle when he placed the call to the Vallejo Police Department. He had driven home and had walked the relatively short distance back to the payphone to place the call. The introduction of a brown vehicle into the letter specifically designed for purpose, to give the impression that the Zodiac Killer could have driven anywhere after the payphone call - and the proof is in the police report, time-stamped at 12:47 am.     

But before we discuss the police report, here are a few commentaries by some Zodiac researchers.

In 'The Cases That Haunt Us' by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, they stated "It took seven minutes for Pacific Telephone to trace the call to a payphone in front of a service station".

In 'Unsolved in America' by Harold Schechter, Lee Mellor, Michael Newton, Kim Cresswell, Aaron Elliott and Robert Hoshowsky, it stated that "Within an hour, the call had been traced to a payphone outside Joe's Union Station". 

In 'The Hunt for Zodiac: The Inconceivable Double Life of a Notorious Serial Killer' by Zodiac researcher Mike Rodelli, he stated "Several minutes later the call was traced back to a phone booth located at Joe's Union 76 Station in Vallejo". 

The following question has to be asked: If the trace was achieved after several minutes, or even seven minutes, why was Zodiac still at the payphone when the ring-back occurred. He clearly stated "the damn thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car." If this were the case, then are we to conclude that the Zodiac Killer after hanging up the telephone, remained alongside his vehicle by the payphone for several minutes until operators traced the call and rang it back. This clearly doesn't stack up. That is why we know he is lying. The whole negro eyewitness story of a man spotting his "brown car" was very likely designed to divert attention away from the truth - that he was on foot and lived nearby.

Even if the call was traced within 30-40 seconds, how could the Zodiac have heard the phone ring. As soon as he had hung up the phone (bearing in mind his claims of a negro eyewitness and brown car), he would have immediately returned to his vehicle and driven away. He would have been out of audible range. If the call was traced fairly quickly, or if the call was traced after several minutes, a killer in a car would have been long gone. But if the killer lived nearby and was on foot, he could easily have heard the phone ring as he was walking away. The distance he can cover is reduced, keeping him within earshot of the payphone for longer. Below is an example of the distance the Zodiac Killer could have traveled on foot, putting him within audible range of the payphone. He could have traveled further than the examples shown below and still have heard the payphone ring. 

If you believe the Zodiac researchers above, then the only feasible way the Zodiac Killer can hear the payphone ring after several minutes, is if he is walking away from the intersection of Springs and Tuolumne, negating his claim of being in his vehicle. This could have wide reaching implications regarding the home location of our killer as of July 5th 1969. Here is a further angled view of the location.      

What one has to ask themselves, is which was more likely in 1969 - a call traced to the payphone in about 1 to 5 seconds, or a call traced to the payphone after 30 seconds, or upwards of a minute. The answer may lie in the police report. This may back up the statements of the Zodiac researchers above.

Page 13 of the police report stated "At 12:47 am Mrs JOHNSON PT&T Operator called. The above call was traced to a coin operated telephone at Joe's Union, Tuolumne and Springs Road. The call was traced by Betty Main whose supervisor would not allow her to give a statement at this time."

It states that Mrs Johnson called the police at 12:47 am to report the call had been traced to Joe's Union Gas Station. But what time was the actual call traced using ring-back. This was an urgent matter, in that a killer had just rang in to the Vallejo Police Department at 12:40 am via the operator, declaring murder. If they had rang back the payphone immediately, as Zodiac claimed, and traced the call by at least 12.41 am, then why on earth, considering the gravity of the matter, would Mrs Johnson wait 6 minutes before calling the police. One would suspect they would have called the police the instant they had traced the call. The fact that they called the police at 12:47 am, would seem to indicate they had just traced the call moments earlier. Had this been approximately 12:46 am and Zodiac heard the payphone ring, we would have to assume he was still at the payphone over 5 minutes after he hung up. Having just committed a heinous crime at nearby Blue Rock Springs, and made a phone call to the Vallejo Police Department (situated in close proximity to the payphone), do we really believe that he just sat by the payphone in excess of 5 minutes. 

But had he walked away from the payphone, he realistically, after 5 minutes, should have been out of earshot, as he would have been in a vehicle. However, if he lived in a residence within earshot of the payphone, it wouldn't have mattered when the phone rang back. He would always be within audible range. Was this why the Zodiac Killer was so eager to convince police he was in his vehicle alongside the payphone? Had the police interviewed neighbors close to the payphone about anything they heard or saw that night? Was the residence of the Zodiac Killer closer to the payphone than we ever could have imagined, and the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter was the perfect opportunity to paint a completely different picture of the events that morning.

Officer Richard Hoffman arrived at the Blue Rock Springs parking lot at approximately 12:13 am on July 5th 1969. Shortly thereafter, an ambulance was summoned (arriving at around 12.20 am) and removed the victims from the crime scene for the 10 minute journey to Kaiser Hospital, where Darlene Ferrin was pronounced dead upon arrival at 12:38 am. Here is an extract from page 7 of the police report:

'On initial arrival, RO requested by radio an ambulance & an investigation at the scene & upon returning to Officer Hoffman RO went to assistance of subject on ground, as Officer 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 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 felt it was necessary to question subject inspight of the fact the subject was in great pain. Subject was coherent & RO asked him, "do you know who shot you?" and he replied "no". RO then asked Mageau to give me 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 & heavyset by himself & that he was in a brown vehicle. Questioning continued until the arrival of the ambulance. By this time Sgt's Rust, Lynch and Odiorne had arrived at the scene & RO gave them the information from the victim & gave a description over the air to all units' 

Michael Mageau also told Officer Hoffman that the perpetrator was last seen heading in the direction of Springs Road and Vallejo. By 12:20 am a rudimentary description of the perpetrator, his vehicle, and direction of travel had been given to all units, who likely scoured the area of Springs Road towards Vallejo. The killer couldn't be certain his vehicle wasn't spotted leaving the Blue Rock Springs parking lot and couldn't be certain that both Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau were dead, despite his proclamation in the 12:40 am payphone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover. With multiple units searching for a description of the vehicle, how likely is it that the Zodiac Killer immediately traveled to the payphone, parked his car outside Joe's Union gas station and made a telephone call to the operator and Vallejo Police Department - a police station situated in extremely close proximity to the payphone. He may have been under the impression that his crime had not been discovered at this juncture, but would it have been the sensible option to remain in his vehicle, with possibly blood transfer on his clothing and the gun still in his possession. If the killer did not have a residence nearby, then he had either driven around or parked up somewhere from midnight to 12.40 am - all while a police search of the area is unfolding around him. There is, however, a new and compelling argument to be had that may dispel the idea of a killer making a payphone call while in the presence of his vehicle - and can be found in the police report and August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter.  

This is an extract from page 13 of the police report:
'7-5-69 A call received at 12.40 AM by unknown citizen "I want to report a double murder. If you will go 1 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" 

'12.47 AM Mrs Johnson PT&T operator called. The above call was traced to a coin-operated telephone at Joe's Union, Tuolumne and Springs Road. The call was traced by Betty MAIN whose supervisor would not allow her to give a statement at this time.' 

This is the recollection of Nancy Slover in the 2007 Zodiac documentary, describing the latter part of the telephone call: 'But he said something like goodbye (drawn out in nature) and he hangs up, and I'm just kind of sitting there thinking "Oh my God."' 

Here is part of Zodiac's August 4th 1969 'Debut' letter:
'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 thing began to ring & that drew his attention to me + my car.'

These four sections of text should be enough to pour huge doubt on a killer making a telephone call to police, having driven to the payphone in a "brown car", further bolstering the idea of a killer on foot who lived nearby. The Zodiac Killer, in his own words, places his vehicle right next to the payphone. He corroborates this using the 'negro male', who spotted him and his vehicle when the phone rang as he hung it up. If the Zodiac Killer is in his vehicle as he claimed, it is highly doubtful that once he replaced the receiver he perched himself alongside his vehicle and smoked a cigarette for several minutes with an eyewitness clocking him and his vehicle. He would have "hung the phone up," returned to his vehicle immediately and driven away. This sequence of events couldn't have taken much longer than 10 seconds.

Police dispatcher Nancy Slover, once the Zodiac Killer had hung up, contemplated the gravity of what she had just heard, likely finishing off writing details of the call, "kind of sitting there thinking "Oh my God." She then had to reconnect to the operator to discover the origin of the call - who would then have traced the call to Joe's Union on Springs and Tuolumne. 'Ringback' would have been used to 'dial' back to this payphone, thereby making it ring. Unless this sequence of events could be accomplished in less than 10 seconds using the technology of 1969, the Zodiac Killer would never have heard the phone ringing. He would have returned to his vehicle and been long gone. The ringing payphone was never reported in any newspapers, so the Zodiac Killer had to be within audible range to know of this occurrence. Nancy Slover received the phone call at 12.40 am, and the Zodiac spoke for approximately 30 seconds. The call would surely have ended before 12.41 am, yet, Mrs Johnson (PT&T operator) didn't get back to police, stating the call had been traced, until 12.47 am. That is just over 6 minutes later. If the trace and 'ringback' had occurred almost immediately (in under 10 seconds), why, bearing in mind the gravity of the murderous phone call, did it take 6 minutes to relay this crucial information to police.   

If the PT&T operator had contacted police the moment they had traced the phone call (12.47 am), then this operation would have taken several minutes. If this were the case, then the Zodiac Killer could never have heard the phone ring if he had driven away in his vehicle. If Joe's Union payphone had been rung in a reasonable estimate time of 30-60 seconds by PT&T operators - once Zodiac had hung up - he still wouldn't have failed to reach his vehicle and driven away. However, it is certainly possible he could have heard the payphone ring if he was on foot while walking away towards his residence. He would still be within audible range.

The Zodiac Killer would have rang the operator that morning and asked for the Vallejo Police Department - hence their ability to 'trace' the call. But, once the Zodiac Killer had 'hung the phone up', is it possible that Nancy Slover could finish up her written record of the call, sit there briefly, thinking "Oh my God," contact the PT&T operator, who then facilitated a trace on the call and rang the Joe's Union payphone inside of the time it takes for Zodiac to reach his vehicle and drive away. If the 'ringback' took as little as 30-60 seconds, then it's highly likely the Zodiac Killer heard the payphone ring as he was walking away from the Springs Road and Tuolumne Street intersection on his way home. The 40-45, rather shabbily dressed, negro male now becomes the perfectly described eyewitness, who saw Zodiac in his "brown car by the payphone." What a helpful guy.
 

The best evidence we have in the Zodiac case are not the murders themselves, but the copious letters and cards the killer mailed over many years. They may not have told us who the killer was, however, they can reveal information about the confirmed murderer of five with respect to his use of language - in particular his use of the present and past tense. This was examined in the article 'Zodiac Killer- A Vallejo Resident' which tried to pinpoint the home location of the Zodiac Killer. We attempted to narrow this further by examining his July 5th 1969 payphone call, along with the language he used in the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter concerning the negro male eyewitness. Although not an exact science, the phone call to police dispatcher Nancy Slover is worth another look.

The murderer of Darlene Ferrin made a phone call 40 minutes after the attack, directing officers from the police station to the parking lot at Blue Rock Springs Park. He made the payphone call from the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street at 12:40 am, stating "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". The overriding impression from the use of language adopted in the phone call, is that of a killer seemingly unaware that the crime has already been discovered by responding police officers. The use of the future tense, with respect to police that "will go" and "you will find," suggests that the Zodiac Killer is of the opinion that his deadly deed is not yet known to police at this juncture.

​Bearing in mind his directions are from the police station across the road from the payphone, it could be surmised that the killer has either been somewhere in the vicinity of the payphone or police station for at least 30 minutes, in order for him to have drawn such a conclusion. The only way the murderer could assume nobody had responded to the crime scene from the police station, from which he gave his directions, is by a notable lack of activity in responding police units from this location, This could be in the form of visual confirmation or the audible nature of police sirens. But to know this, he has to be close by - either in his vehicle or residence. We will later give reasons to pour doubt on a killer driving from Blue Rock Springs Park to somewhere close to the payphone or police station, to watch the unfolding activity from the confines of his vehicle. This will further corroborate the likelihood of a killer living extremely close to the intersection of Springs Road and Tuolumne Street, or very close to the police station itself.       

The most direct route of travel from the police station to Blue Rock Springs would be to take Solano Avenue to Springs Road and head east to Columbus Parkway. The Zodiac Killer got his distance slightly wrong, but from the perspective of traveling in an easterly direction, he is only 0.4 miles off. His expanded phone call should have read "I want to report a double murder. If you will go 1.4 miles east on Springs Road...... 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". This should leave little doubt that the Zodiac Killer was directing officers from the police station east towards the crime scene. But why was the killer under the impression his "double murder" had yet to be discovered? This is where the police reports and crime documentaries come in handy.

Officer Richard Hoffman stated: "I was working as a patrol officer in a juvenile division. It was a plainclothes assignment. I wasn't far away, so I turned around and went back out there (Blue Rock Springs parking lot)". Detective Sergeant Ed Rust stated "My partner and I, John Lynch, who was also a detective sergeant, he was the senior of our team. We worked a late shift, three to midnight, something like that, and I was driving the plainclothes car- we were plainclothes detectives- and we were round the downtown area in Vallejo. It was close to midnight, when we heard reports of a possible shooting at Blue Rock Springs Park over the radio and they had dispatched a patrol car, and I told John "you wanna head out there" and he said "no, it's probably just firecrackers or something". It was actually just after 12:10 am, when Debra, Jerry and Roger had rang in the crime to police dispatcher Nancy Slover. Detective Sergeant Ed Rust continued "So, since I was driving, I started meandering in that direction, and a few minutes later I believe we got another report of shots fired, again at Blue Rock Springs, and the officer Dick Hoffman, patrol officer, got there first and said he had a shooting- two people involved. So then, obviously, I put it in high gear and took off and we got out there pretty quickly".

These were the first officers at the crime scene - and it's clear they were both plainclothes officers - one responding from close to the crime scene and the other "meandering" towards the crime scene. Both likely inside the radius of the Springs/Tuolumne intersection and the Blue Rock Springs parking lot, before the gravity of the radio dispatch became evident. Was the Zodiac Killer expecting a massive charge of vehicles from the police station from 12:10 am onward - and when nothing happened - he decided to place a phone call at 12:40 am, instructing police to head to the crime scene?

If he had a visual on the police station from 12:10-12:40 am, one could argue he had seen little activity to suggest the police had discovered the crime in the preceding 40 minutes. Thereby explaining his use of the future tense in his directions to police. Dispatcher Nancy Slover would corroborate this lack of activity in the 2007 'This is the Zodiac Speaking' documentary, stating "At 12:10 am, the first call I received, was from a young white woman in her late teens, and she was really agitated, excited or whatever. She reported that there were kids being shot at at Blue Rock Springs. So, I took the call and I gave it to the dispatcher, and I remember her saying "I don't know who I'm gonna send, because I don't have anybody free".

If the Zodiac Killer had driven to Benicia or Napa, and made the phone call from such a place, would he not have just proclaimed the murders as he did at Lake Berryessa seven weeks later, when he used the phrase "I'm the one that did it", rather than "you will find the kids in a brown car". This is not conclusive proof he was close to the Vallejo Police Station in the 30 minutes after the crime, however, the possibility exists, especially when we consider his August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter, in which he tries to sell us a story. 

The police or newspapers have never confirmed the existence a negro male adult reporting his sighting of Zodiac by the Springs and Tuolumne payphone. Therefore, it must be viewed with great suspicion, a killer offering up confirmation that he was in his "brown" vehicle rather than on foot when making the phone call to Nancy Slover. If the Zodiac Killer lived close to the payphone, or close to the police station, he may have naively been expecting some activity in the area of Solano Avenue or Springs Road in the 40 minutes after his crime - particularly in view of increased activity at Blue Rock Springs Park during the July 4th celebrations. He may have expected his crime to have been discovered by now. 

The area of Blue Rock Springs was considerably more rural than it is today. Despite this fact, would it be conceivable that the Zodiac Killer just parked up somewhere before he made the call to police. He couldn't be certain his vehicle wasn't spotted exiting the Blue Rock Springs parking lot. He was wearing only a blue t-shirt during the shooting, and had leaned into Darlene Ferrin's passenger side window and over the front seat, to fire the final shots at Michael Mageau. This would have greatly increased the likelihood of blood transfer to his clothing from the window, passenger seat and interior of the brown Corvair. The lighter the t-shirt, the more evident the transfer would have become. Taking these factors into consideration, not withstanding he was still in possession of the firearm, it may have been extremely foolhardy not to have headed straight for home, before heading back to the payphone.

Was the Zodiac Killer's apparent knowledge of the lack of police activity around the police station, the reason for the language adopted in the phone call to Nancy Slover? Of somebody, who knew more than he should have known. The journey time to the payphone from the parking lot is approximately 10 minutes. So why not just make the phone call at 12:10 am and be done with it. Or had he planned to watch the unfolding action from a vantage point close to the police station in fond anticipation of police "running around town". Unfortunately for Zodiac, the wait was seemingly too long.   

There remains a widespread misconception that the Zodiac Killer's directions in the phone call after the Blue Rock Springs Park attack were incorrect, even though the police report clearly specified that the recollection of police dispatcher Nancy Slover was in effect the 'substance of the statement', not a verbatim transcription. The Zodiac Killer likely planned the payphone call and location, yet we assume his directions to the crime scene were horribly wrong based on the version remembered by Nancy Slover. There is no evidence to support such a conclusion based on the wording of the call shown below. Nancy Slover even recalled that the Zodiac Killer was speaking in a rehearsed, monotone fashion, as if reading from a script - which is a perfectly reasonable hypothesis. If we conclude he had prepared a written script, then this would seemingly fly in the face of him getting his directions completely wrong. 

The Zodiac Killer was correct when he placed Betty Lou Jensen's feet facing west, along with his apparent knowledge of the the infrequently traveled Lake Herman Road as a location for courting couples, yet somehow became completely disoriented when making one turn off Columbus Parkway to the payphone at Springs Road and Tuolumne Street. When Zodiac made the Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa phone calls, he rang the police. Therefore, it follows logically, that any directions given would be to direct the police to the crime scene from their location. In these cases, ​the Sheriff's Office was located at the junction of Virginia and Tuolumne Streets, the Vallejo Police Department at 111 Amador Street, and Park Headquarters at Lake Berryessa.         

If you were calling the police at 12:40 am on July 5th 1969, issuing them with directions to Blue Rock Springs, then your first statement would be to tell them to go east, which is exactly what the Zodiac Killer did. Then take Columbus Parkway to the crime scene. Police dispatcher Nancy Slover was certainly not prepared for the call she was about to receive, crucially interrupting the caller and asking him for his details as he began his message. In other words, she spoke over the killer while simultaneously having to register what he was saying. She may have been a trained police dispatcher, but little prepares you for a serial killer ringing in, claiming the murder of four people in total. She often recalled how unnerving the phone call was.
In the aftermath of the call, she then had to remember its totality, word for word, along with the exact sequence of the message and any pauses or sentence breaks within it, so as to fully transcribe the message delivered in its correct context. 

The message shown above was composed of 46 words, delivered in approximately 20 seconds. The chances of recalling this amount of words in exactly the correct order and context, one could suggest is extremely unlikely and unrealistic. There is often the false assumption that the Zodiac Killer was incorrect in his delivery of the message, whereas, it is a far more credible proposition that Nancy Slover simply recalled the message incorrectly or in the wrong context. We have previously shown that by inserting one break into the message it reads perfectly from a directional standpoint, although possibly incorrectly regarding the distances given. Here is the message with the break or pause inserted "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". This message now makes sense regarding a killer directing police from 111 Armador Street to Blue Rock Springs Park. However, there are many alternatives.   

You can see from the map above, it is impossible to direct anybody to the crime scene traveling "one mile east on Columbus Parkway"  You would be traveling "one mile north northeast" or "one mile southeast". Additionally, you would be traveling to the crime scene from effectively nowhere of any note - least of all a police station. It can be seen that responding officers heading away from the police station would be traveling along Solano Avenue, before joining Springs Road, then traveling 1.39 miles east to Columbus Parkway (as opposed to the one mile east given in the phone call). So it can be seen that the Zodiac simply approximated the distance east.

The widely portrayed message reads ""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". ​The Zodiac Killer wasn't going to deliver fractions of distances in his payphone call, so rounded 1.39 miles east to 1 mile, now giving us a perfectly reasonable set of directions and distances in his message to Nancy Slover. Unfortunately, yet understandably, it was recalled incorrectly through memory and talking over the killer during the first part of the message. We must not make the blind assumption that the "substance of the statement" was in fact a perfect transcription of what the Zodiac Killer actually said that night. If it was a perfect transcription, then it makes little sense regarding a call directing the police to the crime scene. If it makes little sense - one can argue it wasn't spoken.

Footnote: 
"I want to report a murder, no, a double murder. They are two miles north of Park Headquarters. They were in a white Volkswagen Karmann Ghia ...... I'm the one that did it".
"I want to report a murder, no, a double murder. There are two people one mile north of Park Headquarters. They were in a white Volkswagen Karmann Ghia ...... I'm the one that did it".