Many people have wondered what inspired the Zodiac Killer to choose his crosshairs symbol on July 31st 1969, with varied interpretations such as the Zodiac watch, gunsights or the Celtic Cross. What we can confidently state is that the Zodiac Killer used his crosshairs to pinpoint locations on maps. In his "Bus Bomb" letter on November 9th 1969 he placed five X's on the circumference of his crosshairs, which when tilted clockwise towards magnetic north and placed over Mount Diablo, near aligned with the atack sites he was currently claiming. On June 26th 1970 the Zodiac Killer placed his crosshairs on a map of San Francisco & Vicinity, making Mount Diablo the target of his bomb location puzzle. On March 22nd 1971 the Zodiac Killer placed his crosshairs around a punch-hole, which has been considered by investigators to be the burial location of Donna Lass, who went missing from Stateline, Nevada on September 6th 1970.

​In all three examples, the Zodiac Killer was using his crosshairs as a target on land mass. So, is it possible that the Zodiac Killer derived his symbol from a target on land mass, such as the mysterious crosshairs symbol found in the Nevada desert, measuring 1,000 feet by 1,000 feet? The crosshairs symbol just south of the Triangle Eye is believed to have been constructed from slabs of concrete and asphalt, and made as early as the 1950s by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.   

It is situated 20 miles south of the Tonopah Test Range, part of the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), which is one of two military training areas at the Nellis Air Force Base Complex in Nevada and used by the United States Air Force Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base. The NTTR land area includes a "simulated Integrated Air Defense System", several individual ranges with 1200 targets, and 4 remote communication sites. The current NTTR area and the range's former areas have been used for aerial gunnery and bombing, for nuclear tests, as a proving ground and flight test area, for aircraft control and warning, and for Blue Flag, Green Flag, and Red Flag exercises. Wikipedia. 

Triangle Eye is within the Nevada Test and Training Range. The area is closed off to the general public so probably only see it from the air. These are artillery firing targets meant for "Circular Error Probable" and Time on Target related calibrations and training. During WW1 and WW2, it was found that most artillery kills happen within seconds of the attack starting, because once the artillery has started to impact, the soldiers are quickly rushing for cover. Because of this, artillery soldiers found that the best way to get optimal impact from artillery was to ensure that all shells landed roughly in the same area and at the same time, like a high-powered shotgun blast. These circles are used to determine how closely grouped the shells are, and because the ground is completely flat, it also allows for easy monitoring of the impacts to verify how close they are in time. If you look over the hills to the west, there is a similar circle that has more obvious impact markings. The circles are roughly 100 meters apart so it's easy to gauge how many shells land within 100 meters of the target. Link.

These targets in the desert were used in training exercises to determine accuracy, which included the dropping of bombs onto crosshairs such as the one above. The Zodiac Killer would place a similar target upon Mount Diablo to help locate his bomb on June 26th 1970. The only reason I have brought all of this up, is because of the wording he chose in his following communication on August 4th 1969, when he was describing his methodology of targeting his victims using a pencil flashlight (described as an electric gun sight in his "Bus Bomb" letter on November 9th 1969).

​On August 4th 1969 he wrote "What I did was tape a small pencel flash light to the barrel of my gun. If you notice, in the center of the beam of light if you aim it at a wall or ceiling you will see a black or darck spot in the center of the circle of light". When the phrase in red (corrected for spelling) was typed into the newspaper archive, this sequence of ten words was only found in one newspaper previous to August 4th 1969, spanning 279 years. This exact same phrase was used in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper on June 17th 1942 about wartime precautions in the event of a bombing raid from enemy planes (see below).​

On its own this means very little, but In three lengthy consecutive communications on November 29th 1966, July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969, I found the quote ​"it was about time for her to die" from 1888, "man is the most dangerous animal of all" from 1932, and "darck spot in the center of the circle of light" from 1942. A newspaper article on November 24th 1966 mentioned Jack the Ripper and Cheri Jo Bates, and five days later in the Confession letter we had a Ripper style communication with "it was about time for her to die" from 1888 (found only once prior to 1966). The July 31st 1969 letters appeared to reference the movie "The Most Dangerous Game" from 1932, with the quote "man is the most dangerous animal of all" being uttered by Merian C. Cooper, the associate producer of the film, discovered in only three 1932 newspapers. Now we had the "darck spot in the center of the circle of light" from 1942. One could argue that the methodology of sourcing archival newspapers phrases on November 29th 1966, July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969 for the purpose of fashioning a sinister letter (if this is what happened), was indicative of a single designer responsible for all three.

Although Chief Martin Lee ridiculed the idea that the Zodiac entered the Presidio Park, it appeared that Inspectors David Toschi and Bill Armstrong weren't so dismissive according to Robert Graysmith, who wrote "The detectives heard from neighbors that a stocky figure was seen dashing across Julius Kahn playground and into the dense undergrowth of the Presidio. The dog patrol units, seven of the best search dogs in the country, gathered at the front entrance of the Presidio and were deployed one at a time in various directions. Armstrong and Toschi considered the possibilities. Had the killer gone quickly through the dark woods and emerged from the Presidio at Richardson Avenue, and taken Highway 101 past Fort Point onto the Golden Gate Bridge and vanished into Marin County". The thoughts of Toschi and Armstrong were well founded, especially when you consider that the man seen running into the Julius Kahn Playground carried an extremely similar description to the one given by Officer Donald Fouke and the three Robbins kids. 

If the Zodiac Killer had entered the park here, it is highly unlikely he would have backtracked in a westerly direction towards the crime scene. An escape route north on foot to escape the park would have been extremely time consuming. The detail given by the Zodiac Killer in his November 9th 1969 letter (if true), suggests that once he entered the park at Julius Kahn Playground he headed east, where in the wooded section opposite Laurel Street, he observed dogs that never came within 2 blocks of him, because they were to the west. Two blocks west was Julius Kahn Playground, where "seven of the best search dogs in the country, gathered at the front entrance of the Presidio". The Zodiac Killer's claim in his letter was correct that dogs were assembled by​ Julius Kahn Playground, but this detail had been released in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper as early as October 15th 1969, which stated "A large contingent of police with dogs and searchlights secured the area around Cherry Street, which included the wooded south boundary of the Presidio and Julius Kahn Playground. So any escape through the park in a westerly direction, two blocks towards Cherry would have been highly unlikely. 

The Zodiac Killer, after stating "The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west", mentioned that "there was only 2 groups of parking (or barking)". Did he lift this information from the newspapers which reported a "large contingent of police and dogs with searclights" by Cherry Street and Julius Kahn Playground, which was "two groups"? Or was he able to see the searchlights at these approximate locations as he hid in the park? Motorcycles and police cars were mobilized to circle Presidio Park to restrict the movements of the killer, but according to the Zodiac in his October 13th 1969 letter they were "holding road races" instead of "quietly waiting for him to come out of cover". He further elaborated on this on November 9th 1969, stating "the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west".

​If the Zodiac Killer had continued eastwards through the park from the wooded area opposite Laurel Street, he would have reached Presidio Boulevard, where  police motorcycles would have been traveling from the "south to north west" (see map below). The two yellow circles on the map show two positions exactly 150 feet from Presidio Boulevard, so if the Zodiac Killer was at either of these locations he would have been in prime position, nestled in the woods, with the ability to observe motorcycles traveling along the roadway, and ready to escape from the park to the nearby Lyon Street, which was 370 feet from Presidio Boulevard. 

If Robert Graysmith was correct, this thought process must have been considered by Toschi and Armstrong, who conceived the notion of a killer heading towards Richardson Avenue, traveling west on Highway 101, and over the Golden Gate Bridge. The only difference to my analysis, is that they thought the killer may have emerged from the Presidio at Richardson Avenue. However, this would have required the Zodiac Killer to have spent an excessive amount of time in the park, rather than exiting from the south-eastern corner and entering a vehicle parked on Lyon Street. From here, in a vehicle, he would have reached Richardson Avenue in a much quicker time.       

The Zodiac could have combined his experience from that night with maps and the coverage in the newspapers in the intervening four weeks, to concoct a reasonable story of his excursion into the park. However, the description of the man running into Julius Kahn Playground near-matched the description given by the teenagers at the crime scene and Officer Donald Fouke. So if the Zodiac Killer had entered the park at this location, he had to go somewhere. That safest somewhere, based on the police search, would most likely have been east in the direction of Lyon Street and Broadway.  

There has yet to be a satisfactory explanation for why Officer Donald Fouke chose to head away from the crime scene on October 11th 1969 after the initial radio broadcast, rather than turn south on Cherry Street to come to the aid of Paul Stine, other than he was directed there by Zodiac. I am not going to rehash this analysis again, so if you are interested read the article "Two Cops Pulled a Goof" or watch the following Youtube video.   

The argument being put forward here, is that if Officers Donald Fouke and Eric Zelms stopped and spoke to the Zodiac Killer, then the initial radio broadcast informing responding officers to be on the lookout for a black male adult was a fabrication. In other words, there was no such instruction. The story of the mix up between the Robbins kids and the dispatcher would have been created to explain away the fact that Officers Donald Fouke and Eric Zelms didn't apprehend the white male subject on Jackson Street, who was later realised to be the Zodiac Killer.

​In 1969, the percentage of African American males in San Francisco was 13.4%, but in the wealthy district of Presidio Heights their population density was much lower. The Zodiac Killer was all about providing "proof" during his canonical attacks. He provided numerous details of his Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attacks on July 31st 1969 and August 4th 1969, including the reference to police talking to a black male (probably by the payphone on July 5th 1969). He wrote on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's vehicle at Lake Berryessa, and mailed a piece of Paul Stine's shirt two days after the murder, to indelibly link himself to these crimes. He also made two phone calls after his second and third attacks. The Zodiac Killer's primary goal at this juncture was tying himself to the crimes.

This can be seen on November 9th 1969, when the Zodiac Killer highlighted one particular section of his letter, stating "p.s. 2 cops pulled a goof abot 3 min after I left the cab. I was walking down the hill to the park when this cop car pulled up + one of them called me over + asked if I saw anyone acting suspicious or strange in the last 5 to 10 min + I said yes there was this man who was runnig by waveing a gun & the cops peeled rubber + went around the corner as I directed them + I disappeared into the park a block + a half away never to be seen again". The Zodiac Killer did this by placing arrows across this section of text with the accompanying phrase "Must print in paper". His knowledge of the police at this particular location was his proof of being there. However, there is one crucial thing missing from the red section of text above. It should have read "I said yes there was this black man who was runnig by waveing a gun".  

Officer Donald Fouke, from all the police accounts we have read, was looking for a black male adult as he approached the intersection of Jackson and Maple, so if he had stopped the Zodiac Killer at this location, the obvious question to have asked a white male adult walking on the sidewalk, in a low density African American area, would not have been "have you seen anyone acting suspicious or strange in the last 5 to 10 min". It would have been "have you seen a black man acting suspicious or strange in the last 5 to 10 min". He was looking for a black male adult in the area, so it flies in the face of any common sense that you would not include this distinguishing characteristic in your question, when asking a white male for assistance.

​But how do we know that Officer Donald Fouke didn't include the "black male" description when talking to Zodiac? Because the Zodiac Killer would have written "have you seen a black man acting suspicious or strange in the last 5 to 10 min" in his November 9th 1969 letter as further proof he spoke to officers, had Donald Fouke said such a thing. Why on earth would the Zodiac Killer omit such a crucial detail like this from a section of text he made a point of highlighting? Probably because Officer Donald Fouke wasn't looking for a black male on October 11th 1969, having never been given this instruction by the dispatcher. It was likely a fabrication issued to him by his superiors, to be documented in a memorandum on November 12th 1969.     

The police and other outlets received many calls from individuals who claimed to be the Zodiac Killer, which were routinely passed off as potential hoaxers. The most infamous of these calls came on October 22nd 1969, firstly at 2:00am to the Oakland Police Department headquarters at 455 7th St, asking for either Melvin Belli or Francis Lee Bailey to appear on the popular Jim Dunbar TV Show. The second contact, later that morning, was a series of calls to the TV show from somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, who was eventually discovered to be a mental patient by the name of Eric Weill, who chose to use the name "Sam" when prompted and ultimately delivered a rambling psychotic message to the two hosts and viewing public.

The police were clearly unconvinced by many of the "Zodiac" calls they received, so it should have been an obvious choice to have vetted anybody wanting to "appear" on a mainstream television show in front of a considerable audience. The Oakland Police Department, either by their request or by wilful submission from the caller, appeared to have done this by getting "undisclosed knowledge about the killings" from the mystery man. This would have been extremely easy, by simply asking the caller to disclose the wording "by knife", written on the white 1956 Karmann Ghia  of Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa, which was withheld from public knowledge. So why wasn't this done when "Sam" rang the Jim Dunbar TV Show a few hours later? This could have immediately removed Eric Weill from the phone line and increased the chances of the real Zodiac Killer delivering his message on the airwaves, to possibly be recognised by one of the many listeners or attending law enforcement. At the very least, investigators may have gained extra insight into the murderer of five, who had undoubtedly rang the Jim Dunbar Show earlier that month when Melvin Belli was last on the show.    

​When the Zodiac impersonator rang into the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969, the caller was asked by the host "Did you try to call us one other time, about two or three weeks ago. Did you attempt to call this program one other time when Mr. Belli was with us?". Jim Dunbar was clearly aware of a previous attempt by the "Zodiac Killer" to call the television show, but as had become usual, this call was probably dismissed as a hoaxer wasting police time. If the caller to the Oakland Police Department was confirmed to be the Zodiac Killer - who asked for Melvin Belli - then it's hugely significant that a previous caller had asked to appear on the very same Jim Dunbar Show two or three weeks previously, when Melvin Belli was once again the guest. An earlier call that would have been placed a matter of days before the Paul Stine murder in San Francisco. Especially when you consider that the caller rang KGO Radio in San Francisco when no murders had yet been committed by the Zodiac Killer in San Francisco. If the caller to the Oakland Police Department on October 22nd 1969 was fully verified as the Zodiac Killer, then it is with near certainty he rang the Jim Dunbar Show before the Presidio Heights murder on October 11th 1969.

​He may have rang the Jim Dunbar Show between October 1st 1969 and October 10th 1969 to announce that he was about to unleash terror into the heart of the big city, but after being thwarted on this occasion and his attempt on October 22nd 1969, he probably lost patience and declared on November 9th 1969 that he would no longer announce when he was going to commit his murders. The apparent lack of vetting of the Jim Dunbar Show caller, ultimately allowed Eric Weill to waste everyone's time and send law enforcement down another blind alley.

The Zodiac Killer opened up his November 9th 1969 letter with his disdain for police, stating "This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people. I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc". The lies that the Zodiac Killer was speaking of were likely the utterances of San Francisco Chief of Inspectors, Martin Lee, who stated in the newspaper below that the Zodiac Killer was lying when he claimed he had entered the Presidio Park on October 11th 1969. He rejected the claim of Zodiac that he was close by "in the Julius Kahn Playground" and was a killer who had "almost certainly left his fingerprints somewhere in the Yellow Cab". But there is something unusual about Chief Martin Lee's statements.   

The above newspaper article is correct that the Zodiac Killer chided police for not searching "the park properly (who were) instead holding road races with their motorcicles seeing who could make the most noise". However, the newspaper article claimed that the Zodiac Killer "wrote (in a taunting letter) that all the while police were looking for him he was not far away in the Julius Kahn Playground". But this article was published on October 19th 1969 when the Zodiac Killer had never mentioned his presence in the Julius Kahn Playground. His October 13th 1969 "Stine letter" only mentioned the "park", which could have been anywhere in San Francisco's Presidio Park.

It wasn't until November 9th 1969, twenty-one days later, that the Zodiac Killer made any inference to Julius Kahn Playground, when he informed police that "p.s. 2 cops pulled a goof abot 3 min after I left the cab. I was walking down the hill to the park when this cop car pulled up + one of them called me over + asked if I saw anyone acting suspicious or strange in the last 5 to 10 min + I said yes there was this man who was runnig by waveing a gun & the cops peeled rubber + went around the corner as I directed them + I disappeared into the park a block + a half away never to be seen again".

​Three days later, on November 12th 1969, a police memorandum from Officer Donald Fouke began with "Sir; I respectfully wish to report the following", before going on to describe his encounter with the Zodiac Killer on Jackson Street (which was about "a block + a half away" from Spruce Street and Julius Kahn Playground). If this was the first time Officer Donald Fouke had told of his encounter with Zodiac to his superiors, it seems odd that Chief Martin Lee was responding to a claim in a newspaper article on October 19th 1969 that Zodiac had told them he was in Julius Kahn Playground. ​Admittedly, there was an October 12th 1969 San Francisco Chronicle article describing a man seen running into the Julius Kahn Playground, but Zodiac hadn't suggested this was him until November 9th 1969 when he claimed he disappeared into the park at the northern terminus of Spruce Street (a block and a half away from the cops). So how could Zodiac have lied about being in Julius Kahn Playground by October 19th 1969, when he had made no such claim until November 9th 1969? 

​It has long been suspected that the above memorandum was a belated offering, issued by Donald Fouke's superiors in response to the Zodiac's November 9th 1969 letter, when in fact, they had long known that Officer Donald Fouke had reported his sighting of the white male (Zodiac) shortly after it happened. Chief Martin Lee had been aware before October 19th 1969 that a man was seen running into the Julius Kahn Playground. He was also likely knowledgeable of Donald Fouke's sighting of Zodiac traveling east on Jackson Street towards Julius Kahn Playground. This being the case, it's easy to see how Chief Martin Lee may have coalesced the two stories together on October 19th 1969, when asserting that Zodiac claimed he was hiding in Julius Kahn Playground, when in fact, the Zodiac Killer had only ever claimed he was hiding in the "park" at this juncture.

This is not insignificant, because it shows knowledge of Officer Donald Fouke's sighting of Zodiac long before the police memorandum was issued on November 12th 1969. All that Chief Martin Lee knew, was that a white male adult was seen running into Julius Kahn Payground by eyewitnesses. The Zodiac Killer had made no such claim of entering at this location by October 19th 1969. Therefore, why would Chief Martin Lee be refuting a claim that had never been issued by the Zodiac Killer up to this date? The mere contemplation of a killer hiding in the Julius Kahn playground, suggests a knowledge that the Zodiac Killer was heading in this direction after passing Officer Donald Fouke on Jackson Street. The sighting detailed in the October 12th 1969 newspaper article has never been officially connected to the Zodiac Killer, so why would Chief Martin Lee have been responding to (or brought up) the notion of the Zodiac Killer hiding in Julius Kahn Playground, when the Zodiac Killer had never been conclusively linked to this location, or had even mentioned it in any communication by October 19th 1969? Only by November 9th 1969, in Zodiac's writings, could it have been determined that the Zodiac Killer had entered the park at Julius Kahn Playground. Something that Chief Martin Lee couldn't have known by October 19th 1969.       

On October 18th 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper stated "In a letter to The Chronicle, the Zodiac chided police for not finding him during their search of Julius Kahn Park and a nearby wooded portion of the park". Yet this wasn't true. The Zodiac Killer had not chided the police in his October 13th 1969 letter for their search of the Julius Kahn Playground or any nearby wooded portion of the park. However, the Zodiac Killer had chided the police for their search of this area on November 9th 1969.

In his November 9th 1969 letter the Zodiac stated "Hey blue pig I was in the park -- you were useing fire trucks to mask the sound of your cruzeing prowl cars. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west". If the Zodiac Killer had walked from Cherry Street to Spruce Street via Jackson Street, it is highly unlikely that once he entered the Julius Kahn Playground, he would have backtracked through the Presidio Park in a westerly direction (back towards the crime scene). If he entered the park, his first movements were likely east of Julius Kahn Playground. This was backed up by the Zodiac Killer's statements in his letter. Dogs were deployed by the entrance to the Julius Kahn playground (the location the man was seen running into the park on October 11th 1969), which was 2 blocks west of a wooded portion where Zodiac claimed he was watching the police activity from (which was two blocks east of Julius Kahn Playground in a wooded area). But the Zodiac Killer did not claim this until three weeks after the San Francisco Chronicle article on October 18th 1969.

The police knew of eyewitness reports shortly after the murder that a man was seen running into Julius Kahn Playground, but the Zodiac hadn't suggested this was him in any letter to the San Francisco Chronicle until November 9th 1969. This sighting is barely mentioned by Zodiac researchers and amateur sleuths. In fact, it is comprehensively ignored by the vast majority of people when examining the eyewitness descriptions given at Presidio Heights. Yet here, on October 18th 1969, they are placing the Zodiac Killer in Julius Kahn Playground by way of a letter he wrote to the Chronicle before November had even arrived.      

The claims by Chief Martin Lee that Zodiac was lying about entering the park, it can be argued, caused the Zodiac to write his lengthy letter on November 9th 1969, and possibly make contact with the Oakland Police Department on October 22nd 1969 requesting an audience with the Jim Dunbar Show, rather than contact the San Francisco Police Department who he thought were telling lies about him. After all, Oakland was only 2.7 miles from San Francisco. 

There is a case to be made that the Zodiac Killer placed five X's around his crosshairs on the Bus Bomb letter that aligned his attacks to the numbers on a clock face, tilted clockwise using magnetic north. This may have been the rudimentary precursor to his use of radians on June 26th 1970 and July 26th 1970 using Mount Diablo as the origin point. All of the canonical Zodiac attacks could have been deliberately chosen because of their location to satisfy this template, but only the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 was particularly fluid, in that the Zodiac Killer could engineer a precise location by directions issued to the taxicab driver. Paul Stine was murdered alongside 3898 Washington Street in San Francisco, although his original destination according to the trip sheet was the intersection of Washington & Maple streets. This is essentially insignificant when calculating the angle from Mount Diablo, which was 257 degrees in both instances. The 8 o' clock position is situated at 240 degrees, but tilted to magnetic north of 17 degrees in 1969, lands exactly at 257 degrees.     

Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs are both encompassed by the 10 o' clock line tilted to magnetic north to make 317 degrees (30 by 10 plus 17). The Lake Herman Road murder site actually sits at 319 degrees and Blue Rock Springs at 318 degrees. Any error must be calculated over 30 degree increments, meaning that the 10 o' clock line (set to Mag. N) is 97% accurate for Blue Rock Springs and 93% accurate for Lake Herman Road. The latter would form the beginning of any predetermined template, because this was the first canonical crime. 

While the above three attacks conform largely to the "clock face" theory, Lake Berryessa deviates more significantly by landing at 340 degrees from Mount Diablo (approx 10:54 am/pm). If it conformed to the 11 o' clock position plus magnetic north, the attack should have fell at 347 degrees, so it shows an accuracy of only 77%. The red line below is where the attack should have occurred for 100% accuracy (exaggerated by greater distance). It doesn't fully negate the premise, but it challenges it somewhat. It could suggest that the Zodiac Killer formulated this presentation in the Bus Bomb letter after the fact, because he noticed the rough correlation of his attacks to a clock face. Three other possible explanations could be that the clock face theory is wrong, a daylight attack with a costume and knife created a greater challenge in selecting a suitable location, or the Zodiac Killer originally intended to kill on the eastern side of Lake Berryessa (which is less likely).     

The 9 o' clock position, which was the only unidentified line in the Bus Bomb configuration, I believed to be Daniel Williams, who worked at Salesian High School and was targeted by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer in the weeks before the Bus Bomb letter. Salesian High School sat at 283 degrees, whereas the 9 o' clock position plus magnetic north was 287 degrees, an accuracy of 87%. This means we had Lake Herman Road (93%), Blue Rock Springs (97%), Lake Berryessa (77%), Presidio Heights (100%) and Salesian High School (87%). An overall accuracy for the "clock face" theory of 91%..The only attack that allowed him to comfortably take a victim to a specific murder location, rather than being governed by victims needing to be found at a desired location, was Presidio Heights. In this instance, the Zodiac Killer was 100% accurate. Although the Lake Berryessa accuracy was 77%, it only amounted to a 6 mile deviation clockwise from the murder location over 77 miles from Mount Diablo. As a rule (removing the mobile murder of Paul Stine), we would expect the closer the murder site to Mount Diablo, the more accurate the clock face theory conforms in respect to mileage error or fractions of it. Removing Lake Berryessa (and the only knife and daylight crime) from his canonical crimes, we find that the overall accuracy of the clock face theory rises to 97%.     

The Zodiac Killer appeared to be using Mount Diablo as a reference point as early as November 9th 1969, when he mailed the Bus Bomb letter and supplied us with some crosshairs and five X's on its circumference. Using this diagram it is possible to determine that the Zodiac Killer was identifying Mount Diablo as his initial or center point. Mount Diablo was used for the purpose of land boundaries in the majority of Northern California and Nevada, with the summit used as the "initial point", the north/south meridian and the east/west baseline intersection point. However, because of the vastness of California, surveying required three "initial points" of Mount Diablo, Mount Pierce and the San Bernardino Mountain to form grid lines. The Zodiac Killer knew the prominence of Mount Diablo from an elevation standpoint, but very likely knew some of the history from a navigational perspective  - and why he chose this mountain as his "initial point".

In the Dripping Pen card the Zodiac Killer was claiming the brutal stabbings of Kathie Reyne Snoozy & Debra Gaye Furlong on August 3rd 1969. On November 12th 1969, somebody featured in the San Francisco Chronicle used the San Jose double murder in their analysis of the Bus Bomb letter crosshairs, very likely concluding the "initial point" was Mount Diablo, without actually referring to the mountain by name. When you look at the five X's around the circumference, it's fairly obvious that they all sit on the left side of the crosshairs center (from 180 degrees to 330 degrees). They were positioned at 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 on a clock face. Therefore, the "initial point" must be to the east of all the confirmed attack sites. When we attempt to line up the uppermost X with the Zodiac Killer's uppermost crime at Lake Berryessa, it becomes quickly apparent that only one position satisfies four of the X's on the circumference, and that one X represents both Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs. If we draw a line through the Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs attack sites, the line passes directly over the summit of Mount Diablo and beyond. By moving the crosshairs "initial point" along this line, we can see that only one position satisfies at least four of the X's.     

The Zodiac Killer only gave us a rough drawing of his crosshairs, so any interpretation must take this into account. The above diagram, centered over Mount Diablo, lines up the five locations the Zodiac Killer was claiming as his murders (Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs, Lake Berryessa, San Francisco and San Jose). The (unaccounted for) red line above, travels directly over the Salesian High School of Daniel Williams, who Zodiac targeted from October 23rd 1969 to November 5th 1969 by prowling his house, poisoning his drink, making malicious phone calls, and threatening to shoot him via the Martinez Police Department. His subtle threats continued in the Dripping Pen card and Bus Bomb letter, explained thoroughly in the article The Quest For Number Eight. This is why he wrote "PS. Be Shure to print the part I marked out on page 3 or I shall do my thing" next to the crosshairs on the Bus Bomb letter. That "thing" was a threatened attack on Salesian High School, depicted by the red line on the map. The orange line shows Magnetic North of 16.5 to 17.0 degrees in 1969. The tilted crosshairs are slightly shy of this mark. But remember, the Zodiac Killer only drew us a rough guide in his correspondence. These Bus Bomb crosshairs were the precursor to the Mount Diablo map on June 26th 1970, when the Zodiac Killer again used the mountain's "initial point" as a directional tool, but this time to locate a proposed bus bomb on the Southern Freeway by Ingleside Police Station, using four radians and five inches. The Mount Diablo Map and Code Solution.     

During the height of Zodiac activity, sandwiched between the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 and the mailing of the infamous 340 cipher on November 8th 1969, one man stared pensively out of the window in search of a prowler that was stalking his house, equally disturbed by the inevitability that his phone at some point would burst into life, threatening death at the other end. That man was Daniel Williams, a Salesian High School teacher in the city of Richmond, living at 1234 Bush Street in Martinez.

Almost certainly one and the same, this prowler had been calling Daniel Williams' residence from October 23rd 1969 to November 2nd 1969, which culminated in his pursuer lacing his 7-Up soft drink with more than enough arsenic to kill. Police had been summoned to his residence on November 2nd 1969 when he noticed the screen door of his house had been pried open, however, they left shortly thereafter when it was determined nothing had been stolen. A short time later, Daniel Williams went to his refrigerator for some light refreshment and took a swig of 7-Up. Had he swallowed after noticing the metallic tasting drink, he most certainly would have died alone on his kitchen floor. The person who called Daniel Williams on numerous occasions threatening his murder claimed to be none other than the Zodiac Killer. Somebody pretending to be the Zodiac Killer by phone or mail is one thing, but this person had intended to kill.

Daniel Williams was a 24-year-old school teacher at the very beginning of his life, so one can only wonder how it came to pass that somebody felt the persistent need to target this man over a period of thirteen days, when finally, on November 5th 1969, somebody rang the Martinez Police Department at 12:30 am stating "There's going to be a shooting at 1234 Bush Street", before immediately hanging the receiver up.

If Daniel Williams had a hidden enemy with a grudge, not only was he apparently unaware of this animosity toward him, but why would this person telegraph his intent over a two week period by way of malicious phone calls. The notion of somebody attempting to kill the school teacher, while passing it off as a Zodiac crime over a prolonged period, appears a rather convoluted approach, when the perpetrator could simply have killed Daniel Williams and then made a phone call or mailed a letter taking responsibility as the Zodiac Killer. Ringing a police department and making threats to kill, in advance of comitting the act, seems to negate the opportunity of surprise and allows the intended victim to take preparatory steps. When we consider the contents of the November 8th and 9th communications by the Zodiac Killer, only three days after the phone call to the Martinez Police Department on November 5th 1969, another possibility begins to materialize.    

The person behind the phone calls to Daniel Williams' house and the Martinez Police Department, along with the prowling incidents, had also made threats toward a Martinez school. When he rang the school teacher, the caller stated he "had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there". In light of the Zodiac Killer's desire to murder schoolchildren during the month of October, the claim of searching for victims at a nearby school should have raised significant alarm bells.

The persistence of this stalker may not have stopped on November 5th 1969, when the Zodiac Killer's Dripping Pen card arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle, stating "I though you would nead a good laugh before you hear the bad news. You won't get the news for a while yet". This phrase had all the hallmarks of activity ongoing, which had yet to reach its conclusion, backed up by the letter which arrived at the Chronicle the following day. In the Bus Bomb letter mailed on November 9th 1969, the Zodiac Killer made obvious that his victim count was only totalled "up to the end of Oct", suggestive of ongoing action between October 31st 1969 and the current mailing date. This apparent desire to add an eighth victim to his total, in light of a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer and ringing the Martinez Police Department on November 5th 1969 with the threat of murder, appeared to indicate he was not finished yet. Or at the very least, this is what he wanted us to believe.

The nature of the attack on Daniel Williams by way of arsenic poisoning, seemed to fit with the opening paragraph of the November 9th 1969 letter, in which the Zodiac Killer vented his frustration and promised to alter his approach to murder. He directly addressed law enforcement, remarking that "I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc". However, it's what he said next that may link the Zodiac Killer to the malicious phone calls perpetrated on Daniel Williams. The caller to 1234 Bush Street claimed he was thwarted by police outside a Martinez school during his search for victims, but they wouldn't catch him because, as he stated “I’m too smart for them". The next line of the Bus Bomb letter, after promising to change his way of collecting slaves, was to ridicule police by asserting that "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them". This could be argued as the Zodiac Killer reading the newspapers and mimicking the wording in the written text to plant a seed of his involvement in the Daniel Williams stalking. If this was his intention, it was so subtle, it went ignored for 51 years. The police probably believed this prolonged attack on Daniel Williams was just another successor in a long line of Zodiac hoaxers, but this supposed hoaxer was not only determined, he was prepared to kill to imitate the Zodiac Killer.      

In the early morning hours of October 22nd 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer called the Oakland Police Department and requested that Francis Lee Bailey or Melvin Mouron Belli appear on the Jim Dunbar Show at KGO Radio in San Francisco, to which he would ring in. Somebody did ring the chat show, but this caller was later identified as mental patient, Eric Weill. However, we still don't know to this day whether the original caller to the Oakland Police Department was the Zodiac Killer or not, because the genuine Zodiac Killer only stated "That wasn't me on the TV show" in his now decrypted 340 cipher. At no point did he deny being the caller to the Oakland Police Department.

Probably the most important question to ask, is why would the Zodiac Killer choose to ring the Oakland Police Department above any other. There appeared no connection between the Zodiac Killer and Oakland prior to October 22nd 1969. However, this was also the case on October 15th 1969, when the Zodiac Killer almost certainly phoned the Santa Rosa Police Department to threaten schoolchildren on buses, who then implemented the routine checking of every school bus for hidden bombs. This caller, claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, was threatening schoolchildren two days before the details of "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning" was released by the San Francisco Chronicle, and one day before it was released by the Los Angeles Times. .

On October 21st 1969, the day before the Oakland Police Department call, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer rang the Palo Alto Times newspaper. The Palo Alto Times reported on October 22nd 1969, that Patrol cars convoyed school buses around Palo Alto yesterday after a telephoned murder threat by a man claiming to be the Zodiac killer of five persons. The caller to the Palo Alto Times said he intended to "pick the kids off as they get on the school bus". The weird slayer, who signs himself "The Zodiac", made a similar threat in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle last week after the Oct. 11 shooting of a taxi driver. This would come only six days after the Santa Rosa threat on schoolchildren. The caller also stated to the Palo Alto Times that he had left San Francisco "because I'm too hot there". On December 7th 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer rang commercial radio station KTOK in Oklahoma City, claiming he left California "because it got too hot for me". There was a further call on December 19th 1969, the day before the Melvin Belli letter, threatening "I am going to kill five of you officers and a family of five between now and Monday". This call was received by Shirley Searey, a police dispatcher at the San Jose Highway Patrol.

Captain Martin Lee stated, after the Zodiac Killer's October 13th 1969 letter: "His boast of being in the area we were searching was a lie. We had the whole area flooded with lights. We had seven police dogs and a large number of patrolmen searching the area tree by tree and bush by bush. The dogs are the best in the country". Captain Lee added that Zodiac's failure to mention the dogs and floodlights was proof "he wasn't anywhere in the vicinity". The Zodiac Killer responded on November 9th 1969 with "I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west + there was only 2 groups of parking about 10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west".

However, this ire likely began on October 15th 1969, when the San Francisco Chronicle failed to publish his threat on schoolchildren, resulting in his phone call to the Santa Rosa Police Department. The call to Oakland Police Department on October 22nd 1969 may have been triggered by these perceived slights from law enforcement. By avoiding the San Francisco Police Department and calling the Oakland Police Department on October 22nd 1969, the Zodiac Killer could request a prominent attorney to represent him on the Jim Dunbar Show, and set the record straight on the misinformation and lies spoken about him by Captain Martin Lee to the San Francisco Chronicle. This TV audience on the popular Jim Dunbar Show in San Francisco may have been the ideal way to set the record straight, circumventing the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco Chronicle and receiving maximum exposure. Ultimately, the Zodiac Killer may have had second thoughts, surmising that it could have led to somebody identifying him. This hesitancy opened the door to hoaxer Eric Weill.

Despite the phone call to the Jim Dunbar Show having been roundly dismissed as the Zodiac Killer "by three who knew", the murderer of five still felt compelled to disassociate himself from being the caller to the TV show, by mailing a cryptogram and greeting card on November 8th 1969. If the Zodiac Killer had rang the Oakland Police Department on October 22nd 1969 with the intention of appearing on the Jim Dunbar TV show and setting the record straight concerning Captain Martin Lee and the San Francisco Police Department - then having not done so - one would have expected his next communication to do exactly that. Therefore, it's no surprise that the Bus Bomb letter on November 9th 1969 was the Zodiac Killer's longest communication of them all, attacking the police with the venom he so wanted to do with a captive TV audience. The two communications on November 8th 1969 and November 9th 1969, inextricably bound by his failure to appear on the Jim Dunbar Show just over two weeks earlier.

The phone calls wouldn't stop there, when Daniel Williams (24), a Salesian High School teacher, started to receive malicious phone calls to his 1234 Bush Street, Martinez residence on October 23rd 1969. These calls continued for ten days and culminated with somebody breaking into his residence on November 2nd 1969 and lacing his 7-Up soft drink with enough arsenic to kill. The caller, claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, told Daniel Williams over the phone that he "had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there", mocking law enforcement by stating “I’m too smart for them". This was considered particularly relevant because of the language Zodiac adopted on November 9th 1969 in the Bus Bomb letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle of "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them".

On Wednesday, November 5th 1969, somebody rang the Martinez Police Department at 12:30 am stating "There's going to be a shooting at 1234 Bush Street", before immediately hanging up. The threat to find victims at a Martinez school, coupled with the menacing phone calls, were not dissimilar to recent Zodiac activity during the month of October. After the threat to shoot Daniel Williams at his residence, police instigated surveillance in the immediate area of Bush Street for the remainder of that morning, but no suspicious activity was detected. The next Zodiac Killer communications would be postmarked just two and three days later, with the promise of more bad news and a victim count left dangling at the end of October. If the perpetrator of the crimes inflicted upon Daniel Williams wasn't the Zodiac Killer, then it was a pretty determined hoaxer claiming to be him. The call to Oakland Police Department was made on October 22nd 1969, with the threats on Daniel Williams beginning just a day later, on October 23rd 1969. The Salesian High School where Daniel Williams worked, only thirteen miles north of the Oakland Police Department. When we place all of this in context, does it indicate that the Zodiac Killer was likely the caller to Oakland Police Department on October 22nd 1969, or did Eric Weill just spontaneously call law enforcement because he had nothing better to do at the time? 

Daniel Williams (24), a Salesian High School teacher, started to receive malicious phone calls to his 1234 Bush Street, Martinez residence on October 23rd 1969. These calls continued for ten days and culminated with somebody breaking into his residence on November 2nd 1969 and lacing his 7-Up soft drink with enough arsenic to kill. The caller, claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, told Daniel Williams over the phone that he "had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there", mocking law enforcement by stating “I’m too smart for them". This was considered particularly relevant because of the language Zodiac adopted on November 9th 1969 in the Bus Bomb letter mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle of "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them".

The Zodiac Killer's wording was also considered suspicious in the Dripping Pen card, when on November 8th 1969 he stated "This is the Zodiac speaking. I though you would nead a good laugh before you hear the bad news. You won't get the news for a while yet". The wording smacked of unfinished business, especially when you consider that he wrote "up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people" in the following communication. It was now November 9th 1969, but he made a point of claiming seven victims only up to the end of October. These sections of text highly suggestive he was in the process of acquiring victim number eight. That victim could very well have entailed the ongoing pursuit of the Richmond High School teacher, Daniel Williams, to which this number had been reserved. These ideas may be speculative, but the story doesn't end there.

After the November 2nd 1969 attempted poisoning, Daniel Williams reported to police that the prowlings he had experienced around his residence during the time of the sadistic phone calls, continued after the break-in and failed poisoning. The persistent threats on the life of Daniel Williams would also fail to cease.

On Wednesday, November 5th 1969, somebody rang the Martinez Police Department at 12:30 am stating "There's going to be a shooting at 1234 Bush Street", before immediately hanging up. The threat to find victims at a Martinez school, coupled with the menacing phone calls were not dissimilar to recent Zodiac activity during the month of October. After the threat to shoot Daniel Williams at his residence, police instigated surveillance in the immediate area of Bush Street for the remainder of that morning, but no suspicious activity was detected. The next Zodiac Killer communications would be postmarked just two and three days later, with the promise of more bad news and a victim count left dangling at the end of October. If the perpetrator of the crimes inflicted upon Daniel Williams wasn't the Zodiac Killer, then it was a pretty determined hoaxer claiming to be him.

In the sadistic phone calls to Daniel Williams the caller also promised to "kill the lady in the blue house". On November 21st 1969, San Jose Police had to provide 24-hour surveillance for a woman, after somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer mailed a threatening letter identifying her as the target. The letter was accompanied by the wording "There's no doubt I will do my Thing!" reminiscent of the Dripping Pen card of "I could do my Thing". Of course, we don't know whether the threats in Martinez and San Jose were the infamous Zodiac Killer, but they certainly could have been.  

The hostility exhibited by the Zodiac Killer toward police began on November 9th 1969 when he responded to what he believed were disparaging remarks by SFPD's Captain Martin Lee. In the San Francisco Chronicle on October 18th 1969 under the headline Zodiac Called a Clumsy Criminal, the newspaper listed the mistakes it believed were made by the Zodiac Killer.

Captain Martin Lee stated "His boast of being in the area we were searching was a lie. We had the whole area flooded with lights. We had seven police dogs and a large number of patrolmen searching the area tree by tree and bush by bush. The dogs are the best in the country". Captain Lee added that Zodiac's failure to mention the dogs and floodlights was proof "he wasn't anywhere in the vicinity". The Zodiac Killer responded on November 9th 1969 with "I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west + there was only 2 groups of parking about 10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west". 

Captain Martin Lee also appeared on a KPIX News report on November 12th 1969, responding to the November 8th and November 9th communications. He mentioned the Zodiac Killer's aggressive temperament in the Bus Bomb letter, noting the shift in "tenor of this letter as opposed to the others. For the first time he has demonstrated a hostility toward police. Now we are blue pigs and such remarks as that. He has never been particularly interested in our profession before this".  Just over three weeks later this hostility would continue, when on December 7th 1969 the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter from Fairfield promising to "kill again, so expect it anytime. The will be a cop".  He would continue the threats on police in his following letter on December 16th 1969. In this letter he immediately began with "this state is in troulbe..I will go for the Goverment life", suggesting a shift in the Zodiac Killer's thinking to more high profile targets. Law enforcement operates primarily through governmental police agencies in the United States, so the threat to target "government life", bearing in mind his threat to kill a cop on December 7th 1969, it's a reasonable assumption that "government life" = cops. Especially when he listed a potential thirty-eight police targets at the foot of the December 16th 1969 letter.     

The shift exhibited toward police was brought about by the comments of Captain Martin Lee, resulting in the introduction to the Bus Bomb letter of "This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people. I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc". Followed by the two Fairfield letters in December.

However, there was one other shift in the Zodiac Killer's communications subsequent to the KPIX interview with Captain Martin Lee on November 12th 1969. The police chief stated "I think the rambling, careless appearance of his notes is also a disguise. The cryptograms when he makes them can be absolute works of art as far as alignment both vertically and horizontally and space between the characters is concerned. I think that goes more toward the true picture of a man than the rambling notes that we've gotten". Captain Martin Lee believed the organized cryptograms structured like "works of art" were more toward the true picture of the Zodiac Killer. The next letter to a San Francisco newspaper was........    

The Zodiac Killer was extremely annoyed when he didn't get the publicity he felt he deserved, writing to the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969 and informing the newspaper: "I was not happy to see that I did not get front page coverage". Page three of the Bus Bomb communication about "2 cops pulled a goof" insisted that the Chronicle "must print in paper", following it up on page six with "PS. Be shure to print the part I marked out on page 3 or I shall do my thing". On December 16th 1969 the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter from Fairfield demanding "you better print".

Subsequent to his October 13th 1969 letter claiming the killing of Paul Stine, the Bus Bomb letter was the immediate communication in which he elaborated upon the details of this crime, and the first and only time he highlighted a specific section of text, demanding "must print in paper".. One has to ask, what prompted the Zodiac Killer to highlight these sixteen lines of text and insist they are not omitted from the newspaper? This is the section of text where he claimed officers Donald Fouke and Eric Zelms stopped and spoke to him, before he directed them away from the crime scene on a wild goose chase. The details of this interaction (whether the officers stopped him or not) was never publicized in the newspapers prior to the arrival of the Bus Bomb letter. This clearly irritated the Zodiac Killer enough for him to demand its publication.

This insistence of "must print in paper" was probably caused by the failure of the San Francisco Chronicle to publicize his threat on schoolchildren twenty-five days earlier. The Zodiac wrote in his October 13th 1969 letter "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. I am the same man who did in the people in the north bay area.The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly instead of holding road races with their motorcicles seeing who could make the most noise. The car drivers should have just parked their cars and sat there quietly waiting for me to come out of cover. School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". Unfortunately for the Zodiac Killer, the San Francisco Chronicle omitted the final paragraph (highlighted in blue).  

Law enforcement instructed the Chronicle newspaper to whitewash this section of text until they considered the best course of action, not wanting to instil widespread panic in the local community. The newspaper duly obliged on October 15th 1969, when under the banner of The Boastful Slayer they carried no mention of the threat on schoolchildren. This must have irked the Zodiac Killer, who delivered a malicious phone call to Santa Rosa on the same day, threatening to kill schoolchildren by way of a bomb on a school bus. This call, not only coincided with the October 15th 1969 newspaper article, but it carried the same threat as the omitted Zodiac text, almost certainly confirming that the phone caller to Santa Rosa was the Zodiac Killer. But why did the Zodiac Killer threaten Santa Rosa rather than the San Francisco Police Department?

Although this cannot be proven, I doubt the Zodiac Killer phoned the Santa Rosa Police Department or the Press Democrat newspaper, and just stated "I am the Zodiac and I am going to blow up a school bus and kill kids in Santa Rosa", before hanging up. It is extremely likely this threat was inspired by the omission of text from the Chronicle, and he promised to kill schoolchildren in Santa Rosa and other locations in the Bay Area if the San Francisco Chronicle didn't include the omitted threats from his original letter on October 13th 1969. It is possible that Santa Rosa authorities contacted the police in San Francisco, who backpedaled their initial decision to avoid more widespread threats. Two days later, on October 17th 1969, the Chronicle newspaper published the threat on schoolchildren under the headline of Astrologer Joins Hunt for Killer. Their decision to omit Zodiac's text was reversed inside of forty-eight hours. This demand to print wouldn't be forgotten by the Zodiac Killer on November 9th 1969.

Three days after the Bus Bomb letter, on November 12th 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle under the banner of Zodiac's New Message printed the entirety of the "2 cops pulled a goof" section that Zodiac demanded they publish, which coincidentally fell on the same day as Officer Donald Fouke's interdepartmental memorandum of his encounter with a WMA on Jackson Street, shortly after the murder of Paul Stine. The Zodiac Killer's demand of "must print in paper" may have worked on both October 15th 1969 and November 9th 1969 - and why they are most likely the same person.  

ASSOCIATED ARTICLE: PROOF:OCTOBER 15TH 1969 SANTA ROSA CALLER WAS THE ZODIAC KILLER 

From October 23rd 1969 to November 2nd 1969, Daniel Williams, a Richmond High School teacher received a series of sadistic phone calls that culminated in somebody attempting to kill him by lacing his soft drink with arsenic. Had he not noticed the metallic taste and spat it out, Daniel Williams would have been a "dead duck" as the caller had promised.

In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle postmarked October 13th 1969, the Zodiac Killer threatened to "wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". A telephone threat to bomb a school bus and kill children from somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer was targeted at Santa Rosa on October 15th 1969, prior to the details about "wiping out a school bus and picking off the kiddies" had been released by the newspapers. There were reports of a possible gunshot being heard by a Santa Rosa bus driver on October 17th 1969. These threats on schoolchildren brought a massive response from school officials and law enforcement, who laid out extensive measures to combat the perceived threat by the Zodiac Killer. Extra security to the buses also came in the form of police vehicles shadowing the schoolchildren to and from their respective schools.

On October 21st 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle released an article entitled Fear Rides the Yellow Bus, stating "A climate of fear hangs over the Napa Valley. The fear is over "Zodiac" and his terrifying boast to "wipe out a school bus". No one takes the threat lightly, Zodiac has already struck here. The task of trying to insure the safety of 10,000 youngsters who ride the Napa Valley Unified School District is immense".  It was two days later that Daniel Williams started receiving menacing phone calls from a caller claiming to be the infamous Zodiac Killer. The caller stated that "he intended to kill several persons" and on one occasion said he "had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there". Bearing in mind the heightened security around school buses and therefore school premises, this was entirely plausible. This could easily have been interpreted as an empty threat from another hoaxer, but it's a fair assumption that the phone caller and arsenic poisoner were one and the same. There were probably many idle hoaxers latching onto the Zodiac case during this period of uncertainty, but I doubt many were prepared to back up their threats with murder, as was the case in the attempted poisoning of Daniel Williams. If this person was prepared to kill a school teacher, then it's not beyond the realms of possibility he was prepared to kill schoolchildren in Martinez (where Daniel Williams lived) or the city of Richmond, where Daniel Williams taught at Salesian High School.   

If this was the Zodiac Killer, how did it come to be that Daniel Williams was selected as a possible target by the Bay Area murder? The Zodiac Killer may have selected Daniel Williams by staking out his school and following him home. He now has a credible victim who police won't dismiss as an attention seeker. Daniel Williams also teaches schoolchildren, making him the ideal target for the Zodiac Killer. When Daniel Williams relays the details of the "Zodiac" phone calls to police, such as the man claiming he "had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there", it adds veracity to the threats in the current climate. In the mind of the Zodiac Killer, he knew that these phone calls would be readily dismissed as just another hoax by police, so he needed to elevate these threats to the next level and show law enforcement he wasn't just playing games.

The Zodiac Killer, by poisoning the soft drink of Daniel Williams with arsenic, having previously stated he "had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there", must have concluded that his visit to a Martinez school, in accompaniment to Daniel Williams being a Richmond school teacher, was more than enough to occupy law enforcement on several fronts. He may have thought that if the police didn't take the threat of murder seriously, then they would likely take nothing seriously.

With the failed poisoning on November 2nd 1969, the Zodiac Killer wrote in the Bus Bomb letter "up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people", possibly indicating he hadn't yet finished with Daniel Williams (or possibly wanted us to believe that). When the phone caller to Daniel Williams mentioned his visit to a Martinez school, he concluded that police would never catch him because he was "too smart for them". In the Bus Bomb letter on November 9th 1969, the Zodiac Killer stated "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them". The Zodiac Killer was certainly a clever wordsmith, but was he responsible for the attempted murder of Daniel Williams? 

The Zodiac Killer often responded to the newspaper articles written about him, usually in close proximity to their release. The Dripping Pen card had likely been purchased subsequent to the morning of October 25th 1969 in response to the last San Francisco Chronicle article by Paul Avery. If the 340 character cipher had been specifically designed to compliment this card, then it too was crafted subsequent to October 25th 1969. As the title attributed to this communication suggests, this greeting card featured a dripping pen on its front face, accompanied by the wording "Sorry I haven't written, but I just washed my pen". The Avery article read "Zodiac struck last on October 11 when he gunned down cab-driver Paul Stine on Washington Street in Presidio Heights. He revealed himself the killer in a letter sent to the Chronicle three days later. Since then he has remained silent".

Bearing in mind the wording "since then he has remained silent", it could be argued that the chosen card of "Sorry I haven't written" was purposefully selected in response to this article - and therefore chosen by the Zodiac Killer after October 25th 1969. The paragraph in the newspaper article also referred to Washington Street, thereby completing the phrase on the card "but I just washed my pen". The last observation is probably a little far-fetched, and heavily reliant on the Zodiac Killer being able to find a greeting card apologizing for being silent, as well as containing a word related to Washington Street. Extremely unlikely, but not impossible.

Then, the day before the November 9th 1969 'Bus Bomb' letter, came the newspaper article detailing the attempted murder of Richmond school teacher, Daniel Williams. Somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer made sadistic phone calls spanning October 23rd 1969 and November 2nd 1969, and culminating in a soft drink in his refrigerator being laced with arsenic. This failed murder plot may have inspired the Zodiac Killer (if the poisoner) to insinuate his continued pursuit of Daniel Williams, by stating "I though you would nead a good laugh before you hear the bad news" and "up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people". On November 12th 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle released information on the Dripping Pen card and Bus Bomb letter under the banner of I've Killed Seven, The Zodiac Claims.

This newspaper article featured the observations of an individual with respect to the X's on the Bus Bomb crosshairs (see right). This observation was suggested in the article The Promise of Murder on Line 5.

I believe the person who initially made this suggestion was almost certainly correct. However, when I floated this idea on November 23rd 2020, I was fully aware of the Mount Diablo map and crosshairs accompanying the Button letter, which was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle on June 26th 1970. I positioned the Bus Bomb crosshairs over Mount Diablo and rotated them slightly clockwise, so that a line drawn from the peak of Mount Diablo through four of the five X's passed directly over Lake Berryessa, Vallejo (where two attacks occurred), San Francisco and San Jose.

When we consider that this person made the observation on November 12th 1969, seven-and-a-half months before the Mount Diablo map was mailed by the Zodiac Killer (on June 26th 1970), the interpretation by this individual is extremely intriguing.  

The five cross marks cannot directly pinpoint the five claimed attacks in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, Presidio Heights and San Jose by superimposing them over a map. If you arrange any two X's over Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs, the other three X's will never fall over Lake Berryessa, Presidio Heights and San Jose. The only way it is possible, is by placing the crosshairs over Mount Diablo (rotated clockwise} and drawing lines through the X's on the circumference. But this still leaves the 9 o' clock line unaccounted for. This is where Daniel Williams, the Richmond school teacher comes in. The sadistic phone caller to Daniel Williams may have wanted to target schoolchildren at the Richmond school where he worked (Salesian High School falls over the line drawn through the 9 o' clock position}. This is covered in the article A Killer on Line Five.

The newspaper article stated "Zodiac's letter contained five cross marks which possibly refer to attacks. Comparing these markings against a map, one interpretation that can be drawn is that they pinpoint Lake Berryessa, Vallejo (where two attacks occurred}, San Francisco and San Jose". It was effectively saying that five cross marks could pinpoint four locations (identifying Vallejo as the location where two attacks occurred). Despite classifying Lake Herman Road as Vallejo, the tight grouping of the first two attacks on the map would allow the observer to reach the same conclusion as shown in the above map. After all, this person didn't say "Zodiac's letter contained five cross marks which possibly refer to five attacks".

The Zodiac Killer likely chose Mount Diablo because of its use when surveying land boundaries in Northern California, with the summit used as the "initial point". Was it possible that the person behind the interpretation on November 12th 1969 had correctly identified Mount Diablo as the "initial point" to center the crosshairs over, by using the same reasoning as Zodiac? The Zodiac Killer himself classified Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs under the banner of Vallejo (evident on Bryan Hartnell's car door), so when he provided five cross marks to signify four general locations, he was deliberately leaving the 9 o' clock line as a puzzle to the location of his next attack. He employed exactly the same technique, when substituting the X around the crosshairs with a bold, black circle around the circumference of the crosshairs on July 26th 1970, again designed to pinpoint the location of his next attack. On this occasion, it would be a school bus traveling on the Southern Freeway by Ingleside Police Station, positioned at 4 radians and magnetic north.   

October 22nd 1969: PALO ALTO (AP) - Patrol cars convoyed school buses around Palo Alto yesterday after a telephoned murder threat by a man claiming to be the Zodiac killer of five persons. The caller to the Palo Alto Times said he intended to "pick the kids off as they get on the school bus." The weird slayer, who signs himself "The Zodiac," made a similar threat in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle last week after the Oct. 11 shooting of a taxi driver. Handwriting tests and descriptions of two victims who survived have convinced police that the same person. The district transportation supervisor said an armed guard might ride with each of the system's 25 buses. Officers in Napa and Vallejo, areas of the first three murderous attacks, some 75 miles north of Palo Alto, have been convoying police officers. Palo Alto Police Chief William Hydie called the new threat "extremely serious," but warned against over reaction to what might be a crank call.

This threat was extremely similar to the October 13th 1969 letter, in which the Zodiac Killer claimed "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". At no point in either the October 13th 1969 letter or the Palo Alto telephone call did the perpetrator claim anything other than "picking off the kiddies as they come bouncing out" or "picking the kids off as they get on the school bus". The emphasis was squarely on shooting schoolchildren in close proximity to a school bus.

The mailing of the Bus Bomb letter on November 9th 1969 was the first time the Zodiac Killer suggested he was going to blow up a school bus by use of a bomb. He mocked the police who believed he was going to "pick off kids" by use of a firearm. The Zodiac Killer stated "If you cops think I'm going to take on a bus the way I stated I was, you deserve to have holes in your heads". He continued "What you do not know is whether the death machine is at the sight or whether it is being stored in my basement for future use. I think you do not have the manpower to stop this one by continually searching the road sides looking for this thing. + it wont do to re roat + re schedule the busses because the bomb can be adapted to new conditions". It was painfully clear that the Zodiac Killer was intimating the use of a bomb to kill schoolchildren. However, the November 9th 1969 communication may not have been the Zodiac Killer's first contact with police with respect to blowing up a school bus. This threat was telephoned through to the Santa Rosa Police Department a matter of days after the Paul Stine murder on October 11th 1969. The call arrived on, or shortly before October 15th 1969.

On October 21st 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle released an article entitled Fear Rides the Yellow Bus, stating "A climate of fear hangs over the Napa Valley. The fear is over "Zodiac" and his terrifying boast to "wipe out a school bus". No one takes the threat lightly, Zodiac has already struck here. The task of trying to insure the safety of 10,000 youngsters who ride the Napa Valley Unified School District is immense. The district encompasses an area of Southern Napa County of 229 square miles. Sixty-four bright yellow buses travel the county roadways each day - often into areas where houses are a couple of miles apart. The vehicles go a total of 4,000 miles daily in and from elementary schools, three junior highs and one senior high school. Even before starting on its routes each vehicle has undergone a thorough check to make sure a bomb isn't aboard. Someone hinting he might be Zodiac has telephoned such a threat in Santa Rosa. The man responsible for the safety of the students who ride the buses is Fred Sowash, the district's transportation director. Since last Wednesday, when he learned of Zodiac's threat, Sowash has been devoting 18 to 20 hours a day to blunt it".   

This article was released on Tuesday, October 21st 1969, indicating that the threat Fred Sowash was aware of last Wednesday, must have been delivered by the man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on October 15th 1969 at the latest. The telephone threat could conceivably have been delivered as early as October 14th 1969, the day before the October 15th 1969 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, which first reported a connection between the Paul Stine murder and the Zodiac Killer. But crucially, the October 15th 1969 Chronicle article withheld the threat of "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out", for fear of stateside panic. This meant that any telephone caller to Santa Rosa Police Department on October 15th 1969 (or slightly earlier) threatening to blow up a school bus and kill schoolchildren, gave this information over the phone before any threat on schoolchildren was ever released in the newspapers. This caller effectively pre-empted the last paragraph of the Stine letter in absence of its contents being published. This almost certainly means, that the telephone caller claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on October 15th 1969, was the Zodiac Killer. He not only threatened schoolchildren before the full Stine letter contents were made public, but he threatened the use of a bomb to attack a school bus, twenty-five days before the Bus Bomb letter was postmarked. 

                                       THE SANTA ROSA THREAT:MUST PRINT IN PAPER

An unknown caller claiming to be the Zodiac Killer threatened Daniel Williams, a Richmond high school teacher, from October 23rd 1969 to November 2nd 1969. It was reported that the sadistic caller stated he was going to "kill the lady in the blue house". Despite previous exploration of this subject, here we will examine two new ideas related to the lady in the blue house. One will be a simplistic approach, while the second may understandably be regarded as far-fetched.

It could be argued that it would be rather meaningless for the sadistic caller to threaten a woman in a blue house, had this woman got no connection whatsoever to Daniel Williams. The caller was clearly targeting Daniel Williams and attempting to unnerve him. When Daniel Williams left his house on November 2nd 1969, the killer gained access by prying open his screen door and placing some arsenic in his soft drink. There is every chance that the perpetrator had followed Daniel Williams to some extent and was aware of his departure from his Martinez home that day. Had this person also seen Daniel Williams visit or converse with a woman in a blue house, possibly on Bush Street where he lived - and knowing that he was friendly with this woman - he knew that a threat to kill her would resonate with the school teacher? Threatening an unknown woman to Daniel Williams, plucked from nothing more than his imagination, appears rather pointless. However, there is a more unlikely alternative.  

The newspapers stated that the caller gave no explanation regarding the lady in the blue house, so either he expected Daniel Williams to work it out, or he had planned a future attack on a woman unknown to Daniel Williams, but hoped that Daniel Williams would relay his intention to "kill the lady in the blue house" to police. When his next attack was then threatened or carried out, police would understand that he was responsible for both events. It was suggested in the previous article that the sadistic caller may have had unfinished business with Daniel Williams after the failed poisoning, hence his statement of "up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people" in the November 9th 1969 Bus Bomb letter, thereby leaving investigators to speculate upon his intentions during the beginning of November and the likelihood of murder for the remainder of the month. Since nothing materialized with respect to Daniel Williams in this window of time and subsequent to November 9th 1969, it could be reasoned that it was just another idle, but menacing threat from the Zodiac Killer (assuming he played any part in the Daniel William affair). But what of his threat to "kill the lady in the blue house". 

The next possible letter by the Zodiac Killer arrived at the San Jose Police Department on November 21st 1969, threatening a woman and accompanied by the wording "There's no doubt I will do my Thing!". In the Dripping Pen card the Zodiac Killer wrote "I though you would nead a good laugh before you hear the bad news. You won't get the news for a while yet. PS could you print this new cipher in your frunt page? I get aufully lonely when I am ignored, so lonely I could do my Thing !!!!!!  Des July Aug Sept Oct = 7". Was the communication on November 21st 1969 the bad news he had promised us, and the culmination of the threat to "kill the lady in the blue house"? In this communication the author threatened a widow, with enough detail in the letter that police were able to identify her. They took the threat extremely seriously, instituting 24-hour surveillance on her and her property. It is impossible, fifty-one years after the fact, to establish whether any connection existed between this woman and Daniel Williams. The likelihood of a connection is extremely remote, but it would have been interesting to find out the color of her house.