Here we will take one final look at the October 30th 1966 Cheri Jo Bates murder in Riverside, utilizing the 3D graphics of Google maps to give an overview of the crime scene that evening or night. Cheri Jo Bates lime green Volkswagen Beetle was discovered on October 31st 1966 parked 30 yards past the library entrance, and 75 yards east of the ill-fated alleyway. Whether it remained in this position from the moment she arrived at the library just before opening time, until being discovered by investigators the following day, is open to question. Below is a representation of the Volkswagen Beetle, library annex, the alleyway (drawn into its approximate position), and the movements of Cheri Jo Bates (1 to 5) from the perspective of the November 29th 'Confession' letter.        

A Mexican-American student noticed Cheri Jo Bates close to opening time and shortly after: who 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, and it was then he saw the girl."
Other students who were acquainted with Cheri Jo said they were in the library between 6.30 pm and 6.40 pm, and did not see the girl during that time.
Walter Siebert stated that "he and a few friends were in the library from 7.15 pm until 9, but did not see Miss Bates, whom they all knew. They said they saw four men dressed in work clothes sitting on a fence across from the spot where Miss Bates' car was found, but they did not know them." ​
If we believe the 'Confession' letter and tie it alongside these statements, a picture unravels of a woman who likely discharged her books and left the library within a very short time- leaving prior to 6.30 pm. However, according to the author of the 'Confession' letter, he would have effectively disabled her vehicle extremely close to the library entrance sometime between 6.00 pm and when she exited the library. She would then have discovered her disabled Volkswagen and taken up the offer of assistance by this unknown person, walking back past the library entrance, completely dismissing the option of assistance from anybody inside the library, including making a phone call, and traveling into a dark alleyway (despite being afraid of the dark), while simultaneously leaving her car keys in the ignition, windows rolled down and car doors unlocked. Not withstanding the fact, a female eyewitness saw no body in the alleyway circa 9.30 pm, and screams were heard from that location by two earwitnesses around 10.30 pm. One could argue, that if these observations make no sense, then the story depicted by the 'Confession' letter is fiction regarding the timeline it suggests.       

There is no guarantee that the Volkswagen Beetle remained in this position upwards of 12 hours until its discovery on the morning of the 31st. Since detectives seemingly operated upon the assumption it did, one could infer that eyewitnesses leaving the library on the evening and night of the murder, saw the Volkswagen Beetle in exactly the same position it was ultimately discovered on the Monday. 
If this were the case, and with screams heard around 10.30 pm- then other than abduction- she must have left willingly on foot after departing the library to a secondary destination, either on her own or with an unknown person or party. The problems began four hours later just before the screams were heard. The 'Confession' letter gives the impression of a good Samaritan "offering to help" when Cheri Jo Bates failed to start her vehicle, and she blissfully wandered off with him into a dark alleyway. The added suggestion of "brush offs" in the letter may have wanted to infer that the killer and victim were known to one another and hence her willingness to walk alongside him. Yet this seems too obvious a conclusion to be drawn, focusing the investigation inward to friends and relations, and thereby would not have been wholly relied upon as the truth by investigators- who could easily have formed an opposite stance. 
But if Cheri Jo Bates willingly left the library with somebody she knew or had arranged to meet shortly after opening time, and had returned to her vehicle circa 10.30 pm with this person, then it is conceivable the confrontation or disagreement began by her vehicle, and the disabling of her vehicle was integral to it. The condition of her vehicle the following morning may suggest she was preparing to leave for home that night when things took a turn. The sabotaging of her distributor not distinct and separate to her discovering her disabled vehicle, but part of one continuous sequence. Left with little option but to seek help, she headed off to ring for assistance, leaving her vehicle in a condition she otherwise would never have done. She is dragged or forced into the alleyway and the rest is history. 
The 'Inside Detective' magazine stated 'Two young girls who said they knew Cheri Jo, gave a taped interview to a crew from a Los Angeles television station. The girls in the interview, said that Cheri Jo had told them Sunday that she was "going to the library to meet her boyfriend." However, Sgt Gren said that while Cheri Jo had met her boyfriend in San Francisco the weekend prior to her murder, the boy was still in the Bay Area at the time of her death. The statements of the two girls were based on hearsay and not on fact Captain Cross told newsmen.'
However, were the two young girls referring to Dennis Highland or somebody else. If Cheri Jo Bates had made alternative plans to meet somebody that evening, could this be our murderer. He may certainly have been known to the young girl and more crucially to the friends of Cheri Jo Bates.   

Many have toyed with the idea of a Zodiac Killer in Riverside, California, responsible for the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966 or at the very least the author of the Confession and Bates letters. There are tantalizing threads in regards to the three Bates letters allying with his 'trinity' of communications mailed to the Vallejo Times-Herald, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner on July 31st 1969, just over two years later. The double postage was evident, and the threat of "more victims " was apparent in both. The April 30th 1967 Bates letters stated "Bates had to die, there will be more." The Vallejo Times-Herald communication carried a similar threat: "I will cruse around and pick of all stray people or coupples that are alone then move on to kill some more untill I have killed over a dozen people." 
It is also pointed out that the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the Bates letters because he signed off two of the letters with a Z-like alphabetical character. The Z representing Zodiac. The following will cast some doubt on this supposition and hopefully give us the exact date the Zodiac Killer first thought up his pseudonym Zodiac. In other words, the pseudonym Zodiac didn't exist for this individual in 1967 and therefore the alphabetical Z wasn't representative of Zodiac, or the precursor to it.​ 

On the right is an excerpt from the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle dated August 3rd 1969. The Vallejo Police Chief Jack E Stiltz "urged the writer yesterday to send more letters with more facts to prove his connections with the crimes." The Bay Area murderer duly obliged with the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter, received by the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969. It was called the "Debut" letter for good reason- it was the day the Bay Area murderer revealed his pseudonym to the world, opening with the now infamous line "This is the Zodiac speaking." But if Chief Jack E Stiltz had not requested more details, it is extremely unlikely this correspondence would have been mailed at all. We would have had to wait over two months until the October 13th 1969 Paul Stine letter for Zodiac to introduce his pseudonym into the public domain, if ever at all. 
The 'Debut of Zodiac' letter only existed because of Chief Jack E Stiltz- and this communication is the only reason our knowledge of the killer as Zodiac existed at this point in time. The choice of the pseudonym being revealed in this letter was not a choice made by the killer, because he wouldn't have written it, if not pressed into action by reading this newspaper column. 
In fact, the Zodiac Killer may never have existed under this name, if it wasn't for this publication by the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle on August 3rd 1969. There is further evidence that the American public played a key role in igniting the killer's choice of pseudonym 
If the Z on the Bates letters really stood for Zodiac, then the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates, David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen and Darlene Ferrin had almost three years to create an appropriate pseudonym before the July 31st 1969 'trinity' of communications proclaiming his collection of slaves for the afterlife. He had six and a half months from the December 20th 1968 double murder until the attack at Blue Rock Springs Park. He had 27 days from the July 4th 1969 attack until the mailing of the July 31st 1969 'trinity.'  This was his arrival to the world, yet he didn't sign off any of these letters with 'Zodiac' or even a 'Z'.
If he was surreptitiously operating under the name of Zodiac at this point, he clearly didn't give this impression when he opened up two of his communications with the rather unoriginal opening line of "I am the killer of the 2 teen-agers last Christmass at Lake Herman and the Girl last 4th of July" to the Vallejo Times-Herald and San Francisco Examiner. The San Francisco Chronicle was equally devoid of any pseudonym or initial, beginning with "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmass at Lake Herman + the girl on the 4th of July near the golf course in Vallejo." 
The reason behind this, being that he hadn't formulated the pseudonym Zodiac at this juncture. The prompt was to come just three days later on Sunday August 3rd 1969- the day the 'Zodiac Killer' was born in the mind of the killer. 
The San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle opened with the lines "A self-accused killer failed to keep a threat of mass murder here, but there was no slackening of tension or mystery caused by the warning. The police department telephone system was clogged at times by anxious callers asking if the "cipher killer" had been caught."
The killer read this publication and was probably dismayed at the pseudonym of "cipher killer" attributed to him. He sat back in his armchair and was likely sparked into action to create his own pseudonym. He thumbed through the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle of August 3rd 1969 during the day, until he arrived at the Zodiac horoscope page, and a light went on. This was the day the 'Zodiac Killer' was born.    

We will take a look at the 'Confession' letter- and with the consideration of one murderer in mind, examine its contents in relation to the autopsy findings by pathologist Rene Modglin, in respect to the brutal murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966. This may go someway to determining whether or not the 'Confession' letter was authored by the killer. 

On the right is a representation of the wound pattern inflicted upon Cheri Jo Bates. One can see that all the lacerations noted in the post-mortem findings were effectively delivered by the killer from the breasts upwards, with the ferocity of the attack centered around the neck and face (the hands and arms raised to protect these vital areas). Some may say, that with six injuries to the face and seven lacerations to the neck, the killer's intention was to wipe away the identity of the pretty young student in a distinctly personal attack, but I will leave that to the observer to consider.
The lacerations and their directions have a story to tell- one that doesn't indicate an overhand knife attack from the front in a downwards motion. Or an underhand grip from the front in a straight, or upwards motion- an argument  strengthened somewhat by the evident lack of injuries to the area of the abdomen.
The 'Confession' letter stated "I said it was about time for her to die. I grabbed her round the neck with my hand over her mouth and my other hand with a small knife at her throat." The killer was effectively gaining control from the beginning of the attack rather than performing an uncontrolled full frontal assault, stabbing wildly. If we base this analysis on one assailant, as the letter implies, it is reasonable to deduce the assailant had grabbed Cheri Jo Bates around the neck and mouth with his left arm in a form of choke-hold.
Cheri Jo Bates' autopsy findings showed numerous petechiae in the forehead (broken capillary blood vessels). Petechiae are commonly present in the eyes or eyelids as a result of manual compression of the neck area, but not always, and can also be present on the face, especially the forehead. The manual force compressing the neck increases the vascular pressure causing the blood vessels to rupture. 
The assailant can now use his right hand to stab and slash the young girl, in effect, reaching over her right shoulder and directing the knife back towards himself (possibly an underhand grip), causing the three injuries to her breast region and several to her face. Clearly, at this point, Cheri Jo Bates is using her hands and arms in a defensive motion to protect her upper torso and face (eleven injuries noted to her hands and fingers, including lacerations and abrasions), as noted in the diagram. The small knife is being deflected as it's delivered, resulting in lacerations running laterally across her body. There must have been a violent struggle at this point with Cheri Jo Bates trying desperately to secure her release, and the attacker resisting her escape, resulting in the alleyway floor being disturbed by their footwear, described in the 'Inside Detective' magazine by law enforcement: "The driveway adjacent to 3680 Terracina Street was so churned up it looked like a tractor had been over the ground. The girl, who was very athletic, put up a terrific struggle."      

The 'Confession' letter continued: "Her breast felt very warm and firm under my hands, but only one thing was on my mind. Making her pay for all the brush off's that she had given me during the years prior. She died hard. She squirmed and shook as I choked her, and her lips twitched." The squirming being her attempt to break free from his clutches. The sheer terror and exertion, coupled with the compression applied to her neck, resulted in the petechial hemorrhaging to her forehead. It may have been at this point (or quite possibly later) that the assailant, in an attempt to gain control, shifted his grip from around her neck and started to slash (or stab) her throat.
One must also note the correlation between the wounds inflicted to her breasts, his reference in the letter to "her breast felt very warm and firm" and his promise to "cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see." In addition, if her breast felt very warm, was this indicative of an assailant who was not wearing gloves and who had earlier deposited fingerprints on her lime green Volkswagen Beetle. 
The 'Confession' letter then stated: "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up." If this were true, then clearly, he cannot kick her in the head standing upright behind her, while she is upright too. Bearing in mind the position she was found in the turnout the following day- face down- she may likely have been thrust forward at this point, onto the alleyway floor, causing abrasions to her hands (noted at autopsy). Free from the choke-hold, she is able to let out a scream, which resulted in the assailant kicking her in the face. Whether this action ever took place is debatable- but here are three excerpts from the autopsy to consider: [1] "A 2 cm oblique ragged edge gaping laceration of the upper lip on the left side that angles laterally from above and extends completely through the thickness of the lip. The teeth behind are not loose or broken." [2] "A dark blue-gray, slightly swollen discoloration of mainly the mucocutaneous portions of the upper and lower lips on the right side involving a 2 cm greatest diameter." [3] "An area of dark blue-gray discoloration of the skin of the left cheek angling from above in front slightly downward and posteriorly. The overall length is 3 cm.
None of the injuries thus far, despite being extensive, are necessarily terminal at this juncture.
With Cheri Jo Bates having been forced, face-down into the alleyway floor, the 'Confession' letter kicks in again: "I plunged the knife into her and it broke." The assailant likely atop and astride the young woman, plunges the knife into her left upper back (shown in blue in the diagram above). The back region being very firm, coupled with an extensive attack using a small pocket knife, may well have caused the hinge mechanism to fail, resulting in the blade closing and quite possibly injuring the hand or fingers of the assailant. The History Channel documentary 'The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer,' alluded to the fact the killer's blood may have dripped onto the attire of Cheri Jo Bates. This is a very real possibility and likely resulted in the end of the attack on the young woman, but for the final coup de grace: "I finished the job by cutting her throat."  

The cause of death listed in the autopsy was laceration of the right carotid artery. There was in fact extensive marking to the neck, all of which may have played a factor. The full description in the report was as follows: "The anterior neck skin extensively and irregularly lacerated with marked gaping. A deep cut is in the thyroid cartilage on both sides and the right common carotid is completely transected as well as the right superficial jugular vein."
​If this cut (shown on the right) originated on the left side of the thyroid cartilage near the midline and extended in one motion to the right side of the neck, this would be indicative of a right-handed assailant kneeling above Cheri Jo Bates (who is lying face down) and drawing the blade from left to right. This ultimately, is where her valiant fight for life abruptly ended.
However, she would before this happened, reach back with her right hand and grab the hair of her attacker. The autopsy stated "Considerable partially dried blood over the hand and especially about the fingers and under the unpainted moderately long but not carefully manicured fingernails."  When Cheri Jo Bates grabbed her assailant's hair, the extensive blood on her dominant hand trapped the hair at the base of her right thumb- crucial evidence that would later be used to extract mitochondrial DNA from her murderer.    
There is one more important thing to consider, other than finding foreign DNA on the clothes of Cheri Jo Bates, and that is blood tying. 
In the 'Inside Detective' magazine it stated "At the murder scene, drops of blood leading from the body to Terracina Street indicated to the detectives, that the murderer had walked back to the street following the slaying." 
This may have been the blood of the victim dripping from the knife or assailant. But, there surely must have been consideration from investigators that this may have been blood from the murderer's cut right hand, which is common during attacks with bladed instruments. This blood was either collected and stored, or completely disregarded as originating from the victim, which could have been a big mistake.
Cheri Jo Bates' blood type detailed at autopsy is rare in the USA population. It was AB RhD positive, which accounts for only 3.4% of the American population. Even with the limited forensic capabilities in 1966, this testing was a simple affair, and could have determined whether the blood trail extending towards Terracina Drive was that of the killer's, and subsequently stored appropriately for future testing. Different samples could also have been retrieved from the clothing of Cheri Jo Bates and stored separately. What are the chances the killer also possessed this very rare blood group? 
Whether or not this trail of blood was tested and stored in controlled conditions, and ruled out, we may never know. But if it wasn't, then this story could possibly have had a very different ending from the one it's likely to have.

Inspired by the first episode of the Zodiac Killer docudrama, which aired on November 14th 2017, we will take a completely fresh look at the Cheri Jo Bates murder using only newspaper and magazine articles as our guide, and completely disregard anything contained in the material provided by Robert Graysmith.
It will also disregard any preconceptions of the crime formulated by investigators and the 'Confession' letter sent on November 29th 1966, approximately one month after the brutal murder.
​The 'Confession' letter author likely played into the suppositions of investigators, who almost immediately ran with the narrative that Cheri Jo Bates had her Volkswagen Beetle tampered with while she was in the library, despite the fact little supports this conclusion.
Let us start in and around the library annex just before opening time.
The 'Inside Detective' magazine recalled that a Mexican-American student noticed Cheri Jo Bates close to opening time and shortly after- who 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, and it was then he saw the girl.'
It clearly states he had 'noticed her in the library the night in question'- therefore presumably after 6.00 pm. 
The 'Inside Detective' Magazine also stated "The participants in the reenactment at the detectives' request, wore the same clothing and sat in the same seats that they had occupied the Sunday night of the murder. They were also asked to park their cars in the same places they had on the night of October 30. It had been determined that Cheri Jo (or a girl resembling her and in similar clothes) had arrived at the library about 5.40 pm and waited for about 20 minutes for the doors to be opened. The girl apparently entered the library as soon as the doors were opened at 6.00 pm, and checked out the books she had come for."

Taking this completely at face value, and the fact her library books were discovered on the passenger side seat of her vehicle, we will assume she entered the library at opening time and discharged her reading material.
Sergeant Gren stated "The girl was definitely in the library as she checked out the books. She must have been contacted by the murderer as soon as she received her books." The key words here, are she "checked out her books." 
The article continued "However, other students who were acquainted with Cheri Jo said they were in the library between 6.30 and 6.40 pm- and did not see the girl during that time." Neither did Walter Siebert, who stated that "he and a few friends were in the library from 7.15 pm until 9, but did not see Miss Bates, whom they all knew. They said they saw four men dressed in work clothes sitting on a fence across from the spot where Miss Bates' car was found, but they did not know them."  
It is therefore extremely likely Cheri Jo Bates entered the library at 6.00 pm and left before 6.30 pm, having checked out her books. The four men in work clothes are crucial. 
They stated to investigators that "they had seen Cheri Jo near her car the previous night." But what time and where?
It is reasonable to assume it may have been slightly before 5.30 pm, since the Mexican-American student and the female eyewitness saw Cheri Jo Bates at 5.30 pm, 5.40 pm and the time she entered the library at 6.00 pm.
​The Riverside City College was undergoing renovation at the time, so these four men may have been passing the area of the college campus around this time- probably working within the college campus on a Sunday, at a time when certain areas were free from student activity. This may be a reasonable supposition, because they were still in the vicinity when Walter Siebert arrived at 7.15 pm, at which time they were sitting on a fence on the north side of Terracina Drive. They may have been taking a break.
Walter Siebert and friends never laid eyes on Cheri Jo Bates that evening, nor did they, or any other person familiar with the young girl, spot her striking lime green Volkswagen Beetle (or at the very least was it reported), despite the fact it was supposedly parked only 30 yards or 90 feet east of the library entrance. Walter Siebert and friends said "they saw four men dressed in work clothes sitting on a fence across from the spot where Miss Bates' car was found, but they did not know them." They only said the four men were located across from the position the vehicle "was found", not from the position of the vehicle that evening. Indicating they never saw her vehicle on the evening of October 30th 1966. In fact, not one of the attendees to the library that evening or night stated they spotted Cheri Jo Bates' vehicle in the position it was found. "They were also asked to park their cars in the same places they had on the night of October 30", yet apparently not one parked near the lime green Volkswagen Beetle, or noted its position on Terracina Drive.​  

Is it possible they didn't notice her vehicle because it wasn't there? Cheri Jo Bates parked her vehicle up that evening, and was noticed by the four men (but not necessarily exactly 30 yards east of the library), who said "they had seen Cheri Jo near her car the previous night." 
She then entered the library, "checked out her books," left before 6.30 pm and possibly drove away, bucking the supposition of detectives, who assumed the perpetrator disabled her vehicle while she was in the library, and wrongly concluded her vehicle remained idle from the moment she parked up, to the following morning, when her vehicle was ultimately discovered. 
A perpetrator disabling her vehicle, would had to have done so approximately 90 feet from the library entrance, risking being spotted and then killed her within minutes, despite the fact the young woman's body would have lain in the alleyway for around 4 hours that evening, without anybody walking down the alleyway, and completely negating the screams being heard around 10.30 pm by at least two earwitnesses. It makes little sense, and therefore is highly unlikely.
This is why the 'Confession' letter is highly suspect. It is simply parroting what investigators immediately concluded after discovering the disabled Volkswagen Beetle, and what was widely reported in the newspapers in the aftermath of the murder. The 'Confession' letter revealed no details only privy to the murderer, and even if its author was the killer of Cheri Jo Bates, he was only too happy to concur with the conclusions of the police investigation, especially if it steered the investigators away from what really happened on October 30th 1966, and even more importantly, centered the focus around the library annex and college campus. The 'Confession' letter should have been called the 'Confirmation' letter, as it effectively confirmed to police what they already believed, whereas the truth likely lay elsewhere. 
The 'Inside Detective' magazine also stated 'Two young girls who said they knew Cheri Jo, gave a taped interview to a crew from a Los Angeles television station. The girls in the interview, said that Cheri Jo had told them Sunday that she was "going to the library to meet her boyfriend." However, Sgt Gren said that while Cheri Jo had met her boyfriend in San Francisco the weekend prior to her murder, the boy was still in the Bay Area at the time of her death. The statements of the two girls were based on hearsay and not on fact Captain Cross told newsmen.'
It is clear this statement was prematurely dismissed by police, because according to the two girls, Cheri Jo Bates was supposedly "going to the library to meet her boyfriend." This cannot be misinterpreted as going to San Francisco to meet her boyfriend Dennis Highland, unless she was meeting him at a library in San Francisco.    
This is from Zodiackiller.com: "The relationship between Barnett and Cheri soured after Cheri returned from San Francisco, where she had visited her steady boyfriend. Cheri informed Barnett that she had accepted this boyfriend's wedding proposal and that she and Barnett could no longer date. (This conversation with Barnett occurred less than a week before her murder.)"
It is clear that the relationships of Cheri Jo Bates were less than clear cut, so it is by no means out of the question that Cheri Jo Bates may have made alternative plans that Sunday evening, once her friend Stephanie Guttmann declined her officer at 3.45 pm that day, to accompany her to the library. Cheri Jo Bates may have originally planned to meet a "boyfriend" after the library closed that evening, but her plans could have changed when Stephanie decided not to go to the library.     

Cheri Jo Bates was spotted near her vehicle by the four workmen just before 5.30 pm. We don't know where exactly she parked. The men may simply have walked past her somewhere near the college, and noticed her alongside the vehicle. It may have been in the near area it was eventually found. This would make sense, because investigators presumably asked the four men where they spotted Cheri Jo Bates and her vehicle, and it likely near concurred with the position of the vehicle the following morning, thereby not raising any red flags 
​Later, Walter Siebert and friends noticed the same four men sitting on a fence, likely taking a break, around 7.15 pm, but they didn't notice Cheri Jo Bates or her vehicle. Therefore, it is unlikely the four men  spotted Cheri Jo Bates alongside her vehicle at 7.15 pm, because if they had, Walter Siebert and friends would likely have noticed her and the Volkswagen Beetle too, which they didn't. 
Additionally, if investigators tied the two stories together, and assumed the four men noticed Cheri Jo Bates by her vehicle at 7.15 pm, then she would have supposedly been leaving the library. Had she been arriving at the library, then Walter Siebert and friends would have seen her in the library between 7.15 pm and 9.00 pm. But she couldn't have been leaving the library either, because Cheri Jo Bates had apparently entered at opening time and wasn't even spotted in the library between 6.30 pm and 6.40 pm, 
If Cheri Jo Bates checked out her books prior to 6.30 pm, why would she still be next to her vehicle at 7.15 pm. Had it been tampered with while in the library, she could have simply sought assistance inside the library or from her arriving friends. The whole scenario doesn't stack up. 
The four men must have spotted Cheri Jo Bates on her arrival to the library just before 5.30 pm and relayed this to police, that "they had seen Cheri Jo near her car the previous night."  At 7.15 pm, when the four men were spotted by Walter Siebert, Cheri Jo Bates and her vehicle were gone. Investigators likely assumed Cheri Jo Bates' vehicle remained throughout, as they had done from the very beginning, and the vehicle simply went unnoticed by Walter Siebert and company.
​Originally her plans were to visit the library to study with Stephanie Guttmann, but possibly her plans changed and she decided to meet with this "boyfriend". The eventual murder had all the hallmarks of a spurned admirer and 'crime of passion'.
The problem we have, is why would Cheri Jo Bates' vehicle have left the library and returned to effectively the same position some 4 hours later. Had she arranged to meet the 'mystery man' outside the library just after checking her books out, gone to a secondary location, before returning her 'passenger' where she picked him up. If so, did he live nearby, and was familiar with the college campus, including the two empty houses along the alleyway. The fact that both windows were rolled down, with the keys in the ignition and doors unlocked, may suggest something erupted on their arrival back at the library.
​If he is carrying her books for her, the 'mystery man' may have exited the vehicle, placed the books on the seat, closed the right door, inadvertently leaving it slightly ajar, and then proceeded to disable her vehicle in the heat of the moment to prevent her leaving. This may explain her eagerness to vacate the vehicle and seek help. She is dragged into the alleyway, and the attack begins circa 10.30 pm. The author of the  'Confession' letter, if the killer, knew that by playing into the police narrative of the crime, the investigation would remain squarely around the college campus and make his confession completely worthwhile.      

In the aftermath of the Cheri Jo Bates murder in Riverside on October 30th 1966 a library reconstruction was performed on November 13th 1966, with fingerprints and hair samples taken from the attendees to compare to crime scene evidence. How many college students and personnel were ultimately screened can only be speculated, but it was likely extensive. But who on the fringes of Riverside City College slipped through the net. Riverside College was undergoing extensive renovation at the time and was likely a hub of activity, that included contractors employed for this very task. Who could travel unhindered around the college campus, with access to buildings usually considered off limits? The murder was committed at the end of October, with the Bates letters mailed on April 30th 1967. We are looking at a period of 6 months, before the Zodiac Killer disappeared and apparently resurfaced in Benicia just over one and a half years later. If the Zodiac Killer was responsible for the events in Riverside, then it is conceivable that if he worked around or within the Riverside City College campus, he took his profession with him when he resumed his murderous activities in northern California. The focus of our killer seemed to centralize around the Riverside College campus. We shall therefore look at some key bullet points. 

#1. Cheri Jo Bates arrived at the campus shortly after 6:00 pm,  but screams were heard from the alleyway circa 10:30 pm. What  happened during this time period is unknown, but the killer specifically targeted Cheri Jo Bates Volkswagen Beetle and may have remained on site for upwards of four hours. Does this suggest he was comfortable in these surroundings and could travel around the campus largely unnoticed? Did the killer have access to a building in the vicinity of the library annex? Was he able to approach Cheri Jo Bates, only because he was familiar to her, yet he wasn't a close friend or fellow student?

#2. The two buildings either side of the crime scene were unoccupied. Would a killer lure a woman into this particular alleyway and commit a brutal attack, lasting possibly a minute or more, if he thought that these dwellings were inhabited by potential eyewitnesses - or even park his vehicle nearby? This goes to the very heart of whether this perpetrator knew the status of these two buildings and the area he was operating in. Knowing in advance that nobody was overlooking the crime scene was seemingly fundamental to his escape from justice.

#3. A Timex watch was ripped from the murderer's wrist during the struggle. It carried white flecks of paint. Did this belong to a worker, or somebody who was involved in the renovation of the campus facilities. 

#4. Here is a little background on the Riverside City College library: "The library is located on the Terracina Avenue side of the Quadrangle. Its collection included more than 35,000 books, 400 current periodicals and newspapers, 1,950 reels of microfilm and 2,000 pamphlets. Its indoor and outdoor facilities could accommodate 225 students. The library staff, included five professional librarians, who offered students and faculty individual assistance. The services of the College Library were available to students and residents of the area without charge. Students had free access to any of the books and magazines in the collection and were encouraged to use the library for their recreational reading as well as for academic pursuits. The circulation period was flexible and was determined by the demand for the material in question. Usual loans were for three weeks, but shorter periods may have been required for assigned reading in limited materials. Longer loans could be made upon request. Borrowers were held responsible for any library materials which were lost or damaged while in their care. Hours of service were: Monday through Thursday 7:45 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.; Friday 7:45 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.; Sunday 1:00 - 5:00; 6:00 - 9:00 p.m".   

Did the killer have access to the library facilities outside of hours - somewhere he could write unhindered on the library desktop, without fear that his unsavory poem could link him back to any murderous deeds he may commit? If the Riverside Desktop Poem was a precursor to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, then an absence of onlookers would be preferential.

#5. The murderer of Cheri Jo Bates may equally have used other facilities from the library. The 'Confession' letters mailed by the killer on November 29th 1966 were several generation copies: "A photocopying machine, where students could secure 8 1/2 X 11 inch black and white copy of printed or typed material, was available at the library for ten cents".
Photocopying an admission of murder in public may have been perilous, unless you could access a machine in relative obscurity, such as a library during closing times.

#6. The photocopying machine would have been acquired by the college library in respect to the paper likely used by the college, staff and students alike. The three Bates letters mailed on April 30th 1967 measured 8 1/2 X 11 inches, identical to the size offered by the photocopier in the library. 

​#7. "An unrelenting search had been in progress for the murder weapon, and that Tuesday detectives used a metal detector in shrubbery adjacent to the murder scene in an effort to find the knife used by the slayer. Captain Cross revealed to the news media that the autopsy showed that the murder weapon was probably a pocket knife with a 3 inch blade or less. The broadcast and published information about the knife caused the police switchboard to be flooded with calls reporting knives of similar description being found all over the city of Riverside." ​

On November 14th 1966, one day after the highly publicized library reconstruction, the police did get a call from a Riverside City College gardener: "That he had unearthed a hunting knife with his rake. The knife had apparently been buried near the murder scene. Detectives hurried to the campus and turned over the knife to the homicide detail. However, examination failed to show any evidence of dried blood on the knife blade. Also, its width did not compare with the incisions made by the stab wounds". Did the killer plant this knife to play games with the police - possibly observing them from the campus grounds as a casual onlooker? Was the murderer familiar with the routine of the college gardener, knowing he would eventually unearth the knife, or did he make a call to police, something that was withheld from the newspapers?

#8. The 'Confession' letter stated "She was young and beautiful but now she is battered and dead. She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake at night thinking about my next victim. May'be she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven. Or may'be she will be the shapely brownette that said no when I asked her for a date in high school. But may'be it will not be either". Was the killer referring to the alleyway where Cheri Jo Bates was murdered? Could he have been present on the Riverside College campus throughout this period - perfectly visible - yet at the same time inconspicuous because of his connection to the college. What, if anything, was significant about the month delay in claiming the crime in the 'Confession' letter? Was this indicative of how close he was to the college - or was the author a hoaxer, simply reading the newspaper reports and leading us on a merry Danse Macabre.

The 'Confession' letter purportedly typed by the hand of Cheri Jo Bates' murderer delivered a sense of foreboding: "She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake nights thinking about my next victim. Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven. Or maybe she will be the shapely blue eyed brownett that said no when I asked her for a date in high school. But maybe it will not be either....Yes I did make that call to you. It was just a warning. Beware...I am stalking your girls now." 
 
This was equally true of the Riverside Desktop Poem, discovered by a Janitor at Riverside City College in the December of 1966, after the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and after the 'Confession' letter, but in all probability was written before the October 30th 1966 murder. It gave a chilling prelude to what may transpire, what may be denied, but ultimately the threat of more to come: "Just wait till next time. rh."  If the Desktop Poem was written in the October of 1966 by the same mind who typed the 'Confession' letter, then it could be argued it was the prelude to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, and equally argued as the first correspondence of the Zodiac Killer, if you believe a connection exists between the Bay Area and Riverside.    

The Zodiac Killer often ended his communications with an unbridled mockery of police and signed off many with a running victim total and the promise of more. The July 31st 1969 San Francisco Chronicle letter warned us of future murders "If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night." The 'Bus Bomb' letter stated "up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people". In the November 8th 'Dripping Pen' card he added the months of his alleged attacks, stating "Des, July, Aug, Sept, Oct = 7." The Halloween card is also believed by many to be a future threat towards Paul Avery. Could the initials rh be offering us something similar. The author of the Riverside Desktop Poem warned us of a "next time," then gave us the initials. Could the author have instructed us on the time and place of his next murder, much like the unconfirmed 'Albany' letter mailed on August 1st 1973.

What if we apply the same model to the Riverside Desktop Poem, where he signs off the poem with "Just wait till next time. rh". The Riverside Desktop Poem was discovered in the December of 1966. But it might very well have been written prior to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, and the warning of "Just wait till next time. rh" was referring to the time and place of his next murder. Remember, the author of the Confession letter had suggested he was trying to lure Cheri Jo Bates into his vehicle. This may possibly indicate he had planned to murder Cheri Jo Bates later than the believed 10:30 pm, when screams emanated from the alleyway, likely on Halloween Day itself, but something clearly had resulted in the unplanned struggle in the alleyway and her 'premature' murder from the perspective of the killer. Had he achieved his objective in luring the young woman into his vehicle, the likely prediction of the Riverside Desktop Poem would have come true: "Just wait till next time. riverside, halloween." The author was giving us the area of the crime and the exact date. The Riverside Desktop Poem was the ode to murder, the 'Confession' letter was its completion. He may have planned the murder of the young woman on October 31st 1966, the day she was ultimately discovered by groundskeeper Cleophus Martin.   

​On March 13th 1971 the Zodiac Killer referenced his exploits in Riverside by 'complimenting' the police on connecting the murder of Cheri Jo Bates to him: "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones."  

In the aftermath of the Cheri Jo Bates murder the police made appeals to the public to be on the lookout for the murder weapon, described as a small knife: "An unrelenting search had been in progress for the murder weapon, and that Tuesday detectives used a metal detector (see right) in shrubbery adjacent to the murder scene in an effort to find the knife used by the slayer. Captain Cross revealed to the news media that the autopsy showed that the murder weapon was probably a pocket knife with a 3 inch blade or less. The broadcast and published information about the knife caused the police switchboard to be flooded with calls reporting knives of similar description being found all over the city of Riverside."  Was one of those callers the murderer, who did state in the 'Confession' letter "Yes, I did make that call to you." 

How many of these calls were followed up is hard to determine, but curiously on November 14th 1966, one day after the highly publicized library reconstruction, the police did get a call from a Riverside City College gardener: "That he had unearthed a hunting knife with his rake. The knife had apparently been buried near the murder scene. Detectives hurried to the campus and turned over the knife to the homicide detail. However, examination failed to show any evidence of dried blood on the knife blade. Also, its width did not compare with the incisions made by the stab wounds." Did the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates plant the hunting knife and make a call to police, which ultimately got lost in the myriad of calls flooding the switchboard, and consequently was not followed through? Or did the killer make contact with the Riverside City College gardener to volunteer this information, while viewing the unfolding police presence from a distance?
​ 
The police had thoroughly searched the crime scene with metal detectors in the days after the murder, so it seems likely the knife was planted subsequent to their search by either the perpetrator or a misguided prankster. The planting of a larger hunting knife near the murder scene may have been another foreboding message by the killer, that "It was just a warning. Beware...I am stalking your girls now." Stalking them with a larger and more deadly knife. After all, he did claim that he "plunged the knife into her and it broke."

For many people, Cheri Jo Bates checked out her own library books. This being the case, we have approximately four hours in which her whereabouts are unexplained. Had she gone somewhere willingly, it is highly likely she traveled there by foot, having left her vehicle parked on Terracina Drive at about 6.15 pm.
Does this center the investigation close to the college campus?

The author of the 'Confession' letter was fond of referring to that "alley," when he stated "Maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven" and "it just might save that girl in the alley." Was he referring to the alleyway in which Cheri Jo Bates was murdered, or some other alley in the vicinity of the Riverside City College campus? Somewhere he could monitor the comings and goings of young attractive women. If he was able to go unnoticed, without drawing suspicion to himself around the college campus the evening of October 30th 1966, had composed the Desktop Poem earlier that month, and had subsequently planted the knife near the crime scene, was this indicative of somebody who worked at, or frequented the college on a regular basis? Somebody who could travel within the confines of Riverside City College unchallenged and blend into the background. 
​
The Timex watch discovered ten feet from the body of Cheri Jo Bates, apparently ripped off the wrist of the killer in the struggle, had white paint specks on its face. The Riverside City College was undergoing renovation at this point in time, so is this another small pointer. The attack on Cheri Jo Bates was fairly prolonged, evident by the wounds sustained by the young woman, inflicted on her in an alleyway bordered by two vacant properties. Is this yet further indication of prior knowledge to college affairs, that the killer was prepared to attack Cheri Jo Bates here, knowing that nobody resided within these properties. This again, reinforcing the idea that the murderer either worked within the college campus, or frequented it regularly. He would seemingly stick around until at least April 30th 1967, when three more virtually simultaneous communications were received from the alleged murderer, in similar fashion to the beginning of the Zodiac correspondence, just over two years later.   

Here we will take an even deeper look into the events of October 30th 1966, partially using the excellent timeline of Ray Grant from his book 'Zodiac Killer Solved.' We may disagree on certain aspects of the crime, but he makes extremely interesting observations regarding the movements of Cheri Jo Bates that evening, and the fact that the young woman would never have willingly left her prized Volkswagen Beetle in the state it was found the following morning. 

We can agree that Cheri Jo Bates left her 4195 Via San Jose residence at approximately 5:05 pm. The next important sighting was from a Mexican-American student, who later stated that "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, and it was then he saw the girl." This statement can be interpreted in two ways. He either saw the girl at 5:30 pm or 6:00 pm. But on this occasion we will opt for around 5:30 pm for reasons explained in 'Zodiac Killer Solved,' while adding a further component from the 'Inside Detective' Magazine.
​
​The journey time from her residence to Terracina Drive, where her vehicle was ultimately found 'abandoned,' is a journey time of about 12-15 minutes. She parked her vehicle 30 yards east of the library annex, as explained in the previous article, on the right hand side of the road. The time now is 5:20 pm. She walked the short distance to the library where the Mexican-American student noticed Cheri Jo Bates "about 5:30 pm." It was likely a few minutes before, because as Ray Grant pointed out, she would eventually notice she wasn't in possession of her bibliography and ventured off to place a payphone call to her co-worker Donna at the Riverside National Bank at 5:30 pm who said she hadn't seen the bibliography. This call probably lasted for approximately 5 minutes, because the next sighting of Cheri Jo Bates was at 5:40 pm when she returned back to her vehicle by the library. This eyewitness was not 100% sure of the girl's identity, but there is a high probability it was Cheri Jo Bates, as she was returning to her vehicle to make the journey back home to retrieve her bibliography.                

This is where the 'Inside Detective' Magazine comes in handy. It stated "The participants in the reenactment at the detectives' request, wore the same clothing and sat in the same seats that they had occupied the Sunday night of the murder. They were also asked to park their cars in the same places they had on the night of October 30. It had been determined that Cheri Jo (or a girl resembling her and in similar clothes) had arrived at the library about 5:40 pm and waited for about 20 minutes for the doors to be opened. The girl apparently entered the library as soon as the doors were opened at 6:00 pm, and checked out the books she had come for." This seemingly near corroborates everything before it - the sighting of the Mexican-American student just before 5:30 pm, the phone call to Donna at 5:30 pm, and her return to the library at 5:40 pm. There is one big problem however, pointed out by Ray Grant in 'Zodiac Killer Solved.'
​
Cheri Jo Bates was spotted by two eyewitnesses (a March Air Force Base man and a friend of Cheri's driving on Magnolia Avenue) that evening, arriving toward Terracina Drive at 6:10-6:15 pm. How could she be arriving at the college at 6:15 pm when supposedly she was entering the library at 6:00 pm, having earlier arrived at the college library around 5:20 pm? If she had arrived at the college twice, then she must have returned home at some point to search for her bibliography. 
If we take the 5:40 pm eyewitness sighting as Cheri Jo Bates, this may corroborate her Volkswagen Beetle parked only 90 feet east of the library entrance. She was returning from the payphone heading west to east, toward the library entrance, to consider a journey back home. Had her vehicle been parked 360 feet west of the library or 75 yards west of the alleyway, as asserted by Robert Graysmith, then this eyewitness would not have assumed Cheri Jo Bates was "arriving at the library at 5:40 pm." The magazine stated that apparently she entered the library at 6:00 pm, and had waited 20 minutes from arriving. It is highly likely this is supposition on behalf of the investigators, based upon the 5:40 pm sighting. As Ray Grant suggested, Cheri Jo Bates likely entered her vehicle at 5:40 pm or thereabouts, and drove the 24 minute journey to and from her residence to collect her bibliography. Allowing for the turnaround and locating her bibliography, 30 minutes is a reasonable estimate, placing her arriving back on Terracina Drive at 6:10 pm where she was spotted by both the March Air Force Base man and her friend.

In one newspaper article it stated, "Some of her friends were at the library between 7 and 9 pm, but none can recall seeing Cheri. She had been there, however, because three books stamped that day were found in the front seat of her yellow-green Volkswagen found parked on Terracina, near the annex. Someone else was there too. Someone who police believe knew Cheri- knew her well enough to recognize her car. The distributor had been tampered with and there was evidence that the man had been in the car with her. The keys were still in the ignition when the car was found the next day. Both windows had been rolled down and the right door was ajar." ​​
The 'Inside Detective' Magazine added that "the keys were in the ignition, but the car had been disabled and would not start. It was found that the distributor coil and condenser had been ripped out. Greasy finger and palm prints were discovered on the door of the car. Two school books and a notepad were found in the front seat." 
​
Ray Grant believes that Cheri Jo Bates was abducted from her Volkswagen Beetle shortly after arriving at the library at 6:10-6:15 pm, indicating she never entered the library that night. Had the Mexican-American student only spotted Cheri Jo Bates at "about 5:30 pm" outside the library, then no eyewitnesses at all that night had recalled Cheri Jo Bates inside the library. Ray Grant believes it wasn't Cheri Jo Bates that checked out the library books, but the perpetrators of the crime. We may disagree on the events from 6:15 pm onward, but an abduction cannot be ruled out, as the young woman was 'missing' for just over 4 hours, until screams were heard coming from the alleyway where Cheri Jo Bates would ultimately be found by groundskeeper Cleophus Martin the following morning. She was almost certainly forcibly removed from her vehicle, particularly so, if only one assailant approached her vehicle that evening or night. If, as the 'Confession' letter intimated, she walked willingly away from her vehicle, then it is extremely unlikely a conscientious woman who prided her Volkswagen Beetle, would leave the keys in the ignition, with both windows rolled down and the doors unlocked, with one possibly ajar. The state of her vehicle clearly indicated she was under duress at this point.​  

We have to emphasize the fact that both her vehicle windows were rolled down. 'In October 1966 the average high temperature in Riverside, CA was 80.7°F, and this was 0.2°F cooler than the average of 80.9°F. The hottest day in October 1966 was 31 October when the temperature reached 91.9°F. Overnight the average temperature in October is 51.8°F.' Had Cheri Jo Bates' vehicle been sitting idle for an extended period of time in front of her 4195 Via San Jose residence earlier that day, then the temperature inside her Volkswagen Beetle would have been stifling. This certainly would have necessitated her rolling down both windows before her journey. On either journey, it's highly likely one would roll down both windows to circulate the air in temperatures exceeding 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This fact alone may support her abduction or forcible removal from her vehicle as she parked up on Terracina Drive, before she had chance to roll up the windows and exit the vehicle. It may also explain the keys still in the ignition and the doors unlocked, with one not fully closed - especially if more than one assailant was involved. This however, is where the library books come into play in Ray Grant's diversion theory, in 'Zodiac Killer Solved'. It is an extremely interesting read. 
​
If on the other hand she was forcibly removed, let's say under gunpoint or knife, shortly before 10:30 pm when she arrived back from her 'missing' 4 hours and then coerced into the alleyway, before being murdered, we have to ask ourselves the question -. would Cheri Jo Bates have arrived back at her vehicle at approximately 10:25 pm at night and rolled down both windows of her vehicle before attempting to drive away? Or had she rolled down the passenger side window for the sole purpose of conversing with somebody on the sidewalk, who was offering her assistance with the stricken vehicle? Were the unlocked doors, greasy fingerprints and "evidence that the man had been in the car with her," a sign that she initially felt comfortable with the good Samaritan - or that it was somebody she knew? All the evidence suggests that Cheri Jo Bates was forced from her vehicle that night, but was it around 6:15-6:20 pm, or shortly before 10:30 pm? Or is there another scenario, that may yet shed light on the events of October 30th 1966? 

http://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/cheri-jo-bates-re-evaluating-the-crime-scene
 
Zodiac Killer Solved by Ray Grant.  

Here we will take a fresh look at the Cheri Jo Bates murder in Riverside on October 30th 1966, using the 'Confession' letter, excerpts from Robert Graysmith's book, details from police, and earwitnesses to pinpoint the location of Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle and the vehicle of her assailant.

The 'Inside Detective' Magazine from January 1969 stated "At the murder scene, drops of dried blood leading from the body to Terracina Street indicated to the detective that the murderer had walked back to the street following the slaying". This indicated that the killer was walking back to his vehicle, parked on Terracina Drive. But which way did he head, east or west? The Riverside City College library entrance was situated approximately 45 yards (135 feet) east of the alleyway where the slain girl was discovered. There are, as always, conflicting versions of the same event.

​[1] The 'Inside Detective' Magazine stated "The Riverside Sheriff's Department picked up the broadcast. Minutes later, Sheriff's Detective Sergeant Jack Reid and Detective Jack Elms discovered the little car. It was parked at the curb in front of the college library about 75 feet (25 yards) from the entrance of the roadway where the girl's body was found". [2] Robert Graysmith, in his book Zodiac. stated "He probably came up and offered help, offered her a lift in his car. Then he got her to go down the unlit gravel road to the parking lot, about 75 yards east of her car". [3] The Riverside Police Department memorandum stated "She returned to her vehicle, which was parked on a city street a short distance from the library, placed her books in the vehicle, and attempted to start her vehicle, The vehicle had been tampered with so it would not start. This was evidently done by the suspect to keep the victim near her vehicle, so the suspect could make his approach. Our victim then left her vehicle, accompanied by the suspect, and walked approximately 200 feet (67 yards) into a dirt driveway between two houses".

Below I have interpreted the statements. One vehicle is placed between 67-75 yards west of the alleyway (which was "about 75 yards east of her car"). The second interpretation places the vehicle "in front of the college library" about 25 yards east of the alleyway. These appear the two options.  

Next we will examine the 'Confession letter' wording to pinpoint the location of the assailant/s vehicle, along with the true location of Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle. The 'Confession' letter stated "Then I waited for her in the library and followed her out after about two minutes. The battery must have been about dead by then. I offered to help. She was then very willing to talk to me. I told her that my car was down the street and I would give her a lift home. When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what." I said it was about time for her to die". If the author of the 'Confession' letter was honest in his directional movements that night, then his choice of words "when we were away from the library walking", seems to suggest he was walking away from the library, towards the alleyway and his vehicle, having already offered Cheri Jo Bates help in fixing her Volkswagen Beetle. This indicated that Cheri Jo Bates' vehicle was parked somewhere close to the library - and going by the above options - 25 yards east of the alleyway.

​If her disabled Volkswagen Beetle was parked 70 yards west of the alleyway, then his statement in the 'Confession' letter of "When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what." I said it was about time for her to die". makes it appear he is heading in the wrong direction. Considering the relative position of the Volkswagen Beetle (70 yards west) and the alleyway in this instance, he would have been walking towards the library, not away from the library. However, the Volkswagen Beetle being parked 25 yards east of the alleyway flies in the face of the Riverside Police Department memorandum, which indicated her vehicle was parked 200 feet (67 yards) from the alleyway. The Riverside Police Department memorandum and Robert Graysmith's book appear to corroborate one another in terms of distance from the alleyway.   

But what if the Volkswagen Beetle was parked 67-75 yards east of the alleyway, instead of 75 yards west, as Robert Graysmith stated in his book. This would literally place the Volkswagen Beetle very close to the library doors, using the measurement capabilities of Google maps, and corroborate the Riverside Police Department memorandum, which stated "her vehicle was parked on a city street a short distance from the library". This also tallies with the 'Inside Detective' Magazine, in which police said her Volkswagen Beetle "was parked at the curb in front of the college library". They did however, go on to state her vehicle was 75 feet from the alleyway, not 75 yards. But it's my guess they made a mistake or were misquoted.  

One wouldn't have imagined parking spaces that difficult to find on a Sunday evening, particularly bearing in mind Cheri Jo Bates had arrived at the library around opening time, before many of the other 65 attendees. This may also challenge the notion of her parking her vehicle 120 yards (360 feet) from the library entrance, along Terracina Drive, leaving her an unnecessary distance to walk. This revamped assessment now places her vehicle approximately 75 yards east of the alleyway, very close to the library, and "parked at the curb in front of the college library". Or, "parked on a city street a short distance from the library".  Not on the west side of the alleyway as originally believed.
 
But where was the assailant's vehicle parked? In the 'Confession' letter the author stated he "waited for her in the library and followed her out after about two minutes". We know that Cheri Jo Bates was not murdered until approximately 10:30 pm, so much of what the 'Confession' letter depicts is false, however, his wording can still give us a clue to the location of where his vehicle was parked. It is extremely likely the killer either trailed Cheri Jo Bates to the library that evening, or pulled up near to the library on the expectation of her arrival, maintaining a visual on the entrance. Regardless of what time she entered the library, or where she went that evening, the assailant would have parked somewhere on Terracina Drive to facilitate his plan, hence the wording on the 'Confession' letter: "I told her that my car was down the street and I would give her a lift home." and "when we were away from the library walking". This indicated his vehicle was parked west of the library entrance, towards the alleyway. 

He clearly didn't want to park his vehicle by the Riverside City College library steps, as this would risk his vehicle being associated with the Volkswagen Beetle of Cheri Jo Bates. The wording on the 'Confession' letter of his vehicle "down the street", to lure her towards the alleyway, would suggest his vehicle was somewhere close to the alleyway. This would facilitate a speedy exit from the alleyway after the knife attack on Cheri Jo Bates, which would inevitably have left him with blood on his clothes. This was backed up by earwitnesses close to the alleyway, who likely heard the perpetrator's vehicle pulling away from the scene.

In the Robert Graysmith book it stated "A neighbor heard an 'awful scream' between 10:15 and 10:45 pm, and then about two minutes of silence, and finally the sound of an old car starting up". The neighbor's claim is backed up by the latter part of the 'Confession' letter: "She died hard. She squirmed and shook as I choked her, and her lips twitched. She let out a scream once and I kicked her head to shut her up. I plunged the knife into her and it broke. I then finished the job by cutting her throat". After Cheri Jo Bates screamed, according to the author, he kicked her and then used the knife twice to finally kill her. Taking this at less than 30 seconds, and assuming the killer and starting car are connected, what did the killer do for the remaining 90 odd seconds. If his vehicle was relatively close by (30 seconds journey) - so that the neighbor was able to hear it starting up - then we are probably looking for an unaccounted minute of time. Was this time used in searching for the Timex watch, wrenched off his wrist in the struggle with Cheri Jo Bates?

Based on everything learned, the Volkswagen Beetle of Cheri Jo Bates was likely parked very close to the library annex - 75 yards east, or thereabouts from the ill-fated alleyway. Her vehicle would have been parked approximately 30 yards (90 feet) east of the library entrance. The assailant's vehicle was also parked on Terracina Drive, within earshot of the alleyway, on either the east or west side. "At the murder scene, drops of dried blood leading from the body to Terracina Street indicated to the detective that the murderer had walked back to the street following the slaying". But only a matter of yards from the alleyway, before driving away.    

FOOTNOTE: Newspaper article excerpt - Death on a Driveway, A life that ended too soon.  
"Some of her friends were at the library between 7 and 9 pm, but none can recall seeing Cheri. She had been there, however, because three books stamped that day were found in the front seat of her yellow-green Volkswagen found parked on Terracina, near the annex. Someone else was there too. Someone who police believe knew Cheri- knew her well enough to recognize her car. The distributor had been tampered with and there was evidence that the man had been in the car with her. The keys were still in the ignition when the car was found the next day. Both windows had been rolled down and the right door was ajar."  

The unsolved murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966 has now passed the half-century mark, and little in the way of new evidence seems forthcoming, despite a breakthrough in DNA evidence in 1999. However, the clues in this case may lie extremely close to home. Her brother Michael Bates, one year her senior, was convinced that Cheri Jo Bates was murdered by somebody she knew, and the evidence appears to point that way bearing in mind the specific targeting of her Volkswagen Beetle and the apparent knowledge of her whereabouts that evening. Michael stated to Inland Empire Magazine "I’ve always felt that Cheri was killed by someone she knew. She would not have walked into a dark alley with a stranger". Cheri Jo Bates was afraid of the dark. Bearing these factors in mind, it could have been somebody connected to Riverside College, her inner circle, or somebody who she knew loosely through her family members.
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Cheri Jo Bates was described as outgoing, friendly and always prepared to help people in their time of need. Cherie Curzon recalled such an occasion "For me, the best part of our story was, I was an underclass person who she wanted to help out. The people who were going to do the talent contest with me backed out and she volunteered to be my partner.
I will never forget her kindness… We had so much fun rehearsing and then performing, I loved her generosity and kindness toward me…She did it because of who she was; just a wonderful person". Source. This is an admirable quality, but was this kindness misconstrued by someone who ultimately fixated on Cheri Jo Bates. An interest that developed into a deadly obsession and possibly stoked by rejection. This would certainly be nothing new.    

Whether or not this crime was committed by the Zodiac Killer has literally raged for as long as the crime itself. The Zodiac Killer would effectively lay claim to the Cheri Jo Bates murder on March 13th 1971 in a letter mailed to the Los Angeles Times. His reference to "they don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others," appears to suggest he followed the headlines down south, and a likely affiliation with the area and to the newspaper. 

The Department of Justice report described the heel prints at the Cheri Jo Bates crime scene as "those worn by Air Force personnel" and "was identified as a B.F. Goodrich waffle design, men's four-eighths inch washer type half heel. The B.F Goodrich Products Division of Akron, Ohio, reported that this type heel is only sold to the Federal prison industries at Leavenworth, Kansas. It was subsequently learned that Federal prison industries made low quarter military type shoes and supplied them to all the armed services using black dress shoes. The measurement of the heel indicated that it would have been attached to an eight to ten size shoe. Shoes bearing the same type heel were issued and sold at the PX at March Air Force Base in Riverside" In fact, the Riverside Police Department would sum this up by stating "Physical evidence found at our crime scene indicated that heel prints found by the body were made by a heel that was manufactured for military and other government agencies, including prisons". 

​It was speculated that bearing in mind Joseph Bates' profession, and the fact he was addressed personally by the killer, that the murderer of Cheri Jo Bates may have been a friend or work colleague in the Naval Ordnance Laboratory of Joseph Bates, who was either familiar with Cheri Jo Bates or had crossed paths with her. The military boot print gives us a link, along with the fact the killer may have been on the fringes of Miss Bates' circle - in that he knew her - but they weren't necessarily friends. If the author of the 'Confession' letter was telling any semblance of truth, then the wording "I then offered to help. She was then very willing to talk to me", suggested that she only talked to him after the offer of help, likely implying someone less than a very close friend. The area of Corona where Joseph Bates worked was in close proximity to many naval facilities, as well as the California Rehabilitation Center Prison, both situated only 15 minutes from the location of the murder.
​
This crafted the idea that the inspiration for the Zodiac crosshairs was based on his first murder in Riverside County, and Corona (the Circled City) itself. This is an aerial shot of Corona today, but was once perfectly symmetrical. 

Michael Bates was in the Navy at the time Cheri Jo Bates was murdered, but did he have friends in the military, or aspired to be in the military that may have crossed paths with his sister in the preceding months of her murder. Somebody that may have left the B.F. Goodrich heel print in the Riverside alleyway. "It was subsequently learned that Federal prison industries made low quarter military type shoes and supplied them to all the armed services using black dress shoes".

Michael, by his own admission spent limited time with his sister before he joined the Navy. He did however work at Sears Department Store while attending the Riverside City College. In 1938 Sears would relocate to Seventh and Main Street, Riverside, where the building can be found today. Sears is short for Sears, Roebuck & Company. ​Did Michael Bates have a work colleague from Sears, who may have sourced his material from the department store, and somehow became interconnected with the movements of Cheri Jo Bates. The Sears, Roebuck & Company has a distinct connection to the Lake Herman Road murders on December 20th 1968.
​
In the Department of Justice, Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, conducted by David Burd, the firearm identified as the likely murder weapon at Lake Herman Road was a J C Higgins 80 pistol. The Sears, Roebuck & Company specialized in sporting goods and recreational equipment between 1908 and 1962, with the Sears JC Higgins eventually replaced with the Ted Williams brand. The Sears, Roebuck & Company manufactured their own paper targets throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, the very targets a young Zodiac may have used. The above target suggested "For best results with .22 Long Rifle".
​
Whether or not the Cheri Jo Bates murder on October 30th 1966 or the Lake Herman Road murders of December 20th 1968 were the Zodiac Killer's first, the crosshairs loomed ​​large over both.

#3. Richard Haefner, an assistant professor, was a major suspect in the murder of Betsy Aardsmaa, who allegedly briefly dated her. His initials match the desktop poem. 
#4. Reviled by many, Richard Haefner had anger issues. Excerpt from the Lancaster online: 'Haefner told investigators he'd found out about her death the evening of Nov. 29, a day after she was stabbed. But in fact, Skucek asserted, Haefner knew of the crime shortly after it was committed. He'd shown up at the home of a professor just hours after Aardsma was killed, asking, "Have you seen the papers?" The stabbing had not yet been reported in the local newspapers. But Haefner knew about it and "expressed concern about what had happened to this young lady," the professor told Skucek.' 

Cheri Jo Bates, by all accounts, was a gregarious and sociable young woman who easily made friends. The day of her murder she had called her friend Stephanie Guttman at approximately 3:45 pm to see if she wanted to accompany her to the Riverside library that evening to study, but Stephanie declined the offer. It would be another 45-75 minutes later that Cheri Jo Bates left her 4195 Via San Jose residence in her lime-green Volkswagen Beetle (between 4:30-5:00 pm). The journey time from her residence to the Riverside City College library is little more than 10 minutes journey time, which evidently would place her outside the library at around 5:10 pm at the latest, rather early for a library that doesn't open until 6:00 pm. We have Cheri placing a phone call to her co-worker Donna from the Riverside National Bank at approximately 5:30 pm, explaining that she had misplaced her term paper bibliography. So we know she had to have made this call somewhere other than her home residence, likely from somewhere near to the library. Strangely though, the next two sightings of Cheri Jo Bates by eyewitnesses have her driving towards Terracina Drive and the library annex at 6:10-6:15 pm. This would be 40-45 minutes after the call to Donna. Where did she go for this extended period of time?

Had she called on a friend to seek companionship, in light of Stephanie Guttman being unable to accompany her to the library that night? Clearly she had left her residence that night at least one hour prior to the library opening that evening. She certainly wasn't going to sit in her Volkswagen Beetle outside the library for 50 minutes in temperatures that exceeded 80 degrees Fahrenheit in October. It is also clear she wasn't sitting outside the library, well in advance, waiting for it to open.

A Mexican-American student: 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, and it was then he saw the girl'. This statement is open to interpretation, but the Mexican-American student does indicate he saw Cheri Jo Bates IN the library, not outside. He was waiting outside the library at 5:30 pm, but it was only once the library opened at 6:00 pm, that he saw the girl "writing something with a ball point pen" in her blue spiral school notebook.

We know two eyewitness saw her approaching Terracina Drive at approximately 6:10 pm - so it is likely the Mexican-American student saw Cheri Jo Bates shortly after it opened? He was likely able to recollect such precise details regarding her ball point pen and blue spiral school notebook, because the library was probably quite empty at this point. The details he gave lends credence to the fact Cheri Jo Bates did enter the library that evening, albeit for a very brief period of time. Detectives could easily have authenticated the accuracy of his statement from the victim's belongings retrieved from her vehicle or the crime scene.

We know that no further eyewitnesses saw Cheri Jo Bates in the library that evening from 6:30 to 9:00 pm, indicating she spent likely 15 minutes or less in the library. She had earlier misplaced her bibliography, so unless she had already returned home to retrieve it, she may have felt she was unable to do the studying she had planned and went elsewhere. It is also equally possible, that because Stephanie Guttman was unable to accompany her to the library, she may have made alternative arrangements before leaving her residence. Whatever the case, from approximately 6:30 pm to 10:30-10:45 pm - when screams were heard coming from the alleyway - her movements are unaccounted for. It could be argued however, that spending 4 hours elsewhere, was somewhere she likely felt comfortable.           

Shortly after 6:10 pm, four young men, under police interrogation stated "they had seen Cheri Jo near her car the previous night". They didn't recall any suspicious activity around the Volkswagen Beetle that evening, so the claim she was abducted as she arrived on Terracina Drive, or had returned to a disabled Volkswagen Beetle could not have happened during the time they were sitting on the fence opposite her vehicle. They were later spotted by other eyewitnesses in exactly the same location. Walter Siebert stated that 'he and a few friends were in the library from 7.15 pm until 9, but did not see Miss Bates, whom they all knew. They said they saw four men dressed in work clothes sitting on a fence across from the spot where Miss Bates' car was found, but they did not know them.' 

The remaining options appear to be that Cheri Jo Bates left the library that evening with person or persons unknown, or had arranged earlier that day to visit another friend after Stephanie declined her offer. Two crucial factors come into play here: [1]. The Riverside light was fading badly shortly after six and 'Detectives learned from the slain girl's friends that Cheri Jo had been "terribly afraid of the darkness", and [2]. Cheri Jo Bates vehicle would have been parked on Terracina Drive for upwards of 4 hours.

If Cheri Jo Bates had prearranged to visit somebody that evening, it would suggest the secondary location was within reasonable walking distance. The question to ask would be, how far was Cheri Jo Bates prepared to walk that evening in the dark? Or how far would you be prepared to walk when you have a vehicle parked right outside the library. There is a reasoned argument to be had, to suggest the secondary location, possibly a friend's apartment or house, was extremely close to the Riverside campus grounds. Quite possibly situated in the adjoining streets. If Cheri Jo Bates did visit a nearby friend's residence for several hours, they clearly failed to reveal this information to investigators. One could argue they feared being implicated in the crime having been the last person to see Cheri Jo Bates before her death, or they were the actual killer of Cheri Jo Bates, possibly while escorting her back to her vehicle. But if she visited them, when did they disable her vehicle - in a heated argument when they both returned to her vehicle? If the latter were the case, then the 'smoking man' observed by a female student in the alleyway at 9:30 pm may have a reprieve - but it's not the likeliest of scenarios. Cheri Jo Bates was certainly 'missing' for approximately 4 hours, with her Volkswagen Beetle sitting idle in Terracina Drive - and if she hadn't been abducted - then she was seemingly comfortable in her surroundings, likely with a friend, and possibly very close by. 
​
​http://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-cigarette-butt     

One of the smallest and most underrated pieces of evidence in the Cheri Jo Bates murder case is the cigarette butt recovered from the alleyway on October 31st 1966. At 9.30 pm on Sunday October 30th 1966 a female student was walking through the ill fated alleyway where Cheri Jo Bates' body would ultimately be discovered, when she observed a man smoking a cigarette. The two exchanged pleasantries, unfortunately however, she was unable to furnish a facial description of the man as he was standing in the shadows. Clearly the police believed this a valid and significant sighting, as not only was this woman the last eyewitness before the murder but she was evidently able to specify the man's exact location, resulting in the police retrieving a cigarette butt from the alleyway, that years later would yield a DNA profile. The cigarette butt had a DNA concentration of 0.003 nanograms per microliter. Hair, believed to be from the killer, was found in a blood clot at the base of Cheri Jo Bates' right thumb, and also yielded DNA. If these two specimens were able to be matched then we could say the killer of Cheri Jo Bates is the man responsible for discarding the cigarette retrieved. This may not necessarily be the man viewed by the female student, but there is a strong likelihood as she would have led or described to police the exact location she had encountered him, and seemingly this was the only cigarette butt tested. This opens up many possibilities.
The unidentified male had a line of sight to Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle parked on Terracina Drive, he was standing in the alleyway 30 minutes subsequent to the library closing its doors, and was the last person seen in the alleyway prior to screams being heard, approximately 45-60 minutes later by local residents. This is the most viable suspect in relation to the murder.
We know Cheri Jo Bates was not present in the library at 9.00 pm, and did not leave at closing time. If this was her murderer, he may have been under the impression Cheri Jo Bates was in the library when he arrived to the Riverside campus. He disabled her vehicle and waited for her to exit. By 9.30 pm he would have realized she hadn't exited the library, but with her vehicle close by knew she would be returning sooner rather than later, and the alleyway was the perfect vantage point.
If this man was a random killer not familiar with Cheri Jo Bates, simply on the lookout for lone women, he certainly rejected the opportunity that presented itself at 9.30 pm when a young female student passed him in the alleyway. Does this, along with the disabling of Cheri Jo Bates' vehicle indicate he had a specific target in mind? It definitely points in this direction. 

Does the fact that Riverside Police have consistently dismissed any link to the Zodiac Killer suggest a DNA comparison has been established. If the DNA retrieved from the Riverside crime scene has all but ruled out long standing suspect 'Bob Barnett,' then for anybody who believes the Cheri Jo Bates and Zodiac cases are connected, and have a 'favorite' suspect, then available DNA could effectively rule them out too.
The DNA comparison ruled out 'Bob Barnett', but how many of Cheri Jo Bates' colleagues, companions and friends of the day have latterly been screened and been eliminated or otherwise.
This crime has all the hallmarks of a killer who knew Cheri Jo Bates, knew where she was going that evening, knew her vehicle - and if the man in the alleyway was our killer, he was prepared to wait a substantial period of time to secure his objective. The answer to how close this person was to Cheri Jo Bates may lie in the discarded cigarette butt, how long he was prepared to lie in wait in the alleyway, and possibly his mistaken belief that Cheri Jo Bates was studying in the library until closing time. These, coupled with the disabling of the Volkswagen Beetle may point to the inner circle rather than a stranger.    

It has long been believed the Zodiac Killer may have taken credit for crimes he never committed. One such example was the Modesto abduction of Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970, to which he claimed credit four months later, giving us details about the crime that had already been published in the newspapers. This may also have been the case in the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, when one month after the crime somebody sent typed Confession letters to Riverside Homicide Detail and the Riverside Press Enterprise on November 29th 1966. But were these from the killer, or an elaborate hoaxer?

When a person is manufacturing a story or crime they never committed they will obviously use material gleaned from the newspapers, but may subconsciously structure details in the letter in the same order they appeared in the newspaper. In addition, they may use identical or similar words used by the author of the article. The person may have attempted to present the Confession letter as first hand information but inadvertently leaked elements of the article into its wording and structure. Here is one such newspaper article released before the Confession letter arrived:

'Riverside Police say their only clue in the brutal murder of a pretty, 18-year-old co-ed is a man's wristwatch found 10 feet from her slashed body. Officers speculated that while Cheri Jo Bates, a blonde cheerleader, studied Sunday night at the Riverside City College library, her killer disabled her car. Miss Bates' body, stabbed in the back, her throat slashed, was found early Monday under a tree, 100 feet from the car. The ignition key was in place in the compact car, but the distributor and coil wire had been torn loose, police said. Officers said an anonymous caller telephoned saying she had heard a terrified scream Sunday, then a muffled scream, then a car driving away The caller said she had not thought it serious enough to report until Monday'.            

Let us compare this article to the Confession letter, to view any similarities.
#1.The first thing the article details is the 'brutal murder of a pretty, 18-year-old co-ed', in addition to being a 'blonde cheerleader.' The Confession letter opens with "she was young and beautiful", along with "maybe she will be the beautiful blond that babysits,' or "the shapely blue eyed brownett that said no when I asked for a date in high school".

#2. The article then details the car being disabled. The Confession letter similarly switches to the Volkswagen Beetle, stating "I first pulled the middle wire from the distributor", but the author retrieves some additional material from later in the article, where it states 'the distributor and coil wire had been torn loose'. This topic of the 'middle wire' has been hotly debated in many forums, on whether the author of the Confession letter is supplying information only known to the killer. Here is some additional information to help you decide. "The ignition coil is the unit that takes your relatively weak battery power and turns it into a spark powerful enough to ignite fuel vapor. Inside a a traditional ignition coil are two coils of wire on top of each other. These coils are called windings. One winding is called the primary winding, the other is the secondary. The primary winding gets the juice together to make a spark and the secondary sends it out the door to the distributor. You'll see three contacts on an ignition coil, unless it has an external plug, in which case the contacts are hidden inside the case. The large contact in the middle is where the coil wire goes (the wire that links the coil to the distributor cap".
https://www.thoughtco.com/your-ignition-system-how-does-it-work
​http://www.1966vwbeetle.com/1966%20Wiring%20Diagram.htm
http://www.carparts.com/classroom/ignition.htm​​
 
#3. The article then mentions how Cheri Jo Bates was murdered: 'Miss Bates' body, stabbed in the back, her throat slashed, was found early Monday under a tree'. ​The author of the Confession letter again follows: "I grabbed her around the neck with my hand over her mouth and my other hand with a small knife at her throat", continuing on to parrot the article "I plunged the knife into her. Then I finished the job by cutting her throat".  The article gives the impression Cheri Jo Bates suffered only two wounds, one to the back and one to the throat. The author of the Confession letter equally describes only two strikes with the knife, despite the fact Cheri Jo Bates suffered numerous lacerations to her body over a prolonged period, and did not "go to the slaughter like a lamb".

#4. The article then details an anonymous caller who 'had heard a terrified scream.' The Confession letter again mimics this detail: "She let out a scream once and I kicked her head to shut her up". Triggered by the anonymous caller, the author of the Confession letter is reminded to state, "Yes I did make that call to you also". 

Finally, the author of the Confession letter stated "I first pulled the wire from the distributor. Then I waited for her in the library and followed her out after about two minuts. The battery must have been about dead by then. I then offered to help. She was then very willing to talk to me". None of which actually happened. 

Walter Siebert stated that "he and a few friends were in the library from 7:15 pm until 9, but did not see Miss Bates, whom they all knew. They said they saw four men dressed in work clothes sitting on a fence across from the spot where Miss Bates' car was found, but they did not know them". These workmen must have been spotted by Walter Siebert and his friends when they arrived at the library at 7:15 pm. The workmen said they saw Cheri Jo Bates by her Volkswagen Beetle as they were sitting opposite her vehicle on the fence - but Cheri Jo Bates was not recollected by Walter Siebert & Co that evening. We know that Cheri Jo Bates parked her Volkswagen Beetle on Terracina Drive no later than 6:15 pm, and it is assumed it remained in that position throughout until it was discovered disabled the following day. The four young men were interrogated by police, stating "they had seen Cheri Jo near her car the previous night". They must have seen Cheri Jo Bates at 6:15 pm when she parked up to enter the library. They do not mention to police anybody tampering with the Volkswagen Beetle, anybody assisting Cheri Jo Bates, or Cheri Jo Bates experiencing any car trouble. They fail to see anything suspicious, including hearing any commotion or screams from the alleyway. This totally negates the claims issued by the author of the Confession letter, and reinforces the idea the author is simply mimicking what they have read in the newspapers. So, was the author of the Confession letter the killer? I will let you decide.  

CHERI JO BATES-MINUTE BY MINUTE
CHERI JO BATES-MINUTE BY MINUTE [PT2]
​CHERI JO BATES-THE COMPLETE EYEWITNESS TIMELINE

The following is a comprehensive analysis of the timeline of Cheri Jo Bates' movements and eyewitness testimony from the evening of October 30th 1966. It will not attempt to promote or discredit any of the reported statements.  

Detective Sergeant David Bonine, stated that a close friend of Cheri Jo Bates saw her drive past in her lime green Volkswagen Beetle at approximately 6.10 pm, heading toward the Riverside City College on Magnolia Avenue. The friend waved at her, but apparently she failed to notice and did not reciprocate the gesture. A second report from about the same time period was relayed to police from an Air Force man who lived close to Riverside City College library. He was passed by a lime green Volkswagen Beetle driven by a blond female up an alley parallel to Magnolia, east of the Sherri Lynn Apartments. Her vehicle was being followed by a 1965-66 bronze Oldsmobile. This must have been slightly after 6.10 pm, indicating that Cheri Jo Bates was heading to the library to park up. Her vehicle was ultimately found on Terracina Drive, right next to Magnolia Avenue.
If we assume she discharged her own three library books, then she must have entered the library at approximately 6.15 pm. 
The above two eyewitnesses times are approximated, so if the Mexican-American student saw Cheri Jo Bates "in the library the night in question," shortly after it opened, it was likely closer to 6.15 pm.   

Shortly after 6.10 pm, four young men, under police interrogation stated "they had seen Cheri Jo near her car the previous night." They didn't recall any suspicious activity around the Volkswagen Beetle that evening, so the claim she was abducted as she arrived on Terracina Drive, or had returned to a disabled Volkswagen Beetle could not have happened during the time they were sitting on the fence opposite her vehicle. They were later spotted by other eyewitnesses in exactly the same location. The time the four young men spotted Cheri Jo Bates has been approximated at 6.13 pm, likely when she had exited her vehicle to take the short walk to the library. It couldn't have been on her return, because if somebody had tampered with her vehicle during her absence and she had failed to start the Volkswagen Beetle, this would have been relayed to police by the four young men, which they didn't.   

Cheri Jo Bates entered the Riverside City College library and took out three library books. The Mexican-American student noticed her in the library. The male librarian thought he saw her in the library.
Extract from the November 29th 1966 'Confession' letter "I first cut the middle wire from the distributor. Then I waited for her in the library and followed her out after about two minutes. The battery must have been about dead by then. I then offered to help. She was then very willing to talk to me. I told her that my car was down the street and that I would give her a lift home. When we were away from the library walking, I said it was about time she asked me, "about time for what?". I said it was about time for her to die." The four young men sitting opposite Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle never saw anybody tamper with the engine. The four young men were still sitting on this fence at 7.15 pm, one hour after seeing Cheri Jo Bates park up. Therefore the only way the author of the 'Confession' letter may be proved correct, is if the four young men left that location shortly after spotting Cheri Jo Bates leave her vehicle, only to return to the same spot some time later. The four men notice the young woman leave her vehicle, they walk away from the near vicinity, at which point the assailant disables the Volkswagen, tracks Cheri Jo Bates, offers her assistance, then murders her in the alleyway, likely before 6.30 pm. The four young men then return to the original location after 6.30 pm, and before 7.15 pm, hence see or hear nothing untoward. However this is not possible, because a later eyewitness present in the alleyway at 9.30 pm saw no signs of murder. 

'Other students who were acquainted with Cheri Jo said they were in the library between 6.30 pm and 6.40 pm, and did not see the girl during that time.'
This suggests that Cheri Jo Bates had entered the library at approximately 6.15 pm, but had discharged her reading material and had exited the vicinity of the library annex by 6.29 pm at the latest. Had she traveled back to her Volkswagen Beetle at this point, it is likely her friends would have spotted her by the stricken vehicle. Had she left the library slightly earlier at 6.20 pm, finding her car unresponsive, it is likely she would have returned to the library for assistance or to make a phone call.
She could not have immediately been lured away and murdered in the alleyway, as her body was apparently not lying in the alleyway up to 9.30 pm, backed up by a female eyewitness.  

Walter Siebert stated that 'he and a few friends were in the library from 7.15 pm until 9, but did not see Miss Bates, whom they all knew. They said they saw four men dressed in work clothes sitting on a fence across from the spot where Miss Bates' car was found, but they did not know them.' 
This indicated that four young men were present from 6.15 pm through to 7.15 pm opposite Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle, or had left and returned by 7.15 pm. Walter Siebert and friends recall the four men but not Cheri Jo Bates, further indicating that the four men must have spotted Cheri Jo at approximately 6.13 pm, when she arrived at Terracina Drive to enter the library. The vehicle had still yet to be disabled at this point. 

The library shuts and the remaining patrons leave the building. There is still no sign of Cheri Jo Bates.
Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith: 'Cheri Jo checked out three books from the local college library. Though her friends were at the small, cramped library between 7.15 pm and 8.57 pm, none recalled seeing her there. At 9.00 pm when the archives closed, she returned to her car to discover the engine would not catch. And here she had been working part-time at the Riverside National Bank. Parked behind her car was a Tucker Torpedo that was not there before.'
Some of this is clearly not true, because if nobody saw her, how could she have been seen returning to her vehicle at 9.00 pm. The mention of the Tucker Torpedo is interesting however, since only 51 vehicles were ever made before the company folded in 1949. The eyewitnesses may have mistaken the make of the vehicle, but if not, the screams heard later in the alleyway, closely followed by the sound of an old vehicle pulling away, may have a bearing.
The Daily Enterprise, Riverside 1966: 'Detectives investigating the murder of Cheri Bates are looking for a car almost identical to this one. Police say a 1947-52 model Studebaker with light-colored, oxidized paint was parked on Riverside Avenue just south of Terracina Drive about 7 p.m. on the night that the Riverside City College freshman was stabbed to death. Detectives said a recent re-enactment of the murder at the college campus provided this information. They ask anyone who knows of a car similar to this one, used by police to stage this photograph, to contact the Police Department.'  zodiackillertruth.forumchitchat.com/post/studebaker
Since the Tucker Torpedo was supposedly spotted behind Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle when people were leaving the library, with both vehicles facing the library, it could be argued that the witnesses to the Tucker Torpedo only saw its front end. Both the Tucker Torpedo and Studebaker have similar aeroplane front end characteristics. Could these vehicles have been mistaken as one?       

At approximately 9.30 pm a female student noticed a man standing in the fateful alleyway smoking a cigarette and exchanged brief greetings with him. She later failed to identify anybody from a photographic line-up, including 'Bob Barnett', the prime suspect in the Riverside Police Department investigation. He would later be excluded using mitochondrial DNA retrieved from blood clotted hair found at the base of Cheri Jo Bates' thumb. The female student eyewitness was certainly credible enough to police, because they later retrieved a cigarette butt from the alleyway, close to where the man was seen standing. It was listed in the Riverside DNA evidence analysis report. The cigarette butt had a DNA concentration of 0.003 nanograms per microliter. The question is, could the cigarette DNA be ruled out from the DNA recovered from the base of Cheri Jo Bates' thumb. Was this man waiting in the alleyway for Cheri Jo Bates to return to her vehicle. Was he expecting her to have been in the library, but when she didn't exit the library at 9.00 pm, he hung around the shadows of the alleyway, with one eye on her vehicle.    

​Screams were heard coming from the vicinity of the alleyway sometime between 10.15 pm and 10.45 pm. Zodiac by Robert Graysmith: 'A neighbor heard an awful scream between 10.15 pm and 10.45 pm, and then about two minutes of silence, and finally the sound of an old car starting up. A man returning to the area at 10.30 pm told us he heard two screams then'.
If the details are accurate, then was the killer returning to his old 1948 Tucker Torpedo parked just behind Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle. This would be a matter of 100 feet from the alleyway. So why the two minutes of silence? Was he frantically searching in the darkness for the Timex yanked from his wrist.
Magazine dated January 1969: "At the murder scene, drops of dried blood leading from the body to Terracina Drive were discovered indicated to the detective that the murderer had walked to the street following the slaying." This would certainly be the right direction to his vehicle, had he parked it behind the Volkswagen Beetle. 

In the last two articles we examined the timeline of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966, particularly regarding the four young men who spotted Cheri Jo Bates by her lime green Volkswagen Beetle from across the road at 6.15 pm, when she parked alongside the curb on Terracina Drive. They spotted her, but Walter Siebert and friends who arrived at the library at 7.15 pm, noticed the four young men, but not Cheri Jo Bates, whom they all knew. This indicated that her vehicle had not been tampered with prior to 7.15 pm, as the interrogated four men recalled nothing suspicious. See Cheri Jo Bates-Minute by Minute Part One and Part Two.  
Here however we shall focus on the condition the Volkswagen Beetle was found in and 'abandoned' that Sunday night, as well as the crime scene and what Cheri Jo Bates had in her possession. Assuming the independent eyewitnesses, who heard screams between 10.15 pm and 10.45 pm were correct, then Cheri Jo Bates was likely away from her vehicle for at least four hours that night. When she returned to Terracina Drive, her vehicle was apparently disabled, leading to speculation she was led away unsuspectingly to her death by a single assailant on the promise of a lift or phone call for help.
But something doesn't sit right with this scenario.
'Detectives learned from the slain girl's friends that Cheri Jo had been "terribly afraid of the darkness." This led investigators to believe that Cheri Jo had known her killer and unsuspectedly accompanied him to her death. "Cheri Jo was very proud of her little car" her boyfriend told detectives. "She worked hard to pay for the car. She never left it without locking the doors and rolling the windows up." 
So it is extremely unlikely she would have left the vehicle without locking the doors, rolling the windows up, never mind leaving her library books on the passenger seat, with the key in the ignition, especially at around 10.00-10.40 pm at night. Admittedly the vehicle wouldn't start for her (or her supposed helper), but she couldn't be sure somebody else gaining access to her car at a later time wouldn't be able to start it, after all she likely didn't know the reason for it failing to fire up.
Another important piece of information surfaced in one newspaper column, but how reliable it is can only be speculated. It read 'Both windows were rolled down and the right door was ajar. The distributor had been tampered with and there was evidence that the man had been in the car with her.' Were the facts that both windows had been rolled down, indicative of the time she returned to the Volkswagen Beetle and the ambient temperature inside the vehicle. 'In October 1966 the average high temperature in Riverside, CA was 80.7°F, and this was 0.2°F cooler than the average of 80.9°F. The hottest day in October 1966 was 31 October when the temperature reached 91.9°F. Overnight the average temperature in October is 51.8°F.'  
​http://www.climatespy.com/climate/summary/united-states/california/march-arb/october/1966
​She had rolled down both windows, not just the driver side, possibly indicating the stuffiness inside her vehicle, something you wouldn't do if you felt under any threat at this point in time, been approached by persons unknown or your vehicle hadn't started. It obviously makes logical sense to roll your windows down before starting the vehicle to pull away.  

If the newspaper report is correct, what was the evidence that somebody 'had been in the car with her.' The likely answer to this, is probably contained within the same report, that the right door was ajar. From the police photographs of the Volkswagen Beetle, if the right door was ajar, then it was only slight, just probably not shut properly. If somebody had entered the passenger side of her vehicle on her return, then clearly Cheri Jo had placed her library books down subsequent to him or her exiting, or they had opened the passenger door to engage with Cheri Jo on a more personal level. 
This would also explain why the passenger door may be unlocked, she knew the person. If you had returned to your vehicle that night, then rolling down the windows, placing your library books down next to you and placing the keys in the ignition are all perfectly plausible events, but unlocking the right passenger side door to a complete stranger is not one, especially gone 10.00 pm at night.
Her friends stated that Cheri Jo would never have "left her vehicle without locking the doors and rolling the windows up." That is unless a person she knew and trusted offered to stay with her vehicle, while a second person she knew and trusted offered to accompany her to a payphone, or a lift to make a call. One has to consider why a young woman would leave her prized Volkswagen Beetle with the windows rolled down, library books on the seat, door possibly ajar and keys in the ignition so late at night, yet still took her 'large red and tan woven straw bag', which was ultimately found half covered by her body.
It has to be pointed out that many women will never be without their handbag, which often contains their personal items, such as a purse (and associated money), make-up, hair brush and such-like. It would therefore not be unusual to leave her vehicle with somebody she thought she could trust, but instinctively taking her handbag with her. In this case her woven straw bag.
It is apparent that Cheri Jo was "terribly afraid of the darkness," and unlikely to have entered a dark, unlit alleyway at approximately 10.30 pm at night, but in the company of somebody she knew her fears would be allayed, coupled with her necessity to ring home or seek help.     

The time she returned to her vehicle cannot be fully corroborated by the screams in the alleyway, because we cannot be be 100% certain of the eyewitnesses testimony or that any screams were that of Cheri Jo Bates. But recapping all of the above and from information gleaned from the four young men and Walter Siebert, it is likely her vehicle was sabotaged sometime after 7.15 pm, by one, or two assailants working together.
One possibility is that two people, who knew and sought malice on Cheri Jo Bates, trailed her to the Riverside library that evening, waited for the four young men to leave and tampered with her vehicle. They may have been unsure of her plans after exiting the library that evening, they may have had something else in store for her, but when she left the area for an undetermined time period, and subsequent to the four young men moving away from the Volkswagen, they decided to disable her vehicle and wait close by.
Cheri Jo Bates arrived back at her vehicle, placed her library books on the passenger seat, rolled both windows because it was stuffy, then placed the keys in the ignition to start the vehicle. Her Volkswagen turned over a few times and the two men (or possibly one man and a woman) approached, both known to Cheri Jo Bates, offering their help. At some point Cheri Jo, or one of the good Samaritans opened the passenger door (through the open window) kneeled and spoke to Cheri Jo, partially closing it after their conversation. The second pretended to look at the engine. When the vehicle failed to start, one person offered to accompany Cheri Jo Bates to their car to go for help, or offered to escort her to a payphone. The other stayed behind to keep an eye on her car, which is why she had no worries about leaving the windows down and key in the ignition. She grabs her purse and woven straw bag, slings it over her shoulder and heads off toward the alleyway.
The detectives stated that after the murder 'drops of dried blood leading from the body to Terracina Drive indicated that the murderer had walked back to the street following the slaying.' Back to their accomplice, back to their car, or possibly both? During the reenactment two weeks later students recalled a 1947-1952 Studebaker with "light-colored oxidized paint", parked just south of Terracina Drive at 7.00 pm, that failed to show. Was this our killer/s vehicle, parked just out of sight from Terracina Drive.
Two important questions remain. Where had Cheri Jo Bates gone after leaving the library just prior to 6.30 pm. If she had gone to a friend's house nearby, why didn't this person come forward to police. Were they afraid of being implicated in the crime.
Secondly, what was the exact time Cheri Jo Bates arrived back at her Volkswagen Beetle on Terracina Drive. Does the weather give us a clue. The sun set at approximately 6.15 pm that evening on Riverside, it was the first day of Daylight Savings, and the daytime temperature hit 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Was the fact that Cheri Jo Bates rolled both windows, as opposed to just the driver side window, indicative of the temperature inside her vehicle when she returned, and that she had arrived back earlier rather than later on October 30th 1966, or had she rolled down both windows to speak to her approaching 'good Samaritans'. Cheri Jo Bates may have been forced from her vehicle by a single assailant, at any point from 7.30 pm onward, and led towards the alleyway where she was ultimately stabbed. The state her vehicle was found the following day by police tells a story. A story of a young girl who was specifically targeted by her killer/s, the ripples of which are still being felt 51 years later.