After several years of extremely hard work and off the back of the announcement of the 340 cipher being cracked, the eagerly anticipated three volumes of The Zodiac Revisited by Michael Cole were released on December 20th 2020. Michael was kind enough to forward me all three volumes in advance of their release, which I highly recommend to anybody wanting to learn about the Zodiac Killer story, who also want to delve further into the case on a deeper level. For this reason, Michael has split the presentation into three volumes entitled The Zodiac Revisited, Volume 1: The Facts of the Case, The Zodiac Revisited, Volume 2: Analysis and Fact-Based Speculation and The Zodiac Revisited, Volume 3: Tying It All Together. 

The three volumes are now available on the ebook stores of Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, !ndigo and Angus & Robertson. To secure purchase of the The Zodiac Revisited trilogy, please click the link provided by the image on the left.

Michael Cole has run his own website for many years, and is a highly respected member of the Zodiac community, so you can guarantee that every aspect of his presentation has been thoroughly researched and well-thought-out. If you would like any extra information regarding the contents of each volume, Michael has compiled a brief description in what to expect from each book. This is available on The Zodiac Revisited website under the banner The Zodiac Revisited Published.   

Whether the New York "by fire" attacks on Catholic churches in July 1974 were inspired by the events in San Francisco and Daly City in 1974 is unknown, but let us examine the story anyway.

Somebody purporting to be the Zodiac Killer phoned the San Francisco Police Department and several newspaper outlets on January 11th 1974 claiming to have murdered a woman and placed her body inside a Daly City church. Police mobilized a search, but after several hours they were unable to find any murdered woman, concluding it was very likely a hoax. On January 29th 1974, a letter believed to have been authored by the Zodiac Killer arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle stating "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen".

Exactly six months after the postmark date of The Exorcist letter, on July 29th 1974, a blaze erupted at the Roman Catholic Church, St. Vincent Ferrer, at 65th Street and Lexington Avenue in the Upper East Side of Manhattan at about 9:50 pm. Reverend Thomas Smith (71) unable to escape the fire, unfortunately died of asphyxiation. Ten minutes after the fire engulfed the church, a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer phoned the news agency United Press International threatening to "unleash a tirade against the Catholic church. Priests are going to die. Someday people will realize that Christianity is a fraud". This phone call was followed by several more to The Daily News from 10:30 pm to 3:45 am, also claiming to be from the Zodiac Killer, The following day at 11:33 pm, the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, at Fifth Avenue and 10th Street became the second church to be targetted by the arsonist, shortly followed by a third attack just 30 minutes later and two miles away, at the Episcopal church, St. Mary the Virgin, at 145 West 46th Street. No other casualties were reported at the latter two fires.

It was the fire at St. Mary the Virgin that gave officers their initial break, when a female eyewitness was able to give a description of the killer. He was eventually arrested close to West Side Church and identified as Gordon Earl Marais (56), a former mental patient living at 117 West 71st Street, located within three miles of every crime scene. After the arrest of the suspect, Assistant Chief James T. Sullivan, the acting chief of detectives, described the suspect as bearing “considerable animosity toward the Catholic Church". The police suspected he was the telephone caller, who used the pseudonym “Zodiac". 

The Zodiac Killer is often dismissed as a footnote in history, 'only' responsible for the murder of five people in California over fifty years ago, but it seems that his legacy may have inspired many more murders subsequent to his relatively brief reign of terror, that included Heriberto Seda, dubbed the "New York Zodiac", and the 1997 Tokyo Child Murders committed by Shinichiro Azuma. Arsonist and murderer, Gordon Earl Marais may not be the Zodiac Killer, but his attacks on Catholic churches just six months after the Daly City affair, along with the mailing of The Exorcist letter in San Francisco, in response to the William Friedkin movie revolving around catholicism, makes you wonder how far his legacy reached - and is still reaching. 

The discovery of the message in the 340 cipher has triggered a new debate on the intelligence of the Zodiac Killer, bearing in mind the greater complexity of the encryption used to disguise its contents. Creating an extremely difficult cipher is actually far easier than attempting to decode it, especially when the person who designs the cipher accidentally bakes errors into his cipher as shown by the Zodiac Killer.

However, Cragle on the Zodiac Killer Site forum made an astute observation regarding the Zodiac Killer's switch from describing his hidden messages as ciphers, to codes in the June 26th 1970 and July 26th 1970 letters. While not completely true, because the Zodiac Killer stated "By the way, are the police having a good time with the code?" on August 4th 1969, it does open up the broader point of the difference between codes and ciphers, which is effectively what Cragle was implying. Codes generally operate on semantics, while ciphers operate on syntax. A cipher is a system to make a word or message secret by changing or rearranging the letters in the message, whereas a code is a system of changing entire words or phrases into something else. Codes are not just secret messages, they can be any symbol or signal used to represent, or communicate, something else.

One could argue, that if the Zodiac Killer invested the time to construct a period nineteen cipher, then he was certainly aware that by creating the Z13 and Z32  codes of such brevity and variability, he was effectively creating an impossible task and any realistic possibility of a solution without ultimately providing a key to each code. The fact that the Mount Diablo code had 29 unique characters in a 32 character array, makes it practically unsolvable without that key, A key explaining these 29 unique characters in his remaining communications appears not to be the case. The Zodiac Killer stated that "the map coupled with the code will tell you where the bomb is set", so if we take this literally, then the Zodiac Killer by June 26th 1970 expected us to solve the 32 character code with nothing more than the Phillips 66 map he supplied alongside the letter. He did supply additional clues on July 26th 1970 in the form of "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians", but as of June 26th 1970 he fully expected us to decipher these 29 unique characters with nothing more than a map, lending credence to the notion that this encryption was designed as a code rather than a cipher. Finding corresponding alphabetical letters to 29 unique characters appears an unlikely proposition with the limited information he provided. A man with the patience to design the 340 cipher encryption must have known this.

Sam Blake, who contributed to the solving of the 340 cipher, made an extremely valid point when stating that the decoded message was contemporary. By the Zodiac Killer claiming that "it wasn't me on the TV show", he fully expected his 340 cipher to be decoded fairly quickly. This message was for the moment, not for 51 years later. The same is probably true for the Z13 and Z32. These codes were apparently designed with the promise of a hidden name and bomb at a time when newspapers were king. When the Zodiac Killer started fading from the newspaper headlines by 1971, the ongoing quest to decipher these two codes had equally faded into obscurity. This isn't the case today, with the internet endlessly keeping the mystery and speculation alive. But as the 1970s rolled forward these codes would have faded from the publics gaze, making these puzzles much more contemporary at the time they were designed. The Zodiac Killer could enjoy the speculation surrounding his unsolved puzzles and codes while they were still being discussed in the newspapers, but once the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner have moved away from featuring the Zodiac Killer, the feedback surrounding his unsolved codes would equally fade away. He probably expected these two codes to remain unbroken for a limited time only.

Therefore, as Cragle intimated, we might be better rewarded by looking at the Z13 and Z32 codes through the lens of codes rather than ciphers. The search for words or phrases, in accompaniment to the limited clues he supplied, quite possibly a much more profitable avenue to go down. The solving of the 340 cipher has inevitably switched the focus of attention toward the remaining unbroken codes, with every effort being made to follow up on the success of Dave Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke. However, adopting an approach using cipher-type encryption may possibly lead to another 51 years of blind alleyways and false beliefs, scattered with the graveyards of "solved solutions" that never were.

The movements of a killer before, during and after a crime can tell us so much about that person, without them even knowing they could be mapping out their own demise. If we can identify a killer's "anchor point", then we have a valuable location from which to springboard the rest of the investigation. An "anchor point" could be the killer's home location, place of work, or the number 48 bus terminus he used to commute to the neighborhood or city. It is effectively the art of using human nature against the person you are seeking for the crime. That person leaves a fingerprint on the map, which can then be analyzed to produce "hot zones" of particular interest. The "anchor point" could be the home residence of the killer, so identifying an approximate area where the killer may live is invaluable in focusing an investigation, often when resources are finite  This "anchor point" can often be the comfort zone (or area of familiarity)  that the killer will invariably retreat to after the commission of a murder.

In the case of the Zodiac Killer, we have Springs Road & Tuolumne Street, 1231 Main Street, Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs, Lake Berryessa and Presidio Heights as our bedrock. We then have his movements subsequent to each crime, the hour each crime was committed, and the wording he used in his letters describing each crime. Everything tells you something about the killer. We can utilize geographic profiling tools such as distance decay, target backcloth, buffer zone and the least effort principle (to name but a few), and use these in identifying the possible home location of the Zodiac Killer. Techniques that our killer would have been unaware of in 1968 and 1969, other the a rudimentary knowledge of preservation and deflection.

In two extremely informative videos on the Profiling Evil channel [1] [2], Dr. Spencer Chainey uses the "geography of crime" to examine several crimes. He demonstrates some of the above principles and a lot more besides, while showing us how police were able to identify Levi Bellfield, a serial killer from London, England, who was responsible for the murders of Marsha McDonnell, Amélie Delagrang and Milly Dowler between 2002 and 2004. He then covers the sexual assaults in Bath, England in 2004/2005 perpetrated by Adrian Warburton, along with the "Irvine Chair Burglaries" in Orange County over a period of two years, in which Raymond Lopez was eventually arrested in 2005. The "geography of crime" in each case, pivotal to apprehension. In the second video he analyzes the murders of "Jack the Ripper", who terrorized the streets of Whitechapel in London, England in 1888, again using maps to show us how the geography of his murders speaks volumes to where he likely lived. This tool is so undervalued in the Zodiac case.

Larry Lamotte (60), a former news director at commercial radio station KTOK in Oklahoma City, drowned off the coast of Florida in 2003 while swimming at Grayton Beach. There was nothing suspicious about his death, but Larry Lamotte spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle in an article featured on December 8th 1969. A man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer phoned a talk show host at KTOK on December 7th 1969 doing an awfully good impression of the man who rang the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969, stating he left California because "it got too hot for me".

On October 22nd 1969, the Oakland Police Department took a call at 2:00 am from somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, requesting that either Melvin Belli or Francis Lee Bailey, high profile lawyers at the time, appear on a chat show hosted by Jim Dunbar later that day. Melvin Belli agreed to appear on the show, to which a man would eventually contact via telephone, claiming not only his name was 'Sam', but by inference that he was the infamous Zodiac Killer. The call was later attributed to hoaxer, Eric Weill, whose  father's name just happened to be Sam.

Larry Lamotte thought that the man on the phone to KTOK appeared to be impersonating the caller who rang the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969, so it's quite a coincidence that on the same day (October 22nd 1969) the Palo Alto Times newspaper carried a news story regarding a phone call from a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, stating he left San Francisco "because I'm too hot there".

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

We have two phone calls separated by one-and-a-half months, with both callers claiming they left the Bay Area because "because I'm too hot there" and "it got too hot for me". Either it's coincdence (and both are hoaxers), the second caller recalled the phrase used by the first caller one-and-a-half months earlier (and one caller may be Zodiac), or both phone calls were made by the Zodiac Killer, who was simply enjoying the terror he was inflicting on the people of northern California. 

There is every chance that the Zodiac Killer prepared for his four attacks well in advance of the double murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen in Benicia on December 20th 1968. His four canonical crimes may have been conceived at least three months prior to the first attack on Lake Herman Road, with at least four firearms purchased to complete the task. The Zodiac Killer would then likely discard each weapon immediately after each attack as a precautionary measure. Otherwise, he could have just used the same gun at Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs and Presidio Heights, to spare him the effort of convincing police he was responsible for all these attacks. Statements such as "I am the same man who did in the people in the north bay area" would have been totally unnecessary, had he just left correlating ballistic evidence through each crime scene, or had used the 'shirt piece' method on October 11th 1969 in his earlier attacks, so as to assuredly bind the crime scenes to his communications.  

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd 1963 in Dallas as his motorcade traveled along Dealey Plaza. The rifle used to kill President Kennedy was purchased by mail-order via an advertisement in the monthly magazine, American Rifleman. This generated widespread debate and congressional hearings for the need to ban mail-order sales of firearms. However, the bill was not passed for another five years. The assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4th 1968 and the murder of Robert F. Kennedy on June 5th 1968, accelerated the desire for more gun control in the United States. The Gun Control Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 22nd 1968, banning mail-order sales of rifles and shotguns and prohibiting most felons, drug users and people found mentally incompetent from buying guns. The Zodiac Killer was fully aware of the approaching clampdown on gun sales, when on November 9th 1969 he stated "my killing tools have been boughten through the mail order outfits before the ban went into efect. Except one & it was bought out of the state". If we believe his claim, then he likely purchased the majority of his weapons in California prior to October 22nd 1968, possibly in anticipation of the carnage he was about inflict on the Bay Area residents.

The impending ban on mail-order gun sales was widely covered in the American Rifleman, a magazine owned by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Lee Harvey Oswald had killed President John F. Kennedy with a rifle purchased from a Klein's Sporting Goods advertisement in the February 1963 issue of American Rifleman. There were large sections of the magazine devoted to gun sales through advertisements.

Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer may have been a fisherman, hiker or hunter, with a penchant for killing humans because "it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest", then it's not inconceivable that he purchased his weapons through this magazine before the ban went into effect. This obviously wasn't the only gun magazine on the market, but it was this magazine that triggered the debate on gun control in the first place. The pencil flashlight, he claimed was taped to the barrel of his gun at Lake Herman Road, could have been inspired by an article featured in American Rifleman or similar magazine. The gun magazines released in the months prior to December 20th 1968 might be a valuable resource in learning a little more about the Zodiac Killer.

Inspired by the great work of Druzer on the Zodiac Killer Site forum, we can delve further into the possible Zodiac Killer threats toward Santa Rosa during the October of 1969. It was highlighted in the last article that a person claiming to be the Zodiac Killer phoned authorities in Santa Rosa (likely Santa Rosa Police Department) on, or shortly before October 15th 1969, threatening schoolchildren with bombs. This was crucially important, as the Stine letter text of "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out" had not been released to the newspapers at this juncture. This was compelling evidence that the phone caller to Santa Rosa was very likely the Zodiac Killer. If that wasn't nearly enough, there is a little more to bolster this claim.

On October 17th 1969, KRON News footage featured an interview with a school bus driver who claimed that someone fired a shot at the bus she was driving. The woman was driving a school bus in Santa Rosa. She stated "As I came around this bend I heard a loud shot from the left hand side of the bus. The children heard it too. Now I don't know if anything struck the bus. We can't find anything that struck the bus". The woman was confident she had heard a shot that day.

The release of Keith Power's article in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 17th 1969 revealed that school bus drivers had been issued with evasion tactics in the event of a Zodiac attack. The article not only released the Zodiac threat on schoolchildren, but stated "Detectives issued an all-points bulletin yesterday, with advice to bus drivers if an attack is, in fact made. The drivers were told to keep the bus in motion "at all costs", instruct passengers to lie on the floor and to attract as much attention as possible with horn and lights". The perceived attack on this school bus in Santa Rosa could easily be attributed to imagination or hysteria, bearing in mind the attention the Zodiac Killer had drawn over recent months. However, the story given by the bus driver becomes more significant when we consider the October 21st 1969 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. It stated "Even before starting on its routes each vehicle has undergone a thorough check to make sure a bomb isn't aboard. Someone hinting he might be Zodiac has telephoned such a threat in Santa Rosa. The man responsible for the safety of the students who ride the buses is Fred Sowash, the district's transportation director. Since last Wednesday (October 15th), when he learned of Zodiac's threat, Sowash has been devoting 18 to 20 hours a day to blunt it". 

This bomb threat (October 15th) on schoolchildren with respect to Santa Rosa was only made available in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 21st 1969. Therefore, it must be considered extremely coincidental that the first major news footage of an attack on a school bus, happened in Santa Rosa just four days earlier. This attack on a school bus could have happened anywhere in the Bay Area, but it just happened to occur in Santa Rosa, just two days after a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer rang Santa Rosa authorities threatening schoolchildren on buses. If they weren't the same person, then it has to be a massive stroke of luck for the Santa Rosa caller on October 15th 1969 to pre-empt the details in the Stine letter, which was shortly followed on October 17th 1969 by a reported shooting of a school bus in Santa Rosa, that coincidentally occurred in the same location as the target chosen by the caller.

Law enforcement were skeptical that any shooting took place on a school bus in Santa Rosa on October 17th 1969. If this was the case, then the reported "loud shot" heard by the bus driver just happened to never occur in Santa Rosa, rather than the innumerable other places in the Bay Area.

There appears a close correlation in the language the Zodiac Killer adopted in his communications, to the newspaper articles he read. But how much of this is a simple case of scanning old newspapers and forging links between the words used in each?

Something triggered the Zodiac Killer to begin a victim count on November 8th 1969, when he chronologically laid out the months of his murders in the following fashion: Des July Aug Sept Oct = 7". The Zodiac Killer, annoyed by the lack of front page coverage after his three murders and three cryptograms back in August, switched to murder by knife at Lake Berryessa after reading the extensive front page coverage of the August 3rd 1969 Snoozy & Furlong stabbings in the San Francisco Chronicle. His declarative statement of "by knife" on the car door at Lake Berryessa, a defiant response to this lack of front page coverage. The Zodiac Killer was effectively stating "do I now get front page coverage". The San Francisco Chronicle made the connection Zodiac had hoped for, by eventually linking him to the Snoozy & Furlong murders. By confronting Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa with a bladed instrument, he was prompting the newspapers to forge a link between the September 27th 1969 and August 3rd 1969 attacks.

On October 19th 1969, the San Francisco Examiner sent a message to the Zodiac Killer, stating "Five people are dead. Let there be no more killings. Police say you are intelligent. If you are, then listen to reason. You are being hunted everywhere in the state, and nation. You are alone in this world. You can share your secrets with no one. No friend can help you. You are as much a victim of your crimes as those whose lives you snuffed out. You cannot walk the streets a free man. There is no safety for you, anywhere. And you will be caught, there is no doubt. You face life as a hunted, tormented animal - unless you help yourself. We ask that you give yourself up to the Examiner. We offer you no protection, and no sympathy. But we do offer you fair treatment, the assurance of medical help and the full benefits of your legal rights. And we offer to tell your story. Why have you killed? How has life wronged you? Call the City Editor of the Examiner any time, day or night. The telephone number is (415) 781 24 24. Call collect. Your call will not be traced".

There are several things in this article that may have resonated with the Zodiac Killer, ultimately inspiring his choice of wording within the Dripping Pen card on November 8th 1969. The Zodiac Killer had urged the police and newspapers to make the connection to the Snoozy & Furlong murders, by not only switching his mode of attack on September 27th 1969, but by also adding the additional text of "by knife" on the car door. The San Francisco Examiner stated "Five people are dead. Let there be no more killings". On November 8th 1969, the Zodiac Killer would declare seven victims in defiance, by chronologically listing the months of his attacks: Des July Aug Sept Oct = 7". He was effectively saying "do you get the message now".

The San Francisco Examiner article continued by adopting the isolationist language of "You are being hunted everywhere in the state, and nation. You are alone in this world. You can share your secrets with no one. No friend can help you". This statement may have also struck a nerve with the Zodiac Killer, who replied in the Dripping Pen card with "I get awfully lonely when I am ignored, so lonely I could do my thing." The Examiner article continued: "There is no safety for you, anywhere. And you will be caught, there is no doubt". On November 9th 1969 in the Bus Bomb letter, the Zodiac Killer reiterated the words "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them", also reminiscent of the wording used by the sadistic caller to Daniel Williams during this period, by way of “I’m too smart for them" when referring to the police over the phone. It is also unsurprising that the Zodiac Killer would respond to "And you will be caught, there is no doubt", with "There's no doubt I will do my Thing!" on November 21st 1969, while providing yet another code.

One month after the November 21st 1969 letter to the San Jose Police Department, the Zodiac Killer wrote to Melvin Belli at 1228 Montgomery Street in San Francisco. The San Francisco Examiner article stated "No friend can help you. You are as much a victim of your crimes as those whose lives you snuffed out. You cannot walk the streets a free man. There is no safety for you, anywhere. And you will be caught, there is no doubt. You face life as a hunted, tormented animal - unless you help yourself. We ask that you give yourself up to the Examiner. We offer you no protection, and no sympathy. But we do offer you fair treatment, the assurance of medical help".

Thrice the San Francisco Examiner mentioned the word "help" in respect to the Zodiac Killer, so did he ultimately respond in mocking fashion four times via Melvin Belli? The Zodiac Killer adopted a pleading tone in the December 20th 1969 letter, stating "The one thing I ask of you is this, please help me", along with "I cannot reach out for help because of this thing in me wont let me". the brief "Please help me", and "Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer". The Zodiac Killer also continued the theme of a "thing" in three of the four communications.

Is this a case of "seek and you will find" with respect to the newspapers and language used by the killer, or did he feed off the newspapers and deliberately engineer his communications as a direct response to the articles he read? I will let you decide

Tom Voigt was recently interviewed by CBS8 News in San Diego regarding the 1962 Ray Davis and 1964 Swindle murders, and their possible connection to the same individual responsible for the Zodiac Killer murders in Northern California in the late 1960s. Tom Voigt is correct when he says he doesn't "understand why agencies withhold information after all this time. The police departments aren't that forthcoming. They are not doing the victims any justice, as they can still get a prosecution. The guy could still be alive". The same could be levelled at the Riverside Police Department, sitting on information with respect to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966. Although this case, along with aforementioned murders are heading towards the 60-year mark, the suggestion that the Zodiac Killer may have been responsible and could have made mistakes in the infancy of his murderous career, is a reasonable assertion. The majority of serial killers will learn from their mistakes with time, often refining their approach to avoid capture. However, there is a possibility that towards the back end of their reign, they begin to feel impervious to capture and begin to take greater risks. This too could provide an opening.    

Tom Voigt is again correct that the answers could possibly lie outside of the four canonical attacks, which have literally been examined to breaking point. Rather than solely pinning our hopes on the search for DNA within the Zodiac communications, it is imperative that we don't put all our eggs in one basket. Linking the Zodiac Killer through different cities and using geographic profiling to pinpoint locations within those cities, could provide a common name to investigate. Tom Voigt also stated "It's amazing to me that the murder of Ray Davis was not to linked the Zodiac until earlier this year. There was nobody in the Zodiac world, professional or amateur detectives - nobody had ever heard of the murder of Ray Davis (which) it's clear is probably a Zodiac murder. I think there are other cases like that in Southern California in the early 1960s, and I think it's crucial to focus on that area in that time period".  While I agree again, there appears a contradiction when investigating the Zodiac case for potential leads. While the Ray Davis murder has rightly been hailed as a good avenue to pursue, there is another case that has been routinely ignored by virtually all amateur sleuths, despite the fact it has thirty pieces of ballistic evidence and an accompanying Zodiac letter. Not only does it have viable cartridge cases and bullets, it also has closer parallels to a known Zodiac murder than that of Ray Davis. Yet this crime lies virtually abandoned.

The two murders occurred on April 22nd 1986, and were featured in a Zodiac letter just two weeks later. I won't expand on this particular case any further, not only because it has been covered multiple times before on this site, but because no agency I have contacted is the slightest bit interested. Tom Voigt was amazed that nobody had linked the Ray Davis murder to the Zodiac until earlier this year, yet the Sacramento murders on April 22nd 1986 have been linked to the Zodiac Killer since 2013, but have essentially been ignored, gathering dust to this day. The constant search for answers down south is certainly an avenue worth investigating, yet the search for answers on the doorstep of the Bay Area under the Zodiac umbrella, seemingly appears an avenue worth ignoring. The contrast in approach to these two cases couldn't be more stark within the Zodiac community. It isn't just the police agencies we should be looking at. Cooperation is lacking at every level.  

I highly recommend watching the latest Youtube video by Rick & Gavin from Solve Crimes, where they interview the birth daughter of Carol Beth Hilburn regarding her search for the identity of her mother and the sad realization of her early demise. Carol Beth Hilburn (22) was murdered by one or more perpetrators on November 14th 1970, after leaving Lloyd Hickey’s Forty Grand Club at 1819 Del Paso Boulevard in Sacramento. Here is a brief introduction to the case featured in an earlier article: The Murder of Carol Beth Hilburn.

I will not reveal any of the content in the video, other than to say Rick & Gavin have made excellent progress in pushing the cases of Judith Hakari and Carol Beth Hilburn forward, with new information generated through diligent research, alongside interviews with family members and people close to each respective cold case. In previous episodes they conducted a running interview with Michael Willis (son of Raymond Willis, engaged to Judith Hakari at the time of her murder). In this episode they sensitively interviewed Lynda Sue Pinochi about the case of her mother.

Rick & Gavin must be commended on their approach to these extremely distant cold cases, when interviewing people with close ties to the victims of such horrible crimes. For many, these murders are often treated as nothing more than impersonal distant events, failing to understand these crimes have far-reaching effects on family members many decades after the crime. Rick & Gavin will undoubtedly convince many more people to come forward and share their stories through the compassionate and understanding manner they adopt.

The Youtube video series of Rick Tracewell and Gavin Fish, for me personally, is the correct way to approach these often forgotten and distant cold cases, where the person being interviewed is made to feel as comfortable as possible, despite the nature of the crimes discussed. The whole series is a breath of fresh air, in what can only be described as the stifling, oppressive and unsettling topic of true crime - in which often - these murders are not as cold to some as you are led to believe.

Inspector David Toschi was quoted in the July 10th 1974 San Francisco Chronicle regarding the latest May 8th and July 8th "Zodiac" communications, stating "There's no doubt in my mind about either one. I took them to a documents expert and in less than five minutes he told me positively they were in fact written by the Zodiac". There are no reputable documents examiners who could conclude in five minutes that two correspondences were written by the Zodiac Killer, if Toschi's assertions were true. There still remains much doubt over the 1974 communications to this day, as there does around the April 24th 1978 letter, with conflicting interpretations on its validity as a genuine Zodiac Killer letter. Document examiners would later disregard both the 1986 and 1987 letters, despite evidence to the contrary indicating that both these letters were penned by the real Zodiac Killer. 

Robert Prouty joined the San Diego Police Department after his service in the U.S. Air Force, before relocating to Sacramento in 1973 and working for the Department of Justice as a Questioned Documents Examiner. In the San Francisco Examiner on October 30th 1987, he stated in reference to two potential Zodiac letters "My very firm opinion is that they were not written by the authentic Zodiac. They appear to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public. All of us were hoping we'd heard the last of him", said Prouty, who analyzes about fifteen bogus Zodiac letters a year.

If we take the word of Robert Prouty, then he must have examined a minimum of 222 communications alleged to have been mailed by the Zodiac Killer over those nearly fifteen years.. Even if 20% of these were genuine, the Zodiac Killer may have mailed at least 44 communications from 1973 to October 1987. With a high degree of probability the Zodiac Killer mailed at least four, if not five communications in 1971. We therefore have a potential 222 communications ruled as bogus, when in fact some of them may have been genuine Zodiac letters - and as such - provided invaluable information as to his identity, or further insight into his movements and character? Hoping that you've "heard the last of him" is hoping for less information about the killer. More disturbing still, is how many of these communications have ended up being discarded and destroyed, when they could have contained valuable DNA evidence at a time when major breakthroughs in biological science were surfacing, along with the advancement in preservation and storage of samples pertaining to criminal investigations.         

Very few communications have been featured since 1974. Notable examples are three in 1978, one in 1986, two in 1987 (of which one was withheld), a postcard and greeting card in 1990, and a 2001 'Happy New Year' card. If these were deemed not authentic by Questioned Document Examiner's, why release these and not the other communications between 1974 and 1987, also deemed to have been penned by hoaxers. What is the difference? 

In respect to the 1987 letter received by the Vallejo Times-Herald, Robert Prouty said it "appeared to be composed of previous letters which have since been made public". In other words, it had been copied from previous letters and was a case of mimicry. Here is what Robert Prouty stated in respect to the 1978 letter: "I examined the photographs of the April letter and those of previous letters attributed to Zodiac. My first impression was that it was in the same general style as previous letters, but after closer examination my ultimate conclusion was that there were so many differences that it was not written by the same person who wrote the previous Zodiac letters … Several letter characteristics in my opinion did not match the style used by Zodiac. The slant of some letters was not consistent with previous Zodiac communications". In summary, one was ruled out because it looked too similar to previous letters and one was ruled out because it looked too different. John Shimoda of the US Postal Service crime laboratory originally deemed the 1978 letter genuine, before reversing that decision and stating “I am of the opinion that the letter of April 24 was an attempt to duplicate Zodiac letters and is not authentic".       

There was a eight-year gap from the bulk of Zodiac communications in 1970 to the April 24th 1978 letter, and a further nine-year gap to the 1987 letter. Handwriting can change over time - and can change depending on the speed of writing, the surface you are writing on, the time of day, the style of pen you are using, the angle you are writing, the level of alcohol and drugs in your system and your health at any given time. Determining that certain letters vary slightly in style, particularly over many years - and thereby concluding a different author for the Zodiac letters - is stacked with inponderables such as these.

The Zodiac Killer contacted the Vallejo Times-Herald on July 31st 1969 in his first contact with the newspapers, but according to the Vallejo Times-Herald City Editor Mary Apanasewicz on October 30th 1987, the newspaper had never received a crank letter in the previous eighteen years. Therefore, we would have to conclude that up to 222 random hoax Zodiac letters could have been mailed between 1973 and 1987, yet not one single individual hoaxer ever wrote to the Herald. The fact that somebody wrote to them on October 28th 1987, using the same thirteen words on the envelope as the July 31st 1969 envelope, with no punctuation in either, using the full title of Vallejo Times-Herald (with both likely misspelling Herald to Herold), when the 1969 envelope had not been released into the public domain by October 28th 1987, should have told Mary Apanasewicz that she still hadn't received a hoax letter by the end of 1987 either.        

The nearly nude body of Nancy Darlene Feusi (23), a separated mother of five, was discovered by a fisherman at 6:30 am on July 22nd 1973 alongside Pleasant Grove Road and Steelhead Creek, approximately half-a-mile north of West Riego Road in Sutter County.

Dressed in a miniskirt and bikini-style briefs, with a blouse discovered nearby, she had been brutally stabbed 29 times in the stomach, chest and arm in what appeared a sexually driven crime. Shoe prints and tire tracks were discovered close to where the young woman was found, opening up the possibility she was murdered elsewhere and transported to the area she was found.

Earlier that morning she had been dancing at Plumbers Hall, 5841 Newman Court in East Sacramento, with her last sighting alive at 43rd Street and 11th Avenue, about 2 miles southwest of Plumbers Hall. This sighting was only 3 1/2 hours prior to her body being discovered alongside Pleasant Grove Road, 15 miles north. Investigators concluded by examining the crime scene that she had been transported to the location she was ultimately found, and the perpetrator/s vehicle would have been  heavily bloodstained. Therefore, the location of her murder was considered to lie elsewhere, possibly close to the area she was last seen alive.  

Stephine Black (11) went missing from a Rio Linda bus stop on October 24th 1974 while walking from her home to school, testimony to this were her school books found lying abandoned on 18th Street. Her body was recovered on November 11th 1974, when two 16-year-old boys out rabbit hunting discovered her badly decomposed body behind cattails in a rice paddy just 25 feet off Jackson Road, north of Baseline Road. The location was only five miles from her residence.

A sexual component to the crime was fairly obvious because the young girl was clothed in only a blouse, with no other clothing found at the crime scene. Despite this, nothing conclusive could be determined from the autopsy by Placer County officials, other than she was likely dumped in the rice paddy shortly after her abduction from the bus stop.

The age of the victim, nature of her disappearance and location of her body would lead investigators to believe that Herman Lee Hobbs may very likely be responsible for her murder, based upon the circumstances discussed in the next case on this page - the murder of 13-year-old Terri Maree Pata. Despite lingering suspicions, the murder of Stephine Black remains unsolved to this day. Without any DNA collected in her case due to her being submerged in water, a likely resolution to her horrific murder will probably never materialize. 

Terri Maree Pata (13) was last seen leaving Rio Linda High School on January 21st 1975. Nine days later, the young girl was found by a man collecting aluminium cans stuffed inside a pipe in a drainage ditch alongside Lone Tree Road, close to Elverta Road in North Highlands. Terri Maree Pata had been brutally murdered, her throat had been slit and she had been stabbed a minimum of 27 times about the face, back and abdomen. The young girl had also been raped. The amount of stab wounds was very similar to the attack on Nancy Darlene Feusi, although the age of the victim's in each case were vastly different.

Many years later, DNA testing would eventually identify the murderer of Terri Maree Pata. Herman Lee Hobbs (57) was arrested at Pleasant Valley Prison in Coalinga (already in jail for rape) and brought to Sacramento County, before he was ultimately convicted of her murder, having lived close to Terri at the time of her disappearance and murder. He has been linked to many other rapes and murders, including Stephine Black, Brenda Ann Tucker, Katherine Harlan and Harriet Elizabeth Riley, the latter two of which both lived in North Highlands.

It is patently obvious that Herman Lee Hobbs was a deviant sociopath responsible for many more crimes than police could pin on him. During the 1970s, several girls near Pata's age were found murdered in the vicinity of North Highlands. In most cases, the bodies were so badly decomposed that detectives were unable to determine the cause of death or whether the victims had been sexually assaulted.

Katherine Harlan (9) was abducted on her walk to a bus stop on March 7th 1979 and found four days later just inside Sutter County beside Powerline Road, again likely transported to this location rather than murdered there. Her body was discovered by fishermen in a drainage ditch. Katherine lived less than a mile from murder victim Harriet Elizabeth Riley (6), who on the afternoon of January 9th 1975 disappeared close to her Gratton Way, North Highlands residence while playing in a park. Harriet was discovered suffocated a few blocks from her residence callously discarded in a dumpster. Her disposal site differed markedly from the other victims.

Fred Franklin Robinson (33) stood trial for the murder of Katherine Harlan, but despite investigators claiming he had admitted strangling the young 9-year-old girl he plead innocent at his trial. Several material eyewitnesses came forward vouching for Robinson's whereabouts at the time of Katherine's abduction, with the autopsy showing she was beaten to death. Charges against Robinson were eventually dropped by the judiciary claiming lack of evidence and nobody has subsequently been identified as the murderer of Katherine Harlan. Four of these murders (excluding Harriet Elizabeth Riley) have one striking feature in common, to which we shall turn to now.       

There were many more murder victims during this six-year window in Sacramento, but these four young girls were dumped in extremely close proximity to one another, close to West Riego Road. Nancy Darlene Feusi was found approximately 729 meters from West Riego Road. Stephine Black was found 1.8 miles from West Riego Road and only 1.44 miles from the dump site of Nancy Darlene Feusi. Katherine Harlan was found on Powerline Road which crosses West Riego Road. Terri Maree Pata's body was found approximately 2.4 miles south of West Riego Road. All four victims were found just off the side of a road in an extremely rural area of Sutter County and Placer County, which border each other. Their ages may vary from nine to twenty-three, but the close proximity to each other sets off the alarm bells. Herman Lee Hobbs was inextricably tied to the murder of Terri Maree Pata through DNA, but was he responsible for some or all of the other victims?

We have discussed Nancy Darlene Feusi (23) before, so it was particularly unnerving to find the dump site of Stephine Black (11) was in the same Pleasant Grove neighborhood, only one-and-a-half miles northeast. Their ages differed markedly, with Stephine Black being abducted on her way to school and Nancy Darlene Feusi having likely been abducted closer to 3:00 am after leaving a dance hall. However, they were both abducted from Sacramento County 15 months apart from one another and both were found only 1.44 miles apart in a remote northern location, just beyond Sacramento County lines. This area was extremely rural, having seemingly been chosen through familiarity and knowledge of this location. In terms of how the victims were killed, we know that both Nancy Darlene Feusi and Terri Maree Pata were stabbed at least 29 and 27 times respectively about the body, so was Herman Lee Hobbs responsible for the murder of Nancy Feusi also?

Using the words of Mike Oh from That Chapter, this old story involves a man who isn't the Zodiac Killer, but has probably more going for him than 99% of the suspects ever named. Those old coincidences just keep following this bloke around northern and southern California. He first came to the attention of the newspapers on October 21st 1969 regarding the Zodiac case, when he underwent six hours of questioning in Ukiah, California. Bruce Kenneth Swanson (30) was arrested by California Highway Patrol for speeding along Highway 101 (120 mph) just north of Ukiah, suspected of failing to pay a Ridgewood Motel bill. When his vehicle was searched they found a 14-inch knife, a bloody shirt and pair of shoes, and a woman's handbag. They also noted a resemblance to the infamous Zodiac Killer sketch (presumably from Lake Berryessa). However, after Napa law enforcement had traveled to Ukiah for a sit-down with Bruce Kenneth "Gift of the Gab" Swanson, the police allowed him on his merry way, satisfied with his explanations. Wouldn't you just loved to have been a fly on the wall in that interrogation room - but never mind - it probably went something like this: Bruce: "I was driving along the road like a maniac and hit a deer crossing the road, which I had to drag onto the verge, getting blood all over me. Fortunately, I happened to have a change of clothing with me because I was staying at the motel overnight. I bought the 14-inch kitchen knife and the woman's handbag for a female acquaintance of mine". Police Officer: "Ok, sounds reasonable, on your way lad".   

Bruce Kenneth Swanson grew up in San Bernardino County, was a 1957 graduate of Pacific High School, married his wife Barbara Ann Gaines at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, honeymooned in Santa Barbara and then moved into 1267 Mt. View Avenue, San Bernardino. If this is the correct location. it is 7.5 miles from the Redlands home of Elizabeth Lurene Ernstein (14), who went missing on March 19th 1968, heading back home from Moore Junior High School in Mentone. The home of Bruce Kenneth Swanson was also 11.6 miles from Terracina Drive, the location of Cheri Jo Bates murder. Map.

Tragedy then struck the family of Swanson, with his wife apparently committing suicide and killing their three children. "Mother, 28, Kills 3 Children, Self UPLAND (AP) A 28-year-old woman killed herself and her three small children Saturday by carbon monoxide poisoning, police reported. Officers said Mrs. Barbara Ann Swanson ran a hose from the exhaust pipe of her car into the vehicle and then closed the windows. The children were identified as Eric Edward, 4; Elisa Marie, 3; and Keith Kenneth, 1. Mrs. Swanson's husband, Bruce, 27, earlier had filed a missing person report and was apparently out looking for her the time the deaths occurred, police said." San Bernardino County Sun, December 19th 1966: "The tragedy which destroyed the family of Bruce K. Swanson, 27, occurred after an apparent happy ride in the car by the mother and her children. A service station attendant in La-Verne told Upland police Mrs. Swanson had asked directions to the nearest hamburger stand. The children were dressed in pajamas and bathrobes, the attendant said. In answer to his request that she 'come back soon,' Mrs. Swanson said that she would. But 12 hours later, Mrs. Swanson's husband, worried and tired after an all-night search for his family, walked into a lemon grove adjacent to the yard and found the station wagon".

Much of these details can be found online, but after a bit of brain-storming and endless sleepless nights, I have managed to make potential Zodiac communications and murders follow this man around like a proverbial shadow, turning him into one of those "good old Zodiac suspects" who never was - and will never be the Bay Area murderer in a million years. Off went Bruce Kenneth Swanson from southern California to northern California sometime in the late 1960s, just in time for the Zodiac murders and communications to begin, and nestled himself in Pleasant Hill, Contra Costa County, Despite the fact he wasn't the Zodiac Killer or a murderer, coincidence would seemingly follow him around.

On December 1st 1969 Elaine Davis (17), a Pleasant Hill High School senior disappeared from her 158 Pioneer Avenue home in Walnut Creek, believed to have been forcibly removed from the residence by one or more assailants, while in the presence of her three-year-old sister, Heidi. Her glasses and her purse containing four dollars were still in the home. Her parents described Elaine as shy, with no boyfriend or relationship problems at the time of her disappearance. Her mother had driven to nearby Concord at 10:30 pm to pick up her husband from work and was out of the residence for just 45 minutes - and it is during this period of time that Elaine Davis vanished.

On December 19th 1969 the body of a young woman (in 2000, eventually identified as Elaine Davis after an exhumation) was discovered floating off Light House Point near Santa Cruz, CA. The body was decomposed with extensive damage, described as a partial torso with arm-bones and parts of the legs. Santa Cruz's deputy county coroner, Luther Young stated "We'll work on this case until we run out of leads, but right now we have nothing that would indicate any identification. I wouldn't venture to say the body is that of Elaine Davis. We have never ruled on that possibility and we have never ruled it out".

On Wednesday December 10th 1969 Leona Roberts left her job at the White Front Discount Store in Pleasant Hill (560 Contra Costa Boulevard) at approximately 5:00 pm for the eleven mile journey to her friend's apartment (Greg V. Valo) at 749 Tormey Avenue, Rodeo. This location is only 8 miles from the Lake Herman Road murder site. At about 5:50 pm a neighbor, Susan Clark, heard the sound of a girl screaming, followed by somebody running from the rear of the apartment. A suspicious male was observed many times between the front door and a blue station wagon, before he eventually drove away. The man was described as 25 years old, 5'8", short blond hair and wearing brown trousers and a jacket. A while later her boyfriend arrived home to find a disturbance inside the apartment, scuff marks near the back door and her red Volkswagen parked outside. 

Here is an excerpt from Websleuths by Steph54 "On 28 December 1969, a man searching for driftwood on the beach at Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County found the nude body of Leona Roberts. It was later determined that a unique wristwatch was missing from the girl's wrist, but a Napa High School class ring given to her by a neighbor still remained on her finger. The tan dress she wore when last seen, along with two pairs of bell-bottomed pants, a blouse, a black purse and wallet, a key chain with car and house keys were also reported missing. There were marks on the wrists and ankles indicative of binding, but the coroner was unsure whether they occurred before or after death. The cause of death was reported as "due to viral infection of an unidentified species." It was also reported that there was "evidence of choking which could probably be linked to the virus". link.

Cosette Ellison (15) disappeared from her 423 Canyon Road, Moraga residence (near Walnut Creek) on Tuesday March 3rd 1970, believed to have been forcibly taken from outside her home after getting off the school bus from Campolinda High School. She was dropped off by bus driver, Eugene Yee, at 3:20 pm, who saw her cross the road and remove some letters from the mailbox before heading along the driveway. The bus driver noticed a man sitting in a truck near the residence. On his return journey 10 minutes later, the truck had edged closer to the driveway of the Ellison household but the occupant was no longer inside. Thirty minutes later, at approximately 4:00 pm, Mr and Mrs Richard Ellison returned to an empty house. Cosette's school books were not in their usual place and no mail had been brought into the house, suggesting something untoward had happened close to the time Eugene Yee passed the Ellison residence. On January 1st 1971, nearly a year after the disappearance of Cosette Ellison, her body was found in a ravine of the Mount Diablo foothills. The residences of 423 Canyon Road and North Gate Road are extremely rural and spread, with a reduced chance of being overseen in the commission of an abduction. This may have been a consideration for the perpetrator, who likely followed school buses to a more remote setting. The risky nature of forcibly removing somebody from outside their residence necessitates a lack of eyewitnesses.

Patricia King (20) was murdered while attending Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill on March 5th 1970. The college layout has altered over the last 48 years, but we can pinpoint the key locations based on the wording in the newspapers. Patricia King of 2200 Lisa Lane, Pleasant Hill had attended Diablo Valley College for her gym class at 7:00 pm on Thursday evening. Her classmates informed investigators that Patricia usually only stayed for the first hour of her gym class, which is what transpired that evening, when the young woman left the building at approximately 7:50 pm. Her boyfriend was expecting her back at her home and became concerned when she didn't return by 8:15 pm.

Patricia King's body was found by a workman, Ernest Ellington, at 7:20 am the following morning in the DVC Vikings football stadium. She was wearing a black blouse and three-quarter length coat and had been strangled with her own gym tights. The newspaper reports stated "A purse (handbag) with her identification was found on the front seat of her car, in a lot adjacent to the stadium. A pair of leather sandals were on the floorboard. Her car keys were found on the Pleasant Hill campus parking lot Friday afternoon". Detective Sergeant Sam Ginsburg said "it was impossible to tell at this time if the girl knew her slayer. There was no reason for her to go into the stadium area coming to or from the parking lot to the class".

I have placed the relevant locations of these young girls in respect to Pleasant Hill in the Google map above.

Returning back to the Vallejo News Chronicle article reporting on Swanson being quizzed for six hours the morning of October 21st 1969, it stated "He had been arrested by the California Highway Patrol Monday (20th) on US 101 north of Ukiah", obviously with "squealling tires and raceing engine" so as to attract everybody to his car in Mendocino County. The following morning, after his release by Ukiah law enforcement, somebody was driving on Lake Mendocino Drive at 3:00 pm that same day (October 21st 1969) just north of Ukiah and threw a note attached to a twig at an eight-year-old girl. The crudely printed note read "You're Next - Z". A few minutes later, a man asked another eight-year-old girl in Bargain Lane what color panties she was wearing. There had also been a spate of "Zodiac sightings" in nearby Anderson Valley.   

The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article on November 8th 1969, stating "The string of sadistic calls began on October 23rd 1969 (the day after the Jim Dunbar Show call). On one occasion, the caller told Williams he had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but had left when he found police there. Another time, the teacher said the caller, whose voice he described as muffled as if speaking through a handkerchief, said he was going to "kill the lady in the blue house". These calls began two days after the Ukiah incidents. 

Daniel Williams (24), a teacher at Salesian High School in Richmond, told police the caller talked of how he intended to kill several persons, then last; Sunday said: “You’re the dead duck.” Williams went out and when he returned home found someone had pried open the screen on a back door. However, a police search showed nothing was missing. But after the officers left and Williams took a drink from a bottle of opened soft drink in his refrigerator, he found it tasted “metallic” and immediately spat it out. Police reported Friday that the bottle contained more than enough arsenic to kill a human being. Williams said the caller identified himself as the still sought Zodiac Killer of five, but police discounted the idea. The caller would “sob and complain of headaches". Williams said, and on one occasion said he had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there. Williams said the caller told him: “I’m too smart for them".

If the caller had told Daniel Williams that "he had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims", then he didn't have far to travel if he lived in Pleasant Hill. The city of  Martinez is only 6 miles to the north, with the residence of Daniel Williams at 1234 Bush Street a mere 5 miles away.

Approximately eleven months later, a pasted card, mimicking the 13-Hole Postcard was mailed to the home address of Dr. Edward C. Adams at 102 Camino Don Miguel, Orinda, California, postmarked October 17th 1970 from Berkeley. Edward C. Adams was a psychiatrist. The card read "Mon Oct 12, 1970. Edward Adams. The Zodiac is going to change the way of committing murders. I shall announce when I shall commit my murders, The Adamses are Next. you taught me to mean it. ADAMS YOU ARE NEXT. Zodiac". The home address of Dr. Edward C. Adams is 8 miles from Pleasant Hill.

Seven-and-a-half months later, on June 1st 1971, a woman from South Dora Road, Ukiah complained she had received a series of threatening phone calls from an adult male, one of which stated "This is Zodiac - you're next". Her residence at South Dora Road is only 4 miles from where the threatening note of "You're Next - Z" was thrown to the eight-year-old girl walking on Lake Mendocino Drive. One man is relevant to all these locations, particularly on October 21st 1969. The city of Ukiah is 115 miles from San Francisco, yet here we have two reports of similar threats with extremely similar phraseology, separated by over a year-and-a-half, when the peak of Zodiac activity had subsided.

We have taken Bruce Kenneth Swanson from the Riverside area and the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and Elizabeth Ernstein in 1966 and 1968, through the sad demise of his wife and children, into the heart of northern California and the Pleasant Hill connected murders of Elaine Davis (12/01/69), Leona Roberts (12/10/69), Cosette Ellison (03/03/70) and Patricia King (03/05/70). We have shown the Ukiah connection through two threatening messages of "You're Next - Z" and "This is Zodiac - you're next", to the ominous communication and phone call to Dr. Edward C. Adams in Orinda and Daniel Williams in Martinez. However, Bruce Kenneth Swanson is not the Zodiac Killer, or likely the murderer of any of these young women. This presentation was put together to show how easy it is to create a series of events to paint a picture of perceived involvement in murder. The reason today we have hundreds of suspects in the Zodiac case, many of which are staunchly presented as the Zodiac Killer, is perfect testimony to the frailty of techniques such as this. If these coincidence building techniques were reliable in identifying the Zodiac Killer, everybody would have reached the same conclusion as to who the Bay Area murderer was. The fact we have hundreds of Zodiac Killer's today, is evidence that this approach to case building is wholly flawed. Of course, it goes without saying, that everybody has a better case for their suspect than the one I have presented here.  

Susan Marie Lynch (22) was discovered murdered on July 31st 1971, found buried alive in sand by "bottle hunters" near East Levee Road, one-half mile north of Del Paso Road and 0.6 miles southwest of the dump site of Carol Beth Hilburn. Carol (22) was last seen at Lloyd Hickey’s Forty Grand Club at 1819 Del Paso Boulevard in Sacramento and found later that day on Saturday, November 14th 1970, battered and naked only 30 feet south of West Ascot Avenue and West 4th Street near Rio Linda.

Betty Cloer (21) almost certainly crossed paths with her killer (Phillip Arthur Thompson) on Madison Avenue, Sacramento on June 18, 1971. She was found beaten and shot in Cameron Park, El Dorado County on June 19th 1971. Judith Hakari (23) was abducted from the Markston Apartments on March 7th 1970, discovered beaten and raped in a shallow grave on April 25th 1970 alongside Ponderosa Way, near Weimar. 

Nancy Darlene Feusi (23), a separated mother of five, was discovered by a fisherman at 6:30 am on July 22nd 1973 alongside Pleasant Grove Road and Steelhead Creek, approximately half a mile north of West Riego Road in Sutter County. Dressed in a miniskirt and bikini-style briefs, with a blouse discovered nearby, she had been brutally stabbed 29 times in the stomach, chest and arm in what appeared a sexually driven crime. Earlier that morning she had been dancing at Plumbers Hall, 5841 Newman Court in East Sacramento, with her last sighting alive at 43rd Street and 11th Avenue, about 2 miles southwest of Plumbers Hall. This sighting was only 3 1/2 hours prior to her body being discovered alongside Pleasant Grove Road, 15 miles north. Denise Kathleen Anderson (22) disappeared on April 13th 1971, having been last seen by one of her roommates at 5:30 am at their residence located on 925 16th Street in Sacramento. An extraordinary number of shocking crimes in such a small area - and this is just a snapshot. 

The bodies of Susan Marie Lynch and Carol Beth Hilburn were discovered on East Levee Road and West Ascot Avenue respectively, which both flanked the Dry Creek and 265 acre Hansen Ranch Park Site, often used by fishermen. The two roads pass within 230 meters of one another. Nancy Darlene Feusi's body was dumped 6 miles north of  West Ascot Avenue (where Carol Beth Hilburn was found). The bodies of Susan Marie Lynch and Nancy Darlene Feusi were both discovered next to Steelhead Creek.

It was thought that Susan Marie Lynch may have been unconscious before she was buried, leaving the possibility that she was transported to this location and buried (believing she was already dead). It is clear that Carol Beth Hilburn was not murdered where she was found, with a reasonable conclusion to be had, that both young women were transported to these locations by vehicle and dragged to where they were ultimately found. Susan Marie Lynch was found clothed in only a blouse, pulled up towards her neck, with one tennis shoe on her left foot. Carol Beth Hilburn was found naked with only one suede boot on her feet. It is fairly obvious from the state of undress of both women that a sexual component was the driving force behind both these crimes. The proximity of both dump sites, alongside roads separated by no more than 230 meters, could indicate that this area around the Hansen Park Ranch Site including Steelhead Creek and Dry Creek, was an area familiar to the perpetrator or perpetrators in each crime. But were they responsible for both or all these murders?

I would like to thank Shawn (a regular contributor to this site) for drawing my attention to this crime and providing the newspaper cutting.

Solve Crimes with Rick & Gavin is a new Youtube channel, website, True Crime podcast series and forum where you can get involved and help to find a resolution to the many unsolved murders and disappearances that have haunted so many people for far too long. In the words of Rick & Gavin "help us solve the mystery and provide the victim, the victim's family, community and law enforcement with justice and peace of mind".

They invite you to join their burgeoning venture by joining the forum, providing new information or tips, suggesting possible new cold cases for them to investigate and even the option of confessing to a crime (and hopefully remove all the murderers and criminals that visit my site). To date they have currently produced six extremely well-researched Youtube videos on the murder of Judith Hakari (4), the disappearance of Denise Anderson and an additional video entitled "Killer Wine" (I will leave you to work that one out). They welcome everybody with a keen interest in solving cold cases to cooperatively make this venture an ongoing success, which judging by the first few videos, I have no doubt it will be. To view each video shown below, click the images. 

Rick Tracewell and Gavin Fish present an introductory first episode regarding the abduction and murder of Judith Ann Hakari (23) on March 7th 1970 outside the Markston Apartments in Sacramento. This video presentation will include a mixture of crime scene imagery, newspaper cuttings, and a back and forth discussion between Rick and Gavin. They will also touch on the Nancy Bennallack, Carol Beth Hilburn and Donna Lass crimes, to be expanded upon in further episodes.   

The second episode explores in much more detail the abduction of Judith Hakari, along with the devastating impact this crime had on the family and community. The episode concentrates mainly on the crime scene outside of the Markston Apartments and the condition her vehicle was found by her boyfriend, Raymond Willis (24), at approximately 1:45 am. There would be no happy ending seven weeks later. As Gavin stated "The Placer County Sheriff's Offce were very swift to go and notify the Hakari's - and that is when the first chapter of their nightmare ended".

The third episode takes you on a journey between the two crime scenes and apartments of Judith Hakari and Nancy Bennallack. This young woman was brutally stabbed in the Tahitian Apartment complex on October 25th 1970, located just 830 feet from the Markston Apartments. No solid link has ever been forged between the two murders, but their close proximity within eight months of each other has led to much speculation of a single perpetrator. Offender DNA has been secured in the case of Nancy Bennallack.

The fourth episode explores the discovery of Judith Hakari's shallow grave alongside Ponderosa Way in Weimar and its implications regarding the possible perpetrator or perpetrators of the savage and brutal murder of the young nurse. Rick & Gavin detail the items found at the crime scene and an eyewitness to three men acting suspiciously in the area prior to the discovery of her body. Judith Hakari went missing on March 7th 1970, with her body discovered by two hikers on April 25th 1970. Episode five.

The sixth episode covers the rarely covered case of Denise Kathleen Anderson (22), who was last seen in her 925 16th Street apartment in Sacramento on April 13th 1971. Information on this crime is so lacking and threadbare, they have done an excellent job in airing this crime for 29 minutes. I say crime, because the body of Denise Anderson has never been found, but everything points to her abduction at or in close proximity to her residence. If you knew Denise Anderson, or have any information on her life and disappearance, please contact Rick & Gavin via the website link posted above.