When the Zodiac Killer mailed the Los Angeles letter on March 13th 1971 he claimed 17+ victims, with the plus sign likely added to claim "there are a hell of a lot more down there", when referring to his Riverside activity down south. The Zodiac Killer's last known victim count was 14 when he mailed the Halloween card on October 27th 1970. So was the addition of three more victims deliberately chosen with particular murders or disappearances in mind? And what triggered the Zodiac Killer to switch his mailing to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, rather than continue with the San Francisco Chronicle? His suggestion was that he wrote to the Times because "they don't bury him on the back pages like some of the others". This probably wasn't the reason at all.

​The one thing we know for sure about the Zodiac Killer was his propensity to respond to newspaper articles concerning his exploits, or potential victims he may be responsible for. Bearing in mind his switch to the Los Angeles Times, let us take a look at the previous article regarding the Zodiac Killer in the Times newspaper prior to March 13th 1971. One week earlier, on March 6th 1971, the newspaper revealed that the body of Lynda Kanes (20) had been discovered alongside Howell Mountain Road in a shallow grave 15 miles west of Lake Berryessa, and noted that she was a Pacific Union College student just like murder victim Cecelia Shepard. In other words, the newspaper had tentatively connected Lynda Kanes to one of Zodiac's attack sites. Enter the Zodiac Killer, writing to the Los Angeles Times the following Saturday, claiming at least 17 victims. But this may have just been the primer.​         

Nine days later, the Zodiac Killer not only addressed the Pines card to the Los Angeles Times for a second time, but added the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner as well. The Pines card wasn't referring to the once "Missing Coed" Lynda Kanes, but the missing Donna Lass, who disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 6th 1970, with her story covered extensively by the San Francisco Chronicle on September 26th 1970. The article, entitled Nurse Vanishes--A Tahoe Mystery, compared the case of Donna Lass to the murder victim, Judith Hakari, who also went missing for seven weeks until her body was discovered in a shallow grave alongside Ponderosa Way in Weimar. Both Donna Lass and Judith Hakari were nurses. However, these crimes were not currently linked to the Zodiac Killer.

The Pines card was clearly suggesting an involvement in the missing Donna Lass case because of the pasted wording "pass Lake Tahoe areas" and "sought victim 12". But the key part of the Pines card may have been the "around in the snow" phrase, pasted upside down, as if to suggest a burial site. Lynda Kanes was found buried in a shallow grave, just like Judith Hakari. So, if the Zodiac Killer could suggest he was the murderer of Donna Lass, who was linked to Judith Hakari, who was buried in a shallow grave - the timing of the Los Angeles letter, coupled with the Pines card, may force investigators to consider the possibility of Zodiac's involvement in all three murders. Hence the victim total rising by three to 17, with Donna Lass to be also found buried.

The Zodiac Killer, had he read the March 6th 1971 article about Lynda Kanes (shown left), would have realized that his name was brought up because of the proximity of the murder victim's gravesite to Lake Berryessa. He would also have known, had he read the September 26th 1970 article about Donna Lass, the close proximity of the murder of Paul Stine and his claimed escape into Presidio park, to the workplace of Donna Lass at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio grounds. By linking himself to Donna Lass, he is adding credence to his claim through proximity, and hoping investigators would draw this conclusion too.

The one extremely compelling argument to back up the notion of the Zodiac Killer designing the Pines card is his addition of the phrase "sought victim 12". The claim that the victim total of twelve being out of sequence with other known Zodiac communications is proof of a hoaxer being responsible for the Pines card, is inherently flawed logic. It relies on the premise of a hoaxer, who meticulously and deliberately chose certain newspaper cuttings and pasted five selected phrases onto a postcard, along with taking the time to punch a hole in one corner and scalloping its edges, being so stupid as to not have read any of the previous and numerous newspaper articles about the Zodiac Killer and his widely available running victim totals. The logical conclusion regarding the Pines card, is that it was deliberately engineered using the word "sought", which is the past participle of seek. The suggestion being, that he had once "sought" Donna Lass as his twelfth victim.

This makes perfect sense when we consider that the April 20th 1970 Zodiac letter claimed 10 victims, and his June 26th 1970 Zodiac letter claimed 12 victims. Any victim "sought" between these two dates could conceivably have become Zodiac's twelfth victim. Donna Lass was resident at 4122 Balboa Street, San Francisco between the dates of April 20th 1970 and the early part of June 1970, before she moved to begin her job at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on June 6th 1970. A Zodiac Killer trailing or having "sought" Donna Lass before her move to South Lake Tahoe, could have unquestionably targeted her as victim number twelve between these dates. By using the phrase "sought victim 12" in the Pines card, the Zodiac Killer is effectively connecting himself to Donna Lass through San Francisco and South Lake Tahoe, hopefully cementing the belief in investigators minds that he knew Donna Lass over an extended period of time. Of course, he may not have been trailing her at all and may not have been her killer, but by using the "sought victim 12" phrase, he is effectively suggesting this as a possibility to law enforcement in order to boost his credibility.

The information about Donna Lass having worked at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio park, close to the Zodiac's final victim of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969 was widely covered in the September 26th 1970 San Francisco Chronicle article, along with the date she moved. Therefore, by incorporating the phrase "sought victim 12" into the Pines card, the Zodiac Killer is bridging the gap between the murder of the taxicab driver and the disappearance of Donna Lass, both indelibly connected to the Presidio Heights district of San Francisco. This phrase wasn't a mistake, it was deliberately fashioned to plant a seed. The Los Angeles Times would form a similar connection to the murder and burial site of Lynda Kanes to the Zodiac Killer's attack at Lake Berryessa. Therefore, the Zodiac Killer mailing two communications immediately after the discovery of her body may have been designed to engineer a conclusion that the Zodiac had not only killed Donna Lass and Judith Hakari, but Lynda Kanes also. The Los Angeles Times letter came nearly five months after his previous communication, but only one week after the discovery of Lynda Kanes' shallow grave, with the passage "I'm writing to the Times (because) they don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others".  

​The murder of Lynda Kanes would eventually be attributed to Walter Williams (aka Willie the Woodcutter), who was ultimately convicted of the crime. 

The rape and murder of 9-year-old Marise Ann Chiverella on March 8th 1964 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania was finally solved in 2022, when her killer was identified as James Paul Forte using semen stains from the jacket of the young girl. Forte, 22 years of age at the time of the murder, was a bartender in the area, who abducted the young girl as she made her way to school with canned goods for her teacher, who subsequently dumped her lifeless body in a coal-mining pit. This crime, solved by genetic genealogy, predated the case of Nancy Bennallack, but by no means is the oldest case solved using this crime-fighting DNA tool as the Patricia Kalitzke and Duane Bogle double murder case in 1956 showed.

The murder of 28-year-old court reporter Nancy Bennallack on October 25/26th 1970 was recently solved using genetic genealogy, identifying Richard John Davis who lived in the same apartment complex, as her killer. Stabbed more than 30 times and nearly decapitated, it is a reasonable assumption that Davis realized Nancy Bennallack's fiance had left her apartment that night at 11:30pm and noticed that she had left her second story balcony window open, which he accessed by scaling from beneath. Genetic genealogy was only possible in this case because investigators realized that a trail of blood from Nancy Bennallack's apartment to the parking lot, where it ended, had a strong possibility of being secreted by her murderer. A similar trail of blood was mentioned by investigators in the case of Cheri Jo Bates, that bridged the body and Terracina Drive in Riverside, and was noticed by responding officers on October 31st 1966. A blood trail distance of approximately 100 feet, unlikely to have been deposited by a dripping knife measuring 3 1/2 inches long and half an inch wide. The blood typing of Cheri Jo Bates detailed at autopsy of AB RhD positive is rare, accounting for only 3.4% of the American population. If this blood trail had been sampled and tested (as it should have been), then not only would it have been easy to determine whether the blood was shed by the killer or Cheri Jo Bates but we would have ample material (if stored correctly) to apply genetic genealogy to this case as well.   

Richard John Davis and Nancy Bennallack may have crossed paths many times, as they were both resident at the Tahitian apartment complex at 1830 Bell Street in Sacramento. When Richard John Davis became fixated on Nancy Bennallack is unknown, but they would have shared a communal pool had either of them chosen to use it. Why Davis chose to attack Nancy is also unknown, but it doesn't require great speculation that a sexual motive was the likely driver that night. His choice of placing masking tape over his fingertips clearly indicated this was a premeditated attack requiring some forethought. The idea that Davis may have set his sights on Miss Bennallack possibly days or weeks in advance of the crime, with some preparation, along with the observable blood trail ending in the parking lot of the Tahitian apartment complex, is not incongruent to the attack on Judith Hakari approximately 7 1/2 months earlier. If Davis set his sights on Bennallack, he could have set his sights on Hakari, who lived at the 1740 Markston Road apartments. The communal pool at the Markston apartments sits just 760 feet from the communal pool at the Tahitian apartments.

On March 7th 1970, Judith Hakari (23) left her job at the Sutter Memorial Hospital at 11;30pm, likely arriving in her Mercury Cougar at the parking lot of the Markston apartments at 11:45pm, from where she was immediately abducted. This may be the same time that Richard John Davis began his attack on Nancy Bennallack, shortly after her fiance left the second floor apartment on October 25th 1970. The walk for Judith Hakari from her vehicle to the door of her Markston Road apartment was a matter of seconds, so the likelihood of a random killer just happening upon the young 23-year-old in this small window of time is unlikely. This is further negated because her Mercury Cougar interior was scattered with torn strips of Cannon-brand towel, strongly suggestive of an abduction with premeditation and a second vehicle.

​The idea that a pretty 23-year-old nurse traveling to and from Sutter Memorial Hospital at set times could become the target of a pre-planned abduction by a perpetrator or perpetrators, who ruminated in the days or weeks before the abduction, is not without merit. One individual (or multiple) fixating on Judith Hakari, just like Richard John Davis may have done in the case of Nancy Bennallack is a reasonable hypothesis. His original intention could have been the abduction (and possibly torture) of Nancy Bennallack before something changed the dynamics of that crime (possibly his injury). The fact that his blood trail ceased in the parking lot and not his front door, could suggest a vehicle was waiting in the parking lot of the Tahitian apartment compex, with or without accomplices. It is perfectly conceivable that the actions and agressive resistance of Nancy Bennallack prevented her from being abducted to a second location, that ultimately befell Judith Hakari several months earlier. 

PART ONE   

On Saturday, March 7th 1970 at approximately 11:30pm, registered nurse Judith Ann Hakari left the Sutter Memorial Hospital at the end of her shift for the short 10 to 15 minute drive back to her apartment at 1740 Markston Road in Sacramento. The young 23-year-old woman had arranged to meet up with her fiance, Raymond Willis (24) of 5425 San Francisco Boulevard, who was anticipating her arrival at around 11:45pm. According to Raymond Willis, he had waited for Judith until 1:45am but became concerned when she didn't show up, venturing out into the parking lot of the Markston apartments to see if her vehicle was present. Upon seeing her car in its usual parking spot he understandably became concerned and rang the sheriff's office to report her missing. Her Mercury Cougar showed signs of foul play, with the passenger door open, her ignition keys on the floorboard, with buttons and ripped strips of Cannon-brand towel scattered inside the vehicle. First impressions seemed to indicate Judith Hakari, wearing her nurses uniform and a blue coat with white polka dots, had been forcibly removed from her Mercury Cougar as she arrived at the parking lot by one or more assailants. An immediate search of local fields turned up nothing. 

For her father, Wilho Hakari of 4532 Sycamore Drive, Carmichael, the next few days were a tortuous affair, remarking that "This is hellish, just sitting here and not knowing and not being able to do something. She knows wherever she may be and no matter what happens, she is loved". The mother of Judith stated "Please, I beg of you, whomever has taken my child, in some anonymous way contact authorities so we can find her. We just want to bring her home to take care of her".

​Investigators immediately issued a one thousand dollar reward to anybody with information on her whereabouts, but as the days turned into weeks, hopes of finding the 5'2", 118 lbs, brunette alive started to fade away. These hopes were completely dashed when on April 25th 1970, just seven weeks after her abduction, a grisly discovery was made by Leonard Theis (26) and his girlfriend Susan Reed (19) while visiting old mine shafts alongside the extremely rural Ponderosa Way in Weimar, who noticed a knee protruding from the earth and immediately reported their finding to police. Leonard Theis stated "We had spent the day hiking around the American River canyon country, panning gold and looking for places to fish. We had gone back to my car on a dirt road off Ponderosa Way in Weimar, and were going to leave when I remembered, from once before when I was in the area, a small mine and an old cabin. I told Susan 'Let go back and look at the gold mine'. We saw a knee protruding from the dirt between the cabin and the mine, a shaft which goes about five feet into a slope". Leonard Theis described the grave as very crude, as though somebody had just thrown dirt over the body and tamped it down a little. He added "There are all kinds of places near where a grave could have been hidden better than that". Sheriff-Coroner William A. Scott described the grave as approximately four feet long by two feet wide and 24 inches deep. William Scott stated that "she was the victim of one of the most godawful assaults I've ever investigated". 

After an examination of the body, pathologist Dr. Donald Jones unearthed the gruesome findings of a cruel death. Judith Hakari had been so savagely beaten, her nose had been reduced to a pulp, her jaw had been broken in several places, some teeth had been knocked out, and she had been strangled by her own stocking causing a fractured hyoid bone. She had also been sexually attacked (possibly raped), with the perpetrator/s placing her underwear in the grave beneath her body, which was still dressed in her nurse's uniform, partially wrapped in a canvas bag (manufactured in Sacramento for the San Juan Unified School District). Although she was still wearing a diamond ring, one of Judith Hakari's shoes was missing, along with her nurse's watch and purse. Despite an extensive examination of the gravesite alongside Ponderosa Way, Lieutenant Arthur Ables, co-ordinating the investigation, and Sheriff's Inspectors William Ravenscroft and Edward Reynolds, failed to uncover any further clues to crack the case.

Eleven days after Judith Hakari's body was found, on May 6th 1970, it was revealed that Placer and Sacramento County officers were searching for three men with respect to the murder, after the landowner of the site where Judith Hakari was buried came forward to reveal his sighting of three men digging at that location. He told police that three well-dressed men had parked their sedan in that area with the trunk open. When he approached them and asked what they were doing, they responded by claiming they were digging for antique glass bottles, told him not to touch the car and closed the trunk lid as he got closer. He described one of the young men in his late twenties, 6'0" tall, slender to medium build, with dark brown hair, brown eyes and an olive complexion. The other two suspects were also described as aged in their late 20s, with all three wearing shirts and slacks. The landowner relayed to police he saw the three men digging the grave six days after Judith Hakari's abduction (March 13th 1970). Investigators surmised that Judith Hakari may have suffered days of abuse and torture before finally being killed and buried 677 feet from Ponderosa Way, 48 miles from the Markston apartments where she was abducted from. Investigators wisely concluded that one or more of the men must have been familiar with area Judith Hakari was buried.

The year 1970 ended with the hunt still ongoing in the murders of 23-year-old Judith Hakari (March 7th to March 13th), 28-year-old Nancy Bennallack (October 25th or 26th) and 22-year-old Carol Beth Hilburn (November 14th), described in a newspaper article entitled Year Ends, But Hunt For Killers Of Three Capital Women Goes On. The newspaper made comparisons between the brutal deaths of the three women, with Carol Beth Hilburn and Judith Hakari receiving a brutal beating to their face, with Nancy Bennallack suffering at least 30 stab wounds and near decapitation. Wilho Hakari described the murderer of his daughter as "an animal, not a human", with detectives contemplating whether one or more persons were involved in each murder. The newspaper noted the close proximity of the Markston apartments parking lot (where Judith Hakari was abducted) to the residence of Nancy Bennallack, who lived at the Tahitian apartments on 1830 Bell Street. The two locations are about 850 feet apart. The Hakari and Bennallack murders were both described as extremely brutal, in which both of their faces were attacked, both were engaged to be married, both were attacked at weekends and both women were employed in professional fields. Although Lieutenant Jerry Saulter was quick to caution in drawing the conclusion these two murders were connected  Below is an older photograph of Richard John Davis, recently identified as the murderer of Nancy Bennallack. A younger photograph would be advantageous in making a comparison to the sketches created in the Bennallack and Hakari slayings. Richard John Davis must be considered a potential suspect in the murder of Judith Hakari. 

Nancy Bennallack (28) was murdered either late on October 25th 1970, or the early morning hours of the 26th. Her fiance, Farris Salamy, had left Nancy Bennallack's apartment at 11:30pm, so if Richard John Davis (who lived in the same apartment complex) had noticed she was now alone, he may have struck shortly after this time, either acting alone or in accompaniment with others. It is believed he made access to her apartment by climbing up to the second story balcony and entering through the sliding doors, which Nancy Bennallack had unfortunately left open for her cat to come and go. Investigators noted a blood trail from her apartment to the parking lot, where it ended - which led them to believe that the suspect may have made his getaway by vehicle.

​A trail of the assailant's blood (believed to be from his hand or arm) was sampled and stored, and was later instrumental in identifying Richard John Davis through genetic genealogy in 2022. Richard John Davis (born in 1943) was 27 years of age at the time of the murder (and according to his roommate lived at the Tahitian apartments until 1974 or 1975). In addition to the comparisons noted above, both the murder of Nancy Bennallack and abduction of Judith Hakari may have occurred just before midnight at the weekend, with the trail going cold in each case in the parking lot of two apartments, separated by 850 feet in distance. One has to ask the question, why did the blood trail end in the parking lot of the Tahitian apartments and not the home of Richard John Davis? There could of course be many reasons - but maybe it was deliberately engineered to give the impression of a getaway vehicle, and a murderer not resident in the Tahitian apartments or close vicinity? Or was a vehicle parked here with the original intention of abducting Nancy Bennallack from her apartment, similar to the abduction of Judith Hakari? If Davis had an accomplice (such as a lying roommate, or friend), it may have been wise to use a vehicle and leave the area to dispose of the weapon and misdirect police away from the apartment complex.

​It will be interesting to discover more details on the characteristics and life of Richard John Davis in the coming months, and see if he can pass as a man of 6'0" tall, slender to medium build, with dark brown/black hair, brown eyes and an olive complexion, driving a sedan. We already know he was the correct age range when the landowner spotted the three individuals on March 13th 1970. Additonally, did he, his roommate, or any of his friends have any connection to the San Juan Unified School District canvas bag found in the gravesite of Judith Hakari? Time will tell. 

PART TWO

Judith Hakari (23) was abducted from the parking lot of the Markston Apartments on March 7th 1970 at approximately 11:30 pm, after returning home from her nurses shift at the Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento. Her partially buried body was discovered by two hikers on April 25th 1970 just 677 feet off Ponderosa Way, near Weimar. The location of her burial site was 43 miles from the site of her abduction and 3.1 miles from Interstate 80 at Weimar.

Her Mercury Cougar (discovered by her boyfriend) showed signs of foul play, with the passenger door open, her ignition keys on the floorboard, buttons scattered about and ripped strips of Cannon-brand towel, indicating that these may have been used to restrain the young woman. The same style toweling was discovered in the burial site of Judith Hakari seven weeks later and therefore provided a common link between both locations. Her body was found inside a canvas laundry bag, laying over a grey sweatshirt. She had been savagely beaten in the face, strangled and raped, with her bra torn in two and her underwear found beneath her.

Detectives stated that on March 13th 1970 (six days after her disappearance) the owner of the land where Judith Hakari was eventually discovered, noticed three sharply-dressed men in their late 20s at the site with the trunk of their vehicle open and digging into the ground. Their lame excuse of digging for bottles, while suspiciously closing the trunk of their vehicle seemed sinister. There is very good reason to believe these three men were involved in the murder and disposal of Judith Hakari. At the very least, one murderer and two accomplices after the fact. With little to go on after 50 years, an examination of the abduction and burial site can reveal so much about this crime.        

The presence of ripped toweling in Judith Hakari's vehicle indicated malice aforethought. The killer or killers had possibly pre-planned this abduction ahead of time with the primary goal of feeding their sexual peversion at the cost of a young and promising life. Judith Hakari had to travel a matter of seconds from her Mercury Cougar to the front door of her residence. We have to weigh up the odds of a random and opportunistic abduction in this slender window of time, to the possibility that somebody knew her routine and lay in wait. An attractive 23-year-old young woman, dressed in a nurses uniform, following a regular pattern to and from Sutter Memorial Hospital each day, always has the potential to draw in the sickest of predators. Judith Hakari arriving back to her apartment complex at a similar time each night may very well have been noticed by such an individual, who came pre-prepared with materials of restraint. This opens up the possibility that the perpetrator or perpetrators lived in the same Markston Apartments as Judith Hakari, or in close proximity to it. Or she was trailed from Sutter Memorial Hospital.  

Nancy Bennallack (28), a court reporter, was found brutally stabbed numerous times at the Tahitian Apartments on October 25th 1970. The Tahitian Apartments were just 830 feet from the Markston Apartments, where Judith Hakari was abducted just seven months earlier. Two young women attacked in and around their apartments opens up the possibility of a single perpetrator who specifically targeted both of these women. Update: Recent discoveries through genetic genealogy in 2022 has identified Richard John Davis as the murderer of Nancy Bennallack, who lived in the same apartment complex as the victim. Sadly, Richard Davis will elude justice because he died of an alcohol related illness in 1997.

We can now switch to the burial location of Judith Hakari, highly suggestive of somebody who had frequented this location before. The perpetrator or perpetrators of this murder had clearly used the canvas bag to transport the lifeless body of Judith Hakari - which if had been done by the three well-dressed men  - must have been done six days after her abduction. Whether she was killed a short time after her abduction and stored, or held captive for several days, will likely never be known unless a resolution is found in the next few years. The notion of a killer distancing the body from his home location is not unusual, so as to shift the focus of the investigation to another area. But whoever abducted Judith Hakari made no attempt to disguise the fact she was the victim of foul play, leaving her vehicle in disarray outside of her apartment complex.

The killer or killers chose the extremely remote, hilly and winding road of Ponderosa Way. They could have pulled up their vehicle on the roadside edge and tossed the body of Judith Hakari in a matter of seconds down any steep ravine into dense woodland, where she may have gone undetected for months, years, or forever. They could have thrown her body into the North Fork American River, thereby destroying any remaining evidence on the body. Instead, they inexplicably chose to pull onto a dirt road off Ponderosa Way into an area containing wooden buildings, near an old deserted mine entrance. This appears to suggest that this location was known to them - and in relative seclusion away from the main roadway - it would allow them the time to dig a grave. So, what advantage was the killer or killers attempting to gain by delaying or preventing the discovery of the body? They certainly made no effort to disguise the abduction. Was it simply a case of no body, no murder?

The likelihood is that the three young men were responsible for the burial of Judith Hakari, with at least one directly involved in her savage murder. The crime was undoubtedly pre-planned by somebody who had observed her routine and took full advantage of a dark, secluded parking lot at near midnight. Although not conclusive, it appears as though her abductor was either familiar with the young woman from Sutter Memorial Hospital or her comings and goings from the Markston Apartments. The canvas bag, manufactured in Sacramento for the San Juan Unified School District and the ripped toweling could provide a tenuous link to the people responsible.

There is little to suggest the abduction and murder of Judith Hakari has anything to do with the Zodiac Killer, despite the fact he may have latched onto her murder through the San Francisco Chronicle article on September 26th 1970, featuring the disappearance of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970. By mailing the Pines card on March 22nd 1971, he was effectively insinuating he was in the Lake Tahoe/Placer County area in the near timeframe. The murder and rape of Judith Hakari showed none of the features of the Zodiac killings, other than a propensity to rob young victims of their lives with no remorse.

There is a well-researched and informative documentary series on Youtube called Solve Crimes with Rick & Gavin, taking a deep dive into the story of Judith Hakari. If you want to extend your knowledge on the murder of Judith Hakari and hopefully forge a resolution to this 50-year-old case, please click the link above. Or visit their website here.