Renowned Zodiac investigator Michael Morford (USA) is the creator of the ZodiacKiller.Net website and producer of the hugely successful Criminology podcast along with co-host Michael Ferguson (featuring a vast array of true crime episodes). They have also co-authored two books entitled The Case of the Zodiac Killer and The Case of the Golden State Killer. Starting on March 13th 2021, Michael Morford and I (Richard Grinell) have formed a transatlantic partnership to produce a new series of Zodiac Killer podcasts that strives to break new ground.

Under the title of Zodiac Speaking, the first two episodes will feature the Lake Herman Road murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968, followed by the Blue Rock Springs Park attack on Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau in the early minutes of July 5th 1969, which will be released simultaneously to begin the story. Every two weeks thereafter (which may change), the entire Zodiac story will be covered chronologically in depth, delving deeper into the crimes, communications and suspects than ever before. Each episode will not be constrained to a routine retelling of events, but feature new and challenging questions surrounding the Zodiac case which have never been examined and discussed before in any other podcast. The first section of each podcast will be a scripted overview of each topic, accompanied by ideas that challenge the usual narrative and raise new questions, while the second section will be an unscripted conversation between Michael Morford and myself.

We hope to create a minimum of 50 podcasts as an initial projection, with running times estimated at 45 minutes to over an hour for certain episodes, although no time limit will be adopted. Anybody new to the case will get the basic details of the case as an introduction, but each episode won't be limited to the usual story already known by many seasoned researchers and sleuths. The further we travel through the series, the deeper we will dive. Michael Morford will bring his extensive knowledge of the Zodiac case into this series, whereas I will be taking much of what has been discovered on this website into audio form and a wider audience not familiar with the topics I have covered, attempting to question many of the pervading narratives of the Zodiac story that have routinely been accepted as true over the last 52 years. I hope you will join us on this journey, beginning on March 13th 2021.

Mike Morford (Morf13) posted a very interesting timeline of the main eyewitnesses movements during the Lake Herman Road double murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968 and it demonstrates the very small window of time the Zodiac Killer had available to him, to avoid being spotted, possibly as little as six minutes. With his permission, the forum post can be read unchanged and in its entirety here.

WILLIAM CROW-
At aprox 9:30 to 10:00, Crow and his Girlfriend claim that they were parked on that very spot where Faraday & Jensen would be murdered a little over an hour later. There were no other cars parked there. Crow claims that while parked at the spot checking out his girlfriend’s new car, a blue car, possibly a Valient, passed them coming from Benicia to Vallejo, and then suddenly stopped in the road and started to back up. Crow, sensing danger, quickly pulled out, and the other car followed them at a high speed before Crow was able to quickly turn off, losing the blue car behind them. The car that chased Crow apparently contained two white males.

The Yours went down the road a ways, then turned around and worked their way back, and again saw the Victims and their car a couple minutes later, still in the same previous positions. The car was facing “EAST TOWARDS THE FIELD, LEFT OF THE GATE”.When the yours turned around at the Marshall Ranch, they noticed the raccoon hunter’s red truck. (Connelly & Gasser), and “at this time, the car was NOW FACING OUT TO THE ROAD”, and that there were “TWO WHITE MALES IN THE CAR”. There’s a bit of confusion here, because the report mentions “TWO MEN IN THE CAR”, which should read as, “IN THE TRUCK”. And also, it’s not clear from the report, but is likely to be assumed, that the car that was “NOW FACING OUT TO THE ROAD” was Faraday’s, and that the “TWO MEN IN THE CAR” were actually the two hunters in the truck. In a later report about 3 months after the incident, Mrs Your continues to say that she saw the two victims in the Rambler, and again mentions that when their headlights shined on the young Caucasian couple, consisting of a boy, and a girl, the boy adjusted himself, moving in his seat. She also once again details the hunters, and their clothing. Nothing changes in her description of the scene or the cars. She estimates that she encountered the hunters and saw the Rambler at about 11:15-11:18pm. Mr. Your describes the same details, and estimated that they were at the scene between 11:00 & 11:20pm. (The Yours clock was found to be off by____minutes).

After the Yours turned around, the hunters sat there about another 5 minutes, and then drove off. Connelly estimated that they left the area between 11:05 & 11:15pm. 
If we assume that the hunters started walking back to their truck at Connelly’s earliest estimated time of 10:50pm, and it took them 3-10 minutes to get to their truck, they arrived at the truck about 10:53 to 11:00pm. They sat there until approximately 10:58 to 11:05pm, at which time they saw the Yours turn around. They then sat there another 5 minutes or so, until approximately 11:03 to 11:12, before they left.

JAMES OWEN-
James Owen estimated that he passed the scene at 11:20pm. Owen estimated that he left his home in Vallejo for work at Humble Oil at about 11pm, heading towards Benicia. Police determined that Owen’s clock was 6 minutes fast, and that he really would have left at about 10:54pm putting him on the scene at about 11:14. In fact, 11:14 appears on one of the sketches, and the sketch shows Owen’s car passing the scene, and shows Faraday’s car in it’s spot, with a 2nd mystery car parked to the right of it, which is what Owen claims he saw as he went by. Owen’s account may perhaps be more important than any other witnesses, as he is the last person to see the Victim’s car prior to it being found at aprox 11:20pm by Stella Borges, along with it’s two occupants, dead on the road beside it. In short, police think that Zodiac killed the two victims between 11:14pm, and 11:20pm, when Borges found the bodies. Also of note, Owen states that he saw no people in the cars, or anywhere around them, which would include two dead bodies on the ground. Police stated that “it takes 19 minutes to travel the distance from his home to the crime scene”, which again, puts him there at 11:14pm.

Keep in mind, Owen is placed there at 11:14pm up to this point. Now for something crucial- police checked her clock, and found it to be one minute fast, meaning that she likely would really be there at 11:13-11:14. Well, obviously, this is a huge glaring problem, Owen there at 11:14 seeing two cars and no people or bodies, and Borges being there at 11:13-11:14 and seeing one car and two bodies. Obviously, both of the established times for Owen and Borges can’t be correct. What happened? Borges drove off immediately at speeds of 60-70mph towards Benicia to get help, where she eventually ran into Benicia Police Officer Pitta. From Pitta’s report, he notes that Borges flagged him down at aprox 11:25pm. Pitta then raced to the scene arriving there at about 11:28pm. This is apparently how they established that Borges took 5 minutes to find and make contact with Pitta. They now think that Borges was actually at the scene at 11:20, hence the 6 minute window for zodiac to strike. The police report mentions “the distance was 3.4 miles” from where she found the cops, and the murder scene, and “possibly took her 5 minutes to drive”.

According to Owen, they also never asked him for prints, or writing samples. For these reasons, and the fact Owen is the last person confirmed to be at the crime scene before Borges found the bodies a few minutes later, he has become my favorite suspect. Owen was the only person at the scene that night without a witness to verify his statements, or provide an alibi for him. He had multiple inconsistencies in his statements to police. In one account he mentioned that the mystery car parked next to the Rambler was 3-4 feet away from the Rambler, and in the other statement, it was 10 feet. The biggest discrepancy of all, was that 9 hours after the crime on 12/21, Owen was giving a statement at the scene of the double murder, likely with chalk outlines on the ground, yet he failed to mention hearing any shots 9 hours before when he passed the scene, yet 3 days later on the 24th, Owen suddenly mentions that he heard a shot after he passed the scene, about a quarter mile up the road. Personally, I find it highly unusual that a witness would leave out a detail like that only 9 hours after the crime when it was fresh in his mind, especially a retired military guy like him who you would expect to be more detail oriented.Whether or not Owen was Zodiac, can be debated, the point is, the window for Zodiac to get in and out unseen, is very tight. Between the hunters leaving and Borges finding the bodies, was likely about 10 minutes. Owen is the only one confirmed to be there in between. The time between Owen passing, and Borges finding the bodies, is really tight, 6 minutes according to police, but it could be as little as 3-4 minutes. 

It simply would take the greatest luck for Zodiac to slip in to the scene without being seen just prior to Owen arriving, and slip out just before Borges finding the bodies, and Owen happens to be there at that time. He should have been properly ruled out as a suspect.

Thanks to Morf13 at  ZodiacKillerSite Forum.  To view the Lake Herman Road Timeline thread  visit here. 

For Anybody living in Northern California during the later 1960’s and early 1970’s, you could not help but be familiar with the infamous ‘Zodiac killer’, a mad man that stalked unsuspecting young couples while they enjoyed each other’s company in secluded quiet areas.  At the time, they didn’t seem to have a care in the world, but if they had known that a mad man was watching them, they would likely have been on guard.

                            From December, 1968 until October, 1969, the Zodiac Killer attacked three couples, two in Vallejo, and one in Napa, before finally breaking his pattern by killing a lone taxi driver in San Francisco.  In all, zodiac is confirmed to have murdered five people, and seriously wounded two more. His tools during these crimes included multiple small caliber handguns, a knife, and pre-cut lengths of plastic clothesline.  Zodiac’s last confirmed attack took place in October,1969, but along the way from August, 1969 until July,1974, Zodiac also attacked with his own words and a blue felt tip pen.

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                           The Zodiac killer mailed many letters to Bay area newspapers including taunting clues, and coded ciphers, as well as proof that he was responsible for the crimes. During this time, many unsolved crimes in the Bay area were attributed to Zodiac, many of which did not fit Zodiac’s known MO, but frightened residents were quick to lay the blame at his feet. Some of the names linked to Zodiac during this period included Kathleen Johns, a woman from San Bernardino who was driving north to the Bay area to visit her Mother in 1970. She was attacked outside of Modesto after pulling over for a man that signaled to her that her tire was about to fall off. She survived and later identified her attacker as Zodiac from a police sketch of him. Another possible Victim commonly attributed to Zodiac is Donna Lass, a nurse who went missing after her late shift at a Casino in South Lake Tahoe in 1970. Lass, vanished off of the face of the Earth, and later, a postcard attributed to Zodiac was mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, seemingly taking responsibility for Lass vanishing. In neither of these cases was there ever any solid evidence that Zodiac was responsible for these attacks, but these ‘victims’ will likely forever be thought of as ‘Zodiac Victims’.  The big question is, could there have been any other names that could be verified to be true Zodiac Victims? The answer would soon come.                   

                            In 1970, Chronicle Reporter Paul Avery, a Zodiac aficionado, and a personal recipient of one of Zodiac’s letters, made a Zodiac connection to a 1966 murder in Riverside, California.  In October, 1966, a young Riverside college student named Cheri Jo Bates was murdered outside of her school Library.  Her attacker disabled her vehicle, and waited for her to come out of the library. When she couldn’t start the car, he came along acting as a good Samaritan and offered to help. Instead of helping her, he was able to lure her into a darkened and isolated area away from the parking lot, and then attacked her savagely with a knife.  Her murder was so gruesome, that she was nearly decapitated. The murder left the quiet town of Riverside in a state of shock. But the shock would only deepen a month after her murder, when a ‘confession’ letter was mailed to the local newspaper in Riverside. The typed letter claimed responsibility for the Bates murder, and provided details which apparently only the murderer would know. Most frightening of all, the letter’s Author promised more Victims. On the six month anniversary of the murders, another series of letters was mailed to the newspaper, the police, and most chilling of all, to the Victim’s Father. The letters, this time scrawled in disguised hand printed words, stated that Cheri Bates “Had to die”.  At some point after the shocking  letters had been delivered, a desk was discovered in  Riverside College storage by a Janitor. The desktop had a morbid poem etched, and then written over with ink. Fearing that this poem had something to do with the Bates murder, the desk was put into evidence by Riverside PD.  Meanwhile, Paul Avery felt so strongly that this 1966 crime was the work of Zodiac, that he personally hand delivered the written letters in the Bates case to Zodiac case Questioned Document examiner, Sherwood Morrill. Morrill, who was a very skilled and experienced examiner examined the Bates case letters and desktop, and came to the final conclusion that the Bates case writing was “unquestionably the work of Zodiac”. This was a major development in the Zodiac case, and had seemingly linked Zodiac to the southern California area prior to his reign of terror in the Bay area. The Zodiac link to Riverside and the Bates case went public, and after a delay, Zodiac finally wrote a letter taking credit for the murder, but warned police “you are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there”. Was Zodiac being truthful? Indeed police would link another possible  crime near Goleta in the Santa Barbara area to Zodiac.

                        In June, 1963, two High School seniors,  Robert Domingos, & Linda Edwards, enjoyed themselves on a secluded  beach while they celebrated ‘senior class ditch day’. While they played on the beach, a killer made his way towards them. He attacked them suddenly, and apparently took them by surprise. He held them at bay with a gun, likely a .22 rifle. Police feel that he ordered the female victim to tie up the male using pre cut lengths of rope. At some point, they resisted and a struggle ensued. The couple made a break for it before the killer unleashed a series of shots, cutting down the two young students. The killer then coldly walked up to them both as they lay defenseless on the ground, and fired more shots into them at close range.  The killer then drug their lifeless bodies into a nearby shack, and attempted to set their bodies on fire possibly to destroy evidence. Their bodies were soon discovered, and  the surrounding towns were left devastated by the terrible crime. Who could have done such a thing? As it turns out, years later, the Santa Barbara County Sherriff’s Department would link this crime to the later September,1969  Zodiac attack at lake Berryessa in Napa, based on similar MO and evidence found at the crime scene which police have never disclosed publicly.

                     The Bates case, as well as the double Murder of Domingos & Edwards combined many elements and common traits of some of  Zodiac’s crimes, and for that reason, these cases have been linked to Zodiac for decades. However, there is another case that has all of Zodiac’s finger prints on it, shares much of the  MO from his crime, and happened right in the middle of his stomping grounds in Alameda County in 1967, yet, you likely have never heard of this case, or the possible link to Zodiac. These Victims may certainly be Zodiac’s ‘Forgotten Victims’.

                     Late on the Evening of June 8, 1967, a couple parked on a dark and secluded area on  Vallecitos Road in Alameda County. The couple, was Enedine Molina & Fermin Rodriguez. While they shared their time alone, they were interrupted by an unknown assailant who ordered the couple from the car.  Mr. Rodriguez was shot apparently as soon as he exited the vehicle. The killer then ordered  Ms. Molina into his car, and drove off with her, leaving the Mr. Rodriguez dead alongside Ms. Molina’s station Wagon. The killer drove a few miles, and stopped close to the entrance of Sunol Regional park. At this time, he either let Ms. Molina out of the car, or she escaped. Whatever the case, Ms. Molina ran for her life, undoubtedly terrified into the darkness. Behind her, her Abductor followed training his gun on her, and shooting her once in the back, thus ending any chance of an escape. She died where she fell.  The murderer then walked off into the night. A nearby resident, called the Santa Rita police substation and reported that they had heard two gunshots. Responding Officers located Ms. Molina’s lifeless body around 11pm, and immediately started an investigation, which they processed for about three hours. At around 2:30 am, on his way back to the police substation, the same Officer that had located Ms. Molina’s body, noticed her station wagon parked on Vallecitos Road. After stopping to check it out, he then found the body of Mr. Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez had been shot twice from the front, once in the chest and once in the shoulder. The weapon used to murder the couple proved to be a small caliber handgun, later identified as a .22 caliber ,a favorite weapon of the Zodiac’s. The police had no immediate suspects, and ruled out rape or robbery.

             Enedine Molina and Fermin Rodriguez, didn’t fit the typical profile of Zodiac victims. They were both older, Molina was 35 and Rodriguez was 37. Most of Zodiac’s victims, were young student -aged Victims. Both were Hispanic, and all of Zodiac’s Victims, caucasian. Additionally, Molina & Rodriguez were not married. In fact, Molina had been recently divorced, and Rodriguez was still married. They had been lovers for many years, and apparently, their Families were aware of this. Following the murders, police logically investigated the Families of the two victims, including one logical potential suspect, the ex-husband of Ms. Molina. After questioning, he was ruled out as a suspect. The police were left with not much to go on, no motives, and no suspects.

            The murders of Molina & Rodriguez happened BEFORE the first confirmed Zodiac Murders of December 20,1968, and AFTER the letters were mailed in the Cheri Jo Bates case in April, 1967.  The murders happened in Alameda County, which lies south of Vallejo where Zodiac’s crime spree seemed to be centered, and East of San Francisco where most of Zodiac’s letters were mailed from. In fact, if you placed markers on a map in Vallejo, San Francisco, and near the area in Alameda County where the couple was attacked, you would have an almost perfect  triangle on the map. Did Zodiac actually live within that triangle? Interestingly, the spot where the couple was attacked and murdered, is very close to the town of Pleasanton. Zodiac mailed a letter postmarked in Pleasanton in march, 1971 to the Los Angeles Times Newspaper.  With no motive, or suspects, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office  did not have much to go on in this senseless double murder. But, some troubling clues would soon surface.

               As the investigation continued, it was revealed that each of the two Victims, Molina & Rodriguez, had each been followed by the same unknown man in the weeks leading up to their murders. In one incident, Mr. Rodriquez reported to his Wife that he had seen the car parked in front of his home, but could not identify the Driver. (I tried unsuccessfully to obtain descriptions of the car or its’ driver).  In addition, both Victims received phone calls leading up to their murders. The phone calls  almost always came between 10 &11am or between 7 & 8pm. The caller never spoke, and only the sound of heavy breathing could be heard on the other end of the line. Perhaps most troubling, was that these calls continued even AFTER the murders. In the Zodiac case, Robert Graysmith, Author of the best seller, ZODIAC, reported that during his research and investigation of the case, that he had started receiving calls from a heavy breather, and that the calls  usually came around 10:30 in the morning, the same as the calls to Molina & Rodriguez. Additionally, Family Members of Zodiac Victim, Darlene Ferrin, reported ‘Heavy Breathing’  calls to their homes on the night of her murder.  The source of any of these phone calls has never been positively identified. Also of note, it has been reported by Darlene Ferrin’s Family, that she had a stalker who used to follow her, and was seen parked in front of her house. The parallels between the Zodiac case, and this 1967 double murder are hard to ignore.

              When I first discovered the Molina/Rodriguez case while researching the Zodiac case, I was actually floored by the parallels to the Zodiac. The attack of a lone couple on a secluded lovers lane, the choice of weapon, a .22 handgun, the fact that the male was shot immediately upon exiting the car, and the female was shot in the back while she ran (these facts were quite similar to the first confirmed Zodiac attack on 12/20/68), the possible stalking of the Victims, the phone calls, and the complete lack of motive,  it was all so similar to the Zodiac case, that it couldn’t be ignored. I checked around on the internet and in newspapers, and found that this case was never connected to the Zodiac murders, despite happening in the same area, and not long before the Zodiac murders officially started. I felt that there was an overwhelming chance that this was indeed an early Zodiac crime, so much so, that I contacted the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department with my suspicions in April, 2010.

                   “I am Intrigued by this”, was the response I got from Alameda County Sheriff’s Dept, Sgt Scott Dudek.  Dudek, now retired, was in charge of Alameda County’s unsolved cold cases. During his 25 year career, he had become quite a skilled investigator, and was well respected. He told me that investigators he knew in Alameda county had suspected Zodiac could possibly be involved  in some of their unsolved crimes, and that some of them had theories on the matter, so the mention of ZODIAC  was not new. But Zodiac being possibly connected to the murder of Molina & Rodriguez, WAS new. In fact, Dudek had to go back and find the old case files and records, as this had truly become, by definition, a ‘cold’ case. Not much had happened in the 43 years since the murders had been committed, and Sgt Dudek had trouble finding the materials on the case. Finally, he had located the actually case info and listing in their records, but was never able to locate the actual case files or full reports with all of the major case information. Apparently, many old files & records had been lost, damaged, or destroyed over the previous 43 years. Sadly, things like this are common with old cold cases. It was truly a letdown for both of us, but Sgt Dudek did have some very good news to share. Although the records & files on the case were no place to be found, the ballistics information as well as the actual bullets and/or casings  were still in their possession, and Sgt Dudek said that they were actually in very good shape. An examination of this evidence could be compared against ballistic evidence from any of the Zodiac crime scenes, specifically against the 12/20/68 Zodiac murders.  Sgt. Dudek and I corresponded by email & phone several times, sometimes on a daily basis. We were both excited that this crime might possibly be linked to the Zodiac case, and we hoped it might aide in solving the Molina/Rodriguez case, or maybe even the Zodiac case itself.

                   One day, Sgt Dudek contacted me and was excited to let me know that he had been in contact with the Solano County Sheriff’s Dept, and they were going to send him some of their ballistics evidence from the 12/20/68 Zodiac murders on Lake Herman Rd (bullets and/or casings)for comparison with the evidence that he had in the Molina/Rodriguez case. The initial reports as far as lands, grooves,  twists, etc were already  similar between the two cases, but a conclusive match would need to be made from examination  under a microscope. The evidence Solano sent was too badly damaged for any kind of definite match and the results came back as inconclusive. Both Sgt Dudek and myself were disappointed.                       

                While all of this was going on, Sgt Dudek was in the process of retiring. He was trying to take a partial retirement where he could stay on specifically for just cold case investigation. His plan was to reach out to the Family members to see if anything additional could be learned from them that might help provide more clues or aide in solving the double murder. In the meantime, I reached out to a Family member of one of the Victims, and tried to see if they might have any information. Although they were initially excited about the interest in this case, they ultimately decided that it might open up old wounds, and that the Family had moved on. It was around this time that I found out Sgt Dudek would not be staying on, and would fully retire.  Between his retirement, the lack of any full police records on the case, and the fact the Family  of the Victims did not want to get involved, I discontinued my research of this case, but I never stopped thinking this case may very well be the work of the Zodiac.

                   There were still some things that didn’t seem to fit zodiac, mainly the lack of any bragging from him after the murders, especially in the form of taunting letters. But, there seemed to be more pieces that fit compared to things that didn’t. In the end, we will likely never know if these two people were victims of the Infamous Zodiac Killer, but at least like Cheri Jo Bates, and the other possible Victims of the Zodiac, we now know their names, and we know that no matter who murdered them, we know their murders was senseless and motiveless, and deserves to be solved.

The Author of this article, Mike Morford, has been researching unsolved cold cases for many years. He has extensively researched the case of the Zodiac Killer and is the webmaster at the Zodiac Killer website, www.zodiackillersite.com