Recently I have been covering the autopsy reports of various Zodiac Killer victims to better understand the dynamics of each crime - and as such - dispel some of the inaccuracies and myths surrounding the four canonical attacks. The final Zodiac murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 will be examined using information taken from the autopsy report featured on the once Howard Davis website. Here is an excerpt taken from the coroner's findings; "Both lungs are moderately increased in weight. There is congestion at the base and dependant portions. Multiple intraparenchymal hemorrhages are noted". Lung parenchyma is the substance of the lung that is involved with ​gas exchange and includes the pulmonary alveoli.

If Paul Stine was of healthy disposition and had no underlying health issues, the multiple parenchymal hemorrhages causing blood to leak into the tissues of the lungs and creating congestion in the dependent portions, can be found in patients with chest trauma. An impact to the chest from such things as the steering wheel can cause parenchymal hemorrhage without injury to the sternum and ribs. "A pulmonary contusion is a bruise on the lung parenchyma. Pulmonary contusion is reported to be present in 23% of patients with significant blunt chest trauma, and occurs most often from automobile collisions with rapid deceleration. Regardless of the mechanism, injury to the lung results in injury to capillaries and the leaking of blood into the lung tissue and alveoli. This collection of fluid in the alveoli interferes with normal alveolar-capillary gas exchange". link. "Chest wall and pulmonary injuries caused by blunt thoracic trauma include many organs, tissues and systems. The age of the patient is important when evaluating a blunt chest trauma. While a trauma in the pediatric age group may not cause a chest wall injury due to bone elasticity, it may lead to serious complications and even death in the elderly population.The best example of acceleration-deceleration damage is motor vehicle accident. The most common condition is the sudden and high-speed deceleration of the anterior thorax, resulting in injury to the vascular structures, bones, soft tissues and organs. At the same time, the presence of steering wheel deformity caused by the driver hitting the steering wheel increases thoracic injuries, complications and mortality" .link..

"Signs and symptoms of thoracic trauma include: cyanosis of fingers, lips or face, dispnea, tachpnea or bradipnea and contusion". link. Cyanosis is the medical term for a blue, purplish or gray discoloration of the skin, caused by a shortage of oxygen in the blood. Peripheral cyanosis can occur in the extremities such as the hands, fingers and toes. Paul Stine had, according to the coroner, parenchymal hemorrhage in the lungs (reducing oxygen levels in the blood) and dark marks on the dorsal side of his left hand. It is not possible to conclude whether the two conditions are related to one another, but these autopsy findings of blood in the tissue of both lungs is an unusual facet of this case. If the Zodiac Killer had presented the gun earlier in Paul Stine's journey, could the taxicab driver have attempted rapid braking in an attempt to disarm his eventual killer, causing non-fatal steering wheel trauma to his anterior chest region, and causing the Zodiac Killer to strike his legs on the rear of the front seat? Officer Donald Fouke did describe the Zodiac Killer as walking with a "lumbering gait" and "stumbling along like a semi-limp" in the 2007 Zodiac documentary. But how accurate are these recollections 38 years subsequent to the events that night?

It is without doubt that Paul Stine died as a result of one shot to the right side of his head causing massive brain injury, but what occurred during the taxicab journey from the Union Square plaza in San Francisco to the intersection of Washington and Cherry Streets in Presidio Heights? It is unknown when the Zodiac Killer pulled the gun on Paul Stine, despite the common portrayal of a surprise attack occurring during the very last seconds of the trip.​

The injury to Paul Stine's head was described upon opening the cranium as "a small quantity of hemorrhage into the temporal muscles bilaterally. There is extensive fracturing of the base of the skull. The above described entry wound has passed almost directly medially, passing beneath the pituitary gland and sella turcica, the floor of the left orbit and into the midportion of the left temporalis muscle near the zygomatic arch (red circle on diagram)..​A smashed and fragmented, copper jacketed lead bullet is found embedded in the left temporalis muscle. There is laceration of the ventral surface of the right temporal lobe. There is marked flattening of the gyri and diffuse hemorrhage into the subarachnoid space".

To sum up the autopsy, the bullet entered just in front of the right ear, traveled at a shallow angle anteriorally and struck the left temporalis muscle (used in chewing). Without knowing the head position of Paul Stine at the moment the gun was fired, makes it impossible to determine where the killer was seated in the taxicab when he delivered the fatal shot. The parenchymal hemorrhages to the lungs of Paul Stine (if not present prior to the taxicab journey) warrants an answer to the possible events that occurred within the taxicab during his final journey on October 11th 1969. The story is not complete. 

In the aftermath of the Lake Herman Road double murder on December 20th 1968, law enforcement combed the turnout for ballistics evidence well into the next day. A supplemental investigation report listed the 2 bullets removed from Betty Lou Jensen's body at autopsy, the bullet retrieved from her panties and the bullet found on her "blood splattered path" on the turnout floor. It described this bullet as exiting from the center of her stomach and falling to the ground without penetrating the front of her dress. Only 4 of the 5 bullets were noted. There were 5 bullet holes in the rear of her dress and only one to the front of her dress. The bullet wound mentioned as passing through her stomach was described at autopsy as the one that entered "the tip of the right 12th rib, 3 and 1/2 inches from the midline", penetrated the liver and exited "below the xyphoid process and 1/2 an inch from the midline". This is entry wound 4 on the diagram, described in the supplemental investigation report as being found near her body in the turnout - backing up the contention that this was very probably the final shot fired by the Zodiac Killer that night, as Betty Lou Jensen was hunched forward, before collapsing backwards onto the ground.  Both the bullet found in her panties and the bullet that fell to the ground had both lost such velocity through her body, that neither penetrated the front of her dress.  

The exit wound (furthest red circle to the left in the diagram) is described at autopsy as "over the left interior chest laterally and left margin of the breast, in the 4th intercostal space and 5 and 1/2 inches from the sternum". This is the bullet wound that caused the hole in Betty Lou Jensen's dress and had an extreme right to left trajectory, fired by the Zodiac Killer as her right side was predominantly facing him at very close range. If this bullet had lost comparable velocity to the other two bullets that exited her body, it should have been found just a few feet to the right of the Rambler, close to the cluster of shell casings that peppered the turnout floor. Yet this bullet was seemingly never retrieved from the Lake Herman Road turnout, despite an extensive search by law enforcement. In fact, this bullet was never documented as submitted items in the Department of Justice report either (see below).

So what happened to this bullet? Despite traveling across her body at an extreme right to left trajectory, can we expect this bullet to have retained a markedly higher velocity than the other two "exited bullets", that it flew out of the much larger turnout of 1968? Or did the Zodiac Killer retrieve this bullet from the turnout floor using his "pencil flashlight", to later mail in a letter alongside the shirt piece of Paul Stine, thereby proving he was responsible for the murders of the "people in the north bay area" as well. The opening section of the October 13th 1969 letter referring to the San Francisco murder through the evidence of the shirt piece, with the bullet being the evidence for his following line of "I am the same man who did in the people in the north bay area". This (if it happened) would be two crime scenes where the Zodiac Killer took evidence away, with Lake Berryessa being the crime scene where he left evidence behind.  

Bearing in mind we have two documents that have failed to itemize the same bullet that exited Betty Lou Jensen's dress, it is rather unusual that a 1995 BBC2 documentary called "Great Crimes and Trials" stated that "any doubts about the killer's identity were dispelled the next day when a letter from Zodiac arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle. With it was a bloodstained piece of the driver's shirt and a bullet from the same pistol that had killed Jensen and Faraday". We do come across errors in newspapers and documentaries, but considering we do have a "missing bullet" from the Jensen/Faraday murders, this outrageous claim doesn't seem so outrageous after all. It certainly isn't unusual for law enforcement to withhold evidence from the public to distinguish between any future hoaxers and the real murderer in any crime. But was this one instance? 

Many esteemed researchers in the Zodiac community like to say that some of the most beneficial and trusted information in the case can be found in the pages of original source documentation, such as the police reports and FBI files. They say this, until information is revealed within them that doesn't conform with something related to their suspect, or when a long held belief or consensus narrative about the case has been dismantled using the very original documents they praise. One simple example is the SLA letter mailed on February 3rd 1974. Despite the first two documents ever produced on this letter clearly showing that the letter was postmarked February 3rd 1974 from Los Angeles, certain websites and outlets want to keep pushing the myth of a February 14th 1974 postmark, because it's an inconvenient truth that goes against everything they have always believed. The consensus narrative of the Zodiac case has, and always will be, more important than the truth. 

Here is the section regarding LeRoy Sweet in the October 12th 1969 police report: "Assistant traffic manager of Yellow Cab, LeRoy Sweet responded and gave reporting officers the victim's identification. Mr. Sweet further stated the last dispatch given the victim was at 9:45 pm to 500 9th Ave. apt. #1. Victim allegedly never arrived at the above location as the dispatch was reassigned to another cab at 9:58 pm". The prevailing narrative is that the Zodiac Killer entered the taxicab somewhere by the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets in the theater district of San Francisco and then traveled to the Presidio Heights district. But Mason and Geary (or Union Square) is unlikely to be where Paul Stine was when he received the 9:45pm dispatch from LeRoy Sweet, asking him to pick up a fare from 500 9th Avenue.

The journey time from Mason and Geary (or Union Square) to 500 9th Avenue on a busy Saturday night is about 12 to 13 minutes. Therefore, if LeRoy Sweet knew that Paul Stine was in the vicinity of Mason and Geary or Union Square at 9:45pm when he gave him his second fare that night, he would have known that Paul Stine's journey time to 500 9th Avenue would have him arriving there at 9:58pm. So why did the police report state that another taxicab was allocated to that address at 9:58pm, when that was the time Paul Stine was expected at the address? Unless, of course, Paul Stine wasn't near the theater district when he received the 9:45pm dispatch - and the dispatch was given to him much closer to Washington and Cherry Streets, with the Zodiac Killer already seated in the taxicab. Paul Stine may have been already heading to Presidio Heights when he accepted the dispatch to 500 9th Avenue. One would assume that LeRoy Sweet knew exactly where Paul Stine was at 9:45pm because he expected Paul Stine to arrive at 500 9th Avenue earlier than 9:58pm. So when he didn't, LeRoy Sweet reassigned the dispatch to another taxicab.      

For example: if Paul Stine was two minutes away from the intersection of Washington and Cherry, and 5 minutes away from 500 9th Avenue when he received the 9:45pm dispatch, then LeRoy Sweet (and possibly the resident of 500 9th Avenue) could have expected Paul Stine's arrival at the address at 9:50pm. If the customer was in a rush and became impatient by 9:58pm, then it's reasonable to conclude they rang the Yellow Taxicab Company again and another taxicab was summoned to that address.

​If the expected time of arrival was 9:58pm from Mason and Geary Streets and the customer knew this, then there would have never have been any need for LeRoy Sweet to reassign another taxicab to the address that night. However, if Paul Stine arrived at Washington and Cherry two minutes after the 9:45pm dispatch, then he arrived at the murder scene at 9:47pm, eight minutes before the 9:55pm time of attack given in the police report (supposedly when the three teenagers first looked out of the window). If this was the case, then what was the Zodiac Killer doing in the taxicab for eight minutes? The further back towards Mason and Geary Streets (or Union Square) we take the taxicab when the 9:45pm dispatch was given by LeRoy Sweet, the less reason the customer has to become impatient and for another taxicab to be assigned to that address. 

Paul Stine would likely have been traveling along Highway 101 from the San Francisco International Airport after his first fare was dropped off, and may have exited Highway 101 and Interstate 80 by 7th Street to pick up a random fare at the theater district - so the Zodiac Killer could have entered the taxicab anywhere in this locality. The taxicab meter reading taken at the crime scene supports the Zodiac Killer entering the taxicab in this area. However, when LeRoy Sweet gave Paul Stine the final dispatch, he was possibly much closer to Presidio Heights than once considered. Many will not like this analysis of a killer arriving at Washington and Cherry up to eight minutes prior to the 9:55pm attack time, because it doesn't conform to the widely held narrative of a taxicab driver being murdered the moment he parked up at the Washington and Cherry intersection. The statements of LeRoy Sweet may be erroneous, but they are what they are. Is it possible this extra time was swallowed up by something that occurred at the intersection of Washington and Maple Streets - the destination written in the taxicab trip sheet? 

When determining whether the "concerned citizen" card mailed to Sergeant John Lynch on August 10th 1969 was written by a helpful member of the public or the Zodiac Killer, we need look no further than the "good citizen" letter mailed on October 7th 1969. Despite the fact the "concerned citizen" card was not in the public domain in 1969, the "good citizen" author would also adopt the word "citizen" in their signature, address the communication to Sergeant John Lynch once again, and refer to the July 31st 1969 cryptogram by mentioning "code letters", just as the "concerned citizen" author was addressing the "code letters" by supplying us with a key to the 408 cryptogram. These are compelling reasons to believe that both communications were composed by the same author. The question being; is the wording in the "good citizen" letter that of a helpful citizen or a mischievous individual playing games with the police. The "good citizen" letter read "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX".  

The "good citizen" letter was postmarked October 7th 1969 and mentioned 56 Beach Street, which is the old block numbering from the original planning maps, which comes out as 1654/1656 on the street numbering. The address at 1654/56 Beach St, San Francisco, California is a condominium home that measures 2,141 sq ft, and was built in 1938. Irrespective of the exact numbering, Beach Street is just 240 meters from the Presidio of San Francisco, where eyewitnesses saw a white male, about 40 years of age, weighing 170lbs, sporting a blond crewcut and wearing glasses, running into Julius Kahn playground shortly after the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969. Of all the places in northern California or the Bay Area the author could select, the composer of the "good citizen" letter was not only referring to Zodiac's code letters, but managed to choose the location of Beach Street, bordering the Presidio in which the Zodiac Killer possibly escaped into just four days later. Possibly coincidence, but noteworthy nonetheless. The "good citizen" author may have been referring to Beach Street in San Francisco just a matter of days before the Zodiac Killer first struck in the big city, before mailing a letter on October 13th 1969, again detailing a destination in the form of a street name - this time "Washington St and Maple St".   

This letter, likely referring to San Francisco, may hold some significance when we consider the statement of Jim Dunbar on October 22nd 1969, when somebody pretending to be the Zodiac Killer rang into the KGO-TV Jim Dunbar Show. He asked the caller "Did you try to call us one other time, about two or three weeks ago. Did you attempt to call this program one other time when Mr. Belli was with us?" It can be understood why the hoaxer, Eric Weill, would ring into the Jim Dunbar Show, because he got wind that the Jim Dunbar Show was possibly entertaining a call from the Zodiac Killer that morning. Therefore, it isn't unreasonable to conclude he used opportunism to hijack the limelight. But why would Eric Weill claim to be the Zodiac Killer and ring into the Jim Dunbar Show "two or three weeks" earlier, when the Zodiac Killer had never comitted an attack in San Francisco at this juncture?

The Zodiac Killer wanting a TV audience in San Francisco on October 22nd 1969 after his murder of Paul Stine in San Francisco eleven days earlier, can be argued. It is also possible that the Zodiac Killer may have rang into the Jim Dunbar Show "two or three weeks" earlier (between October 1st and October 8th), requesting a slot on the show to announce his intentions of bringing terror to the heart of San Francisco. A phone call placed to the Jim Dunbar Show in San Francisco on October 8th 1969 would coincide with the "good citizen" letter on October 7th 1969, also possibly involving a location in San Francisco - and both would predate the murder of Paul Stine in San Francisco by just a matter of days. A murder, in which the Zodiac Killer was spotted entering the Presidio grounds, which Beach Street borders. If we are to determine whether the "concerned citizen" card on August 10th 1969 was mailed by the Zodiac Killer, we have to factor in the letter on October 7th 1969 and the phone call to the Jim Dunbar Show around the same time - and the significance they may, or may not hold.  

On October 21st 1969 the San Francisco Chronicle released an article entitled Fear Rides the Yellow Bus, in which Fred Sowash, the transportation director of Napa Valley Unified School District stated he had been informed that somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer had telephoned a threat on October 15th 1969 to kill schoolchildren in Santa Rosa by placing bombs on the buses. This meant that this person was targeting schoolchildren and school buses at least one day before the Zodiac Killer's threat to "wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out" was released in the Los Angeles Times newspaper on October 16th 1969, and two days before San Francisco Chronicle released the details on October 17th 1969. It is virtually inconceivable that a random person pretending to be the Zodiac Killer could have foreshadowed the real Zodiac Killer and just happened to pre-empt his threat on schoolchildren by sheer luck. The phone caller to Santa Rosa threatening to target school buses with bombs came 25 days prior to the Zodiac first mentioning bombs as a method to kill schoolchildren, when he mailed the November 9th 1969 letter. The individual who rang Santa Rosa on October 15th 1969 (or slightly before) was almost certainly the Zodiac Killer. This can be backed up by a further incident on October 17th 1969.

A female school bus driver was taking schoolchildren to the Yulupa Elementary School on the morning of October 17th 1969, when she reported that sound of gunfire beside the school bus, stating "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". Law enforcement, as usual, were skeptical, pointing out that there was no physical evidence that a shot was fired at the bus. The KRON news footage stated that law enforcement were expecting more reports of this kind based upon the Zodiac Killer's latest letter regarding the murder of Paul Stine. The newspaper report in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Santa Rosa bombing threat on school buses wasn't released until October 21st 1969, so a school bus driver reporting shots heard alongside her school bus in Santa Rosa four days earlier, should be considered of some significance. 

​So, if the Santa Rosa school bus shooter wasn't the Zodiac Killer, we would have to believe a random individual bought the Los Angeles Times newspaper on October 16th, read about the "picking off kiddies as they came bouncing out" of a school bus, and then decided to target Santa Rosa the following day (but pre-ermpted the location of Santa Rosa mentioned on October 21st). The female bus driver could have had no knowledge of the Zodiac Killer's phone call to Santa Rosa threatening school buses and schoolchildren on October 15th 1969, unless the specific threat was relayed to her and she was unduly influenced to report an attack that never happened. Bearing in mind (in the relevant timeframe) that this currently is the only reported shooting with respect to a school bus that we know of, it seems unusual that it should somewhat mirror the threat two days earlier in the same location. Unfortunately, law enforcement regularly dismissed things as hoaxes, as they did with the Oklahoma radio station recording of a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on December 7th 1969. Passing things off as hoaxes seems a tried and trusted method of doing absolutely no work. 

Another threat using bombs in Santa Rosa would again be reported in the newspapers, when somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer threatened a K-Mart store on two occasions on May 8th 1970, just ten days after the Zodiac Killer promised to have his "blast" when mailing the Dragon card to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 28th 1970. 

This lends greater credence to the claim by Robert Graysmith in his "Zodiac" book that "A man identifying himself as Zodiac had made a Santa Rosa Bomb threat exactly a year earlier". In other words, Graysmith claimed that on May 8th 1969 (before the Zodiac pseudonym was known) somebody had aimed another bomb threat at Santa Rosa. This possible threat encompassing Zodiac, telephoned bomb threats and Santa Rosa would come four months before the October 15th 1969 telephone call encompassing Zodiac, bombs and Santa Rosa. An October 15th 1969 telephone call to Santa Rosa threatening schoolchildren on school buses, that was made at least one day in advance of the Zodiac Killer's threat on a school bus was released to the newspapers, and therefore, not currently known to the public when the October 15th call was made.

If Graysmith was correct about somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on May 8th 1969, this K-Mart bomb threat (or threat to another entity in Santa Rosa) would have come just over one month after the last major newspaper article about the Lake Herman Road murders (March 30th 1969). This Sunday Times-Herald article read "The horrifying crime may very well be the most celebrated murder mystery currently under investigation in California, and Lunblad has received aid and offers of it from a score of law enforcement agencies in the state. Those which have given him particularly large measures of support include the Vallejo Police Department, his own sheriff's department, the Benicia Police Department, the Napa and Sanoma County sheriff's departments, and the Fairfield Police Department".  All these police departments would become the focus of the Zodiac Killer's murders and threats in the following months. The county seat and largest city in Sanoma County is Santa Rosa, the focus of the K-Mart bomb threat by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on May 8th 1969. Vallejo and Napa County both saw the wrath of Zodiac when he attacked at Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa, with the two Fairfield letters in December threatening the promise of further attacks. Every police department mentioned in this newspaper article as helping Sergeant Les Lunblad would receive the attention of the Zodiac Killer.       

On October 14th 1969 a letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle laying claim to the murder of taxicab driver Paul Stine, in addition to a further ominous threat of "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". 

​In compliance with the wishes of the San Francisco Police Department, the Chronicle withheld the threat on a school bus when this latest Zodiac letter was published in the newspaper on October 15th 1969. It wasn't until October 17th 1969 that the Chronicle published the threat on a school bus (and October 16th in the Los Angeles Times). Therefore, the threat delivered by telephone to Santa Rosa by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on October 15th 1969 promising to blow up a school bus, was made before the Zodiac Killer's threat in his letter was ever released in the newspapers. This suggests it was the Zodiac Killer who telephoned the school bus threat in Santa Rosa on October 15th 1969. This is what was reported in the Chronicle on October 21st 1969: "Someone hinting he might be Zodiac has telephoned such a threat in Santa Rosa. The man responsible for the safety of the students who ride the buses is Fred Sowash, the district's transportation director. Since last Wednesday, when he learned of Zodiac's threat, Sowash has been devoting 18 to 20 hours a day to blunt it".  Last Wednesday was October 15th. 

On October 17th 1969, a female school bus driver was traveling southeast towards Yulupa Elementary School in the morning, when she claimed she heard a shot ring out, stating "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". Looking at the October 17th 1969 KRON News footage, it appears she may have been traveling along Bennett Valley Road in Santa Rosa, with relatively low density housing dotting the route and the Sanoma Mountains in the distance. This route would have provided the perfect cover for the Zodiac Killer to shoot out the tires of a school bus in relative seclusion. Assuming a shot was fired at the bus and heard by the driver and/or schoolchildren, either he missed, or his intention was merely to create panic on the school bus to ensure the shots were heard and reported - and thus lend credibility to his telephone threat two days earlier. After the shot, the woman driver "hit the foot feed and started going on", realizing there were no other cars in the vicinity she could get the attention of. "So I just kept going fast to the Yulupa School" she added.   

Unfortunately, investigators were skeptical because they could find no evidence of any bullets striking the bus. One would have thought that a Santa Rosa telephone threat from the Zodiac Killer directed at a school bus, followed by a woman driving a school bus in Santa Rosa reporting what she described as "a loud shot", would have stimulated less skepticism  It seemed that Fred Sowash took it seriously, because when he learned of the threat on Wednesday, October 15th 1969, he devoted 18 to 20 hours a day to repel the threat. Yet it appears that no police vehicles were trailing this school bus on October 17th 1969 as it approached Yulupa Elementary School in Santa Rosa, despite the Zodiac threat to shoot out the front tires of a school bus and "pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out", and the direct threat to Santa Rosa itself.  

​FOLLOW UP ARTICLE: THE SPOTLIGHT ON SANTA ROSA 

On August 10th 1969, somebody mailed a typewritten communication to Vallejo Police Sergeant John Lynch providing the code key to the 408 cipher, that may or may not have been authored by the Zodiac Killer. The communication, ending with "concerned citizen", was withheld from publication. This means that a second communication mailed just two months later, on October 7th 1969, again addressed to Vallejo Police Sergeant John Lynch, with the phraseology "code letters" and ending with "a good citizen", was very likely the same author. This was the cryptic footnote by Sergeant John Lynch regarding the "good citizen" letter.

The writer has a strong feeling of ESP. While having these feelings, the writer writes with a pencil. On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: ''Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX''.  

It had been approximately two months since any Zodiac communication was received, yet the "good citizen" letter referenced ESP and 56 Beach Street. A form of ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) is second sight, whereby a person perceives information in the form of a vision about future events before they happen. Four days after the "good citizen" letter, the Zodiac Killer entered the taxicab of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969. After his murder at the intersection of Washington & Cherry Streets, the Zodiac Killer was believed to have entered Presidio Park just a few minutes later, mocking law enforcement in a letter he mailed two days later, in which he stated "The S.F. Police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly instead of holding road races with their motorcicles". The northeast corner of Presidio Park is 296 meters from Beach Street. This means we have a letter mentioning 56 Beach Street just four days before the Zodiac Killer escaped into Presidio Park, the northeast corner of which sits near the western tip of Beach Street. This street runs from Pier 39 to the Palace of Fine Arts,  A contributor to this website informed me that:"56 Beach St is the old block numbering from the original planning maps, which comes out as 1654/1656 on the street numbering. 1654/56 Beach St, San Francisco, CA is a condo home that contains 2,141 sq ft and was built in 1938".  

On April 20th 1970, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article on the murder of Robert Michael Salem at 745 Stevenson Street in San Francisco. The pseudonym "Zodiac" was written in blood on his apartment wall next to the body. The San Francisco Chronicle noted that "Salem's designs have been exhibited in England, Japan and Russia under State Department cultural exchange programs. Until last year (1969) he had been the lighting designer for restoration of the historic Haslett Warehouse. The address of the Haslett Warehouse is 680 Beach Street at Hyde. This location is less than one mile from 1654/56 Beach Street (see map below). The author of these two "code" communications from "concerned" and "good" citizens may not have been Zodiac, but did they know the identity of the killer?

Have you ever wondered who inspired the Zodiac Killer to mail in a piece of Paul Stine's bloody shirt after the murder in Presidio Heights in 1969? The same member of law enforcement who influenced the arrival of the Zodiac pseudonym on August 4th 1969. The only reason the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter was ever sent to the San Francisco Examiner is because Vallejo Police Chief, Jack E. Stiltz requested the writer of the July 31st letters to prove he was the killer, asking the murderer of three to write another letter "with more facts to prove it". This request by Vallejo Police Chief, Jack E. Stiltz was published in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 2nd 1969, followed by the San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle on August 3rd 1969.

​The Zodiac Killer's response was swift, sending a letter to the San Francisco Examiner on August 4th 1969, replying directly to Jack Stiltz and stating "In answer to your asking for more details about the good times I have had in Vallejo, I shall be very happy to supply even more material". Without this prompt by Jack Stiltz, the pseudonym of "Zodiac" may never have come to pass - at least not by August 4th 1969.

The next communication was mailed just over two months later, on October 13th 1969, admitting to the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights only two days earlier. But the Zodiac Killer hadn't forgotten that Vallejo Police Chief, Jack Stiltz had doubted his involvement in the attacks at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs, by stating he required "more facts to prove it". So, the Zodiac Killer in advance of the taxicab driver's murder, decided to remove a piece of the victim's shirt and leave law enforcement in no doubt he was the true killer at Presidio Heights. Two days later, he mailed the Stine letter, stating "I am the murderer of the taxi driver over by Washington St + Maple St last night, to prove this here is a blood stained piece of his shirt". The Zodiac Killer was responding to law enforcement who doubted him previously, but primarily to Jack Stiltz's comments in the newspapers back on August 2nd and August 3rd 1969. 

In his next descriptive letter on November 9th 1969 the Zodiac Killer would continue this theme, with Vallejo Police Chief, Jack Stiltz still in the back of his mind. The Zodiac Killer was angry with the San Francisco Police Department for "telling lies" about him, threatening to change his way of collecting slaves for the afterlife. He would finish this communication by warning San Francisco law enforcement not to bluff him, by stating "To prove that I am the Zodiac, Ask the Vallejo cop about my electric gun sight which I used to start my collecting of slaves." Jack Stiltz was the "Vallejo Cop" that the Zodiac Killer addressed on August 4th 1969 when he wrote to the San Francisco Examiner and described his "small pencel flash light (taped) to the barrel of (his) gun". 

​Therefore, Vallejo Police Chief, Jack Stiltz was instrumental to the August 4th 1969 'Debut of Zodiac' letter in which the pseudonym "Zodiac" was revealed to the world, as well as the inspiration for the Zodiac Killer to decide in advance of his San Francisco murder, that something from the victim (a shirt piece in this instance} had to be mailed with his next correspondence, "to prove" undeniably he was the killer.     

The "Zodiac" Atlanta letter was mailed on March 8th 1981 claiming to be the Bay Area murderer of five, and suggesting their passion was to now target children. The author was clearly interjecting themself into the Atlanta Child Murders, for which Wayne Williams would eventually be convicted on February 27th 1982. The only way to prove this is an authentic Zodiac communication is to find something on the letter that corresponds strongly with something that the Zodiac mailed between 1969 and 1974, but was unreleased to the public. The Zodiac letters and cards were widely published in the newspapers, however, the majority of the envelopes were not in the public domain by the arrival of the Atlanta letter in 1981. The Vallejo Times-Herald, October 28th 1987 "Halloween" envelope was shown to perfectly mimic the exact thirteen words on the unreleased Vallejo Times-Herald, August 31st 1969 envelope, including the lack of punctuation (and possible incorrect spelling of Herald to Herold). This attempted to show that the Zodiac Killer was still actively writing letters in 1987. A similar technique can be applied to the Atlanta envelope, postmarked March 8th 1981. The Atlanta letter may be pointing us in the right direction. In the letter (shown below) it can be noted that the author dedicates much of the text to the San Francisco murder of Paul Stine and October 13th 1969 letter.

The author begins the Atlanta letter referencing "San Francisco" and referring to the murder of children, stating "I'll kill children because they are so easy to pick off", and that he had "left certain clues" at his victims bodies. In the letter referencing the murder of Paul Stine on October 13th 1969, the Zodiac Killer stated "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". In the second letter on November 9th 1969 mentioning his exploits in San Francisco, the Zodiac Killer stated "If you wonder why I was wipeing the cab down I was leaving fake clews for the police to run all over town with, as one might say".  It is clear the author of the Atlanta letter heavily focused this communication towards the murder of children, reminiscent of the letter mailed in the aftermath of the Paul Stine killing.

The October 13th 1969 envelope mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle had not been released into the public domain at the time the Atlanta envelope and letter was mailed in 1981. The October 13th 1969 envelope was the only 'confirmed' communication mailed by the Zodiac Killer that carried small Zodiac crosshairs on the address side of the envelope, just like the Atlanta envelope mailed eleven and a half years later. An Atlanta letter that mimicked the October 13th 1969 letter threatening to "pick off" children. We now have two envelopes from the 1980s that mimicked previously unreleased envelopes in 1969, thereby pouring cold water on suspects like Ross Sullivan and Earl Van Best Jr, who died prior to 1987.  Unfortunately, I doubt any amount of evidence will change the Zodiac narrative of a killer whose confirmed communications ceased in 1974. These beliefs have become so embedded and entrenched into Zodiac folklore, that any attempt to challenge the pervading narrative can be likened to throwing a pebble into the Pacific Ocean. 

Imagine you are a hoaxer sitting down at your desk in 1981 pretending to mimic the Zodiac Killer. You mention San Francisco in the 1981 communication (only Paul Stine was killed in San Francisco), you mention "leaving clues" at the crime scene in the Atlanta letter (just like was claimed in the Bus Bomb letter regarding the Paul Stine crime scene), and mention picking off kids in the Atlanta letter, just like the Paul Stine letter on October 13th 1969 - then beyond belief - you add small crosshairs to the address side of the 1981 envelope, mimicking exactly the publicly unreleased envelope on October 13th 1969 concerning the Paul Stine murder, which also contained small crosshairs on the address side. Out of all the claimed authentic Zodiac communications in 1969, 1970, 1971 & 1974, you (the hoaxer) just happened to mimic the Paul Stine envelope that carried the same crosshairs on the address side of the envelope, while using language pertinent to the Paul Stine murder. You are an amazing hoaxer.  

Six days before the Atlanta letter, on March 2nd 1981, a business reply envelope, postmarked Cleveland, OH, bearing the press printed address "The Danbury Mint, Richards Avenue, P.O. Box 5260, Norwalk, Conn" was mailed with the handwritten note: "Please stop forced bussing or I will kill 3 more black boys in Atlanta in March". On or around May 2nd 1971, the Zodiac Killer encoded a message in a 148 character cipher instructing law enforcement to "stop listening to phonys" or he "will skin 3 little kids" (not in the public domain by 1981). The Zodiac Killer latched onto the murders of Debra Gaye Furlong (14), Kathie Reyne Snoozy (15) and Kathy Bilek (18) in San Jose and Saratoga (in 1969 and 1971), claiming he was responsible for stabbing all three, despite these murders having been committed by Karl Francis Werner. He then threatened to kill a further three children. The exact same tactic employed a decade later in Atlanta, by interjecting himself into the murders of black children he was likely not responsible for, by once again threatening to kill three more children if his demands were not met. 

RELEVANT ARTICLE: THE MISSING DARRON GLASS 

On October 22nd 1969, Eric Weill (Sam) rang into the morning KGO-TV Jim Dunbar Show - but when Jim Dunbar and Melvin Belli interviewed this man it was on the understanding he may have been the infamous Zodiac Killer, with the host asking him "Did you try to call us one other time, about two or three weeks ago". This suggests that Jim Dunbar was aware of a previous attempt by the Zodiac Killer to contact the show prior to the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969. Many have considered the possibility that the Zodiac Killer may have rang into the Oakland Police Department at 2:00am on October 22nd 1969 requesting to appear on the Jim Dunbar Show, but when the show aired later that morning his appearance was hijacked by mental patient, Eric Weill, who impulsively contacted the show under the guise of the Zodiac Killer. Prior to the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969, the Zodiac Killer had committed three attacks in Benicia, Vallejo and Napa County, with no known attacks in San Francisco, so why would Eric Weill take it upon himself to contact the Jim Dunbar Show in San Francisco in advance of the Paul Stine murder.

A much stronger case could be made for the Zodiac Killer wanting to contact the Jim Dunbar Show in San Francisco just several days prior to his murder of Paul Stine in San Francisco. The Zodiac Killer had already made threats to "cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again" if his cryptograms were not published in the newspapers on August 1st 1969, and that he was not happy to see he "did not get front page coverage" for his exploits thus far. Therefore, one could argue that the Zodiac Killer had tried to contact the Jim Dunbar Show before the murder of Paul Stine to threaten the citizens of San Francisco that his terror would soon be felt on the streets of the big city. Jim Dunbar asked the "Zodiac Killer" (Sam) "Did you attempt to call this program one other time when Mr. Belli was with us?", suggesting that the Zodiac Killer had previously chosen to ring a San Francisco TV show with a resident San Francisco lawyer as guest, just a few days prior to the Zodiac Killer switching his attacks to San Francisco. The other possibility, is that a mental patient just took it upon himself to contact a San Francisco TV show in absence of any murders being committed by the Zodiac Killer in San Francisco prior to the attack in Presidio Heights.  

The Zodiac Killer would go on to deny he was the caller to the Jim Dunbar Show in the recently decoded 340 cipher, in which he stated "That wasn't me on the TV show". But he very likely could have tuned into the broadcast to view the spectacle unfold. Without the full transcript of this call to the Jim Dunbar Show, it would be interesting to find out how many times Eric Weill pleaded for the help of Melvin Belli. On December 20th 1969, it is clear that the Zodiac Killer linked the Paul Stine murder with the Jim Dunbar Show by mailing a piece of Paul Stine's bloody shirt with the correspondence, with the letter itself carrying a mocking tone by using the phrase "please help me" on three occasions, in accompaniment to the phrase "I cannot reach out for help". It is clear that this cry for help was a disingenuous attempt at ridicule from a killer who either listened to the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969, or read the subsequent newspaper articles. On October 22nd 1969, the Los Angeles Times reported that "Belli was put on the line, and the voice said "I want help". On October 23rd 1969, the Desert Sun newspaper claimed that Melvin Belli told the caller “All of San Francisco wants to help you. The hand is out, you can feel the hands out.” The Zodiac Killer would make these cries for help the bedrock of his December 20th 1969 communication. 

​If anybody "can help" in pinpointing the exact date that Melvin Belli appeared on the Jim Dunbar Show immediately prior to the October 22nd 1969 call, please let me know by using the Zodiac Killer forums. Thank you. PART 1.

In the early hours of October 22nd 1969, a phone call was made to the Oakland Police Department asking for either Francis Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, two prominent attorneys, to appear on the KGO Jim Dunbar Show in San Francisco that morning. A few hours later, somebody rang into the Jim Dunbar Show pretending to be the Zodiac Killer, adopting the less menacing name of "Sam" once prompted. That person was later identified as a mental patient, Eric Weill. When the 340 cipher was deciphered by Dave Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke in December 2020, the Zodiac Killer message finally revealed what everyone knew all along - that the Zodiac Killer never made that call to the Jim Dunbar Show. However, he didn't deny making the phone call to the Oakland Police Department. But why would the Zodiac Killer make a phone call to Oakland police to arrange an appearance on the Jim Dunbar Show in San Francisco? Why not ring the Jim Dunbar Show directly? The answer may lie in the Jim Dunbar Show on October 22nd 1969, spoken by Jim Dunbar himself.

This was the dialogue between "Sam" (Eric Weill) and Jim Dunbar:
Jim Dunbar: Sam, let me ask you a question. Did you attempt to call this program one other time when Mr. Belli was with us?
Sam: What?
Jim Dunbar: Did you try to call us one other time, about two or three weeks ago when Mel Belli was with us? 
Sam: Yes
Jim Dunbar: And you couldn't get through, the phones were tied up. Is that it?
Sam: Yes  

It could be argued, when you listen to this exchange between the host and caller, that "Sam" has no idea what Jim Dunbar is referring to when he mentions a previous phone call received at the Jim Dunbar Show. He hesitates profoundly when asked the question, before saying "what". This could mean that the Zodiac Killer had previously phoned the Jim Dunbar Show between October 1st and October 8th 1969. When Jim Dunbar and Melvin Belli are interviewing the caller, they are doing it under the presumption this could be the Zodiac Killer. So when they ask "Did you try to call us one other time, about two or three weeks ago", they are effectively asking the Zodiac Killer if he rang two or three weeks ago. This suggests they were aware of a previous call from the Zodiac Killer prior to the murder of Paul Stine. The Zodiac Killer may have rang the Jim Dunbar Show in early October but failed to get through. In other words, he attempted to call the TV show but the call was rejected for whatever reason. They may have thought it was just another crank call. This is probably why the Zodiac Killer eventually decided to ring the Oakland Police Department instead - getting them to relay the message to the Jim Dunbar Show - which they obviously did. There seems to be no other good reason why the Bay Area murderer would place a call to the Oakland Police Department, other than his failure to get his message across to the Jim Dunbar Show before October 11th 1969. It should also be noted that the San Francisco Police Department were inundated with calls after the murder of Paul Stine, probably forcing the Zodiac Killer to target his phone call to a 'less busy' police department and thereby guaranteeing the delivery of his message this time around. But what date was Melvin Belli on the Jim Dunbar Show prior to October 22nd 1969?  PART 2.

By August 4th 1969 the Zodiac Killer had shot four young people, killed three and mailed four letters, including three parts of a 408 character cryptogram. However, this didn't afford him the front page coverage from the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner that he thought he richly deserved. The August 6th 1969 front page coverage in the Chronicle, featuring the brutal stabbings of teenagers Kathie Reyne Snoozy and Deborah Gaye Furlong in San Jose, was almost certainly the inspiration for the Zodiac Killer to switch from gun to knife and appear on the shores of Lake Berryessa brandishing a long-bladed weapon. This murder and attempted murder on September 27th 1969 secured him front page coverage due to the brutality of the attack. So why would the Zodiac Killer revert back to the use of a gun in his next attack. The answer may lie in the newspaper articles subsequent to the Lake Berryessa attack, in which the Zodiac Killer was portrayed as a psychotic, sexual deviant who likely focused heavily on the female sex. As explained in the previous article, the Zodiac Killer did not specifically target couples, or primarily direct his ire towards the female, but this didn't stop the sensationalized newspaper articles and the irresponsible statements by law enforcement, who portrayed the Zodiac Killer as a man starved of a meaningful heterosexual relationship, with an underlying sexual problem.

This was exemplified by the San Francisco Examiner on October 1st 1969, just ten days before the Zodiac Killer targeted a lone male in San Francisco on October 11th 1969. The Examiner ran with the headline "Sex Fiend Sought For Six Killings", followed by the opening paragraph of "A psychotic killer police say brutally slays females for sexual gratification is loose in the North Bay today". If you are wondering where the San Francisco Examiner got six killings from - they had incorporated the murders of Snoozy and Furlong in San Jose, who were also mentioned in the newspaper article (which is what the Zodiac Killer had hoped for by committing the Berryessa attack). The newspaper article continued by stating the Zodiac Killer was "a mentally ill person, who must get his sex gratification from the act of killing. With a gun it was not as much as a knife. He wants to be caught". If you want to drive the Zodiac Killer back to killing with a gun and targeting a lone male by design, then these are the sort of irresponsible statements you release in the newspapers, rather than attempting to pacify the killer into writing more communications or another cryptogram. It really isn't any surprise that the Zodiac Killer entered the taxicab of Paul Stine just ten days later. If you need any more proof that the Zodiac Killer was inspired by this newspaper article, take a look at the wording in the Paul Stine letter on October 13th 1969. The killer wrote "I am the same man who did in the people in the north bay area", in response to the newspaper article which stated the Zodiac Killer was "loose in the North Bay today". Law enforcement also claimed that the Zodiac Killer wanted "to be caught" in the Examiner. The Zodiac Killer replied in the Paul Stine letter: "The S.F. police could have caught me last night if they had searched the park properly". It is also little surprise, that the Zodiac Killer accepted these six killings - added on Paul Stine - and claimed seven murders on November 8th 1969 in the Dripping Pen card, with the addition of the "Aug" murders of Snoozy and Furlong, attributed to him in this newspaper article.    

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

​The threat of "School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out", was released in the Los Angeles Times newspaper as early as October 16th 1969, but this information was only made public (at least) one day after the threat on school buses and schoolchildren by the Santa Rosa caller claiming to be Zodiac.