In the image of Vallejo below I have placed 10 random locations for payphones in 1969 (shown by the red dots). I don't know the exact location of each payphone in Vallejo in 1969, but there would have been plenty scattered around the city. There is little doubt that the Zodiac Killer planned his crimes in advance, knowing where potential victims would be found and his likely exit strategies. This planning was increasingly evident at Lake Berryessa and Presidio Heights for which he created an elaborate executioner's costume, probably carried a knife and gun to both crime locations (or scissors at Presidio Heights) to secure a shirt piece from Paul Stine to validate his involvement, and took a marker pen to Lake Berryessa to write on the car door of Bryan Hartnell. At Presidio Heights there is a strong possibility he decided upon a location for murder with a reasonably wooded park nearby, so as to mitigate any unforeseen circumstances. This being the case, there is a good argument for the Zodiac Killer knowing in advance which payphone he was going to make a call from after the Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa attacks.
By crow, the distance from Blue Rock Springs parking lot to the payphone at Springs & Tuolumne is approximately 3 miles. So if you are a resident of Vallejo and likely knowledgeable to the location of your local police station (Vallejo Police Department at 111 Armador Street), why would you drive across the city to make a phone call admitting to the attacks at Blue Rock Springs and Lake Herman Road, from a payphone only 840 meters from the police station? This action seems counterintuitive to giving the police a wide berth. You might expect the assailant at Blue Rock Springs to not only make the phone call away from his residence, but to also make the phone call away from the police station. If the Zodiac Killer lived somewhere by the Springs & Tuolumne payphone (such as the blue cross on the map), as I have speculated, then making a phone call in your vehicle from any of these "red dot" locations appears to be the safer option, before heading home. These locations would have been a reasonable distance from your home and the police station.
However, there is one logical reason why a killer wouldn't make the phone call from any of these "red dot" locations if he lived by the "blue cross". And that is if his vehicle wasn't used, making it too far to walk to these payphones by a Zodiac Killer employing the "least effort principle". If he wanted to remove his vehicle, clothes and gun from the equation before making the phone call on foot, then the round trip from his "blue cross" residence to the any of these "red dot" payphones and back, would take far too long. The reason the Zodiac Killer may have made the phone call so close to where he lived is because the disposal of evidence, such as the car and gun, before making an admission to multiple murders, outweighed the importance of having a residence nearby. In fact, living nearby would have enabled the Zodiac Killer to distance himself from the evidence before the crime was discovered (in his mind), make the phone call and return to the safety of home fairly promptly.
However, there is one logical reason why a killer wouldn't make the phone call from any of these "red dot" locations if he lived by the "blue cross". And that is if his vehicle wasn't used, making it too far to walk to these payphones by a Zodiac Killer employing the "least effort principle". If he wanted to remove his vehicle, clothes and gun from the equation before making the phone call on foot, then the round trip from his "blue cross" residence to the any of these "red dot" payphones and back, would take far too long. The reason the Zodiac Killer may have made the phone call so close to where he lived is because the disposal of evidence, such as the car and gun, before making an admission to multiple murders, outweighed the importance of having a residence nearby. In fact, living nearby would have enabled the Zodiac Killer to distance himself from the evidence before the crime was discovered (in his mind), make the phone call and return to the safety of home fairly promptly.
Nancy Slover received the call from Zodiac Walking from his residence to any of these "red dot" payphones not only negates the "least effort principle", it places him in the public gaze for far longer than necessary. If he had planned to murder somebody on the eastern fringes of Vallejo that night, he very likely chose the Springs & Tuolumne payphone for the express purpose of getting home fairly quickly in case anything went wrong, so he could part with (and conceal) the evidence, while still achieving the phone call with limited foot travel and exposure. The choice of a payphone reasonably close to his home appears contradictory to common sense but it has major benefits as well. The least time you are driving on public streets in possession of the vehicle and gun, instrumental to the crime you have just committed, the better.
But wait a minute I hear you ask. If the Zodiac Killer lived by the "blue cross", why didn't he just drive from Blue Rock Springs to the "red dot" payphone 1.3 miles north of his residence (or the payphone to the east of his residence), make the call and head home? This would have required no deviation in travel. The answer may probably be found in his August 4th 1969 letter, where he stated "When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time, thus spoiling my aim. He ended up on the back seat then the floor in back thrashing out very violently with his legs; that's how I shot him in the knee".
The Zodiac Killer knew only too well that Michael Mageau was very much alive and "thrashing out very violently with his legs" when he left the Blue Rock Springs parking lot. Therefore, it was imperative that he headed straight home to get rid of his car and gun, with no time to waste making a phone call as he traveled toward his residence. This was probably the Zodiac Killer's contingency plan. He always knew that if the crime didn't transpire as he expected, he could still get home fairly quickly and also achieve his goal of making the phone call to the Vallejo Police Department without his car and gun placing him in greater danger. He mitigated the proximity risk of his residence to the payphone by adding his "brown car" back into the equation in his August 4th 1969 letter, selling the notion to police that he still had the capability to travel anywhere.
EXTRA READING: "THRASHING ABOUT VERY VIOLENTLY"
But wait a minute I hear you ask. If the Zodiac Killer lived by the "blue cross", why didn't he just drive from Blue Rock Springs to the "red dot" payphone 1.3 miles north of his residence (or the payphone to the east of his residence), make the call and head home? This would have required no deviation in travel. The answer may probably be found in his August 4th 1969 letter, where he stated "When I fired the first shot at his head, he leaped backwards at the same time, thus spoiling my aim. He ended up on the back seat then the floor in back thrashing out very violently with his legs; that's how I shot him in the knee".
The Zodiac Killer knew only too well that Michael Mageau was very much alive and "thrashing out very violently with his legs" when he left the Blue Rock Springs parking lot. Therefore, it was imperative that he headed straight home to get rid of his car and gun, with no time to waste making a phone call as he traveled toward his residence. This was probably the Zodiac Killer's contingency plan. He always knew that if the crime didn't transpire as he expected, he could still get home fairly quickly and also achieve his goal of making the phone call to the Vallejo Police Department without his car and gun placing him in greater danger. He mitigated the proximity risk of his residence to the payphone by adding his "brown car" back into the equation in his August 4th 1969 letter, selling the notion to police that he still had the capability to travel anywhere.
EXTRA READING: "THRASHING ABOUT VERY VIOLENTLY"
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