I would like to revisit the abduction of Kathleen Johns (22) just west of Modesto on March 22nd 1970, considered by many the primary outlier beyond the canonical four in the Bay Area. After the murder of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969 his brother, Joe Stine, issued a combative challenge to the Zodiac Killer on television and in the newspapers to come and hunt him down, giving the address of his workplace at 706 Sutter Avenue, Modesto, and the location of La Von's Walking Chicken where he lunched at noon most days. His open invitation of the Zodiac to Modesto was heavily frowned upon by investigators because authorities believed it endangered the lives of people around him and the wider community. The thought being that the Zodiac Killer may have opted to accept the challenge and target Modestans to prove he could murder anywhere.
This is why the claimed attack on Kathleen Johns cannot be overlooked, who stated in the police report that she thought she had been trailed by a vehicle from Modesto to the area of South Bird Road on Highway 132, a distance of approximately 19 miles. Although her recollections are often contradictory, it must be considered significant that she may have been followed by a suspicious vehicle from Modesto, that she later claimed was the Zodiac Killer, who could have chosen his fifth attack anywhere in California, but began his "hunt" in the very city that Joe Stine laid down his challenge. Modesto is 90 miles from the murder site of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights, so what are the chances this was pure happenstance? How likely is it that Kathleen Johns had read or seen the challenge by Joe Stine in October 1969 and waited five months to concoct a story of abduction, putting her 10-month-old daughter and unborn child through unnecessary hardship to initiate this elaborate hoax?
This is why the claimed attack on Kathleen Johns cannot be overlooked, who stated in the police report that she thought she had been trailed by a vehicle from Modesto to the area of South Bird Road on Highway 132, a distance of approximately 19 miles. Although her recollections are often contradictory, it must be considered significant that she may have been followed by a suspicious vehicle from Modesto, that she later claimed was the Zodiac Killer, who could have chosen his fifth attack anywhere in California, but began his "hunt" in the very city that Joe Stine laid down his challenge. Modesto is 90 miles from the murder site of Paul Stine in Presidio Heights, so what are the chances this was pure happenstance? How likely is it that Kathleen Johns had read or seen the challenge by Joe Stine in October 1969 and waited five months to concoct a story of abduction, putting her 10-month-old daughter and unborn child through unnecessary hardship to initiate this elaborate hoax?
Joe Stine, October 23rd 1969 Furthermore, her route from San Bernardino to Highway 132 had been achieved by traveling on Highway 99, which passed only 4,600 feet from the 706 Sutter Avenue workplace of Joe Stine, where he worked as a mechanic at the Richfield Service Station. La Von's Walking Chicken was slightly closer at 4,375 feet from Higway 99. Admittedly, this would have been late at night on a Sunday when these premises were shut, but if this was the Zodiac Killer, where had he been in the 48 hours previous? Had he picked up her trail in this location and decided to enact an alternative crime to his original intentions?
If the Zodiac Killer had trailed Kathleen Johns from Modesto, then it isn't inconceivable that he passed right by the workplace of Joe Stine five months after being issued the challenge. Another striking feature of the challenge was that the accompanying pictures in the many newspapers on October 23rd 1969 (including the San Francisco Chronicle), showed Joe Stine working at the Richfield Service Station close to the wheel of an elevated vehicle (it may have been the right rear wheel). Especially when we consider that the "Zodiac Killer" operated as a mechanic on the rear wheel of Kathleen Johns vehicle, five months later. Originally, Kathleen Johns claimed that the Zodiac Killer had turned onto South Chrisman Road and entered the Richfield Service Station/ARCO gas station, two miles west of her abandoned vehicle. However, finding it closed, the unidentified "Good Samaritan" continued on Highway 132 towards the city of Tracy. This detail was curiously dispensed with in some of her current and later retellings of the story.
Had this been true, we would have had Joe Stine working near the wheel of a vehicle at the Richfield Service Station in the newspapers, which Zodiac passed by 5 months later, who then disabled the wheel of Kathleen Johns vehicle, before taking her two miles down the highway to a Richfield Service Station. All the ingredients for a good story was available in the newspapers, either concocted by Kathleen Johns or fashioned by the Zodiac Killer. If this seemed too clever a belated design by Kathleen Johns, it certainly wasn't for the Zodiac Killer, who we know liked a challenge.
If the Zodiac Killer had trailed Kathleen Johns from Modesto, then it isn't inconceivable that he passed right by the workplace of Joe Stine five months after being issued the challenge. Another striking feature of the challenge was that the accompanying pictures in the many newspapers on October 23rd 1969 (including the San Francisco Chronicle), showed Joe Stine working at the Richfield Service Station close to the wheel of an elevated vehicle (it may have been the right rear wheel). Especially when we consider that the "Zodiac Killer" operated as a mechanic on the rear wheel of Kathleen Johns vehicle, five months later. Originally, Kathleen Johns claimed that the Zodiac Killer had turned onto South Chrisman Road and entered the Richfield Service Station/ARCO gas station, two miles west of her abandoned vehicle. However, finding it closed, the unidentified "Good Samaritan" continued on Highway 132 towards the city of Tracy. This detail was curiously dispensed with in some of her current and later retellings of the story.
Had this been true, we would have had Joe Stine working near the wheel of a vehicle at the Richfield Service Station in the newspapers, which Zodiac passed by 5 months later, who then disabled the wheel of Kathleen Johns vehicle, before taking her two miles down the highway to a Richfield Service Station. All the ingredients for a good story was available in the newspapers, either concocted by Kathleen Johns or fashioned by the Zodiac Killer. If this seemed too clever a belated design by Kathleen Johns, it certainly wasn't for the Zodiac Killer, who we know liked a challenge.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 23RD 1969
Kathleen Johns (22) Kathleen Johns was quoted in the police report, saying that the suspect "went west on Highway 132 and pulled into a Richfield service station that was closed. It is believed by undersigned to be Chrisman Road". Whether or not she identified the gas station as Richfield or ARCO, free from equivocation, would have been useful information to know. There was a large glowing sign above the gas station on South Chrisman Road identifying it as an ARCO, so anybody traveling on Highway 132 would have known where to refill, but they wouldn't necessarily know it was a Richfield Service Station unless they were familiar with this location (because it was over 800 feet from Highway 132).
ARCO was established in 1966 as the Atlantic Richfield Company, an independent oil and gas company formed from the merger of Atlantic Petroleum and the Richfield Oil Corporation. If Kathleen Johns had literally told police her abductor drove her to a "Richfield Service Station", then this may have made her story more credible, because from Highway 132 it would only have been recognisable as an ARCO for a first time visitor (unless signposted). Or she was given this name by her abductor. If her story was completely fabricated and no abductor existed, there would have been no need to invoke the name "Richfield", that the "undersigned" believed to be the gas station on Christman Road. That is why the story of her abductor taking her to this gas station, being omitted from her later stories, is unusual. It tends to support her story rather than negate it. Especially considering this gas station would have been unidentifiable from 2 miles away (from slightly east of South Bird Road), where the presumed abduction began. Maybe the story of a seemingly helpful man at this point in time didn't fit the menacing narrative wanted to be portrayed in later accounts. It must be stressed that the police reports also carried the story of an abductor who never made any attempts to visit a service station, making this case extremely difficult to formulate any consistent narrative.
ARCO was established in 1966 as the Atlantic Richfield Company, an independent oil and gas company formed from the merger of Atlantic Petroleum and the Richfield Oil Corporation. If Kathleen Johns had literally told police her abductor drove her to a "Richfield Service Station", then this may have made her story more credible, because from Highway 132 it would only have been recognisable as an ARCO for a first time visitor (unless signposted). Or she was given this name by her abductor. If her story was completely fabricated and no abductor existed, there would have been no need to invoke the name "Richfield", that the "undersigned" believed to be the gas station on Christman Road. That is why the story of her abductor taking her to this gas station, being omitted from her later stories, is unusual. It tends to support her story rather than negate it. Especially considering this gas station would have been unidentifiable from 2 miles away (from slightly east of South Bird Road), where the presumed abduction began. Maybe the story of a seemingly helpful man at this point in time didn't fit the menacing narrative wanted to be portrayed in later accounts. It must be stressed that the police reports also carried the story of an abductor who never made any attempts to visit a service station, making this case extremely difficult to formulate any consistent narrative.
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Four months after the Kathleen Johns affair, on July 24th 1970, the Zodiac Killer admitted that he "gave a rather intersting ride for a coupple howers one evening a few months back that ended in my burning her car where I found them". On October 27th 1970 he incorporated "by fire" into his crime methodology within the Halloween card, which he followed up by a further communication on March 13th 1971, mailed from Pleasanton. The city of Pleasanton would have been a location passed by the Zodiac Killer had he set "fire" to Kathleen Johns vehicle and headed back to the Bay Area.
If this abduction was committed by the Zodiac Killer, it is extremely unlikely he took a 180 mile round trip from the Bay Area just for the sole purpose of randomly abducting a woman nearing midnight. Either there was a more sinister purpose to his visit over the previous hours or days in Modesto that failed to transpire - or knowing he had upcoming business dealings or relations in this area, seized the opportunity to bring his terror to the very location where Joe Stine lived (we know that Chester Clark Klingel lived in Hughson, close to Modesto, subsequent to 1970, and had relatives in Turlock prior to this year). Did Chester Clark Klingel cross paths with the Zodiac Killer on one of the killer's continued dealings in this locality?
Despite this presentation making a case for the Zodiac Killer being in Modesto on March 22nd 1970, it is extremely difficult to see past the many inconsistencies in the story of Kathleen Johns - not only at the time - but in the dramatized account portrayed in the Zodiac book by Robert Graysmith, that actually weakened her case still further. However, the sheer fact that the brother of Paul Stine (Zodiac's last known victim) laid down a challenge to the Bay Area murderer to come to Modesto - and the next major Zodiac story had its roots in Modesto - has to raise some eyebrows. Either Kathleen Johns, after reading the challenge by Joe Stine, deliberately fashioned a story about being followed from Modesto, to be subsequently abducted by the Bay Area murderer, or the Zodiac Killer specifically targeted this area of California after reading the bravado exhibited by Joe Stine many months earlier. But how would Kathleen Johns have known that a sketch of the Zodiac Killer would have been conveniently available to her at the Patterson Police Department, for her to say "that is the man that abducted me"? In absence of the sketch, she would have had to initiate the story using her knowledge of the sketch from elsewhere. For many Zodiac researchers, the jury is still out on the abduction of Kathleen Johns.
If this abduction was committed by the Zodiac Killer, it is extremely unlikely he took a 180 mile round trip from the Bay Area just for the sole purpose of randomly abducting a woman nearing midnight. Either there was a more sinister purpose to his visit over the previous hours or days in Modesto that failed to transpire - or knowing he had upcoming business dealings or relations in this area, seized the opportunity to bring his terror to the very location where Joe Stine lived (we know that Chester Clark Klingel lived in Hughson, close to Modesto, subsequent to 1970, and had relatives in Turlock prior to this year). Did Chester Clark Klingel cross paths with the Zodiac Killer on one of the killer's continued dealings in this locality?
Despite this presentation making a case for the Zodiac Killer being in Modesto on March 22nd 1970, it is extremely difficult to see past the many inconsistencies in the story of Kathleen Johns - not only at the time - but in the dramatized account portrayed in the Zodiac book by Robert Graysmith, that actually weakened her case still further. However, the sheer fact that the brother of Paul Stine (Zodiac's last known victim) laid down a challenge to the Bay Area murderer to come to Modesto - and the next major Zodiac story had its roots in Modesto - has to raise some eyebrows. Either Kathleen Johns, after reading the challenge by Joe Stine, deliberately fashioned a story about being followed from Modesto, to be subsequently abducted by the Bay Area murderer, or the Zodiac Killer specifically targeted this area of California after reading the bravado exhibited by Joe Stine many months earlier. But how would Kathleen Johns have known that a sketch of the Zodiac Killer would have been conveniently available to her at the Patterson Police Department, for her to say "that is the man that abducted me"? In absence of the sketch, she would have had to initiate the story using her knowledge of the sketch from elsewhere. For many Zodiac researchers, the jury is still out on the abduction of Kathleen Johns.
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