The above story broke in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 8th 1969, the day before the Zodiac Killer's Bus Bomb letter was postmarked. The previous two articles [1] [2] explored the idea that the Zodiac Killer may have positioned one of the X's on the Bus Bomb crosshairs to signify an impending attack/murder in Richmond, based upon the fact Daniel Williams was a school teacher at Salesian High School. How the police came to the conclusion this wasn't the genuine Zodiac Killer by virtue of relayed phone messages, appears rather speculative. If this wasn't the Zodiac Killer, then it becomes a distinct possibility that somebody known to Daniel Williams was trying to kill him, using the Zodiac Killer as a convenient fall guy.
However, there are crucial parts of the Daniel Williams story that were not covered in the San Francisco Chronicle article above. The day after this article was published, the Bus Bomb letter was postmarked, meaning it was out of the Zodiac Killer's hands by November 9th 1969. The Bus Bomb letter continued the theme of threatening schoolchildren by means of a bomb. But the November 9th 1969 letter contained one important line, after his introduction of "changing his way of collecting slaves". He stated "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them".
However, there are crucial parts of the Daniel Williams story that were not covered in the San Francisco Chronicle article above. The day after this article was published, the Bus Bomb letter was postmarked, meaning it was out of the Zodiac Killer's hands by November 9th 1969. The Bus Bomb letter continued the theme of threatening schoolchildren by means of a bomb. But the November 9th 1969 letter contained one important line, after his introduction of "changing his way of collecting slaves". He stated "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them".
The following day (November 10th), the Desert Sun newspaper would expand on the details of the sadistic phone call to Daniel Williams. It read "MARTINEZ (UPI)—A young scoolteacher who received threatening telephone calls for 10 days thought the caller was a crank who was pretending to be the Zodiac Killer. But police took the threats seriously after 24-year-old Daniel Williams found a lethal dose of arsenic in a bottle of soft drink in his refrigerator. Williams, a teacher at Salesian High School in Richmond, told police the caller talked of how he intended to kill several persons, then last; Sunday said: “You’re the dead duck.” Williams went out and when he returned home found someone had pried open the screen on a back door. However, a police search showed nothing was missing. But after the officers left and Williams took a drink from a bottle of opened soft drink in his refrigerator, he found it tasted “metallic” and immediately spat it out. Police reported Friday that the bottle contained more than enough arsenic to kill a human being. Williams said the caller identified himself as the still sought Zodiac killer of five, but police discounted the idea. The caller would “sob and complain of headaches.” Williams said, and on one occasion said he had gone to a Martinez school in search of victims but left when he found police there. Williams said the caller told him: “I’m too smart for them". This story was also published (word for word) in the San Mateo Times on November 8th 1969.
The sadistic phone calls to Daniel Williams began on October 23rd 1969 and lasted 10 days until November 2nd 1969, with the caller mocking police by stating “I’m too smart for them". The Zodiac Killer in reference to the police on November 9th 1969 (Bus Bomb letter), stated "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them". Very similar phraseology aimed towards the police by the real Zodiac Killer and somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, separated by approximately one week. The expanded story of Daniel Williams (in the Desert Sun on November 10th) was copied from an identical version in the San Mateo Times newspaper, published on November 8th 1969, which covered the details of the phone call boasting “I’m too smart for them". But if the Zodiac Killer only read the Chronicle article (which didn't cover the phrase), then it's rather fortuitous that he would also use the near identical wording of "I have been too clever for them" at the beginning of the Bus Bomb letter on November 9th 1969. If they were not the same person, then there is a possibility that the Zodiac Killer read the version of Daniel Williams story, covered in the San Mateo Times or another newspaper prior to the mailing of the Bus Bomb letter, and used the phraseology of the sadistic caller detailed in the newspapers in his latest letter, so as to convince the police he was the caller and poisoner of Daniel Williams. Does the phraseology suggest one perpetrator as sadistic caller and Bus Bomb letter author, a Zodiac Killer mimicking the newspaper articles, or is the wording just a simple coincidence?
RELEVANT ARTICLES: THE PROMISE OF MURDER ON LINE 5 A KILLER ON LINE FIVE
The sadistic phone calls to Daniel Williams began on October 23rd 1969 and lasted 10 days until November 2nd 1969, with the caller mocking police by stating “I’m too smart for them". The Zodiac Killer in reference to the police on November 9th 1969 (Bus Bomb letter), stated "The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them". Very similar phraseology aimed towards the police by the real Zodiac Killer and somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer, separated by approximately one week. The expanded story of Daniel Williams (in the Desert Sun on November 10th) was copied from an identical version in the San Mateo Times newspaper, published on November 8th 1969, which covered the details of the phone call boasting “I’m too smart for them". But if the Zodiac Killer only read the Chronicle article (which didn't cover the phrase), then it's rather fortuitous that he would also use the near identical wording of "I have been too clever for them" at the beginning of the Bus Bomb letter on November 9th 1969. If they were not the same person, then there is a possibility that the Zodiac Killer read the version of Daniel Williams story, covered in the San Mateo Times or another newspaper prior to the mailing of the Bus Bomb letter, and used the phraseology of the sadistic caller detailed in the newspapers in his latest letter, so as to convince the police he was the caller and poisoner of Daniel Williams. Does the phraseology suggest one perpetrator as sadistic caller and Bus Bomb letter author, a Zodiac Killer mimicking the newspaper articles, or is the wording just a simple coincidence?
RELEVANT ARTICLES: THE PROMISE OF MURDER ON LINE 5 A KILLER ON LINE FIVE
RSS Feed
