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Richard Grinell, Coventry, England
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FOUR MINUTES BEHIND

4/10/2014

 
On a cold dark night back on December 20th 1968, a young couple were enjoying a late night out, parked up in their Rambler on a lonely gravel turnout, just off the unlit, narrow winding road of Lake Herman, when an unknown assailant shattered the tranquil night time air, gunning down both David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen in cold blood and unleashing an unparalleled horror on a community, the like of which had never been seen before. Unbeknownst at the time, this crime was just the start of a bloody campaign of terror by the now infamous Zodiac Killer, that would in a little over six months become all too apparent, when police dispatcher Nancy Slover received a phone call from the killer at 12:40 am, on the morning of July 5th 1969. 

The Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa attacks saw two of the victims survive and the final confirmed murder at Presidio Heights had key witnesses view the killer, exiting the taxi of murder victim Paul Stine and heading north along Cherry Street, but the Lake Herman Road double murder was altogether different, in that there were actually no witnesses of the crime in progress. The subsequent analysis of the crime scene was the only story to be told. Several witnesses traveling along Lake Herman Road that night passed by the scene, but by chance failed to spot the killer, in what must have been a slender corridor of time for the Zodiac Killer to have committed the murders and depart the remote turnout, heading back towards Benicia or Vallejo without being seen. 

In a previous post, Morf13 calculated the actual time difference between James Owen passing the location, driving towards Humble Oil in Benicia for his graveyard shift and seeing no bodies in the turnout, and the arrival of Stella Borges (Medeiros), who discovered the two victims, may have been as little as six minutes or less, which is a very small window of time for the Zodiac Killer to unleash his horror and make good his escape.  
James Owen had his car radio on low that night when he passed the gravel turnout and according to a police statement taken on 24th December 1968, he definitely saw two cars, parked within 3-4 feet of each other, with no persons in or around them. Approximately one quarter of a mile beyond the turnout "he thought he heard a shot". Therefore, if this second car belonged to the Zodiac Killer, then he, along with Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday must have been either hiding between the cars or somewhere else out of sight when James Owen's car was seen approaching.
Once James Owen passed, the Zodiac Killer then waited 30 seconds (approx time to travel one quarter of a mile at 30 mph), before 
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unleashing his horrifying attack. But there are some problems with this exact chain of events. 

James Owen mentions no gunshots in his first statement to police on 21st December 1968, but three days later he states that "he thought he heard a shot". On a quiet country road at approximately 11:14 pm at night, the killer only waited 30 seconds after James Owen had passed before firing off numerous rounds from a .22 caliber weapon. But Owen supposedly only heard one. After James Owen passed the turnout, are we to conclude the Zodiac Killer only shot David Faraday (the shot James Owen heard), then waited a certain length of time until James Owen was out of earshot, then murdered Betty Lou Jensen? The sequence of events makes little sense from either perspective and in all probability James Owen heard nothing. This also raises questions. James Owen in his first statement describes two cars 10 feet apart, one was a 1956 or 1957 station wagon, boxy type with a neutral color, but was unable to provide any meaningful description of the other car. This became 3-4 feet in the second statement, but the report also uses the phrase "He definitely saw two cars". Why the emphasis on definitely. Was he questioned on this fact. 

The widely believed sequence of events is that the Zodiac Killer approached in his car, forced the couple to leave their vehicle from the passenger side door, initially shot David Faraday at close range (or after a very brief struggle), and as Betty Lou Jensen ran for her life, she was gunned down by five shots to her back, finally succumbing approximately 34 feet to the west side of the gravel turnout. She fell backwards, her head finally resting 28'6" from the rear bumper of the Rambler station wagon. He then departed the scene.   
The most logical scenario of events that night, appears to be, at approximately 11:13 pm the Zodiac Killer had parked up in the turnout alongside the couple, firing at least two warning shots to 'encourage' the couple to exit the passenger side door of their Rambler and onto the ground between the cars, out of view from the road. James Owen's car was noticed approaching along Lake Herman Road, either audibly or visually. The Zodiac Killer stooped behind the couple's Rambler until Owen's car had passed at 11:14 pm. The killer waited a reasonable amount of time for James Owen's car to move out of earshot, or at least a safe distance away before he eventually struck. We shall attribute this time delay at nearer 2 minutes: approximately one minute waiting for James Owen to depart and one minute to carry out the murders, get back in his car, reverse and exit the turnout. The time now would be around 11:16 pm. It may be slightly earlier or slightly later, but it's a reasonable estimation.
 

Stella Borges (Medeiros) lived 1.5 miles west of the Lake Herman Road turnout (Borges Ranch). It was calculated she had passed the turnout at 11:20 pm, indicating she had left the Borges Ranch at 11:17 pm. Mike Morford, a keen Zodiac investigator stated "Borges drove off immediately at speeds of 60-70 mph towards Benicia to get help, where she eventually ran into Benicia Police Officer Pitta. From Pitta’s report, he notes that Borges flagged him down at approximately 11:25 pm. Pitta then raced to the scene arriving there at about 11:28 pm. This is apparently how they established that Borges took 5 minutes to find and make contact with Pitta. They now think that Borges was actually at the scene at 11:20 pm".

At 11:17 pm, when Stella Borges left her ranch, the Zodiac Killer was either in the process of leaving the turnout or had likely already left the turnout approximately one minute ago. Had he chosen to turn left and head towards Vallejo he would have passed Stella Borges along Lake Herman Road. She reported passing no other vehicles. The Zodiac Killer therefore, if this sequence of events is correct, turned right and headed east toward Benicia. He had a four minute jump on her, so after she discovered the bodies, despite traveling at speeds of 60-70 mph, she never was likely to view the taillights of the Zodiac Killer. He had disappeared into the night. This was not the last time he was going to get lucky.
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Mike Morford link
4/14/2014 11:57:17 pm

Rich, great article and certainly thought provoking. While I think the police made some mistakes that night, and later on in the LHR investigation, I think they also tried to get a detailed timeline as well. Owen claims that the police made him drive while they sat in the car, and estimate the length of time it took to travel the distance. The Official stance from the police, is that Z had 6 minutes in which to strike and get away, I think it could have been 3-4 minutes, either way, not much room for error on his part.

tut
3/3/2016 06:10:19 pm

At the first killing at Lake Herman Road, how do we know that the Zodiac was in a car? Could he have been milling around over near the lake and walked up on the car?

Richard
3/3/2016 11:14:06 pm

We don't know for certain tut, it is the likeliest scenario, but it is by no means fact. It was below freezing that night, so ambling around frozen searching for victims at 11 pm + is not ideal. The fact he used a car in the second and third attacks and his statement in the Chronicle letter on July 31st 1969 that he would "cruise around all weekend killing people", suggests the use of a vehicle.
A vehicle was noticed unattended at 9.00 pm that night by hunters Gasser and Connelly, and local sheepherder Bingo Wesher, so it is equally possible Zodiac parked up, but headed across to the lake to search for victims with his sighting implement and effectively was on foot. Here is an extract of something else I wrote:
"If the car was left unattended, the killer may have been out surveying the park area for victims. The scenario is reminiscent of Lake Berryessa wherein several witnesses allegedly saw the killer hanging around the area in the hours prior to the attack". The Zodiac Killer was a hunter and had at least three options available to him, the Lake Herman Road turnouts, the lake itself and Blue Rock Springs Park, all closely grouped within the vicinity. If one failed, he moved to the other and so forth, until the time was right. It is quite plausible he parked up his car in the turnout sometime before 9.00 pm, where it was spotted by Frank Gasser, Robert Connelly and Bingo Wesher. The journey time to Lake Herman from the turnout is similar to Lake Berryessa, in terms of walking distance and quite plausible bearing in mind the hunting aspect and the allusion to 'The Most Dangerous Game', partly described in the Zodiac Killer's 408 Cipher. But something he stated categorically in the 'Debut of Zodiac Letter' pricks the interest. This letter was mailed on August 4th 1969, one month after the Blue Rock Springs Park attack. In it he gives the police an earful. "Last Christmass In that epasode the police were wondering how I could shoot + hit my victims in the dark. They did not openly state this, but implied this by saying it was a well lit night + I could see silowets on the horizon. Bullshit that area is srounded by high hills + trees. What I did was tape a small pencel flash light to the barrel of my gun. If you notice, in the center of the beam of light if you aim it at a wall or ceiling you will see a black or darck spot in the center of the circle of light about 3 to 6 inches across. When taped to a gun barrel, the bullet will strike in the center of the black dot in the light. All I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights".
The Zodiac was correct, it was one day after a new moon and 2% illumination, however, parked alongside the Rambler of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, with the headlights on, there was absolutely no need for any type of sighting implement. He could have simply stepped out of his vehicle and fired through the window of the Rambler, exactly like he did at Blue Rock Springs Park. A torch would have sufficed. That is unless his original plan that evening was to head to the lake to do a spot of hunting, whereby a sighting implement may have come in more useful and indicated his true intentions that night.

Mike Morford link
3/4/2016 03:46:51 am

Owen claims he saw a car as he went by and heard a shot seconds after he drove by, so it's highly likely Z was driving unless Owen was lying

Richard
3/4/2016 04:30:44 am

Exactly, the only other scenarios is that James Owen was mistaken about a second car, or lied to implant himself into the investigation, as a crucial witness ie 15 minutes of fame. The thing that let him down as a witness apart from the car distances apart, was him not mentioning the shot in his first statement. However the likelihood is that he did see a second vehicle and highly unlikely that the unknown vehicle being sighted and proximity of the gunshot being 30 seconds after he saw the vehicle not being connected. Tying the Zodiac Killer to the car and gunshot in one neat bundle.


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