Serial killer Karl Francis Werner may have found himself in the ignominious position of not only having been considered brieifly as a contender for being the Zodiac Killer, as well as the man who inspired the Zodiac Killer to his Lake Berryessa attack on September 27th 1969, but also the man who ultimately brought down the Zodiac Killer and ended his reign of terror, when he was booked for the murders of Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Bilek on April 29th 1971. However, none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the keen observations of park ranger Ken Williamson at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. This man noticed that the bespectacled Werner was attending the Villa Montalvo park and woods by himself virtually every day, until such time as Kathy Bilek's brutally stabbed body was discovered down a ravine in the woods. Finding this particularly suspicious, park ranger Williamson took it upon himself to track down the man known only to him as Karl and the search began in earnest. Knowing he was a college student due to previous interactions with the young man, he visited the nearby campus and traced the vehicle he remembered Werner driving, and subsequently noted the vehicle's registrtion. This information and the excellent observation skills of Ken Williamson gave police the vital lead, that ultimately led to the capture and conviction of serial predator Karl Francis Werner. Without the astute detective work of this observant park ranger, there is no doubt whatsoever that other girls and women would have lost their lives to this heartless killer. Werner (69) is currently incarcerated at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville
Ken Williamson may also be responsible for the premature end of the Zodiac Killer's letter writing campaign that year. By the October of 1971, the Zodiac Killer had mailed two cards and two letters that year (one including a cipher), but it was the fifth and final communication of 1971 that may have been the elusive DMV letter, which finally exposed a killer for claiming the murders of victims he wasn't responsible for. He intimated he murdered Snoozy and Furlong by the inclusion of "Aug" in the November 8th 1969 'Driping Pen' card, and also claimed the murder of Kathy Bilek in the July 13th 1971 'Montcello' card, despite the fact that Karl Francis Werner had already been charged with all three murders. The Zodiac Killer was driven to claim the Bilek murder from Werner, because for nearly two years he had laid claim to Werner's other two victims (Snoozy and Furlong). This, in essence, is what drove him to reply to a 1971 San Francisco Chronicle article by Paul Avery regarding the questioning by police of Karl Francis Werner. The Zodiac wrote to the Chronicle stating "Stop listening t(o) phonys. If this is not on your front page in a week I will skin 3 little kids and make a suit from the skin". In other words, don't listen to Werner, I killed those three females. The threat of a further three kids doesn't require explanation - the correlation is there to see.
None of these events would have transpired but for the diligence of Ken Williamson, who would ultimately inspire the last puff of defiant hot air from the Zodiac Killer before he was shamed and discredited into anonymity. He may have got away with claiming the abduction of Kathleen Johns, the murder of Richard Radetich and the disappearance of Donna Lass by virtue that none of these crimes had been solved. He was gifted the murder of Cheri Jo Bates by the column inches of Paul Avery - and not surprisingly accepted this gift with open arms, before throwing in a few more unnamed murders for good measure. None of which he revealed any information only pertinent to him and the police. He was only too willing to supply extra details in the July and August of 1969, make phone calls to the police after his second and third attack, write on a car door by a lake and send a bloody piece of shirt to the San Francisco Chronicle - yet any evidence thereafter was sadly lacking.
The dying fumes of the Zodiac Killer may have transpired in the latter months of 1971, or early months of 1972, when the Zodiac Killer was driven to communicate to the chairman of the DMV in Sacramento. A communication facilitated by the excellent work of Ken Williamson, whose 'vehicle license plate' details of Karl Francis Werner, resulted in the police identifying the home address of Werner at Shawnee Lane in San Jose and his eventual arrest. Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer had directly and indirectly included San Jose in a total of five communications to date, with two consecutive ones in 1971, then it wouldn't be too surprising if the one mailed to the DMV in Sacramento (likely in the November or December of 1971) had a San Jose connection also.
None of these events would have transpired but for the diligence of Ken Williamson, who would ultimately inspire the last puff of defiant hot air from the Zodiac Killer before he was shamed and discredited into anonymity. He may have got away with claiming the abduction of Kathleen Johns, the murder of Richard Radetich and the disappearance of Donna Lass by virtue that none of these crimes had been solved. He was gifted the murder of Cheri Jo Bates by the column inches of Paul Avery - and not surprisingly accepted this gift with open arms, before throwing in a few more unnamed murders for good measure. None of which he revealed any information only pertinent to him and the police. He was only too willing to supply extra details in the July and August of 1969, make phone calls to the police after his second and third attack, write on a car door by a lake and send a bloody piece of shirt to the San Francisco Chronicle - yet any evidence thereafter was sadly lacking.
The dying fumes of the Zodiac Killer may have transpired in the latter months of 1971, or early months of 1972, when the Zodiac Killer was driven to communicate to the chairman of the DMV in Sacramento. A communication facilitated by the excellent work of Ken Williamson, whose 'vehicle license plate' details of Karl Francis Werner, resulted in the police identifying the home address of Werner at Shawnee Lane in San Jose and his eventual arrest. Bearing in mind the Zodiac Killer had directly and indirectly included San Jose in a total of five communications to date, with two consecutive ones in 1971, then it wouldn't be too surprising if the one mailed to the DMV in Sacramento (likely in the November or December of 1971) had a San Jose connection also.
In October 1971, a magazine publication entitled 'True Detective' comprehensively featured the murders of Kathy Snoozy, Deborah Furlong and Kathy Bilek, stating "At about the same moment, Park Ranger Ken Williamson was informing a member of the investigative team that he, too, had noticed a tall, bespectacled young man who had been a frequent visitor at Villa Montalvo. He was a loner and had impressed the Villa's ranger staff with his almost furtive conduct, said Williamson. The ranger had jotted down the license number of the strange youth's auto. The license number was forwarded to the California Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters in Sacramento, the state's capital 150 miles to the north of San Jose. The information teletyped back from the registration bureau was that the auto was the property of a Karl Francis Werner, living at an address on Shawnee Lane in San Jose".
The Zodiac Killer, probably in one last throw of the dice, sent a letter to the chairman of the DMV in a desperate attempt to reclaim some lost pride. It likely read as follows "I am the murderer of the two kids in San Jose in August and the girl on the 11th of April near the park in Saratoga. I drove away quite slowly from both crime scenes so as not to draw attention to my car. Stop listening to phonys". Yet, on this occasion he couldn't supply any extra details known only to him and the police, finally bringing the Zodiac Killer's unabated fortune of claiming unsolved crimes to a crashing halt - and thereby exposing him as the real phony that many suspected he always was. The Zodiac Killer's race was run - and Ken Williamson was the architect in his unthroning.
The Zodiac Killer, probably in one last throw of the dice, sent a letter to the chairman of the DMV in a desperate attempt to reclaim some lost pride. It likely read as follows "I am the murderer of the two kids in San Jose in August and the girl on the 11th of April near the park in Saratoga. I drove away quite slowly from both crime scenes so as not to draw attention to my car. Stop listening to phonys". Yet, on this occasion he couldn't supply any extra details known only to him and the police, finally bringing the Zodiac Killer's unabated fortune of claiming unsolved crimes to a crashing halt - and thereby exposing him as the real phony that many suspected he always was. The Zodiac Killer's race was run - and Ken Williamson was the architect in his unthroning.
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