LAKE HERMAN ROAD-THE FALSE TIMELINE

3/13/2017

Although this topic has been covered before, here it will be expanded in a little more detail, concerning the timeline of Pierre Bidou and his thoughts that he must have just passed the Lake Herman Road turnout literally minutes before the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968. However, this may not be the case - and his statements of not seeing any vehicles in the turnout or passing any vehicles on Lake Herman Road after his seizure of marijuana at The Cottage, may be not relevant to the minutes before the murders. Here are a collection of statements by Pierre Bidou:

[1] 2007 documentary: "During that night we had served a search warrant at what we call The Cottage at Lake Herman which was owned by the city of Benicia, a narcotics search warrant my partner and I, we confiscated about a pound and a half of marijuana, which in the 1960s was a big drugs bust, today it wouldn't get very high on the Richter scale. We were heading back to the police department to put the marijuana into evidence and as we drove by, we did not see or observe anyone in that area, because it's a turn there and your headlights shine right in there as you go by. I was pulling into the lot in the police department, we heard the Benicia Police Department dispatch about a call of a possible shooting and victims on Lake Herman Road, and described the location. My partner and I turned around at that time and responded to the call. We felt we were only minutes from the crime scene when it actually happened and for the best of my recollection we did not pass any other vehicle or traffic. I'm pretty sure of that because that is one of the things we told the sheriff's office, that we did not see any other vehicles coming our way. What could have happened, depending on where a vehicle turned onto Lake Herman Road, if it came from behind us, from Vallejo, we would not have seen them".

[2] Benicia Herald: "Bidou and his partner had served a warrant on a Lake Herman Road cabin Dec 20 1968, and were on the way to deposit some marijuana in the police department's evidence locker, when they were dispatched back to Lake Herman Road".

[3] True Crime video with Aphrodite Jones (2010): "We had just passed here (Lake Herman Road turnout) and there was no one here. Patrols would always look here, because this was kind of known as a lovers point".

The impression that we have come to believe, is that Pierre Bidou and his partner, Steve Armenta, passed the turnout shortly before the murders, from where they traveled directly to the Benicia Police Department and were almost immediately dispatched back out to the double homicide. This order of events could never have happened, if we believe all the eyewitness statements that night.

The Cottage, where Pierre Bidou seized the marijuana, was not far from the turnout on the Vallejo side, with the journey time to Benicia Police Department from this location approximately 8 to 10 minutes.
For Pierre Bidou to have seen no vehicles in the turnout just minutes before the murders, he would at the very least had to have passed before Peggy and Homer Your, who recalled seeing the Rambler on two occasions at around 11:00 pm. Not to mention Frank Gasser, Robert Connelly, James Owen and finally Stella Borges, who passed the turnout at approximately 11:20 pm and saw the stricken couple on the turnout floor. Stella Borges raced off to Benicia to inform Officer Daniel Pitta at 11:25 pm, or thereabouts. He would then radio Benicia Police Department of a possible 187 on Lake Herman Road.

Had Pierre Bidou just literally arrived at the police department, and after "pulling into the lot in the police department, had heard the Benicia Police Department dispatch about a call of a possible shooting and victims on Lake Herman Road", then this would be around 11.25 to 11.30 pm. We know the journey time from The Cottage to Benicia Police Department is around 10 minutes. This means Pierre Bidou must have passed the Lake Herman Road turnout at approximately 11:15 to 11:20 pm according to his recollection of events. But we know this is not possible. He had to have passed the turnout prior to the Rambler first being spotted by the Your's at around 11:00 pm. Let us say he passed the turnout at 10:55 pm, he would then have arrived at Benicia Police Department at 11:05 pm and literally swung the car around and returned to the crime scene. The call from Officer Daniel Pitta was still at least 20 minutes in the making.

We have a further problem if we believe the police report and the testimony of Helen Axe. She claimed the earliest sighting of the Rambler in the turnout that night at about 10:15 pm. The police report stated "Miss Axe reports that she and her boyfriend, a sailor, were driving on Lake Herman Road. They passed the area of the pumping station, she recognized the Rambler and the victims, Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday. Stated that when she went by about 10:15 pm, the car was facing in towards the gate and when she returned about 15 minutes later after having gone to the end of the road and then came back, the car was turned around and the front was facing the field, a little to the side".

She stated she saw the Rambler at 10:15 pm, and then 15 minutes later at 10:30 pm. Assuming that David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen remained in the turnout until the Rambler was next spotted at around 11:00 pm, then Pierre Bidou would had to have passed the turnout prior to 10:15 pm to actually view no vehicles present. Let us say David Faraday parked up at 10:10 pm and Pierre Bidou passed the turnout at 10:09 pm. He then would have arrived at the Benicia Police Department at 10:19 pm, over an hour prior to the reporting of the murders by Officer Daniel Pitta, dispelling the claim that he and his partner Steve Armenta "were only minutes from the crime scene when it actually happened".

If Helen Axe was mistaken, and Pierre Bidou passed the turnout at 10:55 pm, his journey to Benicia Police Department is 20 minutes too long. If Helen Axe was not mistaken, his journey to Benicia Police Department is 66 minutes too long. Either way, the timeline requires a different explanation. So where did Pierre Bidou go after the drugs bust that night? His statements to either his superiors or to any documentary, with regards to the movement of vehicles on Lake Herman Road that night, are in direct conflict to the eyewitness sightings of the Rambler in the turnout on December 20th 1968. This problem may have been resolved in a future article entitled The Edge of Darkness.

35 Comments

Richard

7/21/2017 03:18:50 am

"My partner and I turned around at that time and responded to the call. We felt we were only minutes from the crime scene when it actually happened and for the best of my recollection we did not pass any other vehicle or traffic."

This statement would only be said if he thought this critical period around the murders was relevant to his movements, indicating that he was giving the impression he was backtracking from arriving at Benicia PD after passing the turnout. If Ray, as you said he exited LHR at 10.40 pm, went to a burger bar and then arrived at Benicia PD 50 minutes later, then stating the above is disingenuous.

Ray Grant link

7/21/2017 05:14:13 am

Okay, let’s begin with my own estimate of the murder times:

11:09:25 Owen passes the turnout
11:10 Owen hears shot (into David Faraday’s head)
11:14 time by which Zodiacs had to have exited turnout (or Stella would have seen them from the base of the hill)
11:14:30 Stella passes turnout

Those estimates are, for Ray Grant, inviolate. I will allow for adjustments of perhaps a minute or so, but only if I’m presented with a convincing alternative to my own scenario. Now, let’s proceed.

“The Cottage, where Pierre Bidou seized the marijuana, was not far past the turnout on the Vallejo side, with the journey time to Benicia Police Department from this location approximately 8-10 minutes.”

Again, we’re assuming here that Bidou passed the turnout as late as he possibly could, rather than as early as he possibly could, my own estimate being between 10:35pm and 10:40pm. So if you work backward from the dispatch at 11:28pm, he is back at the turnout at 11:18pm-11:20pm, which is a nonstarter.

“For Pierre Bidou to have seen no vehicles in the turnout just minutes before the murders, he would at the very least had to have passed before Peggy and Homer Your, who recalled seeing the Rambler on two occasions at around 11.00 pm.”

I put Peggy’s first pass at 10:55pm, and I agree that the Rambler was parked in the turnout at that point. Which means that if Bidou saw NO car in the turnout, he had to have passed prior to 10:50pm or so.

“Not to mention Frank Gasser, Robert Connelly, James Owen and finally Stella Borges, who passed the turnout at approximately 11.20 pm and saw the stricken couple on the turnout floor.”

Stella passed at 11:14:30pm. 11:20pm is too late.

Stella Borges raced off to Benicia to inform Officer Daniel Pitta at 11.25 pm, or thereabouts. He would then radio Benicia Police Department of a possible 187 on Lake Herman Road.”

This is a point of contention, and I don’t believe this is what happened unless you have incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. The officers would first have raced to the scene of the crime with Stella in tow, and THEN radioed the BPD dispatcher from the Gate #10 turnout. So for a dispatch time of 11:28pm, you have to allow time for them to get to the turnout from the Enco Station at 1925 2nd Street, assess the casualties, and then call the operator.

Graysmith says Stella flagged BPD down at the Enco Station at 11:19pm, and that’s consistent with her passing the turnout at 11:14:30pm and then exceeding the speed limit into Benicia. I have heard varying estimates of BPD’s arrival at the scene, from 11:22pm to 11:26pm, but all of those times are generally consistent with the dispatch Bidou and Armenta heard at 11:28pm.

If you have, say, Pitta expressly saying that he radioed the operator while he was still on East 2nd Street, and therefore heard the dispatch go out while he was enroute to the turnout, by all means favor us with that account. However, my immediate reaction is that that sounds wrong. I believe the BPD unit would have sped to the scene first and then radioed in, but they wouldn’t have broadcast a general dispatch just based on what Stella, who was hysterical, told them.

“Had Pierre Bidou just literally arrived at the police department and after "pulling into the lot in the police department, had heard the Benicia Police Department dispatch about a call of a possible shooting and victims on Lake Herman Road," then this would be around 11.25-11.30 pm. We know the journey time from The Cottage to Benicia Police Department is around 10 minutes. This means Pierre Bidou must have passed the Lake Herman Road turnout at 11.15-11.20 pm according to his recollection of events.”

Okay, if you assume Bidou and Armenta sat idling in the parking lot for a few minutes before hearing the dispatch, then you can move their drive-by at Gate #10 to 11:15pm. But that’s still too late by about 25 minutes, assuming they really saw NO car.

“But we know this is not possible, he had to have passed the turnout prior to the Rambler first being spotted by the Your's at around 11.00 pm. Let us say he passed the turnout at 10.55 pm, he then would have arrived at Benicia Police Department at 11.05 pm, but couldn't have literally swung the car around and returned to the crime scene. The call from Officer Daniel Pitta was still at least 20 minutes in the making.”

As I said. A 10:35pm drive-by is still looking good here.

I will skip the Helen Axe statement as you’re already aware what I think.

“She stated she saw the Rambler at 10.15 pm, and then 15 minutes later at 10.30 pm. Assuming that David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen remained in the turnout until the Rambler was next spotted at around 11.00 pm, then Pierre Bidou would had to have passed the turnout prior to 10.15 pm to actually view no vehicles present.”

Nope. This ignores that th

Mike Morford link

7/21/2017 05:39:18 am

Again Ray, see my other corrected timeline. You keep mentioning that Owen was at the scene at 11:09pm because the 11:14 was changed due to his clock being off by 6 minutes. WRONG. He thought that he arrived at the scene at about 11:20pm after leaving his house. But his clock was found to be off by 6 minutes, so they changed his arrival time to 11:14 as seen & noted in the sketch. You are making the mistake of taking the time off again.

Ray Grant link

7/21/2017 06:52:12 am

“Again Ray, see my other corrected timeline. You keep mentioning that Owen was at the scene at 11:09pm because the 11:14 was changed due to his clock being off by 6 minutes. WRONG. He thought that he arrived at the scene at about 11:20pm after leaving his house. But his clock was found to be off by 6 minutes, so they changed his arrival time to 11:14 as seen & noted in the sketch. You are making the mistake of taking the time off again.”

Again, my estimate of 11:09:25pm for the Owen drive-by assumes he left the house at 10:54pm (11pm minus the six minutes), and then drove from 1735 Mini Drive to the Gate #10 turnout at the speed limit on all roads, which was mostly 35mph. That gets him to the turnout at 11:09:25pm.

There’s no way Owen arrived at the scene at 11:14pm, since Stella Medeiros says she left her house circa 11:10pm, and her clock was a minute fast, but if we give her and her mother and daughter about a minute to get settled in the car, and then drive the 2.7 miles at roughly the speed limit (35mph on Lake Herman Road), she gets there at 11:14:30pm. In which case, Stella would have arrived a half minute after Owen drove by, which is impossible.

All of these later estimates assume the drivers were putzing along at about 20mph, and it would frankly make more sense if they were exceeding the limit by 5mph or so. I live a block from a somewhat similar road, Beechwood Boulevard in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, which has a speed of 25mph, and the typical comment about drivers on that road is that NO ONE drives the limit, and the average speed is more like 35mph.

Ray Grant link

7/21/2017 05:15:20 am

“She stated she saw the Rambler at 10.15 pm, and then 15 minutes later at 10.30 pm. Assuming that David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen remained in the turnout until the Rambler was next spotted at around 11.00 pm, then Pierre Bidou would had to have passed the turnout prior to 10.15 pm to actually view no vehicles present.”

Nope. This ignores that the car had obviously moved between 10:15pm and 10:30pm, probably right before the second pass of the Axe car.

9:50pm Having chased Crow off road, Impala returns to turnout.

10pm Wesner and Connelly see a parked car facing in.

10:15pm Helen’s boyfriend sees [a car] facing in

10:20pm Frank Gasser shines a flashlight into Impala facing in.

10:25pm Zodiacs return to turnout + get into Impala.

10:30pm Helen + boyfriend pass [a car] facing out toward the road.

Again, all this is consistent with the Impala pulling out a minute or so after Helen and her boyfriend pass in their blue Oldsmobile. This would then allow Bidou, driving east, to pass the turnout circa 10:35pm and see NO car there.

“Let us say David Faraday parked up at 10.10 pm and Pierre Bidou passed the turnout at 10.09 pm. He then would have arrived at the Benicia Police Department at 10.19 pm, over an hour prior to the reporting of the murders by Officer Daniel Pitta, dispelling the claim that he and his partner Steve Armenta "were only minutes from the crime scene when it actually happened."

Faraday never parked the car in the turnout. A drive-by an hour prior to the dispatch is clearly wrong, even assuming they stopped at Mr. Ed’s to eat on the way back.

“If Helen Axe is mistaken, and Pierre Bidou passed the turnout at 10.55 pm, his journey to Benicia Police Department is 20 minutes too long.”

Helen Axe is mistaken, and Bidou would likely have spotted the Yours driving toward him if the drive-by was as late as 10:55pm.

“If Helen Axe is not mistaken, his journey to Benicia Police Department is 66 minutes too long. Either way the timeline requires an alternative.”

Again, remember that Helen Axe wasn’t even looking toward the turnout during her initial pass at 10:15pm. I find it absolutely amazing that this one witness, who was not a particularly reliable person to begin with, could affect the way the most notorious serial murder case is viewed for more than 48 years.

“So where did Pierre Bidou go after the drugs bust that night. His statements to either his superiors or to any documentary, with regards to the movement of vehicles on Lake Herman Road that night, are irrelevant to the immediate timeline around the murders if this discrepancy is not resolved.”

I’m sorry, but you can’t throw Bidou’s statement out just because it doesn’t agree with the folklore that’s attached itself to the case. His testimony is consistent with a drive-by of the turnout circa 10:35pm-10:40pm.

Again, I’m sure Bidou and his partner drove into Benicia and stopped somewhere, most likely Mr. Ed’s, had something to eat while possibly catching up on paperwork or assessing the physical evidence from the drug bust inside the car, such that they pulled into the parking lot circa 11:25pm or thereabouts. It’s entirely possible that Bidou doesn’t say this during interviews because police generally are sensitive about the cliche of them hanging out in doughnut shops. But again, as someone who was out on the road for a living for 37 years, I can attest that the scheduling of the lunch break or a coffee break for the end of the tour of duty while you pick through the remains of your work load would be perfectly natural. If you go back into the office early, your superiors may decide that you don’t have enough to do.

"My partner and I turned around at that time and responded to the call. We felt we were only minutes from the crime scene when it actually happened and for the best of my recollection we did not pass any other vehicle or traffic."

“This statement would only be said if he thought this critical period around the murders was relevant to his movements, indicating that he was giving the impression he was backtracking from arriving at Benicia PD after passing the turnout. If Ray, as you said he exited LHR at 10.40 pm, went to a burger bar and then arrived at Benicia PD 50 minutes later, then stating the above is disingenuous.”

I don’t agree. All he might mean is that, being in Benicia (perhaps at the Mr. Ed’s, he was within a few minutes of the murder scene. In other words, THEY WERE NEVER MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES DRIVE FROM THE SCENE. I think the comment about not passing any other vehicles just means that, as they drove into Benicia from Lake Herman Road circa 10:40pm, they didn’t see any other vehicles on the road at that time.

In other words, I think you’re jumping all over the semantics of Bidou’s statement, and simply ignoring everything else

Ray Grant link

7/21/2017 05:17:13 am

“This statement would only be said if he thought this critical period around the murders was relevant to his movements, indicating that he was giving the impression he was backtracking from arriving at Benicia PD after passing the turnout. If Ray, as you said he exited LHR at 10.40 pm, went to a burger bar and then arrived at Benicia PD 50 minutes later, then stating the above is disingenuous.”

I don’t agree. All he might mean is that, being in Benicia (perhaps at the Mr. Ed’s, he was within a few minutes of the murder scene. In other words, THEY WERE NEVER MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES DRIVE FROM THE SCENE. I think the comment about not passing any other vehicles just means that, as they drove into Benicia from Lake Herman Road circa 10:40pm, they didn’t see any other vehicles on the road at that time.

In other words, I think you’re jumping all over the semantics of Bidou’s statement, and simply ignoring everything else we know about the comings and goings of vehicles around the time of the murder.

But, now that Mike Morford has expressed terror that I might call a witness on the telephone, I’ll give some thought to actually calling Bidou and see if he’ll clear the discrepancy up (though frankly I don’t think there’s a discrepancy).

Richard

7/21/2017 06:10:47 am

Sorry to both of you in advance. I currently believe James Owen passed the turnout at approximately 11.07-11.08 pm. "Responding officers asked Mr Owen what time he left the house Friday 12/20/68. He stated it was 11.00 pm. He checked the time on the cuckoo clock in the dining room. Responding officers had Mr Owen phone for the time to check the accuracy of the clock". The clock he went by was found to be 6 minutes fast, therefore he left his residence at 10.54 pm. The police sketch at this juncture already had him passing the turnout at 11.14 pm. This now had to be corrected, having James Owen passing the turnout at approximately 11.08 pm. It fits perfectly, deducting the 6 minutes from either end of his timeline.
This timeline has James Owen leaving his 1735 Mini Drive, Vallejo residence at 10.54 pm, arriving at the turnout at approximately 11.08 pm. The journey of 14 minutes (shown on Google maps or calculating yourself), bearing in mind he would have encountered no traffic delays on this particular route, holds firm when we look at the nine mile journey estimated by car. This opens up what I believe is a near 12 minute window. I'll get back to Stella later. But James Owen, even driving incredibly slowing hits Gate #10 at 11.08 pm. Possibly as early as 11.06 pm or 11.07 pm.

Richard

7/21/2017 06:25:46 am

But to be perfectly honest, James Owen may have left his house at 10.54 pm, which we all agree on. But it was freezing that night. Didn't he have to defrost or de-ice his vehicle before driving away. This could totally change everything.

Mike Morford link

7/21/2017 07:04:29 am

Wow, isn't it great for us all to be on same page even about one thing? Good point about the cold weather,and warming the car up. I also wonder if the roads were icy at all effecting speed or travel.

Ray Grant link

7/21/2017 07:00:58 am

“Sorry to both of you in advance. I currently believe James Owen passed the turnout at approximately 11.07-11.08 pm. "Responding officers asked Mr Owen what time he left the house Friday 12/20/68. He stated it was 11.00 pm. He checked the time on the cuckoo clock in the dining room. Responding officers had Mr Owen phone for the time to check the accuracy of the clock". The clock he went by was found to be 6 minutes fast, therefore he left his residence at 10.54 pm. The police sketch at this juncture already had him passing the turnout at 11.14 pm. This now had to be corrected, having James Owen passing the turnout at approximately 11.08 pm. It fits perfectly, deducting the 6 minutes from either end of his timeline.
This timeline has James Owen leaving his 1735 Mini Drive, Vallejo residence at 10.54 pm, arriving at the turnout at approximately 11.08 pm. The journey of 14 minutes (shown on Google maps or calculating yourself), bearing in mind he would have encountered no traffic delays on this particular route, holds firm when we look at the nine mile journey estimated by car. This opens up what I believe is a near 12 minute window. I'll get back to Stella later. But James Owen, even driving incredibly slowing hits Gate #10 at 11.08 pm. Possibly as early as 11.06 pm or 11.07 pm.”

Again, I did the calculations years ago when I was preparing my book, but from 1735 Mini Drive to the Gate #10 turnout, starting at 10:54pm and going the speed limit on all roads (roughly 35mph with slight fluctuations, since I think the total was six different roads), gets you there at 11:09:25pm. I’m not going to budge from that estimate, but if he got there a minute or so earlier, it wouldn’t change the timeframe significantly.

Mike Morford link

7/21/2017 06:33:04 am

This was Owen's account the morning after the attack:
http://www.zodiackiller.com/LHRPR13.html

Owen estimated he was there at 11:20pm. You are right in the fact that Owen did say he left at 11pm and that his clock was found to be off by 6 minutes:
http://www.zodiackiller.com/LHRPR15.html

The problem now by making Owen get there at 11:08-11:09,etc, is that he is now there very close to the time the hunters are leaving. Then he is there almost on top of them. In the end, the 'official' timeline and stance of investigators is a 6 minute window. Owen told me something that was not in the reports. He said that police had him drive the route while they accompanied him, so there are elements of the investigation that we have not read about. In fact, I have some more reports that I think mention Owen that I will look thru and post. My main computer is being replaced and once I get my new one, I will look thru the reports and post it

Richard

7/21/2017 07:09:48 am

Yes, that's right Mike. Page 15 of the police report dated 24th December had him leaving his house at 11.00 pm, but RO's asked him to check it's accuracy, which he probably did on the 24th or shortly thereafter. He found out it was 6 minutes fast. The sketches with 11.14 pm, I contend were drawn up before he checked his clock, so the 11.14 pm time on the sketches should really be 11.08 pm, if corrected accordingly. That has him driving at approximately 40 mph on his 9.5 mile journey. We can never know his average speed first hand, but if the police calculated his journey time, or he estimated he went past Gate#10 at 9.14 pm, then this was before the cuckoo clock was checked 4 to 5 days later. They just didn't amend the sketch.

Mike Morford link

7/21/2017 07:12:19 am

Adding to the confusion, the sketches are not dated

Richard

7/21/2017 07:12:09 am

But like I said above, he left his house at 10.54 pm, but did he begin his journey at 10.54 pm.

Richard

7/21/2017 07:27:16 am

Have a look at http://www.zodiackiller.com/LHRPR6.html Mike. The estimated time in the top left in regards to the said witness Stella Medeiros is 11.14-11.20 pm. They are saying estimated, in regards to James Owen's time of 11.14 pm. In other words she arrived at Gate #10 somewhere after 11.14 pm, which they already surmised because of the bodies in the turnout. Therefore they had already decided on James Owen's time, which they had placed on the sketch. I may be wrong, but at the bottom of the page this is dated 23rd December, the day before they asked Owen to check his clock. Therefore 11.14 minus 6.

Ray Grant link

7/21/2017 08:09:03 am

“But to be perfectly honest, James Owen may have left his house at 10.54 pm, which we all agree on. But it was freezing that night. Didn't he have to defrost or de-ice his vehicle before driving away. This could totally change everything.”

No, I don’t think so. Check Google Maps. Pretty much every house on Mini Drive in Vallejo has an attached garage, as did for example 4195 Via San Jose in Riverside in 1966. I think that’s typical of houses in California back then. He might have had to drive slightly slower because of frost on the road, but that probably would just have kept him around the speed limit, which makes my estimate that much more accurate.

“The problem now by making Owen get there at 11:08-11:09,etc, is that he is now there very close to the time the hunters are leaving. Then he is there almost on top of them.”

Not really. The hunters would have left circa 11:05pm, a few minutes after the Yours (11pm), and I space them five minutes apart for convenience, but since all the cars are going in the same direction (east), each essentially has the road to himself.

“In the end, the 'official' timeline and stance of investigators is a 6 minute window.”

If you assume Owen was going faster than the speed limit, maybe he gets there circa 11:09pm or even 11:08:30pm, but I think anything earlier than that is stretching it. Richard, you know cars and speed better than I do, but making up a minute or so on a 15-20 minute trip is hard, and I doubt a man like Owen would have been going much faster than the speed limit. Plus you have to subtract a half-minute for the time from his drive-by to when he hears the shot, and subtract another half minute because Stella would otherwise have spotted the exiting car from the bottom of the hill.

So if we start with an early extreme of 11:08:30pm, and then have the gun shot at 11:09pm, and then keep Stella’s arrival at the bottom of the hill at 11:14pm, we’re looking at five minutes for the murders, at the outside.

“Yes, that's right Mike. Page 15 of the police report dated 24th December had him leaving his house at 11.00 pm, but RO's asked him to check it's accuracy, which he probably did on the 24th or shortly thereafter. He found out it was 6 minutes fast. The sketches with 11.14 pm, I contend were drawn up before he checked his clock, so the 11.14 pm time on the sketches should really be 11.08 pm, if corrected accordingly. That has him driving at approximately 40 mph on his 9.5 mile journey. We can never know his average speed first hand, but if the police calculated his journey time, or he estimated he went past Gate#10 at 9.14 pm, then this was before the cuckoo clock was checked 4 to 5 days later. They just didn't amend the sketch.”

Again, I think 40mph for an average is too fast when you consider that he was driving over six different roads, with a couple of hairy turns mixed in, and the stretch from Columbus Parkway to Gate #10 is just three miles of it. Richard, I think that’s your speedway orientation taking over.

In the meantime, I have to take two of my four cats, Cortez and Carmale, to the vet this morning. They weren’t strays, but they were “dumped” house pets who unfortunately spent part of their lives on the street, so they have to get cortisone shots every three months. I better mention that or Morf might take my sudden disappearance the wrong way.

“Wow, isn't it great for us all to be on same page even about one thing?”

As I told Morf several years ago, he and his friends take these things personally; I don’t. If someone attacks me, I just respond in kind. And I have never attacked anyone who didn’t attack me first. The problem is, people seem to forget that they attacked me first, because I’m better at defending myself than they are.

If Richard and I took each other’s insults to heart, we’d have stopped talking to each other back whenever he posted that ugly thread about my blog on Morf’s board. Wait a minute! How dare you, Richard! I forgot all about that! But that was a lot of Branston Pickle sandwiches ago, wasn’t it? Plus I just sent paperback copies of both my books to his home address in Warwickshire.

I do have a question for Richard that I’ll check the board for when I get back. I was looking at your address on Google Maps. Do you live on the side of the street with the new buildings (I guess they call them “flats” over there?) or the older buildings? I was curious because there’s such a contrast between the two, and the older buildings look like the houses you see in English movies.

By the way, if you check Google Maps for Paul McCartney’s old house, it’s easy to tell which address was Paul’s, because there’s always a big crowd of tourists around it.

Richard

7/22/2017 12:34:00 am

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4087022,-1.5201255,3a,75y,39.93h,93.18t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRMlqPLpjLmrJnUS3HZhzoQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Bottom right flat.

Ray Grant link

7/22/2017 07:37:24 am

It never fails to amaze me how the housing in England looks English, and is so visually distinguishable from the housing in America. You would think that the architecture all over the world would begin to look alike, particularly as we move forward in time, but there's no sign of that. And the same thing with the layout of the roads and the look of business districts and shopping districts.

You also see that in the Zodiac case with those single story ranch houses with attached garages that are everywhere in Vallejo and Riverside. Whereas my neighborhood, the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, looks more like Presidio Heights in San Francisco, but with a lot more vegetation.

Richard

7/22/2017 08:20:43 am

I like the Tudor housing and the thatched cottages in rural England, as opposed to the cities, with the exception of historic buildings. I don't recall if you said you had been to England, but Devon and Cornwall are the places I always recommend. I am fully aware of the differences between America and England, but that is a good thing. What a bland world it would be if everything looked the same, much like the high streets up and down the country, littered with the same large chains. I actually follow American affairs virtually every day, particularly the politics, which is actually more entertaining than most of the television shows. I probably know American politics better than the Zodiac, but I suppose that doesn't come as a shock.

Ray Grant link

7/22/2017 07:44:42 am

By the way, Richard, Amazon estimates that your books should arrive sometime between Monday, July 31 and Friday, August 4. I'm extremely happy with the look of the paperbacks. Amazon does a great job, particularly considering the volume of manuscript uploads they're dealing with. If you ever consider turning some or all of your website articles into a book, I heartily recommend the Kindle Direct and Create Space platforms. And shop for a cover on the GoOnWrite.com website. Tell James I sent you.

Richard

7/22/2017 08:31:04 am

Thanks Ray, I have thought of a book or Kindle, but I'm not sure I have the finances. I am contemplating a Zodiac channel on Youtube, covering the Zodiac crimes visually with a backdrop and studio layout. It would create 3/4 videos per day, with interviews across the pond. The only downside is my ugly mug scaring people away. But I am surprised this hasn't been done yet. It would feature varied opinions, visual displays of the crime scenes and in depth analysis. Interviews via webcam opens up a world of possibilities.

Mike Morford link

7/22/2017 03:59:08 pm

Richard, that's an excellent idea. I hope you decide to do a Youtube channel. If you do,count me as a subscriber!

Richard

7/22/2017 02:37:43 pm

Ray, remember the missing casing, well we have a missing bullet as well. Any ideas?

Ray Grant link

7/23/2017 03:25:26 am

I’m getting a bit tired of repeating myself on these timelines, since they’re available in my books. I repeat the offer to gift MIke Morford both of my books on Kindle, all I need is an email address to do that, which he can send to [email protected]. That’s assuming, of course, that he hasn’t already read both books.

But let’s do a quick comparison between the Consensus Timeline which Morford believes, and the Ray Grant Timeline, with comments attached to each entry.

The Consensus Timeline

11:14pm James Owen drives past Gate #10.

The distance from Owen’s house to Gate #10 is 9.1 miles, and we’re agreed that he left his house circa 10:54pm. So if it took him about 20 minutes to go about 9 miles, he was driving 27mph. That sounds rather slow, considering Owen often took that route, and the speed limit on those six roads averages 35mph.

11:20pm Stella Medeiros drives past Gate #10

The distance from Stella’s house to Gate #10 is 2.7 miles, and she says she left her house circa 11:10pm. Her clock was a minute fast, but allowing time for Stella and her mother and her daughter to get settled, 11:10pm seems reasonable. So if it took Stella about 10 minutes to go 2.7 miles, she was traveling about 16mph. That sounds preposterously slow, considering that she drove that road every day of her life.

It sounds even slower when we realize that Stella says she then speeded up and was driving 60-70mph on her way into Benicia to look for police cruisers.

11:25pm Stella flags down Officer Pitta at the Enco Station on East 2nd

Pitta says, in his police report, that he talked to Stella at 11:25pm and drove to the Gate #10 turnout, arriving at 11:28pm, at which time the dispatch went out.

In other words, we have 3 whole minutes for the hysterical Stella to tell the cops what she saw, for the cops to drive the 3.3 miles from 1925 East 2nd Street to the Gate #10 turnout, and for them to report what they found in the turnout in time for the 11:28pm dispatch.

If you haven’t seen the 2016 movie SULLY, about The Miracle on the Hudson, I highly recommend it. In it, the NTSB points out that Sully had time to return to La Guardia if he’d just turned back toward the airport right after the bird strike. And Sully, in the movie, points out that no pilot in that situation would IMMEDIATELY turn back toward the airport, and that the pilots doing the simulation already knew which heading to take, which they wouldn’t have known in real life and in real time. Also, they couldn’t land the plane at Teterboro until the 17th try, which means they crashed the first 16 times.

So I’m sure it’s theoretically possible that Stella flagged down the cops circa 11:25pm, that they IMMEDIATELY headed for the Gate #10 turnout and covered the 3.3 miles in three minutes, that they pulled in and IMMEDIATELY gave the police operator the details of the crime scene, such that the dispatch could hit the air at 11:28pm.

However, I think that’s unlikely. I think it’s more likely that Officer Pitta was making his report after the fact, and that he checked the official time of the dispatch and then worked backward from it. The problem is, he didn’t allow time for the cops to first listen to the hysterical Stella as she reported what she’d seen, and then for the cops to race to the Gate #10 turnout, and then for the cops to assess the crime scene before the dispatch went out at 11:28pm.

Graysmith says the cops were flagged down at 11:19pm, which makes sense if, as I say, Stella drove past the Gate #10 turnout at 11:14:30pm. I’ve seen two different times for the cops pulling into the turnout, 11:22pm which seems a bit early, and 11:26pm which sounds more like it.

In short, the Stella/Pitta Timeline of 11:20pm/11:25pm/11:28pm is extremely doubtful. I will correct it with my own timeline in the next comment.

Ray Grant link

7/23/2017 03:26:14 am

The Ray Grant Timeline

10:54pm James Owen leaves his house at 1735 MIni Drive.

11:09:25pm Owen drives past Gate #10.

He coves the 9.1 miles in just over 15 minutes, which means he’s going about 36mph, with a speed limit of 35mph, and sounds about right.

11:09:50pm Owen hears the shot

Owen says he thought he heard a shot when he was a quarter mile beyond (the turnout). If Owen was driving 36 mph, he drove a mile every 1:40, which means it would take him 25 seconds to get a quarter mile past the Gate #10 turnout. But let’s round that to 11:10pm for the sake of sanity.

11:10pm-11:14pm The murders take place

11:14:30pm Stella drives past Gate #10

Stella covers the 2.7 miles in 4 minutes and 30 seconds, which means she’s going about 36mph, with a speed limit of 35mph, and sounds about right.

11:19pm Stella flags down Pitta at 1925 East 2nd Street.

Stella covers the 3.3 miles in 4 minutes and 30 seconds, which means she was actually going about 44mph on average. She may have sped up to 60mph-70mph on Reservoir Road and then slowed down on East 2nd Street, or she may have flagged down the cops slightly earlier, circa 11:18pm.

11:22pm/11:26pm The cops pull into the Gate #10 turnout.

This is probably a good range of estimates for their arrival. If Stella got to the Enco Station a minute or so sooner than 11:19pm, 11:22pm is possible, but anything in the 11:22pm-11:26pm range is realistic.

The cops then check the bodies, report in, and the dispatch goes out at 11:28pm.

The main import of this corrected timeline is that the time windows for an individual Zodiac to get through, particularly from either East 2nd Street or the eastern end of Lake Herman Road, have now narrowed almost to the point of closing.

The Yours passed the Gate #10 turnout circa 11pm. They would have pulled off Reservoir Road onto East 2nd Avenue circa 11:02pm. So the earliest someone could have pulled onto Reservoir Road heading back up toward Lake Herman Road would have been about 11:03pm. But, since the hunters would have passed the turnout circa 11:05pm, they would have passed Reservoir Road circa 11:06pm, so the earliest someone coming up Reservoir Road could have pulled onto Lake Herman Road and headed west toward the Gate #10 turnout would have been circa 11:06:30pm, with him pulling into the turnout circa 11:07:30pm.

And anyone pulling onto Lake Herman Road from further east, in the direction the hunters were going, would have had even less time to get to the Gate #10 turnout.

The alternative is that the killer was on Lake Herman Road, driving east, while the hunters were passing Gate #10 (11:05pm) and Owen had already pulled onto the road from Columbus Parkway (11:04:25pm). So at 11:05pm, Owen is about a half mile from the western end of Lake Herman Road, driving east, and the hunters are passing the Gate #10 turnout, and the killer has to be in between the two other cars, somewhere between 1 1/2 miles and 2 !/2 miles west of the turnout.

Ray Grant link

7/23/2017 03:27:14 am

Let’s assume the killer arrives at the earliest possible time:

11:07:30pm A single individual killer pulls into the Gate #10 turnout.

The killer parks parallel to the Rambler and shuts his lights off. He doesn’t move. But even if he were cuddling with Betty Lou, David Faraday would have to have noticed the car pulling in because he’d have heard it and its headlights would have swept over him. So the killer doesn’t move and David Faraday doesn’t move. For two minutes.

11:09:25pm James Owen drives past the Gate #10 turnout.

Neither car has moved, both cars have their lights out, and neither car has a door opened in the direction of the other car.

David Faraday was an Eagle Scout. He was a proactive young man. He had the merit badges to show for that. And yet, for two minutes, he does absolutely nothing other than turn his engine on, which we have to assume David did and not his killer.

When Owen happens by, David has the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the distraction by simply putting his car into REVERSE and hitting the accelerator, which would almost immediately take him out onto the road, from which he can either continue to REVERSE down the hill or shift into DRIVE and head east. But David doesn’t do any of that.

So the relatively early arrival of the killer into the turnout (11:07:30pm) doesn’t work.

Ray Grant link

7/23/2017 03:28:11 am

So we have to assume that the killer pulled into the Gate #10 turnout at the last possible moment, which would have been 11:09pm. Any earlier than that, and David has time to react. Any later than that, and James Owen sees the killer’s car pull into the turnout from the bottom of the hill.

11:09pm A single individual killer pulls into the Gate #10 turnout.

So the killer pulls into the turnout circa 11:09pm. And David Faraday jumps up and immediately turns the engine on. If the engine isn’t OFF before then, it’s hotter than lukewarm when Benicia PD checks it 15 minutes later. Perhaps David is about to REVERSE out of the turnout, but the arrival of James Owen’s car distracts him, and just after Owen goes by, the killer jumps out and fires a shot into the right rear window, and then one into the right rear door header.

Except that Owen only hears one shot, and that comes about half a minute after he passes the turnout, when he’s a quarter mile east of the location. One would expect Owen to have heard TWO shots, and sooner than that, in relatively rapid fire, one going into the right rear window and one going into the right rear door header.

The consensus view of the case is that the Zodiac Killer, a lone gunman, pulled into the turnout and parked beside the Faraday Rambler. He immediately jumped out, ran to the Rambler and began firing into the car, first into the right rear window, then into the right rear door header, in an attempt to rouse the two teenagers out of the car.

In this scenario, David turns his engine on, either immediately after the killer pulls in or just before the killer starts shooting into the car, but for some reason, even after the killer demonstrates that he’s up to no good, David doesn’t take evasive action by REVERSING the car onto Lake Herman Road and getting the Hell out of there.

It’s worth pointing out that, in an eerily similar situation circa 9:40pm that night, William Crow IMMEDIATELY put his car in gear and pulled out of the turnout and got out of Dodge, even though it meant driving east, away from where his house was. David was an Eagle Scout and known to be proactive, and yet he just sits there.

Richard Grinell is fond of suggesting that people are FROZEN IN FEAR under such circumstances. Betty Lou didn’t run for her life even after she saw David get shot in the head, because she was FROZEN IN FEAR. And David was clearly FROZEN IN FEAR even though he had the means of escape at hand, just by putting the car in REVERSE and stamping the accelerator. William Crow, who wasn’t an Eagle Scout, reacted immediately to a similar situation just 90 minutes earlier at the same spot.

And the killer didn’t exacly jump them the way the consensus view suggests. He stayed in his car as Owen passed by, and it took him at least 25 more seconds after Owen passed to get off the first shot into the right rear window. Even if David were only half the man William Crow was, or less than that, he should still have had time to get away.

Like the killer said about Cheri Bates, David and Betty Lou went to the slaughter like lambs.

And let’s not forget all the other things about this scenario that don’t make sense:

a, Boy Scout David deciding to relocate to the turnout late and thus miss his curfew;

b, Betty Lou having a full bladder but not protesting that move;

c. David still having the ring in his fingers after cuddling in the car for an hour;

d. The engine being lukewarm, as if the motor had been off until circa 11:09pm;

e. No frost on the car windows even though the heater was off;

f. the ballistics, two victims presumably free to run who both had GSR on them

As I’ve said many times, the consensus view of the Zodiac case never made any sense. People following the case and thinking, like Tahoe27, that they were very knowledgable about it, made all sorts of simple assumptions that turn out not to be true.

They missed the Rambler not being parked on LHR until 10:50pm. They didn’t look at Betty Lou’s autopsy. They missed the significance of David still having the ring in his fingers. They missed the significance of the engine only being lukewarm, which means that the engine would be off while they cuddled, which would mean condensation on the windows. They missed the impossibility of the ballistics.

For a case with this level of media saturation, that’s a lot to miss.

Ray Grant link

7/23/2017 03:34:59 am

"Thanks Ray, I have thought of a book or Kindle, but I'm not sure I have the finances."

Richard, buying an ebook cover on GoOnWrite.com (James is English, by the way) costs about $50. A paperback cover is more like $80. You can put a book up on Amazon for free. My dentist pays people $16,000 to package his suspense novels, and I keep telling him he's crazy. The point is, you can try the Amazon platform and then do something else if you're not satisfied. Plus, as you'll see when my books get there, the Create Space paperbacks look like publishing house books.

Richard

7/23/2017 08:50:29 am

Thanks Ray, checked it out, looks good. By the way did you ever see the autopsy details on David.

Ray Grant link

7/23/2017 09:25:46 am

I was banned from Tom’s message board on June 27, 2014 at 1:16am, by Tahoe27.
Here it is, post #29 of that thread.

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/reply/143135/Finding-the-Zodiac-appearance-face-with-his-DNA - reply-143135

Then, eight days later, on July 5, 2014 at 6:27 AM, Tahoe27 had the unmitigated gall to copy my diplomatic rendering of the David Faraday autopsy onto post #34 in this thread. Banning me from message boards has never stopped her from quoting me verbatim when someone needs some information about the case:

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/6767/David-Faraday-Autopsy?page=2 - .WXTIvoqQwxc

This was what Ray had shared. I will obtain a copy myself so that we can see the actual document. It is public information. Ray was the first to post about it and share it as far as we know.

***

REPORT OF AUTOPSY

OFFICE OF THE
CORONER OF SOLANO COUNTY

MORGAN L. HANNIGAN, Coroner

Name: David Arthur Faraday
Post mortem at: Colonial Chapels Date: 12/21/68 Time: 1:30pm
Place of death: DOA Vallejo General Hospital Date: 12/21/68 Time: 12:05am
Age: 17 years Sex: Male Color: White Height: 68” Weight: 135#

EXTERNAL EXAMINATION

Marks of identification: None. A soft, discrete mass (2.0 cm.) is palpable over the right side of the face at the right of the mandible (towards the angle of the jaw).

Wounds: See below on the cranial activity. A small ½ inch bruise is noted over the left side of the neck.

General: Well developed, well nourished, slender built. Scalp hair is brown. Irides are brown; pupils are equal at 0.6cm. Rigor mortis is 4+. Body is embalmed. Back and extremities are not remarkable.

INTERNAL EXAMINATION

Thoracic cavity: External examination only. There are no evidences of injuries or trauma.

Abdominal cavity: External examination only There are no evidences of injuries or trauma.

Cranial cavity: Head: A bullet wound (3/16” diameter) of entry is seen penetrating the upper slight posterior area of the left ear and entering the scalp and skull bone beneath. The bullet follows a straight horizontal course but angling forward and to the right, going through the left temporal lobe. The base of the frontal lobes in the midline and inferior borders of the left frontal lobe and anterior margins of the left temporal lobe. The irregularly flattened bullet is recovered here. In the dura, without injury to the skull bone. There is no tumors to the brain. Subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages are present. There are comminuted fractures of both left and right temporal bones and sphenoid bones.

Immediate cause of death: Bullet wound through the head and brain with hemorrhages.

Signature: S. Shirai, M. D. Pathologist

By the way, Richard, if you’d like to do me a favor, go on Morf’s board to this thread:

http://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=542&p=54597 - p54597

Here is Tahoe27 on the penultimate post of that thread:

by Tahoe27 » Sun Jul 02, 2017 4:54 pm
Seems too he reiterates "dark colored"...not a white Chevy which some think Zodiac was driving that evening. If one believes this car that followed Crow was Zodiac though, you might have to reconsider it was more than one person that night.

This is a misreading of Mike Rodelli’s post just above hers. In the new book, America's Jack the Ripper by Søren Korsgaard, which I have already reviewed on Amazon, William Crow does NOT say that the car he encountered was “dark colored.” He says that the sports car he was driving—his girl friend’s car—was “dark colored.”

Crow also says, in the same book, that the responding officer was responsible for BOTH descriptions in the witness statement in the police report, BLUE and VALIENT [sic]. In other words, Crow never described the car as BLUE. Tahoe27 has insisted for years that the car was BLUE, and therefore could not be mistaken for a white Chevy. But he never said it was BLUE. He described it to Howard Davis as a “light-colored Chevrolet.”

Feel free to quote me on that, if you file a post on that thread.

Richard

7/23/2017 12:04:14 pm

What do you make of this, posted by Mike Rodelli -"I was indirectly the source of the LHR reports on Tom's site. However, Tom does not have all of the pages of that report. There is a second page of Helen Axe's report dated 12/23/68 that did not make it onto his site. On that page it states, "Miss Axe further states that when they were driving over the road about 10:20 PM they saw a new bright yellow foreign car with a hardtop. There were two Caucasians sitting in the car. The driver was a male, the passenger's sex was not determined. The car was parked on the road facing Benicia east of the area where Faraday and Jensen were parked."

My question is this: How many new "foreign cars" (generally AKA "sports cars") were driving on lonely LHR that night?! Was there some kind of rally? The fact that there were two Caucasians in the car and a male was driving is very interesting because that could describe Crow and his girlfriend. Did Crow, who has seemingly changed his story since 1968, tell the police the truth when he said that he "immediately" left the area after the encounter? Or did he stay and go up the road east of Gate 10 to see if the guy who hassled them might return, so Crow could settle his score with him man to man? But more importantly: What type of car was Crow in that night? Was it a "new, bright yellow hardtop" sports car? What was the make? And most importantly: Where had his girlfriend purchased the car-- in SF where she lived or in Napa while she was visiting her parents? What dealer had she used?"

Ray Grant link

7/23/2017 02:55:02 pm

I hate to say this, but though I regard Mike Rodelli as a bright guy and a valuable researcher, I always take what he says about witnesses with a grain of salt. Over the years he has gone on crusades against witnesses whose testimony he doesn’t like (Bidou, Crow, Pelissetti), presumably because they lead away from Mr. X as Zodiac, and has staunchly defended witnesses like Donald Fouke, who talks out of both sides of his mouth. On the Fincher documentary, at the 1h 28m mark, Fouke directly contradicts himself in consecutive sentences. He says he didn’t put the specific address in the report because he assumed the killer didn’t live there; and then, when pressed, he says that he thought he DID put the address in the report, all those years ago.

Rodelli seems to believe that some witnesses are inherently honest and others are inherently dishonest, whereas I tend to believe some witnesses are more reliable than others (Leo Suennen for example I would classify as completely unreliable; I would not believe anything that came out of his mouth). I also accept some parts of statements and dismiss other parts. I think Helen Axe was correct about there being a car in the turnout when she passed, and the shifting orientation of that car, but her identification of the car was mistaken. I think Peggy Your saw the Rambler in the turnout circa 10:55pm, but she didn’t see the kids inside. And all of those judgments are based on the circumstantial context and what other witnesses have told us.

I disagree that Crow changed his story. His 2004 statement is generally consistent with what he said in 1968, and has the amount of variation in detail one would expect of an honest account.

“I kept making macho statements, but not totally without some sense about me, I drove home.” I think, had William Crow returned to the road that night, he would have been honest about it, especially since he does say that he returned to the Gate #10 turnout that weekend, most likely on Sunday, to confirm the location. He took a shotgun with him just to be on the safe side.

Crow also describes his girl friend’s sports car as “dark-colored,” and if Helen Axe’s statement is accurate, she describes a bright yellow foreign car. Two cars does not a rally make. Also, I suspect that if you did own a sports car, Lake Herman Road would be one of the places you’d take it to test it out, as Crow says and does. The only interesting thing about that lost page of Helen Axe’s statement is that it does mention a rogue car that has not been accounted for in any of the other statements. That there were only one or two rogue cars on the road that night (the car Owen mentions that he passed near the western end of the road is the only other one I can think of) that weren’t mentioned by more than one witness tells us there wasn’t much traffic out there. Which tells us that what traffic there was was significant.

And I’ve said this before, but it seems clear that Crow was not familiar with the makes and models of cars. Back in the 1960s, it was a point of pride for young males to be able to identify passing cars by make, model, and sometimes even year. I remember when I was a school crossing guard in 8th grade, 1964-1965, that my two fellow guards used to constantly quiz me about passing cars, since I didn’t seem too knowledgeable or enthusiastic about them. That Crow didn’t even identify the make and model of his ex-girl friend’s car in the 1968 report tells me he wasn’t a car enthusiast. So his inability to identify either his car or the other car isn’t suspicious, though it would be unusual for males of that time (I would also be in that group of unusual males who didn't care about cars).

Richard

7/24/2017 12:42:35 pm

Here we have a killer or killers who tirelessly wrote to the newspapers to convince us he/they were the killer. The August 31st letters described the clothing and position of the bodies. The immediate reply to Jack Stiltz supplying extra details to the San Francisco Examiner. His phone calls. The writing on the car door. The Paul Stine shirt piece. The Bus Bomb letter rebuttal to Chief Martin Lee. The letter writer was eager to convince us he was the killer. The crimes themselves proved he took inordinate risks, such as Berryessa and Presidio Heights. But his/their simplest way of tying all four crimes together was to use the same gun in each crime, or leave a pre-fired bullet at Berryessa. However the killer/s decided to constantly change weapon. It certainly wasn't to minimize risk, as he hadn't displayed much of this in his murders. I doubt any gun used was registered to the owner. Therefore it was a simple matter to bury the gun, sealed, in a discreet location separating the murder weapon from the killer/s, until required for the next attack. What are the chances the killer had access to weaponry, taking it surreptitiously, yet returning it after the crime. It seems odd that a killer/s did everything possible to link himself/themselves to the crimes, but failed to choose a method of certainty, by using the same gun.

Ray Grant link

7/25/2017 03:22:40 am

ZODIAC KILLER SOLVED by Ray Grant, Chapter 18: Baby Block Cryptography, "Gun Numbers" section.

If you bother to read the ebook I gifted you, you'll find it answers pretty much any question you have about the case.

Richard

8/3/2017 09:45:11 pm

Thanks Ray for the Amazon books. I have started to read them. I hope you visit again despite our disagreements. All the best Richard.

LAKE HERMAN ROAD-THE FALSE TIMELINE

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