OUT OF SIGHT ON THE WEST BANK?

12/17/2024

One of the eyewitnesses on Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968 was James Owen, who described seeing the Faraday Rambler parked on the east bank with an unidentified vehicle to its right, approximately 10 feet away in his first statement and 3-4 feet away in his second statement. He recalled seeing nobody "in the cars or around them". If James Owen had seen between the vehicles, which were just a short distance apart, with no persons in between them, then it's significant that he made no mention of the Rambler passenger door being wide open (as found by responding officers later that night).

Many have speculated that the Zodiac Killer, after extracting the couple from the Rambler, saw the approaching vehicle of James Owen, shut the Rambler door and forced them out of sight behind the vehicles. Once James Owen had passed the turnout he re-emerged with David and Betty and killed them fairly promptly (James Owen thought he heard a shot about 30 seconds after he passed Gate #10). However, this version of events is almost certainly false, because the shell casing found on the front passenger floorboard of the Rambler by investigators could not have entered the Rambler through a closed door. The passenger door had to be open when the Zodiac Killer began firing.

If the couple were not concealed behind the vehicles, but were in the turnout, then the only logical answer is that the Zodiac Killer forced the couple over to the west bank, where an approaching vehicle's headlights heading towards Benicia would not illuminate the trio. They would be hidden in darkness. Once James Owen had passed the turnout, the Zodiac Killer once again forces the couple back across the turnout, to the illuminated area around the vehicles and begins his murderous exploits. But the Rambler door should have been open in this scenario also. Something that James Owen should have noticed.

Betty Lou's direction of travel from the front passenger door, struck 5 times on the right side of her back

Betty Lou Jensen

One might expect that a killer standing in front of the open passenger door and forcing the occupants to exit this door, would have to usher Betty Lou Jensen to his left, with David exiting second, having been positioned to the right side of Betty Lou Jensen. However, David was found lying on the turnout floor with his feet touching the right rear wheel, with Betty running across the turnout in a westerly direction from somewhere near the open passenger door, having been murdered after David Faraday and shot 5 times to the right side of her back.

The grouping of casings, the position she waa found in the turnout and the bullet pathways discovered at autopsy, clearly shows her direction of travel that night. This apparent switching of positions, with Betty Lou Jensen to the right of David Faraday, when the opposite may have been expected, suggests that they were not murdered immediately after leaving the Rambler. In fact, the possible switching of positions would support the notion of the couple being hidden from view when James Owen passed, who were then relocated back to the side of the Rambler as James Owen disappeared into the distance. This would explain why Betty was to the right of David when the shooting began.

Attempted escape path of Betty Lou Jensen

If James Owen saw two vehicles alongside each other with the doors closed, there appears little reason for the Rambler door to be reopened once the Zodiac Killer, Betty and David returned to the side of the Rambler. The Zodiac Killer sent no souvenirs from the victims, and I doubt that the couple attempted to re-enter the vehicle with a gun at their backs. The only reasonable conclusion is that the Rambler door remained open throughout, and James Owen either didn't recollect this piece of information, or he wasn't asked and didn't mention it. If the account of James Owen was correct, that he saw two unoccupied vehicles with nobody in or around them, then David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were probably being held under duress in the shadows of the west bank. Other than being removed into the fields beyond and returned to the turnout to be killed (which makes little sense), there really is no other option - apart from James Owen completely fabricating his sighting of a second vehicle. But what does this all mean?

It suggests that when the Zodiac Killer had forced the couple from the Rambler and was about to murder them, he either heard and/or saw the approaching vehicle of James Owen heading up the hill. Trying to avoid being seen by the occupant/s of this vehicle, the Zodiac Killer had about 20 seconds to shepherd the young teenagers to the west bank and out of sight. Why he didn't murder them here and chose to relocate them back to the Rambler may have been a matter of light, or a matter of control. His statement on August 4th 1969 of "all I had to do was spray them as if it was a water hose; there was no need to use the gun sights", may have indicated that he didn't want to rely on his pencil flashlight on the west bank, so moved back to the more favorable area between the vehicles, illuminated on both sides.

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5 Comments

Richard

12/17/2024 11:44:58 am

Of course, the Zodiac Killer's vehicle could not reasonably have been 3 to 4 feet to the right of the Rambler. Why?

Robert

12/17/2024 04:06:58 pm

If there were another vehicle that close to the Rambler there would not have been space to accommodate the Rambler's open door and several people maneuvering, imo. Also. if another car were that close then Faraday would have fallen against it when shot and likely not ended up at a 90 degree angle to his vehicle (I suppose anything is possible when the second vehicle leaves, but....)

Richard

12/17/2024 04:15:21 pm

Exactly Robert, David Faraday would have likely struck the assailant's vehicle and wouldn't have landed in that position. It's extremely unlikely.

JIbberjabber

12/17/2024 11:20:58 pm

When do you have the shots being fired into the Rambler ? Do you think Zodiac had started shooting, then got them out, then stopped shooting to herd them to the bank when he heard Owen's car approaching, then got them back to the Rambler and then started shooting again?

Could be but I have always thought once the first shot was fired, it was all in motion then. Adrenaline would have been up and there was maybe not much time for such rational thinking.

The first shots could have been to get them out of the car, but once they are already out there needs to be an alternative explanantion for then firing an additional 2 shots into the car.

I am also wondering about this having them line up against the Rambler, I have never thought about this before but it seems like it is the simplest thing to do to some people you want to keep under control after having exited their vehicle, ie you get them to turn around face away from you and put their hands on the roof.

If Zodiac had herded David & Betty Lou towards the West bank then he had also passed his own vehicle, I wonder why he did not have them line up against his car on the way back, they would have had to have walk back to the Rambler to assume that position and pass whatever car he was in.

it seems like from the distribution of shells, all his shots were fired with him standing near the Rambler passenger door, but if he had herded them back to the Rambler then does that mean he had to pass to their right side to cover them if they had walked back around the rear of the vehicles? Why would he not just be standing to their left after having walked around the rear of both vehicles, unless he marched them back and walked around the front of the vehicles so he had them in front of him and arrived at the rear of them with him back around the Ramlber passenger front door, is it more likely they would have walked around the rear of the cars or the front when returning from the West bank?

I am also wondering now were any car headlights actually on? No one has ever said this but again we know so much of the details seem to have been missed by the witnesses, but understandably this was just people driving on a road at night no one was particularly expecting to have to give a detailed police interview about a double murder the next day.

Richard

12/18/2024 02:29:21 am

Put yourself in the position Jibber, you have fired two or three shots at the vehicle (maybe missed once) and you've forced the couple outside the vehicle, and then you notice another vehicle coming up the hill. Do you continue to fire at least another 7 shots and kill both David and Betty, totally unaware of who is in the other vehicle (possibly even a cop), or do you hide the couple out of sight, hoping it's just another commuter who drives on by? I know which I would choose. The rear of both vehicles are closer to the west bank, so if Zodiac hid them here, the shortest journey back to the Rambler is from the rear. Also, we know where David Faraday was shot and we know where Betty ran from, because we have one shell casing on the front passenger floorboard and 6 in a cluster relatively close to the right side of the Rambler, that could suggest 6 shots were fired at Betty with one missing its target. So if this is the position all three were standing when the murders began and James Owen was correct that nobody was "in or around the cars", where else could the three be? There really isn't many other options.

I doubt David Faraday was facing the Rambler when he was shot because a right-handed Zodiac would have shot him by the right ear, not the left as detailed at autopsy. Also, if David was shot by a left-handed shooter while facing the Rambler, the casing would be less likely to eject into the open passenger door, if indeed this shot and casing were connected. The evidence throughout the case points to a right-handed Zodiac (as well as 90% of population), so a bullet wound to Faraday's left ear strongly points to him being shot with his back to the Rambler, not the other way round.

I would have expected a couple being forced from the Rambler with the passenger door open leaves Betty with only one option to shuffle towards the rear of the Rambler, because Zodiac would want her out of his eyeline as he watches David exit the vehicle second. This is why I would expect Betty to the left of David. But this wasn't the case, because if David was shot from at the Rambler rear wheel and Betty was at his left when she ran, she would'nt have been shot 5 times in the right side of her back with every bullet having a right to left trajectory through her body. And you certainly wouldn't have had the upper two shots travelling across from her right shoulder area through her heart and lungs, and travelling to the upper left side of her body. She must have ran from Zodiac's right side, somewhere near the passenger door. Otherwise those bullet trajectories could never have happened. That is why Jibber I stress the importance of the autopsies in the Zodiac case, that also shows that Darlene Ferrin was almost certainly shot first on July 5th 1969.

I suspect Zodiac would have had his headlights on for some extra illumination, but without proper detailing of the crimes, which is sadly lacking to us, I wouldn't know about the Rambler. I mean, did James Owen see an open door? Simple things like this are crucial in analyzing what may or may not have happened that night, but now we are left trying to piece things together using limited information. Even the engine temperature could have been useful.

OUT OF SIGHT ON THE WEST BANK?

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