ZODIAC CIPHERS
RICHARD GRINELL, COVENTRY, ENGLAND
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RIVERSIDE-THE TRAIL OF BLOOD

10/15/2019

 
It is common knowledge that in many knife attacks, such as the one perpetrated on Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966, the attacker will often cut themselves with their own knife. The Riverside Police Department (who for the most part did a thorough investigation) must have considered this a strong possibility bearing in mind the viciousness of the attack on the young woman. The Cheri Jo Bates autopsy findings showed extensive defensive wounds on her hands and arms, with the majority of the brutal attack focused on the upper part of her body (from the breasts upwards). The attack had all the hallmarks of somebody known to the victim, planned in advance by the disabling of her prized Volkswagen Beetle. Law enforcement stated that "the driveway adjacent to 3680 Terracina Street was so churned up it looked like a tractor had been over the ground. The girl, who was very athletic, put up a terrific struggle." The driveway and the autopsy report undeniably proved that Cheri Jo Bates did not exit this world like "a lamb to the slaughter", rather a woman who fought valiantly to the last. The police scoured for clues in the alleyway and noted that "at the murder scene, drops of blood were leading from the body to Terracina Street, indicating to the detectives that the murderer had walked back to the street following the slaying". This being the case, they must have considered that the drops of blood could have originated from the killer, who may well have cut himself "when the knife broke".
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Cheri Jo Bates was found lying face down in the alleyway, 100 feet from Terracina Drive by groundskeeper Cleophus Martin the following morning. The knife used in the attack was described by Captain Cross as a pocket knife with a "3-inch blade or less." Had the blood really dripped off this small knife leaving a trail all the way to Terracina Drive, or was the killer now nursing an injury.

Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from the crime scene evidence in 1999/2000, leading to a DNA concentration of 
0.003 nanograms per microliter being retrieved from a discarded cigarette butt found in the alleyway, and 0.01 nanograms per microliter being retrieved from the hair discovered at the base of Cheri Jo Bates' right thumb. There is however, no mention of the blood from the alleyway floor. This blood trail could be a combination of blood from the knife and blood from the killer, but the longer the trail extends, the likelier it becomes that it originates from the bloodstream of the murderer.

Assuming that the blood was retrieved along the whole trail to Terracina Drive, it would have been extremely routine forensic work in 1966 to determine the blood group of the submitted samples. Cheri Jo Bates' blood type detailed at autopsy is rare in the USA population. It was AB RhD positive, which accounts for only 3.4% of the American population. Any samples submitted that were not an AB blood group were almost certainly from her killer. However, even if the submitted samples were of the same blood group as Cheri Jo Bates, it still doesn't eliminate the possibility of the samples having originated from her murderer. He may have had the same blood type.

The tail of the blood drops would have indicated the directional movement of the killer towards Terracina Drive (as opposed to away), but should also have revealed which side of the alleyway the killer was favoring as he headed towards Terracina Drive - and the likely location of his parked vehicle (assuming he had one). If he had no vehicle, then it could have told us which side of the city he was heading to reach his residence. The diameter of the blood drops (reducing in size or not) could also tell us whether this was a freshly dripping wound, or the gradually reducing volume of blood falling from a knife blade. If the killer was telling the truth when he stated "I plunged the knife into her and it broke", then it is quite possible there was no knife to be dripping. No broken blade was found at autopsy, so it is perfectly conceivable that the hinge mechanism of the small pocket knife may have given way when striking the back of Cheri Jo Bates.

A female earwitness described "an awful scream between 10:15 pm and 10:45 pm, and then about two minutes of silence, and finally the sound of an old car starting up". If the author of the Confession Letter was really the killer of Cheri Jo Bates, then we can estimate the location of his vehicle, assuming the earwithness was hearing the actual murder take place. By combining the direction of the blood trail to one side of Terracina Drive, with the two minute interval from "scream to vehicle starting up", we can use the details in the Confession Letter to pinpoint fairly accurately the location of his vehicle. 
The Confession Letter stated "She let out a scream once and I kicked her in the head to shut her up. I plunged the knife into her and it broke. I then finished the job out cutting her throat". If this is when he "finished the job out" before leaving the scene, then he had two minutes to "kick her in the head, plunge the knife into her, cut her throat" and walk to his waiting vehicle. Allotting about 45 seconds at the murder scene, he has approximately 75 seconds to negotiate the 100 feet to Terracina Drive, and the rest to reach his vehicle. Traveling at an average walking speed of 1.4 meters per second, the 100 feet (30.48 meter) journey would take about 22 seconds, leaving 53 seconds walking time on Terracina Drive. That would mean a vehicle parked 243 feet (74 meters or 81 yards) from the alleyway. Cheri Jo Bates' Volkswagen Beetle was parked 75 yards (68 meters) east of the alleyway, just beyond the library annex. This rough estimate, would place the killer's vehicle only 6 yards (18 feet) behind the vehicle of Cheri Jo Bates (had he exited the alleyway east) - the ideal spot to offer her assistance when her vehicle failed to start - and the near exact location of the Tucker Torpedo (or Studebaker) described in Robert Graysmith's book.       

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Mo
10/16/2019 12:37:22 am

Such a tragic story. I read somewhere that Cheri had accepted her boyfriend's marriage proposal earlier in the day.

The main question: Is this is a Zodiac crime or not?

-Riverside PD seem emphatic that CJB's stabbing death was not committed by Z. I'm not sure why they are so certain, being that neither CJB's murder nor those committed by Z in Northern California have ever been solved. How do they know who didn't commit the crimes if they don't know who committed them?

-Apparently Riverside PD had zeroed-in on an acquaintance of CJB because he allegedly confessed to the killing to a couple of people. He also seemed to have "lost" a Timex watch similar to the one found at the murder scene. However, his DNA was not a match.

-Aside from CJB accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal earlier in the day, the number of stabs as well as the fact that she felt comfortable enough to walk with another man to a dark and secluded alley seems to indicate a very personal killing committed by a possible acquaintance. Of course, she could have simply been naive and desperate enough because of her disabled car.

-Ross Sullivan quickly emerged as a suspect because he was a "weird" guy who worked at the RCC library the same night of the killing. He also allegedly didn't show up for work the next day. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) he died at a relatively young age in the 1970's and not very much is known about him, except that he moved to Santa Cruz and was in a mental institution. His picture fairly resembles the composite sketch from the Stine murder.

-Other suspects that have been mentioned are the chief librarian at RCC (Harry Bach), a school mate by the last name of Jorgensen as well as a classmate of CJB at Ramona High School who went by "Zode". They are all caucasian males who wore dark rimmed glasses, but are probably too young to be Zodiac (or too old in the case of the librarian).

-Similar to Zodiac, CJB's killer mailed a Confession Letter to the local paper and Riverside Police. He also sent three handwritten letters several months later, which included the letter Z. The handwriting was ultimately determined to be an exact match to the handwriting of the letters sent by Zodiac several years later in Northern California. Law enforcement (except Riverside) generally accept that this is a definite Zodiac crime.

-The disabling of CJBs vehicle sounds familiar to what happened with Kathleen Johns several years later near Modesto. Kathleen's trip started in San Bernardino, which is very close to Riverside.

-Cecilia Shepard was also a student in Riverside, suggesting a Z connection to the area. There are also theories that CJB and Cecilia knew each other. However, this has not been confirmed.

-One hope for the stalled progress into the Zodiac crimes (unless there's major progress we're not aware of), are the possibilities of identifying Zodiac through cold cases that were committed by the same person before or after he adopted the Zodiac persona. There's especially a number of cold cases in the area near Riverside and nearby San Bernardino counties around the same time, including the stabbing of a young lady near Big Bear Lake. She disappeared on 12/18/1974. December 18 being the birthday of a prime Z suspect (sorry had to throw that in).

Richard
10/16/2019 02:11:55 am

Thanks for the comprehensive review, I think you've summed it up nicely. The Cheri Jo Bates murder has always been one that I've tended to believe wasn't Zodiac, but can equally understand why it could be. The inability of the Riverside Police Department to see a match beteween fingerprints from their case to the Zodiac case may have pushed them into the belief the two cases are not related. But again, this drives to the heart of the question on the validity of the fingerprints retrieved in either case. I don't know of another case where a serial killer fires of three communication in tandem with excessive postage, yet here we have three letters sent on April 30th 1967 and three mailed on July 31st 1969. This cannot be ignored or passed off lighting, as with the similar verbiage on the Little List Letter to the Confession Letter. But since Zodiac came later, we then can argue he was simply mimicking a previous crime to sow a seed. The Exorcist Letter threw in a Mikado verse and similar phraseology to the July 31st 1969 letters to imply it was Zodiac, but again not difficult to mimic old correspondence. I sit about 70-30 on this crime not being Zodiac, although I'm far from a closed book and nobody really can be. As you stated, without knowing who did it, it leaves the door open. I don't place much credence in Ross Sullivan for Riverside or the Bay Area murders, with so little evidence (if any) pointing towards him. He cannot be placed within 80 odd miles of any crime scene, which is not a great start if somebody wants to claim he is Zodiac. I have little doubt the killer and victim were known or knew of each other prior to October 30th 1966, with the killer wanting more than Cheri was prepared to give. Sadly another murder that may never be solved.

Richard
10/16/2019 02:13:38 am

Correction: lighting should be lightly.

JD
10/16/2019 04:57:30 am

Mo, good summary and good points regarding whether this was a Zodiac case or not. Some observations based on input from others and my own beliefs:

1) The murder was either very personal or it was committed by someone looking for a "thrill kill," someone like Leopold and Loeb and so many other sickos who obsess with certain crimes and want to know what it feels like to murder someone. Either way, someone most likely having a personal connection with Cheri Jo Bates, however loose that connection might be.

2) I tend to think the letter writer was the murderer. Richard has made a very good argument that the letter writer may have been someone who took details straight from news reports. The visciousness of this particular crime, committed with a knife, if connected with the letters, has a strong similarity with Jack the Ripper. This idea, Zodiac mimicking JTR, has been around for a long time, whether there is any validity to it. 1966 was filled with Jack the Ripper stories in the newspapers. April's announcement of the publishing of Jack the Ripper letters, with various newspapers reprinting them in part or in whole; Men's Digest March 1966 -- "Return of Jack the Ripper;" "Autumn of Terror" by Tom Cullen; the film "A Study in Terror" and related articles with San Francisco's local chapter of the Baker Street Irregulars and their opinions on the film; and the list goes on. If it was a thrill kill, I could see someone wanting to mimick JTR.

3) If the letters and murder are not connected, could the sicko letter writer still have been inspired by the JTR letters, hoping to add some mystery to an already mysterious case?

4) Bates typed confession. "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see." Certainly similar threat to what JTR did in the Mary Jane Kelly murder.

5) Interesting that the newspapers should make public the fact that she:

"apparently put up a tremendous struggle with her slayer before succumbing, police said."

Yet the author of the letter specifically chose to not only ignore this, but to go out of his way to contradict this statement:

"She did not put up a struggle. But I did. It was a ball."

Such a curious statement.

Mo
10/16/2019 07:34:40 am

Yes JD, one of the frustrating things about notorious cold cases is that they inspire sick copy cat killers, be it JTR or even a younger Zodiac a few decades later in New York. There’s always the thrill of not getting caught when the stakes are at their highest.

CJB definitely put up a fierce struggle. That demented sicko was playing games with the community, LE and her family. He had a “ball” killing a defenseless young woman in a dark alley!

One more point about CJB’s tragic murder is that witnesses said they observed two men looking for something in the area that same night. It is generally understood they were looking for the Timex watch. If so, this means the identity of the killer is known to someone else in Riverside. If you really want to stretch a conclusion from two people knowing about CJB, then you can make the argument that Z’s crimes were committed by a duo. I don’t personally think this, but should acknowledge that line of reasoning nonetheless.

Richard
10/16/2019 07:51:00 am

One striking difference between this crime and Zodiac's is the different narrative of the letters. The Riverside murderer utterly glorified her murder in the Confession Letter and even more sickeningly, wrote to her father. This took depravity to a new level. The Zodiac, despite his callous murders, never once bragged about the murders themselves - but provided facts to prove he was the killer and taunted police. He also never went after the victims families despite their addresses being widely available in the newspapers. Despite this, however, he wilfully attributed himself this crime on March 13th 1971, so there appears to be a contradiction apparent here.

Richard
10/16/2019 08:08:48 am

There was a serial killer convicted from Riverside who cut off womens body parts "and deposited them for the world to see". That man was William Lester Suff, aged 16 at the time of Cheri Jo Bates' murder. "I asked her for a date in high school". He went to Perris High School. Was he a budding killer years before he his known crimes.

"Her breast felt very warm and firm under my hands" and "I shall cut off her female parts and deposit them for the whole city to see".

'William Lester Suff, 41--a local boy still remembered by schoolmates and teachers in the Riverside area--has been charged in two of the grisly murders. Authorities say they are confident of linking Suff to a majority of the 19 murders of women, mostly prostitutes and drug users, whose bodies had been dumped in this semirural community and elsewhere in western Riverside County. Every victim was stabbed or strangled or both, according to new details, and three of the recent bodies were mutilated--a breast cut off each.' Los Angeles Times. 1992.

JD
10/16/2019 08:35:15 pm

Yes, Suff is a very good candidate. Riverside (population approx 84,000+) was only 18 miles from his residence in Perris (population approx 3,000+) and would have been a good draw.

I forgot about reading your previous article (12/28/17) regarding this killer. (Sorry, not saying it wasn't memorable -- I tend to forget yesterday let alone a couple of years ago).

additional:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-02-17-mn-1705-story.html

Toots
10/17/2019 08:13:06 pm

To me, CJB was clearly done by Zodiac. 'Dripping Pen' letter, mailed on 11/8/69, just washed my pen, with dripping blood, is referring to his penknife. Another cold case murder very similar is Reet Jurvetson in L.A. in November 1969. Similar multiple stabs wounds done by a pen knife, throat slashed. Both CJB and Jurvetson were attractive, slim build, young.

To me this is clearly the same suspect.

Richard
10/18/2019 02:28:03 am

Whether or not the same subject Toots, the Reet Jurvetson case was a crime of countless stab wounds, extremely similar to the overkill displayed with Furlong and Snoozy. Even if it wasn't Zodiac, that doesn't mean he was averse to claiming them.

Toots
10/17/2019 08:40:15 pm

This is a bit of a stretch...but I thought I throw it out there...

regarding Reet Jurvetson, who was found by 15 yr Trevor Santochi, who was hiking/bird watching on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. I would think Santochi lived within close proximity of the scene.

Any chance Zodiac researched last names in L.A, and found Santochi as interesting and a very close name to his nemesis Inspector Dave Toschi.

What an interesting place to discard Jurvetson, if Zodiac thought it might be found by "San Tochi", which in French would translate to "without Toschi".

Just an observation.

lawrence d'antonio
10/17/2019 11:08:59 pm

Toots...wow. I just met with Det. Marty Mojarro , LAPD special homicide yesterday regarding Reet Jurvetson, Doreen Gaul and James Sharpe. Very good intuition. I felt the same way so I looked at the crime scene photos and we found the criminal signature we look for. Mojarro is pulling all three cases. Look up Walts also murdered and dumped at the same time frame. He is LA County Sheriiff...same criminal signature...he tattoos his victims. Be nice and I will give you a clue where to look.

Toots
10/18/2019 08:55:31 am

Sounds good Lawrence.
Is there any viable DNA from any of those cases?

Back in July I talked a few times with a Det. McCoy in homicide LAPD, regarding Reet. I gave him a suspect named "John". They originally were looking for a suspect with that name. But he didnt seem too interested in the case.

BB
1/29/2020 05:47:58 pm

The two people could have been a couple. Young woman and man with beard.
Darlene and James Phillips?
Darlene said she saw him kill someone.
I think she was referring to James killing CJB

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb282/skov_album/SandyandJimCrabtree.jpg

Reading their 1967 divorce papers she is said [Jim was not able to keep a job - he was violent - and he had a beard and long hair and all that.] to paraphrase.

http://zodiackiller.com/DeeCourt1.html


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