SEARS, ROEBUCK & CO PAPER TARGETS

7/30/2016

On July 31st 1969 the Zodiac Killer began his correspondence with the newspapers in the form of three portions of code mailed to three newspapers. In these letters he would provide details regarding his first two crimes at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs Park. Accompanying his letters he added the now customary 'Zodiac crossed circle', by many considered to be the crosshairs of a weapon, although other reasoning has been offered, such as the Celtic Cross. Since the first attributed murders to the Zodiac Killer were that of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen at Lake Herman Road, was it possible the murderer's inspiration was to be drawn from this crime and subsequently placed in his first correspondence.
In the Department of Justice, Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, conducted by David Burd, the firearm identified as the likely murder weapon at Lake Herman Road was a J C Higgins 80 pistol. The Sears, Roebuck & Company specialized in sporting goods and recreational equipment between 1908 and 1962, with the Sears JC Higgins eventually replaced with the Ted Williams brand. The Sears, Roebuck & Company manufactured their own paper targets throughout the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, the very targets a young Zodiac may have used. The following target suggested "For best results with .22 Long Rifle."
#1 Paper Rifle Targets 1930's.
#2 Paper Rifle Targets 1950's.

1 Comment

Greg H.

7/30/2016 10:14:26 pm

Good find, Richard..The thing is, as you know, barring the capture and a debriefing of Zodiac, we'll never really know his inspiration for the symbol.
I was reading "The Bronx is Burning" by Jonathan Mahler which is about New York in the summer of 1977, and contains a section on the Son of Sam who was terrorizing the city at the time. Here's a quote to emphasize the guessing games people played, trying to understand why the killer took this name for himself. It's very reminiscent of our attempts to decipher Zodiac:

"But what did that (Son of Sam) mean? Was he a Vietnam veteran, a son of Uncle Sam? Was Sam somehow a reference to Satan? Was it short for Samson, a reference to his affinity for women with long hair? Or to Sam Colt, the inventor of the revolver he used?"

After his arrest, of course, we learned that "Sam" referred to his neighbor Sam Carr and it was this man's frequently barking Labrador Retriever who apparently drove the delusional Berkowitz to kill.
Something similarly convoluted is probably the case with Zodiac. The name / symbol, various strange details could well be something personal that only he knows about, the outgrowth of some bizarre delusion or mental illness is very possible.

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SEARS, ROEBUCK & CO PAPER TARGETS

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