The 'Bus Bomb' letter opened with the words "This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people. I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents.".Since this proclamation on November 9th 1969, the only tangible crimes linked to the Zodiac Killer appear to be the Modesto abduction of Kathleen Johns on March 22nd 1970 and the disappearance of Donna Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and Casino, Stateline, Nevada on September 6th 1970. The Zodiac Killer would lay claim to the Modesto abduction on July 24th 1970 but little since. Did he cease his activity or did he become true to his word, concealing his crimes to appear like random attacks, altering his modus operandi to confuse the police investigation?
Enter Pine Hill Road Disabling the vehicle of Kathleen Johns (if the perpetrator) was central to his plan in the Modesto abduction on Highway 132, close to Bird Road. He chose not to kill Kathleen Johns the moment he approached her vehicle which he was certainly capable of doing, but may have planned it as an accident. We know the assailant would later set fire to her vehicle, suggesting he could have had a far more sinister ending planned for Kathleen Johns. Her eventual escape from his clutches and subsequent identification of him as the Zodiac Killer from the composite sketch at the Patterson Police Station may have forced his hand, to which he reluctantly owned up to a few months later on July 24th 1970. Unless of course he was simply laying claim to a crime he never committed.
Had the Zodiac Killer played a part in the disappearance of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970? The phone call subsequent to the crime, informing people that Donna Lass had been called away due to a family illness, could be telling. The caller was not boasting of murder like the Zodiac Killer exhibited after the Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa attacks, he was seemingly trying to give the impression nothing sinister had happened, suggesting the act of the phone call was simply to 'buy time'. If the abductor was affording himself some extra breathing space, then the real possibility he was local to the area or known to Donna Lass is a credible argument, and he was either holding Donna Lass at this juncture, needed time to dispose of her body, or possibly needed to remove incriminating evidence from his home or vehicle before the police came knocking. This could have suggested that the responsible moved in the circle of Donna Lass, such as friends and work colleagues, who are inevitably the first people to be questioned in most police investigations.. However, the only viable links to the Zodiac Killer have been drawn from the March 22nd 1971 'Pines' card, mailed six and a half months after her disappearance.
Isobel Watson (33) had just got off the bus on the evening of April 7th 1972, and was walking home along Pine Hill Road, Tamalpais Valley, Marin County at 9.00 pm, when a light colored vehicle veered towards her, knocking her to the ground. The driver exited his vehicle offering to take her home, but after she had refused his offer of apparent help a second time, the concerned citizen suddenly became enraged, pulling out a knife and stabbing Isobel Watson in the neck and shoulder. Her screams alerted the neighborhood, thus forcing the assailant into a hasty retreat from the scene. She was treated at Marin General Hospital and fortunately survived the brutal attack.
Had the Zodiac Killer played a part in the disappearance of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970? The phone call subsequent to the crime, informing people that Donna Lass had been called away due to a family illness, could be telling. The caller was not boasting of murder like the Zodiac Killer exhibited after the Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa attacks, he was seemingly trying to give the impression nothing sinister had happened, suggesting the act of the phone call was simply to 'buy time'. If the abductor was affording himself some extra breathing space, then the real possibility he was local to the area or known to Donna Lass is a credible argument, and he was either holding Donna Lass at this juncture, needed time to dispose of her body, or possibly needed to remove incriminating evidence from his home or vehicle before the police came knocking. This could have suggested that the responsible moved in the circle of Donna Lass, such as friends and work colleagues, who are inevitably the first people to be questioned in most police investigations.. However, the only viable links to the Zodiac Killer have been drawn from the March 22nd 1971 'Pines' card, mailed six and a half months after her disappearance.
Isobel Watson (33) had just got off the bus on the evening of April 7th 1972, and was walking home along Pine Hill Road, Tamalpais Valley, Marin County at 9.00 pm, when a light colored vehicle veered towards her, knocking her to the ground. The driver exited his vehicle offering to take her home, but after she had refused his offer of apparent help a second time, the concerned citizen suddenly became enraged, pulling out a knife and stabbing Isobel Watson in the neck and shoulder. Her screams alerted the neighborhood, thus forcing the assailant into a hasty retreat from the scene. She was treated at Marin General Hospital and fortunately survived the brutal attack.
Kenneth Narlow Her description of the man alerted investigators to a possible Zodiac connection, that of a man with heavy-rimmed black glasses, in his early 40s, 5' 9" in height and short brown hair. It was not overlooked by police that the killer had attempted to lure the woman into his vehicle, not dissimilar to the method employed in the Modesto abduction of Kathleen Johns. Napa County homicide detective Kenneth Narlow believed in a greater than 50-50 chance of a Zodiac connection, bearing in mind the description given by Isobel Watson - and that April 7th 1972 once again fell on a Friday. The Zodiac crimes of Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs Park, Lake Berryessa and Presidio Heights were on Friday, Friday, Saturday and Saturday respectively.
There may be many crimes associated to the Zodiac Killer that we are unaware of, if we believe his boasts of ME-37 SFPD 0 in the 'Exorcist' letter on January 29th 1974, but equally there may be none. Isobel Watson fortunately rejected the offers of the 'good Samaritan' and lived to tell the tale.
There may be many crimes associated to the Zodiac Killer that we are unaware of, if we believe his boasts of ME-37 SFPD 0 in the 'Exorcist' letter on January 29th 1974, but equally there may be none. Isobel Watson fortunately rejected the offers of the 'good Samaritan' and lived to tell the tale.
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