Nancy Slover, October 1969 With the invaluable assistance of Zodiac researcher Jibberjabber who contacted various agencies on the specifics of tracing calls back in 1969, including the Connections Museum, we can now establish that when police first arrived at the payphone at Springs & Tuolumne the receiver was off the hook, just like at Napa. The Connections Museum wrote "If the caller hung up before the trace was complete, then no, the operator could not keep the line open from their end (and thereby trace it). It could be that he (the Zodiac) left the phone off the hook in the booth after making the call, so then the operator just had to stay on the line as well until the trace was complete".
After the Zodiac Killer had finished speaking with Nancy Slover at approximately 12:40am, the Zodiac Killer hung up the phone, effectively ending the call. However, they could ring the payphone back, which Zodiac claimed alerted the negro male to him and his car. His response was to yank the payphone receiver off the hook and leave it dangling. But this effectively kept the line open as Zodiac walked away, such that the operator only had to wait a period of time to effect the trace. Robert Graysmith wrote in his book Zodiac "After he hung up, the killer must have stood for a minute in a lighted phone booth. Suddenly the phone began to ring. To stop the phone from ringing he unhooked it and let it hang".
After the Zodiac Killer had finished speaking with Nancy Slover at approximately 12:40am, the Zodiac Killer hung up the phone, effectively ending the call. However, they could ring the payphone back, which Zodiac claimed alerted the negro male to him and his car. His response was to yank the payphone receiver off the hook and leave it dangling. But this effectively kept the line open as Zodiac walked away, such that the operator only had to wait a period of time to effect the trace. Robert Graysmith wrote in his book Zodiac "After he hung up, the killer must have stood for a minute in a lighted phone booth. Suddenly the phone began to ring. To stop the phone from ringing he unhooked it and let it hang".
The Blue Rock Springs police report stated that at 12:47am Mrs Johnson PT&T operator called, not that the phone call was traced at 12:47am. According to the 2007 Zodiac movie a caller had to be kept on the line for 15 minutes to establish a trace according to Pacific Telephone. So if the Zodiac Killer yanked the receiver off the hook at approximately 12:41am and walked away, it would mean that Betty Main, who rang back the Springs & Tuolumne payphone, had to sit on this open line for 15 minutes subsequent to 12:41am to achieve a trace and discover the location of the payphone. If the movie was correct in claiming 15 minutes was required, then the payphone was identified at 12:56am. According to the police report, this was relayed to the Blue Rock Springs crime scene and a responding officer headed to the payphone. He would have arrived at the intersection of Springs & Tuolumne at approximately 01:05am to secure the payphone for fingerprint testing. The action of the Zodiac Killer yanking the ringing receiver from the hook in Vallejo likely shaped his actions at Main Street in Napa, where he pre-empted this possibility. Thanks to the work of Jibberjabber, I was able to revise the timeline of events surrounding the payphone trace..
THE PAYPHONE TRACE IN VALLEJO [PART TWO]
THE PAYPHONE TRACE IN VALLEJO [PART TWO]
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