ZODIAC CIPHERS
RICHARD GRINELL, COVENTRY, ENGLAND
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THE BLACK PHANTOM

7/29/2024

 
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From their vantage point of 50/60 feet away, the three teenagers (Robbins children) described the suspect to the police dispatcher as ​a "WMA, in his early forties, 5'8'', heavy build, reddish-blond "crew-cut" hair, wearing eyeglasses, dark brown trousers, dark (navy blue or black) "Parka" jacket, dark shoes". The claim has always been that crossed wires occurred and Officer Donald Fouke was given the description of a negro male adult before, and as he began his one minute journey westwards from the intersection of Washington Street & Presidio Avenue to the intersection of Jackson & Maple Streets, where Officer Donald Fouke first noticed the Zodiac Killer. Therefore, the dispatcher had at least one minute to relay the description of the man to Officer Fouke.

What the police want you to believe is that he drove by the white man on Jackson Street because he was given a description of a negro male adult. So in the minute that Officer Fouke drove the distance before encountering the man, are we to conclude that the dispatcher only relayed "be on the lookout for a negro male adult" and nothing more? The description of the perpetrator given a month later by Officer Fouke was almost identical to the description given by the teenagers. We had "early forties" and "35-45 years", "heavy build" and "medium heavy build", "reddish blond crew cut hair" and "light colored hair in a crew cut", "dark (navy blue or black) Parka jacket" and "dark blue waist length zipper type jacket (navy or royal blue)", "dark brown trousers" and "brown wool pants", with both wearing glasses. 

Despite the fact that his description of the subject on Jackson Street virtually matched the description given by the three teenagers to the dispatcher, I doubt many negro male adults in 1969 had a reddish blond or light colored crew cut. If we are to believe the event-changing story of Officer Fouke being furnished with a description of a negro male adult, why did neither the dispatcher or Officer Fouke not question the description of the negro male adult having reddish blond hair? Even without the description of the hair, everything else was close enough to have warranted stoppiing the white male on Jackson Street.

PictureClick image to see memorandum
The duty of a dispatcher is to gather information from the caller and relay the relevant details to responding officers, which in this case would have been a basic description of the person seen leaving the tacicab of Paul Stine. Are we to believe that Officer Fouke, on the lookout for a negro male adult, required him to slow down to such an extent that he was able to describe brown wool pants that were baggy in the rear, hair that was possibly graying in the rear, pants that were pleated, a waist band that was zipped part way up, elastic cuffs and low cut shoes, despite the obvious fact the subject was white. The color of the subject's skin should have been apparent from a reasonable distance away, making any further scrutiny unnecessary.

Once Officer Fouke had determined the man was white, there was no need to examine this man from top to bottom, and then make a note of his posterior features. He was responding to an assault and robbery on a taxicab driver and his primary motivation should have been to head to the crime scene. However, if he was really looking for a white man when he approached Jackson Street, then this amount of detail would be understandable - especially if he stopped the subject and was informed of a "man waving a gun" up the street.    

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Probably the biggest curiosity in the November 12th 1969 Donald Fouke memorandum was the final line, stating "My partner that night was Officer E. Zelms # 2348 of Richmond station. I do not know if he observed this subject or not". The only way Eric Zelms could have failed to notice the white male walking on Jackson Street, is if Eric Zelms was riding in the trunk or was asleep. If Donald Fouke was able to capture all that information about the subject while driving a vehicle and positioned further from the sidewalk than Eric Zelms, then one has to question the honesty of that statement.

​Both officers were approaching a crime scene with reports of a man leaving the intersection of Washington & Cherry and heading north up Cherry Street. They would have been scouring the sidewalks for any potential suspects heading their way, not looking at the sky for potential hang gliders. If Donald Fouke was really responsible for the entirety of that memorandum, it is not only strange that he was totally oblivious to what Eric Zelms saw that night after one month had elapsed, but it would suggest that Eric Zelms played no part in the description given. The later claim that Eric Zelms admitted to stopping the Zodiac Killer on October 11th 1969 is evident by the contrived memorandum, designed by individuals above the pay grade of Officer Fouke to paint a completely different picture of the events that unfolded on Jackson Street that night. There is little reason to believe a negro male adult ever passed the lips of any person on October 11th 1969, and every reason to believe that Officer Fouke was coerced into putting his signature to a memorandum to refute the writings of Zodiac, who had just claimed he was stopped and let go that night.

Johnny
7/29/2024 05:07:43 am

It coud very well be that he stopped the man. He have a harder time describing the shoes, could that be because he stopped him and he stood to close for Fouke to see them?

You see, i am of the opinion that Fouke seems to be a very serious and honest man. Some peoples honesty though get placed to close to their own skin and they can't muster the strenght to later tell the full truth because of shame.

I have no problem with the negro adult male whatsoever, because they really where a usual kind of suspect back then, but perhaps Fouke stopped and talked to a white male adult, or just looked him over real good ( if he was a good observer, saw him well under light and we can expect that they drove real slow and was watchful in mostly darkness ).

Just one question to everyone. Why would Fouke take part in a documentary he didn't need to be in and forcefully say that he didn't stop the white male adult? I think that this add perecentage on the side that they didn't stop him, but if we take in everything there is im not certain. And then it is the blood... If what his companions widow says is true i can take this aswell, because thats sounds sincere aswell.

Richard
7/29/2024 06:02:55 am

I wouldn't blame Donald Fouke at all had he stopped the man and let him on his way Johnny. He wasn't, to his knowledge, responding to a murder, only an assault and robbery in which other units were likely responding. Even if he was looking for a white man, he may have stopped the Zodiac and been convincingly told that there was a man up the road waving a gun around. In that moment Donald Fouke may have been presented with the option of detaining the man or protecting the public from a gun toting individual, so made an on the spot decision to believe the individual he had just stopped and continued westwards to prevent further mayhem. In other words, he may have been duped by the Zodiac Killer despite the similarity of descriptions. But he had to make a split decision: detain the Zodiac or protect the public from somebody who could have attacked the taxicab driver, who was now waving a gun. Being that he was unaware that a murder had been committed and only the lesser offence of assault & robbery was in his mind, he probably thought it wise to prevent a possible murder by attempting to find the man with the gun. He was duped, but probably made the correct decision at the time in his, and others eyes. Playing Monday morning quarterback, it was the wrong decision. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. The question then, would to present this as the story, or try to allay blame by fabricating a story. If his superiors want to put out an alternative story, I doubt he had much option but to go along with it. With the noticeable absence of Eric Zelms from proceedings.

I believe Donald Fouke appeared in the documentary attached to the film because most people like their 15 minutes of fame. Look at all the people that still guest on mainstream media such as CNN, MSNBC and FOX news despite the fact they are propaganda channels and are often brought on to be humiliated and interrupted. Yet they still go on. 99.9% of people know that the Gary Poste story is junk, but how many of those people would refuse to appear on a major platform if given the chance of even 5 minutes of notoriety to talk about this individual. He probably thought if he just stuck to the story everything would go well, but like a lot of people under questioning, he went off script and did himself a disservice. I think Donald Fouke was put in an uncomfortable position by his superiors - a position he had to stick with for decades. But I don't believe he did anything wrong on October 11th 1969.

Jibberjabber
7/29/2024 09:16:57 am

Superb article Richard.

I wonder what or when or how did the realisation come to Fouke that the man they had just seen on Jackson could have been the guy they were looking for?

Something has to have made the proverbial penny drop for Fouke & Zelms to hightail onto Pacific Ave, that is something I have often wondered when did Fouke realise his folly?

I have no disrespect for any of the law enforcement who worked this case, anyone can make a mistake and things were moving so fast that night in the minutes after the Robbins made the call to the police

Richard link
7/29/2024 10:06:47 am

According to Fouke, the realisation came after he had travelled from Jackson St to Arguello Boulevard, where he got the amended description. His statement in the video linked by my name was in 1989, eighteen years before the Zodiac film documentary in 2007. Like I've said before, why would Fouke be heading away from a crime scene he was supposed to be attending. My conclusion is that Zodiac directed him there with the "man waving a gun" story. I can't think of any other logical reason to go off route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A3kD-j25jQ&t=57s&ab_channel=zfacts

Zen
7/29/2024 09:34:22 am

Good observation about the SFPD making Fouke put out the memorandum. It never made sense to me why something that important was put off for that long.

Richard
7/29/2024 10:21:37 am

You'll notice Zen that the memorandum was written in parts from a third person perspective, such as "The suspect that was observed by Officer Fouke" and "when the right description was broadcast reporting officer informed communications that a possible suspect had been seen going north on Maple St into the Presidio". It seems that his memorandum was scripted for him. Also, why would Fouke be looking in his rear view mirror to see the man turning into Maple if his priority was a black male he had yet encountered.

Jibberjabber
7/29/2024 12:18:36 pm

Just been thinking about this, I wonder what assumptions Fouke had made on his way to the scene. Was he expecting the killer (although he only knew it as a robbery at this point) to still be in or at the Stine cab, did they think they were the first on the scene and could catch the criminal red handed? Or even if the killer (robber to him) had left the scene of the crime, was Fouke expecting to see someone fleeing the scene and is the fact the first person he seems to lay eyes on is just walking down the street with no-urgency about him the reason they did not take a harder line with the man they saw / stopped? If Zodiac had reacted by running away when the police car headlights landed on him or acted in any other way than he just put his head down and kept walking, this could have went down very differently. I still think this is an incredible momentary insight into Zodiac's psyche. He is a couple of minutes out from Killing Paul Stine, a police car is heading directly for him (with lights & sirens sounding? if so then he would have likely heard the car approaching before he ever saw it) the car in all probability stops him and he is called over to talk to Fouke, he has the piece of bloody shirt in the pocket, the 9mm gun and may have had blood on him, he has killed at least 5 people by this time and is a genuine serial killer yet he cooly & calmly engages the police in conversation and it looks like he sent them on a wild goose chase. This is simply amazing to me. The people that say Zodiac was lower end of the intelligence scale, angry loner etc I do not buy it - this guy was cool as a cucumber under the most intense stress likely a serial killer can ever face, and he passed the test with flying colours.

Rubislaw32 link
7/29/2024 01:52:53 pm

Agreed Jibberjabber - the murder of a taxi driver at the beginning of the busiest two hours of the week for SF vehicle traffic was a project killing, which the Zodiac ''sadly'' passed with flying colours.

The one mistake he may have made is to leave his SF A-Z behind. It remains to be seen if it provided fruitful forensics evidence.

Richard
7/29/2024 02:29:31 pm

Absolutely Jibberjabber, anybody without this mental fortitude could easily of panicked and attempted to run or hide. At worst he could have pulled his gun and we would have had three victims that night. I also doubt he stopped killing (assuming he only murdered 5) because this close call tempered his desire to claim victims. If he only killed 5, it's likely because his letter writing took over. A lot of people have observed that killing was only a means to an end for the Zodiac. Once he got the attention through murder, his primary interest came to the forefront - his writing campaign that satisfied his need for attention.

Rubislaw32 link
7/29/2024 09:30:27 pm

Yes, Richard, with April 1970 - October 1970 being more about the Zodiac playing out his extortion games, than anything.

It does seem the the Robert Salem murder (April 15th 1970) was more responsible than anything, to entice the Zodiac back into the arena of his terror campaign. ''Someone'' sent the decorators round to Salem's flat following his murder, to do a bit of ''redecorating'' - and ''lo and behold'', the Zodiac was back with his ''My name is ---'' cipher, just 4 days later.

I think you, Richard, have done more than anyone to highlight that. Salem - someone else's murder, set up as a trap for the Zodiac.?

Jibberjabber
7/30/2024 09:22:40 am

Sadly any idiot can shoot an unarmed victim with a gun there is nothing remarkable in that. Zodiac was a pathetic coward precisely because of the way he killed defenceless people who had no chance. It is the facing off with SFPD a couple of minutes later and even being able to send them off on a wild goose chase that is the impressive thing about what he did that night.

Russ Thompson
7/31/2024 08:52:33 am

Fouke was driving that night, Zelm in passenger seat.
Zodiac walked on the sidewalk on the North side of the street while their patrol car approached West, which means Zelm would have the clearest view of the subject.
Fouke's view would have been 'obstructed' by Zelm himself, and the very fact that he was operating a responding prowler.
Impossible for Fouke to see the man and not have Zelm see him as well.

Richard
8/1/2024 02:54:31 am

Totally agree Russ. The story makes little sense.


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