THE CIRCULAR ABDUCTION

3/20/2020

Kathleen Johns was purportedly abducted on March 22nd 1970 and taken on a 2-hour journey around the outskirts of Tracy, California, before emerging from the vineyards bordering Highway 132 and South Bird Road and rescued by some people from Missouri. The vineyards were only a few hundred meters from her disabled and burnt out vehicle, and the site of her abduction. This would have been one of the rare instances where an abductor actually returned the victim to the site of their abduction. There are people who don't believe Kathleen Johns was abducted at all, claiming it was pure fiction. I shall let you decide.

21 Comments

3/21/2020 08:50:14 am

Richard

Has there ever been an investigation of Kathleen Johns?

What do you know about Johns? Her story is suspicious.

There are online allegations that she made it up.

There are also people saying that she had been a member of the Church of Satan.

She said he looked like the sketch. Which sketch?

Why did they never - just show her a line up with a picture of Kane?

Richard

3/21/2020 12:11:13 pm

Kathleen Johns identified her abductor as the man on the Presidio Heights sketch, hanging on the wall of Patterson Police Station, where she was dropped off by the anonymous people from Missouri. This could be construed as rather fortunate. I have heard of no investigation of Johns, then or now. Or of any link to the Church of Satan. The Kathleen Johns story is full of holes and contradictions, not withstanding the fact she arrived back where she was abducted. Of course, we cannot completely rule out she was abducted/taken for a ride, but how menacing this ride was could never be fully ascertained. The story doesn't make sense to me, but if it were untrue, the only gain I can see from her perspective would be publicity. But I certainly couldn't rule her account out based on what I have read. But if it really was Zodiac, I'm sure he could have mentioned something only known to him and Kathleen, or detailed the position of her vehicle in the July 24th letter - which he didn't.

Rubislaw 32 link

3/21/2020 02:23:17 pm

I have always felt also , that Kathleen's story doesn't add up , but doesn't mean that I am unsympathetic to an experience that she clearly found harrowing .

To take a stab at the story's reality , is to tell a tale of a lover's rendez-vous between '' pregnant with baby '' Johns and a man , in a remote location . Her old banger of a car refuses to re-start , and suddenly the dawn of their meeting being exposed , with all the scandal alongside , becomes an possible reality to them . So, a '' quick solution '' fix , with the man setting fire to her car , and dropping Ms.Johns off , near to a police station , with a loose , but ready made-up story to tell .

I don't think that LE '' upstairs '' ever bought into Kathleen's version of events , but it presented a good opportunity for LE '' upstairs '' to attempt to draw the Zodiac back into corresponding again .

The Robert Salem murder , as reported , was probably the actual story that succeeded in tempting Zodiac to break cover , but the tale of the purported abduction of Ms.Johns , also played its part .

Roger

3/21/2020 04:28:32 pm

Too much time has gone by and the witness is now deceased. We have only the original police reports to go by for any attempt at a clear understanding of what happened. All I can add is that if we look at similar roadside abductions and attempted abductions (e.g. the Peter Falconio case in outback Australia), I can certainly see how people may seek to highlight the holes and discrepancies in the witness testimony. Humans are essentially human and fear causes our sense of time to be greatly distorted, such that our recall of events becomes one akin to "snapshots". Humans so not come equipped with digital recording machines unfortunately. So of course logical inconsistencies and holes will always be found in such re-tellings of harrowing events. It becomes a case of one highly emotional woman's testimony against the world. She was never going to succeed to explain everything clearly and convince anybody 100% when she had the enormous weight of public pressure bearing down on her.

Richard

3/21/2020 04:42:50 pm

But do the both of you feel that her abductor (if one) was returning her to her vehicle. We do have a 1 1/2 to 2-hour journey around the area of Tracy, only for Johns to 'escape' as little as 325 metres from her disabled vehicle. There has to be some logical explanation, assuming her story of her trip is true.

Roger

3/21/2020 07:29:05 pm

Richard, it always seems to me her abductor got sick of her at some point, or the fact that she had a child with her caused him some uncertainty, apprehension and anxiety. Even serial killers can have their limits, especially if he himself had been abused as a child. Perhaps he did not want to go down in history as an evil "baby killer". I know this seems at odds with the idea of a school bus bomber, but serial killers are often conflicted about such things and we need to remember that he never did carry out his bus bomb caper beyond a threat. I think he was in two minds about Johns but after driving her away, decided to circle around and basically was happy when she "escaped". Then, presuming it was actually the Zodiac, and perhaps to satisfy some vague egotistical comic book superhero idea relating to a "by fire" motif (???), he decided to set fire to her car. I think he may have set out to harm Johns but lost the urge, perhaps because she was 1) alone (no male to fight for rights over), 2) of rather homely appearance, and 3) had a young child. I am quite content to believe he gave her the opportunity to escape.

Does anyone know for certain whether Johns placed her child out of harms way off the roadside or if her abductor did? The movie version of the events showed Johns going straight to her baby after she was rescued. From what I can glean from the facts it would seem a short search was conducted by the other people present who located her baby unharmed a short distance away.

Roger

3/21/2020 07:54:09 pm

Mr Reed who towed the burnt out wreck away, did to some extent confirm John's story of missing lug nuts on the right rear wheel and stated he did not find the keys in the ignition or anywhere in the car. The often told story of a truck driver arriving on the scene to ask the abductor what was going on as he shone a flashlight across the fields after johns had bolted may be totally untrue. The page supposedly containing this information has been lost from the original police reports. One big problem I have is why should so many pages of the case go missing? The police argue that this must have occurred during a residential move. All I can think is it must have been a very windy day when they moved the files? :-/ More likely I am inclined to think that someone may have trophied these pages for some reason.

Rubislaw 32 link

3/21/2020 05:09:41 pm

I'll chip in , with that she never really left the vicinity of her vehicle , until it was time for her lover to place her near a police station .

Given this scenario ,there is poignancy in the probability that she and her lover would have understood the wisdom , in agreeing to never contact each other again .

Who knows if Kathleen's husband found out the whole truth , anyway ( ? ) . Their marriage was likely to have been unhappy , with a small clue perhaps , in that he was willing to entrust in a car falling apart , for the purposes of transporting Kathleen and her baby .

Rubislaw 32 link

3/21/2020 05:18:19 pm

I would suggest that , the real consequence in the case of the Zodiac was , that once the Zodiac acknowledged the abduction , in July 1970 , then the criminologists could start confirming for themselves that the Zodiac was lying about some of his crimes .

At that July 1970 time , the Zodiac would still have been an active suspect for the murders of Snoozy and Furlong and , was never really eliminated until Karl Werner's arrest the following year , with the murder of Kathy Bilek .

But , such '' probable fibs '' as the Zodiac's reference to the '' Woeman '' would have started to make some matters clearer to Zodiac investigators .

Richard

3/21/2020 05:41:49 pm

The two things that strike me as odd Rubislaw, is the people from Missouri who took the time to stop and rescue her, then drove out of their way for half an hour to Patterson Police Station, that I doubt Kathleen Johns or the people from Missouri knew even existed (and Tracy was much closer). Tracy was 5 miles by crow from her rescue, but Patterson was in the middle of nowhere, 14 miles away. Who chose Patterson? And why did they go to all that effort, only to drive away and not escort her into the police station those final few yards. They could have corroborated that Johns was found by the roadside, so it seems rather convenient they didn't enter the cop station - not to mention - the sketch of Zodiac appearing in her eyeline only 30-45 minutes after escaping from him.

3/21/2020 07:09:02 pm

Rubislaw 32

I got a question for you - under Robert Salem at Beach Article

Roger

3/21/2020 07:34:30 pm

Around that era most husbands trusted their falling apart cars to carry their wives over long distances. Nothing unusual there! If I had to count the number of examples I saw back in the 1970s, I think it would have run into the thousands. I saw plenty of beat up, rusted out bombs, smoking from the exhaust, missing and hard to start. She was not the only wife who drove around in such a car.

Rubislaw 32 link

3/21/2020 06:15:11 pm

Indeed ,Richard , an abiding and perhaps outstanding aspect to this whole story is that this couple from Missouri were never located .

Naturally , the implications might be , that we are observing a scenario of strategic decision making , on senior investigators ' behalf , in buying into Kathleen's story .

One just hopes it doesn't count against a judicial prosecution of the Zodiac , if a '' late in the day '' opportunity arises ( ? ) .

Same could be said for the '' possible '' FBI's handling of the Donna Lass disappearance ( ? ) .

Roger

3/21/2020 08:01:35 pm

I kind of take this to mean the Missouri couple were willing to help but not wanting to get involved, especially if they saw in the papers later that her abductor may have been the Zodiac. A case of witnesses having or developing cold feet is really not that unusual. Most people have an instinctive flight response when it comes to trouble or danger. Still, after so many years have passed, one would think their consciences may have got the better of them and they would have come forward or told someone about their participation in the events of that night, if only to a close family member. Sadly, some people are very adept at keeping secrets and will carry them to the grave.

Rubislaw 32 link

3/21/2020 08:21:54 pm

I see now , BB .

Did Lyndon Lafferty know Jim Phillips' father ?

Not that I am aware of , and makes no mention in his book .

Lyndon , so is my understanding , didn't know anyone related to Darlene , until approached by Darlene's sister Pam . Pam was willing to finger WJ Grant as having been the man in the grey suit , at Darlene's painting party .

Apparently , Sandy Betts and Robert Graysmith had coveted this recognition for their respective suspects , but it was Grant for whom Pam plumped for ....so , I suppose that Lyndon wasn't going to turn this '' decision '' down , given that Grant was Lyndon's suspect .

All a bit silly , really ( ? ) , since it was only a claim that lacked real substance .

It is all too apparent that the Vallejo P.D. put together the Husted Report , to remind historians that they were the victims of unfortunate circumstances , in being blamed for Grant's successful injunction , on account of police harassment , owing to the Vallejo P.D. 's surveillance operation carried out on Grant .

Sadly , Darlene's family were led to believe that the Husted Report , was in their interests , as bereaved of a victim ( Darlene ) .

The compiling of the Husted Report , by the Vallejo P.D. was a technically illegal act , in itself ....so , did themselves , as well as Darlene's family , no favours at all .

Rubislaw 32 link

3/21/2020 08:42:06 pm

This is not to cast any aspersions on Pam Huckerbee , and my heart goes out to her plight , for all these years .

At the time , it may have seemed the right thing to do , but if she had known the Vallejo P.D. 's real agenda , then Darlene's family should not have become involved in anything to do with what became The Husted Report .

Rubislaw 32 link

3/22/2020 04:51:24 am

Just to let you know , Richard , that Tom Colbert has been on to me , about ( apparent ) concerns that members of the Zodiac community , such as I , might be looking at the notion that it was the Zodiac who hijacked 37 passengers , and jumped out of a jet airliner , at 30,000 ft , over the state of Oregon .

It is Tom Colbert who is the co-author of '' The Last Master Outlaw '' , and protects with zeal , the belief that the late Robert Rickstraw became D B Cooper .

I assured Tom that it is , more usually , the letters attributed to D B Cooper that come under scrutiny with possible Zodiac links , and that the Zodiac followers want no part of Rickstraw for themselves .

Tom Colbert appears content with this explanation .

Now we wouldn't want a fraternity war to start between D B Cooper followers and those of the Zodiac ( ? ) .

Zodiac followers , in the main , have enough problems with a small minority that insist on placing Richard Gaikowski in front of their faces , at every opportunity , as a viable Zodiac identity , without needing any extra '' grief '' from another case , all together .

Richard

3/22/2020 05:35:50 am

God forbid Rubislaw that you start upsetting the DB Cooper fraternity. I must admit though it's an interesting case, irrespective of any Zodiac link. Maybe DB Cooper survived a funded the SLA.

belly aka BB / blue belly / blue when bummed / belly when laughing

3/22/2020 01:17:19 pm

Ha ha ha... lord have mercy...please don't upset the Cooper crowd!

Lord hear our pr-air-plane?

My chute won't open!

Maybe I'll hide in the plane.

And later-on in Reno - ill sneak-out through the baggage hold.

But never get to spend any of the doe!

I'm just like the Zodiac. Money and sex ain't my thing.

I just want to stick-it to the man.

Rubislaw 32 link

3/22/2020 05:55:14 am

Lol....we should really take these matters with ironic amusement .

Roger

3/22/2020 02:19:27 pm

Seems to be a very obvious pattern here. That is to say it is clearly very easy to "upset the apple cart" with any author who has ascribed a suspect to a particular case.

https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/the_legend_of_d_b_cooper_319584

THE CIRCULAR ABDUCTION

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