It was to become a long and tortuous road from boyhood to manhood for Donald Lee Bujok, born in Roundup, Montana on July 6th 1936, for a child that never grew familiar with the concept of fair play from the outset. Due to circumstances beyond his control, the future that lay ahead of him even he probably never dared to comprehend, as he wiled away his time near the banks of the Musselshell River - and in a state synonymous with mountain peaks, the fall awaiting the young Bujok was about to become dramatic to say the least. Donald Lee Bujok was afflicted early on in his life with a pronounced speech impediment, and with schoolchildren not always understanding or compassionate to such problems, it resulted in persistent bullying that only served to marginalize him on his first tentative steps into adulthood. An isolation and rejection that would eventually manifest itself in the most brutal way.
Undersheriff Otto S. Fossen (65) With his court appointed attorney, John D Gillan standing beside him, Bujok, now 21 years of age, received a murder in the first degree life sentence from District Judge C. B. Elwell, for the unprovoked and senseless slaying of Undersheriff Otto S. Fossen (65), gunned down by five bullets to the neck and chest as he was beaten to the draw near Joplin, Northern Montana on October 5th 1957 at 9:30 am, when he stopped a hitchhiker over an abandoned car. After the murder, Bujok then attempted his bid for freedom in Fossen's car - after which, an intensive yet brief manhunt ensued, before the suspect was finally cornered by a group of law officers hiding in a restroom north of Chester. With no possible escape from his pursuers and heavily outgunned, Donald Lee Bujok's days of freedom were about to come to an end.
Donald Lee Bujok, a former army veteran and railroad worker, uttered the words "Guilty your honor", before being led away to serve his time in Old Montana State Prison - that became forever etched in the public psyche for the infamous Jerry's Riot that took place on 16th April 1959.
Deep inside the Montana walls of correction, it appeared that Donald Lee Bujok was learning little of value, becoming a disciplinary problem, while surrounded by hardened criminals of an even less forgiving nature than the schoolchildren that preceded them. But it was the writings of another prisoner, Edward Wayne Edwards, which suggested that the man who started life ridiculed on an almost daily basis, was starting to forge his own manifesto of evil. Edward Wayne Edwards would later reveal in his book Metamorphosis of a Criminal that "An inmate who particularly stood out in my mind was the man who killed a deputy sheriff. When the posse found him hiding out in an outhouse, he told them "You can't convict me because I swallowed the evidence." He had swallowed the bullets. This demented individual showed an overwhelmingly interest in science fiction and Egyptian literature. He believed that anyone he killed would be his slave in the next life. He was generally disliked and distrusted by the other inmates. I personally felt that he was one of the most deranged and potentially dangerous persons in the prison. You never knew when he was going to erupt. Unfortunately, this inmate idolized me, for the simple reason that I had earned the respect of the population- something, deep down, he desperately wanted to do. He had an uncanny knack for making your skin crawl. Today, when I think about all the different types I met in that excuse for a penitentiary, this man remains my most uncomfortable memory".
Donald Lee Bujok served only eleven years of a life sentence, before being released from Old Montana Prison on December 17th 1968. Three days later the Zodiac Killer announced his arrival to the world, as the lonely turnout on Lake Herman Road would testify to, one dark night in Northern California. Kevin Robert Brooks believes that the young man taunted as a child, hardened in the walls of confinement and further isolated from the clutches of reality, had now embarked on a mission of evil from which there was no turning back, with his collection of slaves for the afterlife now underway.
Donald Lee Bujok, a former army veteran and railroad worker, uttered the words "Guilty your honor", before being led away to serve his time in Old Montana State Prison - that became forever etched in the public psyche for the infamous Jerry's Riot that took place on 16th April 1959.
Deep inside the Montana walls of correction, it appeared that Donald Lee Bujok was learning little of value, becoming a disciplinary problem, while surrounded by hardened criminals of an even less forgiving nature than the schoolchildren that preceded them. But it was the writings of another prisoner, Edward Wayne Edwards, which suggested that the man who started life ridiculed on an almost daily basis, was starting to forge his own manifesto of evil. Edward Wayne Edwards would later reveal in his book Metamorphosis of a Criminal that "An inmate who particularly stood out in my mind was the man who killed a deputy sheriff. When the posse found him hiding out in an outhouse, he told them "You can't convict me because I swallowed the evidence." He had swallowed the bullets. This demented individual showed an overwhelmingly interest in science fiction and Egyptian literature. He believed that anyone he killed would be his slave in the next life. He was generally disliked and distrusted by the other inmates. I personally felt that he was one of the most deranged and potentially dangerous persons in the prison. You never knew when he was going to erupt. Unfortunately, this inmate idolized me, for the simple reason that I had earned the respect of the population- something, deep down, he desperately wanted to do. He had an uncanny knack for making your skin crawl. Today, when I think about all the different types I met in that excuse for a penitentiary, this man remains my most uncomfortable memory".
Donald Lee Bujok served only eleven years of a life sentence, before being released from Old Montana Prison on December 17th 1968. Three days later the Zodiac Killer announced his arrival to the world, as the lonely turnout on Lake Herman Road would testify to, one dark night in Northern California. Kevin Robert Brooks believes that the young man taunted as a child, hardened in the walls of confinement and further isolated from the clutches of reality, had now embarked on a mission of evil from which there was no turning back, with his collection of slaves for the afterlife now underway.
Donald Lee Bujok. Picture courtesy of Kevin Robert Brooks. David Van Nuys, co-author of the book This is the Zodiac Speaking, parallels the timeline of the Zodiac with ever increasing thrill and risk, that manifests itself in many serial killers. With the use of a .22 handgun in the Lake Herman Road murders, to a 9mm Luger in the Blue Rock Springs attack, followed by the costume driven close-quarter attack at Lake Berryessa and finally the murder of Paul Stine in the built-up area of Presidio Heights, it was evident that the Zodiac Killer was becoming more daring.
However, the day the killer shuffled away from the crime scene at Washington and Cherry, may have been indicative of a man whose failing health was to finally curtail his brief but deadly reign of terror. Since that day, the Zodiac Killer bombarded the newspapers with a multitude of letters, ciphers and postcards in order to keep his legacy alive, and possibly inherent of a man that yearned the attention he so clearly lacked during his formative years. But is that life that of Donald Lee Bujok?.
Fingerprinting has since ruled out Donald Lee Bujok to those held on file, after samples sent to the investigatory bodies by Kevin Robert Brooks apparently failed to provide a match - as it has done so for many previous suspects before him. It appears that DNA could be the final hope for this 20th century crime in becoming a 21st century resolution. But the wait continues.
However, the day the killer shuffled away from the crime scene at Washington and Cherry, may have been indicative of a man whose failing health was to finally curtail his brief but deadly reign of terror. Since that day, the Zodiac Killer bombarded the newspapers with a multitude of letters, ciphers and postcards in order to keep his legacy alive, and possibly inherent of a man that yearned the attention he so clearly lacked during his formative years. But is that life that of Donald Lee Bujok?.
Fingerprinting has since ruled out Donald Lee Bujok to those held on file, after samples sent to the investigatory bodies by Kevin Robert Brooks apparently failed to provide a match - as it has done so for many previous suspects before him. It appears that DNA could be the final hope for this 20th century crime in becoming a 21st century resolution. But the wait continues.
Newspaper article courtesy of Kevin Robert Brooks
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