San Francisco Examiner With information and newspaper clippings provided to me by Jibberjabber, a former contributor to the Zodiac Tapatalk forum, we shall take another look at the brutal and senseless murder of Barbara Bates Keenan at her 8 La Campana, Orinda home on Friday, April 10th 1970. The San Bernardino Sun on April 13th 1970 would cover the story under the headlines of "Police Search for Motive After Murder of Socialite".
ORINDA (AP) -"She didn't have an enemy in the world" said the husband of murdered East Bay socialite Barbara Bates Keenan as detectives searched yesterday for a motive or suspects in the slaying. The 42-year-old wife of Oakland insurance executive Harold F. Keenan was found dead Friday afternoon in the kitchen of their home in the wooded hills of Orinda. The Contra Costa sheriff's office said Saturday an autopsy showed she was shot three times with a small caliber gun, once in the head and twice in the body. Mrs. Keenan also had been struck in the back of the head, apparently with an iron. The cord was found wrapped around her neck, the sheriff said. "I have no understanding of how this thing happened or why," said Keenan. "It's inconceivable." Sheriff's investigators appeared equally baffled. Intensive investigation, which included door-to-door neighborhood checks, produced no suspects or motive. Keenan said his wife received a phone call shortly before he left for work Friday and arranged one of her frequent tennis games for later that morning. The game lasted until 11:30 a.m. and what happened later is speculation, but Keenan said he believes she was attacked shortly after she returned home. Mrs. Keenan's daughter, Margaret, 14, discovered the body after walking home from school. Her son, Harold, 16, who had previously come home but had not seen his mother, called the fire department, the sheriff's report said.
Her husband, Harold F. Keenan was cleared of any involvement in the murder of his wife, leaving investigators scratching around for any conceivable motive for the murder of Barbara, an educated and popular woman in the Orinda community. It has been estimated that the murder occurred shortly after she arrived home around noon.
ORINDA (AP) -"She didn't have an enemy in the world" said the husband of murdered East Bay socialite Barbara Bates Keenan as detectives searched yesterday for a motive or suspects in the slaying. The 42-year-old wife of Oakland insurance executive Harold F. Keenan was found dead Friday afternoon in the kitchen of their home in the wooded hills of Orinda. The Contra Costa sheriff's office said Saturday an autopsy showed she was shot three times with a small caliber gun, once in the head and twice in the body. Mrs. Keenan also had been struck in the back of the head, apparently with an iron. The cord was found wrapped around her neck, the sheriff said. "I have no understanding of how this thing happened or why," said Keenan. "It's inconceivable." Sheriff's investigators appeared equally baffled. Intensive investigation, which included door-to-door neighborhood checks, produced no suspects or motive. Keenan said his wife received a phone call shortly before he left for work Friday and arranged one of her frequent tennis games for later that morning. The game lasted until 11:30 a.m. and what happened later is speculation, but Keenan said he believes she was attacked shortly after she returned home. Mrs. Keenan's daughter, Margaret, 14, discovered the body after walking home from school. Her son, Harold, 16, who had previously come home but had not seen his mother, called the fire department, the sheriff's report said.
Her husband, Harold F. Keenan was cleared of any involvement in the murder of his wife, leaving investigators scratching around for any conceivable motive for the murder of Barbara, an educated and popular woman in the Orinda community. It has been estimated that the murder occurred shortly after she arrived home around noon.
The home of Barbara Bates Keenan was located only 3,700 feet from the residence of psychiatrist, Edward C. Adams, who received a threat upon his family from somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer on October 17th 1970, just six months after the murder of Barbara. The pasted communication read "Mon Oct 12, 1970. Edward Adams. The Zodiac is going to change the way of committing murders. I shall announce when I shall commit my murders, The Adamses are Next. you taught me to mean it. ADAMS YOU ARE NEXT. Zodiac". The renewed reference to changing the way he was going to commit his murders, allied to the proximity of the Keenan residence to the Adams home, conjured up the notion that the Zodiac Killer may have targeted the Adams family because they too were well known in fashionable society, and this may have generated more publicity for the Zodiac Killer's latest communication. The proximity of the two residences - and the strong likelihood that Mr. and Mrs. Adams knew about the murder of Barbara Bates Keenan close to their doorstep - may have invoked a heightened visceral fear in the wording of "The Adamses are Next". It is possible that the Zodiac Killer knew about the April 10th 1970 murder of Barbara Bates Keenan and used the brutal crime to magnify the relevance of his latest threat on a family, that would otherwise have seemed like a random choice, without meaning. Could the families have been known to one another and frequented the same social circles?
Another murder occurred in Alamo, Contra Costa on April 28th 1969, just one year prior to the fatal shooting of Barbara Bates Keenan, with many parallels. Mrs. Anna S. Aarons (49) was also found murdered in her residence in another seemingly motiveless daytime attack. Dr. Z. Alexander Aarons, also a psychiatrist, discovered his wife lying on the patio of their home at about 9:30am as he was preparing to go to work. The residence of the Aarons family at 2750 Lavrock Lane was situated approximately 9 miles east of the Keenan home. Anna Aarons had been bludgeoned in the head, not dissimilar to Barbara Bates Keenan, who received injuries to the rear of her head from what was believed to be a household iron.
There is no suggestion that the Zodiac Killer had any involvement in the murder of Barbara Bates Keenan - only that he may have targeted the Orinda residence of the Adams family to create the notion that he may have been. Some Zodiac researchers have contemplated the idea that the Zodiac Killer may have read about the Adams family in a November 17th 1968 Oakland Tribune newspaper article that featured the Adamses home. The newspaper article, available on ZodiacKiller.Net, focused heavily on the design of their home and garden, referred to the family as the "Adamses", and showed an image of Mrs. Edward Adams.
Although this was featured many years earlier, in 1959, a photograph of Barbara Bates Keenan was shown in the San Francisco Examiner newspaper in the Pictorial Living section under the title of "A Hillside Home in Orinda". This article also placed the home and garden front and center of the publication, along with an an image of Barbara Bates Keenan and her dog.
The newspaper article also showed an image of her kitchen, where sadly she would be found viciously murdered just 11 years later. Hal Keenan wrote on April 10th 2014 "Thinking of my mother today. She passed away on this day in 1970, brutality murdered in our home sometime around noon. My sister and I found her when we came home from school. The photo is from May of 1959 when our house was in the Pictorial Living section of the SF Examiner. Gone but not forgotten. RIP Barbara Keenan". Closing in on the 53rd anniversary of the murder, time is not on our side in finding the perpetrator or perpetrators in the callous murder of Barbara Keenan, but hopefully one day, some answers may be found.
Thanks to Jibberjabber for his assistance in this matter.
There is no suggestion that the Zodiac Killer had any involvement in the murder of Barbara Bates Keenan - only that he may have targeted the Orinda residence of the Adams family to create the notion that he may have been. Some Zodiac researchers have contemplated the idea that the Zodiac Killer may have read about the Adams family in a November 17th 1968 Oakland Tribune newspaper article that featured the Adamses home. The newspaper article, available on ZodiacKiller.Net, focused heavily on the design of their home and garden, referred to the family as the "Adamses", and showed an image of Mrs. Edward Adams.
Although this was featured many years earlier, in 1959, a photograph of Barbara Bates Keenan was shown in the San Francisco Examiner newspaper in the Pictorial Living section under the title of "A Hillside Home in Orinda". This article also placed the home and garden front and center of the publication, along with an an image of Barbara Bates Keenan and her dog.
The newspaper article also showed an image of her kitchen, where sadly she would be found viciously murdered just 11 years later. Hal Keenan wrote on April 10th 2014 "Thinking of my mother today. She passed away on this day in 1970, brutality murdered in our home sometime around noon. My sister and I found her when we came home from school. The photo is from May of 1959 when our house was in the Pictorial Living section of the SF Examiner. Gone but not forgotten. RIP Barbara Keenan". Closing in on the 53rd anniversary of the murder, time is not on our side in finding the perpetrator or perpetrators in the callous murder of Barbara Keenan, but hopefully one day, some answers may be found.
Thanks to Jibberjabber for his assistance in this matter.
Newspaper clipping of Barbara Bates Keenan in her Orinda home
Image cropped to magnify text in article
Newspaper clipping of the Adams family home
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