ZODIAC CIPHERS
RICHARD GRINELL, COVENTRY, ENGLAND
  • Home
    • Search This Site With Google
    • The Mount Diablo Map and Code Solution
  • Zodiac News
    • Zodiac News Archive
    • Santa Barbara Attack
    • Cheri Jo Bates
    • The Confession
    • Riverside Desktop Poem
    • Bates Letter
    • The Forgotten Victims
    • Welsh Chappie - Zodiac News
  • Lake Herman Murders
    • Blue Rock Springs Attack
    • Vallejo Times Letter
    • Examiner Letter
    • Chronicle Letter
    • Complete 408 Cipher
    • Vallejo and Benicia Map
    • Kathie Snoozy and Debra Furlong Murders
    • Debut of Zodiac Letter
  • Lake Berryessa Attack
    • Presidio Heights Attack
    • Call to Chat Show
  • 340 Cipher
    • Bus Bomb Letter
    • Betsy Aardsma Murder
    • The Fairfield Letter
    • Melvin Belli Letter
    • Santa Barbara Murders 1970
    • Modesto Attack
    • My Name is Cipher
    • Dragon Card and Button Letter >
      • Phillips Road Map
    • The Sleeping Bag Murders
    • The Little List Letter
  • The Halloween Card
    • Lake Tahoe Disappearance
    • Los Angeles Times Letter
    • The Monticello Card
    • The Exorcist Letter
  • SLA Letter
    • Red Phantom Letter/American Greetings Card
    • The 1978 Letter
    • Los Angeles Times Newspaper Articles
    • Zodiac Letters Real or Fake
    • Zodiac Documentary
    • Unsolved Mysteries
    • The Colonial Parkway Murders
  • Suspects
    • Arthur Leigh Allen
    • Rick Marshall
    • Lawrence Kane
    • Theodore Kaczynski
    • Richard Gaikowski
    • Gareth Penn
    • Jack Tarrance

THE MURDER OF BETTY CLOER

9/10/2020

 
Picture
Here is an excerpt from the United States District Court for the eastern district of California, with respect to the June 19th 1971 murder of Betty Cloer (21) by the petitioner, Phillip Arthur Thompson.

On the evening of June 18, 1971, Betty Cloer went to a dance club in Sacramento with her
friends Karen Chappell and Robin Messner. Chappell was Cloer’s co-worker, and Messner and Cloer lived in the same apartment complex in Sacramento. Cloer’s roommate Elizabeth Ford stayed home alone that evening, and Messner’s younger sister babysat Cloer’s young son at Messner’s apartment. Later that evening Messner left the club with her boyfriend. Chappell and Cloer left the club around 1:00 a.m. on June 19 in Chappell’s car. Chappell stopped at a Texaco gas station on Madison Avenue in order to use the restroom. The restroom was at the back of the station near a vending machine. When Chappell pulled into the station, she saw a vehicle at the back of the station and a young man squatting near the vending machines. The man appeared to Chappell to be young, of medium height and build, with dark hair. The vehicle was a white or off-white four-door with a hard top that appeared to Chappell to be a 1963 Oldsmobile. Chappell went into the restroom and Cloer remained in the car. When Chappell came out of the restroom, she saw the man just getting into his car. The man pulled out of the gas station and Chappell followed him. At one point, the cars pulled side-by-side and Cloer rolled down her car window to speak to the man. Cloer told Chappell the guy was a “fox” and thought he was going to follow them.

When the two women arrived at Cloer’s apartment complex, the man pulled up behind them. Cloer got out and told Chappell she was going back to speak with him. As Cloer walked back toward the man’s car, Chappell drove away. Sometime between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. Cloer went into her apartment, where Ford was sleeping on a couch in the living room. Cloer told Ford she was going to Lake Tahoe and needed a coat. Cloer left the front door open and Ford could see a man standing outside. He was approximately 6’2” to 6’4” tall. Ford did not see his face. Cloer grabbed her coat and left with the man. According to Ford, she was the only person in the apartment when the victim arrived to get a coat. Cloer then went to Messner’s apartment to tell Messner she was going to Lake Tahoe. Messner saw a tall man with dark hair with Cloer. Cloer left with the man.

Stanley Ellis provided a somewhat different version of the evening’s events. Ellis was a federal prison inmate when he learned from a 2005 newspaper report that the investigation had been reopened, and contacted detectives. Ellis testified that he was living with his wife Margaret and their children in the same apartment complex as Cloer and Messner at the time of Cloer’s disappearance. He frequently gave Cloer rides to bars and other places. He thought but was not certain that he had taken Cloer and the others to the dance club that evening, and recalled waiting in Cloer’s apartment for her to call him to come and pick them up. Also present in the apartment, according to Ellis, were Ellis’s wife and Cloer’s roommate. Ellis testified he was present when Cloer and the man arrived. According to Ellis, the man stood outside while Cloer changed her clothes. Ellis tried to engage the man in conversation and at one point even walked up to him to try and shake his hand. Ellis testified that he felt uneasy about the guy and tried to talk Cloer out of leaving with him. When Cloer and the man left, Ellis looked out a back window of the apartment and saw them get into a dark blue Lincoln. Ellis identified petitioner from a photo lineup as the man who was with Cloer. Margaret Ellis corroborated the fact that she and Stanley saw Cloer leave the apartment building with a stranger that night. Margaret Ellis could not identify the man.

Cloer’s body was discovered at approximately 1:00 p.m. the following afternoon in an isolated field approximately 15 to 20 miles west of Placerville. She was lying on her back and was nude except for a bra. Cloer had sustained three gunshot wounds, one each to the head, chest and arm. She had also suffered such crushing blows to the head that she was unrecognizable. Items of her clothing were discovered strewn about the area. There were stains on Cloer’s panties that were still moist. Officers found several .32 caliber shell casings, a .32 caliber bullet, and a set of keys. A later examination revealed a milky fluid inside the victim’s vagina, but the fluid contained no sperm. The investigating officers later received a telephone call from a woman who said her daughter, Elizabeth Ford, had a roommate who fit the description of the person found on June 19. The officers met with Ford, Messner, and Chappell. The officers also visited the Texaco station where Chappell said she had first seen the man suspected of the murder. The officers spoke with the attendants and examined credit card slips for gasoline purchases the evening of the murder. The officers made a list of the license plate numbers from the credit card slips. They later ran those numbers against Department of Motor Vehicle records to determine the registered owners. One of the credit card slips contained license plate number DUK323. However, the name on the slip was not legible. That number was registered to Thelma and Richard Hart and was associated with a 1965 Oldsmobile convertible. Although it was not known at the time, Thelma and Richard Hart were petitioner’s mother and stepfather. The officers involved in the case never investigated petitioner in connection with the murder. Sometime later, petitioner was convicted of unrelated criminal offenses, including solicitation to commit murder and being an accessory after the fact to murder, and a biological sample was obtained from him for DNA analysis and entry into the state convicted offender databank.

In July 2002, the Betty Cloer case was reopened and the bra and panties found at the murder scene were taken to the California Department of Justice crime lab for DNA analysis. Sperm cells were found on the panties, and the DNA from those cells was compared to the convicted offender database. A match was found to petitioner. Further investigation ensued, including obtaining a saliva sample from petitioner. The DNA from that sample also matched the sample from the victim’s panties. Petitioner is six feet, four and one-half inches tall. At the time of the offense, he was married to Diana Saylor. In 1971, petitioner and Saylor moved to a home on V Street in Sacramento, which was approximately six and one-half miles from the victim’s apartment.

Petitioner and a partner, Mark Masterson, operated a used car sales and service company located on Alhambra Boulevard, approximately five and one-half miles from the victim’s residence. In 2003, investigating officers located and questioned Saylor, who recalled losing some keys in 1971. When the officers showed her the keys that had been found at the murder scene, her eyes got wide and she immediately grabbed the keys and started rubbing a stone attached to the keychain. Saylor said the keychain looked familiar to her. At the trial, Saylor testified that the key ring looked familiar and was similar to one she had in 1971, but she did not positively identify it. According to Saylor, she and petitioner had been driving the Oldsmobile convertible with license plate number DUK323 in 1971. The car was a light colored, two-door convertible, with the convertible top the same color as the car body. During that period, petitioner and Saylor also owned and operated a Lincoln that was off-white in color. Saylor testified that petitioner owned guns in 1971 and often carried one in the car with him. She did not remember petitioner having a Texaco credit card.

Picture
The map above shows the pertinent addresses regarding the murders of Betty Cloer, Carol Beth Hilburn and Judith Hakari. At approximately 1:00 am on June 19th 1971, Betty Cloer left the club and traveled to the Texaco gas station on Madison Avenue (probably 4300 Madison Avenue). where they first encountered Phillip Arthur Thompson, who apparently trailed them to her apartment (located somewhere in North Sacramento). We can get an approximate position of the apartment because it was 6.5 miles north from the V Street residence of Thompson and Saylor. It was 5.5 miles from Thompson's used car sales and service company at Alhambra Boulevard. Thompson's home address and business were just 2 miles and 1.5 miles respectively, from the Sutter Memorial Hospital at F Street between 51st and 53rd Streets. If Thompson trailed Betty Cloer from a dance club around 1:00 am, is it possible he trailed Judith Hakari on March 7th 1970 from Sutter Memorial Hospital to the Markston Apartments? Did he also set his sights on Carol Beth Hilburn (22) as she exited Lloyd Hickey’s Forty Grand Club at 1819 Del Paso Boulevard at approximately 5:00 am on Saturday, November 14th 1970. The close proximity of all these locations could suggest a hunting ground extremely close to his residence on the northern and eastern side of downtown Sacramento.

Betty Cloer's body was discovered lying in Cameron Park, El Dorado County on June 19th 1971, located just 10 miles west of Placerville. Despite being shot in the head, chest and arm, Phillip Arthur Thompson felt the need (probably before) to inflict crushing blows to her head and face, leaving her unrecognizable. These same destructive blows to the face and head were evident in the murders of Judith Hakari and Carol Beth Hilburn. Investigators described the condition of Judith Hakari as "one of the most godawful assaults ever investigated", with her nose smashed to a pulp, several teeth knocked out, and her jaw broken in at least two places. Coroners in the murder of Carol Beth Hilburn stated that she "was so badly beaten that she was unrecognizable, suffering several skull and facial fractures, and her throat was cut". In all of the murders, the perpetrator went far beyond what was necessary to kill each woman - seemingly gaining pleasure in destroying the identity of Cloer, Hilburn and Hakari. All women were found in a state of near full or partial disrobing, with sexual degradation the overriding feature of each crime. The bodies of Betty Cloer and Judith Hakari were discovered in remote wilderness either side of Auburn, California, with just 24 miles (as the crow flies) separating each dump site. Both Hakari and Cloer were taken from their apartments (located just a few miles apart) and found 38 miles and 28 miles respectively, to the east of Sacramento - almost equidistant between South Lake Tahoe and Sacramento.         
Picture
PictureJudith Hakari
In the case of Phillip Arthur Thompson, the prosecution presented evidence regarding two prior incidents in which petitioner had sexually assaulted young women, the first involving Sharon S. on December 2, 1970, and the second involving Melinda M. on March 9, 1972. Sharon S. and Melinda M. were both, like Cloer, young white females who appear to have been chosen by random encounter. Both Sharon S. and Melinda M. alleged that they had agreed to go somewhere with petitioner and another man, then were taken by car to a different location where they could be rendered helpless. Petitioner physically assaulted both women, and threated to kill them. He put a gun to Melissa M.’s head. Petitioner had sexual intercourse with both women. Petitioner and Mark Masterson (who operated the car sales and service company with Thompson) were tried for the Sharon S. assault in 1971.

Testimony
from the preliminary hearing in that case, including the victim’s testimony, was read into the record of the instant case. The jury also heard live witness testimony regarding the Sharon S.case. Mark Masterson testified that he and petitioner had both raped Sharon S. and that petitioner had persuaded another employee, John Mays, to falsely testify at the 1971 trial that both men had been with him at the auto shop on the night of the rape. Petitioner and Masterson were both acquitted in the Sharon S. case. Petitioner had been charged in the Melinda M. matter and eventually entered a negotiated plea to assault, with the sex offense charges being dropped. Melinda M. testified at petitioner’s trial that he had raped her in 1972 after he and James Allen picked her up when she was hitchhiking.

This seems extremely pertinent information when we have the testimony of a landowner on Ponderosa Way, who described three men at the gravesite where Judith Hakari would ultimately be found, acting suspiciously. He described the trunk of their vehicle open while digging into the earth. When he approached they closed the trunk and stated they were looking for bottles. A vehicle description could be extremely important with respect to vehicles owned by each of the men in the above case.


PictureDonna Lass
Donna Ann Lass (25) disappeared from Stateline, Nevada on September 6th 1970, having finished her shift that day at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, (now the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino). where she was employed as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe from San Francisco, where she had previously worked as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. She was scheduled to work her night shift at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel from 6:00 pm to 2:00 am, but was logged out at 1:45 am that morning for the last time. She is considered murdered, but her remains have never been discovered.

The similarity between the Donna Lass and Judith Hakari cases, are the fact that both women had just finished their respective shifts as a nurse, either side of midnight and separated by just six months. One hopes that Donna Lass didn't receive the barbaric beatings suffered by Cloer, Hilburn and Hakari - but bearing in mind the above United States District Court transcript - it was mentioned that "Cloer told Ford she was going to Lake Tahoe and needed a coat". It is clear that Phillip Arthur Thompson was heading in that direction from Sacramento, but whether they reached South Lake Tahoe and Betty Cloer was murdered on the return journey is unclear. Whatever the case, Phillip Arthur Thompson must have mentioned Lake Tahoe to Betty Cloer - being somewhere he was undoubtedly familiar with. The question that has to be asked is, was he present near the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 6th 1970, with the lifeless body of Donna Lass to be found somewhere near Auburn, California? I sincerely hope this is not the case.

According to Dr. Doogie on the Zodiac Killer message board, Phillip Arthur Thompson and his wife first lived in Kings Beach, CA (on Lake Tahoe) after June 1968, but quickly moved to various locations in the Bay Area and on to Sacramento. Kings Beach sits next to Incline Village, the area featured on the infamous Pines card of March 22nd 1971, purportedly mailed by the Zodiac Killer.

Shawn link
9/10/2020 11:36:48 am

You might wanna check out 22 y/o Susan Marie Lynch also...

"Tests determined the girl was alive when covered with sand and she died of suffocation, he added."

She was found in a Sacramento dry creek bed shallow grave one half mile north of Del Paso road on July 31, 1971 by some boys playing. Click my name for more.

Richard
9/10/2020 12:16:38 pm

Thanks Shawn, that sounds very interesting in terms of location. I will definitely check it out. Got another one I'm also working on, but next to no information on it. Still, these are the greater challenges.

Shawn
9/10/2020 02:15:22 pm

All these unsolved murders in Sacramento reminds of the letter (from Zodiac?) saying how many people will be murdered in certain locations including Sacramento.

Richard
9/10/2020 02:28:41 pm

Yes, Zodiac stated 9 in Sacramento in the December 16th 1969 Fairfield letter, the most of any area. Although the threat was predominantly directed towards cops.

Richard link
9/10/2020 03:13:33 pm

Cameron Park was once known as the home of "Sam's Town", where many travelers stopped on their way to and from Lake Tahoe. This restaurant and amusement complex was located along Highway 50, but was torn down in 2002 and is now a "ForkLift Grocery" store, part of the Nugget Markets chain. All that remains is a plaque noting its former existence.

https://www.edcgov.us/landing/Living/Stories/pages/sams_town.aspx

Richard
9/11/2020 03:16:22 pm

The three men on Ponderosa Way drove a late model sedan. That is all the information I can find on their vehicle.

Judith
9/14/2020 08:06:37 am

As best as I can tell Zodiac did not sexually assault his victims.

BB
9/14/2020 06:58:06 pm

Judith

If we are honest - we can't say who or what the Zodiac was or is. Since nobody knows. Because it could be anyone or anything. I am actually now open to it being anybody - even UFO's from another dimension. We could apply almost any idea to almost any investigative prospective. Professional scientists would never risk their credibility by attaching their names to a study like the notion of the study of the Zodiac or any number of legendary phenomenon. It is career suicide for a scientist to wade into uncharted areas like ghouls, Sasquatch, demons, fairies and the Loch Ness monster. The study of the Zodiac is all over the place. Because the scientific method can-not be applied to something that can't be controlled in the clean state of a pristine laboratory is why this is a case for the amateur community. People willing to risk their own time. And, people willing put-up their own money - risking to not have any hopes of a return.


Comments are closed.
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    All
    13 Hole Postcard
    148 Character Cipher
    1978 Letter
    1986 Letter
    1987 Letter
    2001 Happy New Year Card
    Albany Letter
    Allan/Peyton Murders
    Arthur Leigh Allen
    Atlanta Letter
    Betsy Aardsma
    Blue Rock Springs Attack
    Bus Bomb Letter
    Button Letter
    Call To Chat Show
    Carol Beth Hilburn
    Channel 9 Letter
    Cheri Jo Bates
    Cipher Theories
    Citizen Card
    Concerned Citizen Card
    Confession Letter
    Daniel Williams Poisoning
    Debut Of Zodiac Letter
    Deep Real Estate Ad
    DMV Letter
    Domingos/Edwards Murders
    Donald Lee Bujok
    Donna Lass
    Dragon Card
    Earl Van Best Jr
    Eureka Card
    Exorcist Letter
    Fairfield Letter
    Fingerprint Evidence
    Forecast For Cancer
    Forecast For Leo
    Gareth Penn
    General News Articles
    Gilbert And Sullivan
    Good Citizen Letter
    Halloween Card
    Hood/Garcia Murders
    Internet Articles
    Joan Webster
    Johnny & Joyce Swindle
    Judith Hakari
    Kevin Robert Brooks
    Lake Berryessa Attack
    Lake Herman Road Murders
    Lake Tahoe Disappearance
    Larry Kane
    Leona Roberts Murder
    Los Angeles Letter
    Melvin Belli Letter
    Mike Morford (Morf13)
    Modesto Attack
    Molina/Rodriguez Murders
    Monticello Card
    My Name Is Letter
    Nancy Bennallack
    New Canaan Letters
    Novato Letter
    Oakland A's Letter
    Pines Card
    Possible Zodiac Attacks
    Possible Zodiac Letters
    Presidio Heights Murder
    Radians
    Red Phantom Letter
    Richard Gaikowski
    Riverside Desktop Poem
    Robert Salem Murder
    Ross Sullivan
    Saechao/Saelee Murders
    San Jose Code Letter
    Santa Claus Card
    Scorpion Ciphers
    Scotch Tape Letter
    Sla Letter
    Tamalpais Valley Attack
    Ted Kaczynski
    Telegraph Avenue Incident
    The 340 Cipher
    The 408 Cipher
    The Celebrity Cypher
    The Little List
    The Mikado
    Thomas Horan
    You Are Next Letter
    Zodiac Letters Poll
    Zodiac Postage
    Zodiac Theories

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    The Zodiac Killer may have given us the answer almost word-for-word when he wrote PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians. The code solution identified was Estimate: Four Radians and Five Inches To read more, click the image.
    Picture
    Picture
    The Zodiac Atlas: The Zodiac Killer Enigma by Randall Scott Clemons. Click image for details.
    Picture
    The Zodiac Killer Map: Part of the Zodiac Killer Enigma by Randall Scott Clemons. Click image for color version
    For black and white issue..
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    January 2012

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Photos from Marcin Wichary, zAppledot, vyusseem, Alex Barth, Alan Cleaver, jocelynsart, Richard Perry, taberandrew, eschipul, MrJamesAckerley