ZODIAC CIPHERS
Richard Grinell, Coventry, England
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THE MURDERS BY GAVIOTA STATE PARK

11/23/2019

 
PictureRobert Domingos
It is now 56 years since the brutal slaying of Robert George Domingos (18) and Linda Faye Edwards (17) at Canada Del Molino on June 4th 1963. The area was 25 miles west of Santa Barbara. The young couple had driven to the beach in their copper and black 1956 Pontiac, parking alongside Highway 101, before taking the 6 to 10 minute descent to the water's edge. It was believed they arrived at the beach at about 3:00 pm. Sometime after they arrived they were approached by one or more people who were thought to have forced them under gunpoint in an attempt to restrain the couple using pre-cut lengths of rope. However, there may have been resistance from Robert Domingos and possibly a brief exchange of blows, before the couple fled for their lives in a northerly direction. Their bid for freedom was short-lived, having been gunned down by 19 bullets from a .22 caliber weapon. Robert Domingos was shot eleven times and Linda Edwards was struck eight times, in which the killer reloaded his weapon at least once. Robert was dragged face down 30 feet to a nearby shack, whereas Linda was dragged face up and her body placed atop of Robert. Her bathing suit was found cut open exposing her breasts but there appeared to be no further sexual interaction apparent. Several boxes of .22 ammunition were found inside the shack, along with some spent matches.

There have been the obvious parallels drawn to the Lake Berryessa attack on September 27th 1969, but despite the reports of pre-cut lengths of rope, there appears little else to connect this crime to the knife attack on Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell, other than a waterfront scene (although detectives may have information unavailable to the public). However, there is much more reason to connect the murder of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards to the recent sniper reports only two days prior to this attack, on June 2nd 1963.

Picture
PictureLinda Edwards
There were at least two reports of gunfire either side of the area where Robert and Linda were eventually murdered. Eleven teenagers in total reported two bullets whizzing past them as they were standing by their vehicles in a remote area of Gaviota State Park. They had been surfing at the beach that day. They reported that the shooting took place at around mid-afternoon. In another incident seven miles east, three teenagers camping at Tajiguas Creek reported hearing gunshots coming from the beach, just south of their location. The time was given as daybreak. Both sets of earwitnesses descrbed what they thought was the sound of a .22 gun.

There are obvious similarities in these events to the Domingos and Edwards story, in that the ammunition used in their murders was .22 caliber. They too were teenagers hanging out close to the coastline - and two of the attacks were believed to have occurred in mid-afternoon (about 3:00 pm in the case of Domingos and Edwards). The sniper attack at Gaviota State Park occurred 3.38 miles west of Canada Del Molino, and the teenagers at Tajiguas Creek heard gunshots coming from the beach approximately 3.84 miles east of Canada Del Molino. Then, two days later Robert and Linda were killed in an area bisecting these two points. What is extremely interesting (if correct) is Sheriff Webster stated that the lot number of the ammunition used in the murder of Robert and Linda was the same as the lot number of ammunition sold at a Santa Barbara store in April. The lot numbers also matched ammunition sold at Vandenberg Air Force Base, but the boxes at the crime scene were devoid of the price tags usually sold at the Air Base. The ammunition was Western Super X .22 caliber long rifle with a lot number TL-21. A lot number is an identification number assigned to a particular quantity or lot of material from a single manufacturer. Lot numbers can typically be found on the outside of packaging. Western Super X .22 caliber was used by the Zodiac Killer at Lake Herman Road.

Picture
Even though there were reports that the murderer of Robert and Linda attempted to burn down the shack where he placed the bodies, determining when these matches were struck, along with the tarpaulin scorch marks noted, is impossible to correlate with the murders. But why would the murderer or murderers waste valuable time dragging two bodies over difficult terrain at least 60 feet in total? Why not just exit the area as soon as possible and immediately separate yourself from the crime scene? The stacking of the bodies one on top of the other must have been done for purpose. Likely a male killer, it is probably no surprise that Linda was discovered on top of Robert with her breasts exposed. Unless her bathing costume had been torn during the dragging of the bodies, then it's extremely likely there was a sexual component to this crime, with the killer possibly wanting to spend time with the bodies in the seclusion of the shack. The hunter bringing home the prey to satisfy his necrophilic tendencies (a fascination with dead bodies) cannot be ruled out. There seems little other purpose to relocate the bodies in such a fashion. If the killer had worn gloves and shot the couple at distance, there appears no barrier preventing the perpetrator or perpetrators just leaving the scene.

It is highly unlikely that a killer would carry boxes of ammunition to a crime scene to perpetrate one or two murders. A clip or two is more than enough. If this person was a hunter who enjoyed taking pot-shots at wildlife (including birds), a day by the ocean in relative seclusion would be the ideal day out - and somebody arriving at the shack with several boxes of ammunition could certainly keep themselves entertained for a long period of time. If this hunter of animals had an over zealous intersest in killing (or was maybe the sniper taking pot-shots at teenagers), then when Robert and Linda inadvertently walked into his lair, their fate was effectively sealed. This time he could get close up and personal. His eventual slaying of the couple was certainly overkill by any standards - suggesting he enjoyed the act of killing - and his enjoyment continued with his interaction with the bodies far longer than the crime scene necessitated. The notion of a killer attempting to burn down the shack to destroy evidence makes little sense. It would have actually drawn attention to the area and any vehicle he may have parked nearby. However, separating yourself from the boxes of ammunition makes far more sense. It is also extremely likely the killer was familiar with this area - off the beaten track, away from prying eyes and ideal for a spot of shooting practice, inanimate or otherwise.
Picture
These beach side locations were the perfect spot for somebody wanting a degree of privacy and cover while shooting at unsuspecting beachgoers, as was the case with the surfers at Gaviota State Park. An area such as the one shown here provides ample cover as well as an exposed target. The same can be seen at the beach area by Tajiguas Creek. It is difficult to say with any certainty that a sniper was operating at Gaviota State Park and Tajiguas Creek, however, these two reports so close to the murders of Robert and Linda are extremely pertinent with respect to their untimely deaths. As with many serial killers, the employment of a buffer zone from residence to crime scene can be resourced as a valuable tool in narrowing down the offender's home location, so somebody traveling from Goleta or Santa Barbara would be leaving a buffer zone of 18 and 25 miles respectively to Canada Del Molino.
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205 miles southeast of Canada Del Molino and eight months later,  John and Joyce Swindle, a newlywed couple were brutally gunned down on Wednesday February 5th 1964 as they were enjoying an evening out on Ocean Beach, San Diego, near Narragansett Avenue. It appeared the killer had shot them from distance first, perched near a retaining wall overlooking the sea, before moving in to deliver the final shots at close range. Five shots from a .22 caliber weapon had been discharged from his sniper position by the rocks, with the last two as he approached the felled couple. "On the ledge of the retaining wall police found a box of Valentine candy. Police assume the Swindles bought the candy while on their stroll but they said it could have been left behind as a deranged killer's calling card".

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Click image to enter Google Maps
Early on in the investigation of the Domingos and Edwards murders, a 17-year-old boy from Lompoc was arrested due to intoxication and revealed to investigators that he knew the murdered couple, having been jealous of Robert Domingos - and it was noted by investigators that the boy had a badly bruised hand and knuckles "pushed in", consistent with a fight. It was believed that Robert Domingos may have struggled with the assailant before being shot. He explained to officers he had been at Refugio Beach on the Tuesday of their murder and Refugio Beach is 5.65 miles east of the crime scene. Under questioning the teenager was combative and belligerent, indicative of somebody who was already known to Lompoc police, having a previous arrest record.
PictureSketch of "Sandy".
On June 5th 1963, investigators traveled to Santa Cruz to apprehend two teenagers, James L. Coleman and J, C, Reed for the fatal stabbing of Vernon Charles Smith (63) in Lompoc during a robbery. They claimed their vehicle had ran out of gas and asked Vernon Smith for his assistance. Neither were considered suspects in the Domingos and Edwards slayings but implicated a third person called "Sandy" in the murder of Vernon Smith. The two youths admitted their part in the robbery but claimed it was "Sandy" who perpetrated the murder of Vernon Smith at San Miguelito Canyon, approximately 3 miles south of Lompoc. He was discovered lying on his back in a gravel ditch, towards the front side of his green 1951 Willy's Jeep pick-up. Close by was the gasoline can and fuel that he had acquired at a nearby gas station to help the teenagers. His cause of death was a knife wound to the back which penetrated his heart. Coleman and Reed were eventually convicted in a Santa Barbara County court and sentenced to 5 years to life for second-degree murder. "Sandy" was then sought for questioning in relation to the Domingos and Edwards murders. Santa Barbara detectives later stated that they discovered a vehicle stolen by the three youths and inside retrieved some clothing thought to have been owned by "Sandy". The clothing contained the names "Robert Coffman" and "William Carr", one of which they believe could be the true identity of "Sandy".

"Mabel Keener, manager of the Royal Motel, Arroye Grande, testified a boy resembling "Sandy" came to her hotel at 4 a.m, June 3 and registered as William Carr, of Bakersfield. He stayed until the next morning and left, she said. She declared the sheriff's composite drawing of "Sandy" as made by Hal C. Clark, resembled "Sandy" in some ways but not exactly about the mouth and hair. Raymond W. Kissian and Gilberto Serros, Lompoc gas station attendants, also testified. Serros said he waited on Smith (Vernon) that night when Smith drove up in his jeep, which also contained a youth resembling "Sandy". Smith, who was playing the part of "Good Samaritan" filling up a gas can to take to the youths stalled car in Miguelito Canyon, drove off with a full can of gas, said Serros".

Picture
Richard
11/24/2019 02:37:04 pm

Early on the Sunday morning of April 25, 1965, 16-year-old Michael Andrew Clark opened fire on cars traveling along U.S. Highway 101 just south of Orcutt, California, from a nearby hilltop. Three people were killed and ten were wounded before Clark committed suicide upon arrival of police.

Late on the night of April 24, 1965 Michael Andrew Clark, who lived in Long Beach, California, left home in his parents' car, without their permission. In the back of the car, he had a Swedish Mauser military rifle equipped with telescopic sight and a pistol he had removed from his father's locked gun safe along with a large quantity of ammunition. Early the next Sunday morning, he climbed to the top of a hill overlooking a stretch of Highway 101 near Orcutt. As the sun came up, Clark began shooting at automobiles driving down the 101 highway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_Highway_101_sniper_attack

BB
11/25/2019 09:02:50 am

Adolf Hitler
Born 20 April 1889
Died 30 April 1945 (we are told)
Head of The Nazi's

Tons of evil things are done
at this time by evil men.
Thus is the process of Hate
The Taurus sign is from approximately April 20 until May 20 in western astrology. The bull is also a signifier of evil for satanic
practitioners. LaVey was a friend of James Madole, leader of the Fascist National Renaissance Party. Due to Madole's opposition to Christianity, he sought new religious ideas, and was attracted to an infusion of Fascism and Satanism. From Wikipedia

Roger
11/25/2019 10:32:43 pm

Richard, That beach must be the murder capital of America. Cemetery beach is an eastern area of Santa Barbara,CA beach between a main street or Cabrillo Blvd.and the ocean. The SB cemetery is nearby. Early beach-goers to Cemetery Beach discovered John Franklin Hood, 24 of Oxnard and Sandra Garcia, 20 of Santa Barbara on 2/21/70. Their bodies were blanket-covered. Under this blanket was found a 4 inch bone-handled fish knife stuck into the sand. Police think this was the murder weapon. Robbery was not a motive as Hood's wallet was untouched and Garcia's pocketbook still had some money in it. Garcia worked for the DMV in SB and Hood was a much-decorated veteran of Vietnam. He worked at a drive-in restaurant called Wimpy's Drive-In in Oxnard. The two had been engaged for about a year, having met in Tijiana, Mexico. They were last seen strolling near the water around 6 PM. They were murdered Saturday evening or very early Sunday. Garcia had said they were 'not going to be gone for long.' They took a blanket and some food. Hood drove his sister's car and it was found parked near the beach. Robbery was not a motive. Knife had a saw blade as well as 4 inch blade. It was buried below the victims in the sand. It was about 9 inches long and as given had a bone handle. It was "clean, but had some 'material' that 'may have been blood.'" Four teenage boys found the couple. They had been sleeping/camping about 100 feet away, but had 'heard nothing.' Hood was stabbed some 12 times face/back. Garcia "numerous" times. Both were face down with a green blanket "neatly" covering them to 'make it look like they were sleeping'.
Sandra had not been molested. Both were fully clothed.

We have the 6/4/63 Slaying of Robert Domingos, 18 and Linda Edwards , 17 near a beach area in the SB area. Both were engaged. Both cases remain unsolved. No real evidence has ever been found except the knife. There was talk of a machete and two men who had been seen at a gas station in a station wagon, but nothing ever came of this information. There are similarities between both cases. Did each couple have an engagement notice in the papers which 'alerted' the perp? Or was he simply trolling beaches and secluded areas looking for young couples?

Donna Lass had worked in SB at Cottage Hospital. In her job application in her own hand she states she worked at Cottage 7-1-67 to 4-1-69. Charles Manson got his drivers license March '67 and lived in SB on Bath St., a street which connected to Cottage Hospital and was only a few minutes from where he lived! Bruce Davis, his close friend, would visit SB too. Both had friends there. Donna was Staff Nurse and Assistant Head Nurse at Cottage. She later went to Letterman 2/70 to 5/70 and from there to Lake Tahoe, where she vanished 9/6/70. Prior to this she worked at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Minneapolis,MN 7/1/65 to 7/1/67. She worked as a Private Duty Nurse with her friend Monica for a noted physician named Dr. Reichart from 4/1/69 to 10-1-69. He died in the fall of 1969. So there is a connection of sorts. Also, Donna had a friend in Vallejo. They had gone shopping and to the famous Nut Tree to eat in 1970, according to a letter. So we have a Vallejo connection in her timeline too.

According to newspaper reports there were six unsolved slayings on beaches in Santa Barbara in less than a year. Independent Press Telegram 1971 Santa Barbara: "The nude body of a young woman, apparently beaten to death, was found early today on a beach near Isla Vista. A student community adjacent to the University of California at Santa Barbara. It was the sixth slaying, all unsolved, on beaches of that area in less than a year. Sheriff's Sgt. Robert Prince, said the woman, -still unidentified, had a cut on the right side of her head and her face was "badly mutilated." Her head had been covered with a coat, Prince added.The woman's death was the third murder on the Isla Vista beach in just over six months, officers said. Thomas V. Dolan, 17,Manhattan Beach, and Homer Shadwick, 19), a soldier from Monterey, were also stabbed to death on the same beach last July. A third youth, Thomas M. Hayes, I9), also was stabbed in the attack but survived. John Franklin Hood, 24, of Oxnard and his fiancee, Sandra Garcia, 20, of Santa Barbara, were beaten and stabbed to death on a nearby beach last February."

On July 5, 1970, Tommy Dolan and Thomas Hayes, both 17, traveling with 20-year-old Homer Shadwick, were camping on the beach when they were attacked by an unknown assailant wielding some kind of bladed weapon, possibly a machete. Officer Mark Signa, spokesman for the UC Police Dept. (UCPD), said the perpetrator killed Dolan and Shadwick — who were hitchhiking to L.A. after seeing a fireworks show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco — and severely wounded Hayes. In March 2004, Donna Dolan, the mother of Tommy Dolan, asked the UCPD to reopen the case and re-examine evidence found at the scene of the crime using modern crime-solving

Roger
11/25/2019 10:34:47 pm

PART 2: In March 2004, Donna Dolan, the mother of Tommy Dolan, asked the UCPD to reopen the case and re-examine evidence found at the scene of the crime using modern crime-solving techniques.

“They were attacked while on the beach,” Signa said. “Tommy Dolan and Homer Shadwick were murdered. Hayes survived. The unknown subject had a very long-bladed knife, sword, machete or some other sharp instrument.”

Donna Dolan said she asked the police to reopen the case in 2005 when, nearing her 80th birthday, she needed to find some closure concerning her son’s death. By reopening the case now, she said she hopes the police will be able to unearth some DNA evidence pointing to a suspect, possibly from a hatchet that was recovered in connection with the crime. She also said she thinks three assailants, not one, committed the murder.

“[Investigators] have the hatchet,” Donna Dolan said. “There was also a knife or a sword that have never been in the evidence room, but they know what it was because of the wounds. Any blood was from [Tommy Dolan and Shadwick] – the perpetrators weren’t hurt in any way because the boys were sleeping in sleeping bags and they couldn’t even defend themselves … I was told by the detective at the Dept. of Justice that he would use anything he could find some DNA on.”

Dubbed an axe murder by locals and police, Signa said the incident seemed on the verge of being solved in 1970 when UCPD detectives found the van the victims had traveled in before they were dropped off at UCSB. At the time of the murder, the El Gaucho (the predecessor to the Daily Nexus) reported that Hayes managed to identify his attacker as an Asian man named “Carl,” and that two other men who had also traveled in the van with the three victims had been involved in the incident.

Signa said detectives never officially named these “persons of interest” as suspects and let the owners of the van go free.

“UCPD and the Sheriff’s Dept. tracked down the van they were hitchhiking in, but they were never able to prove who was responsible,” Signa said. “They basically had the van and the people associated with the van, but they could never prove their involvement.”

This was despite the fact the surviving witness could identify one of his attackers as being the Asian man from the van!

“There were three men,” she [Donna Dolan] said. “There was a white man — they tell me he is in Atascadero now in prison for the criminally insane. There was a black man who has never been identified. There was an Asian man and they said at the time that he had left the country and gone to Hong Kong. They had to know his identity in order to know he left the country.

Roger
11/25/2019 11:01:20 pm

PART 3: I have never been able to make any sense of the whole "Sandy" thing as it relates to Zodiac.

Sandy became a kind of mythical Scarlet Pimpernel "phantom" that the Santa Barbara police chased around for a long while. Some people later speculated he could have also been the Zodiac. The topic of this "Sandy" guy was very popular on the forums about 10 years ago, but nothing conclusive ever came of the discussions. Some people speculated that "Sandy" may have been Robert Lee Bell, who had a fairly watertight alibi, others claimed he was none other than Darlene Ferrin's ex, Jim Crabtree. I suspect, in truth, he was neither. He was most likely just another of the many crazies who were drifting through California at the time.

The individual known as "Sandy" met James L. Coleman, 16 years old, and J. C. Reed, Jr., 17 years old, at the beach boardwalk area in Santa Cruz. "Sandy" also had met other people at the beach, including Steven Straub, a Santa Cruz resident who later would draw a sketch of "Sandy". Coleman, Reed, and "Sandy" began a crime spree together which included robbing a woman of $20 at her apartment in Santa Cruz. The three teenagers stole a car and drove to Lompoc.

(snip)

Coleman, Reed, and "Sandy" drove around the Lompoc and Santa Maria area during the day. In the evening, they met Vern C. Smith, a quarry worker in Lompoc, and decided to rob him. Vern C. Smith was 63 years old (born February 22, 1900, in Kansas). Sometime around 11:00 p.m., "Sandy" told Smith that they had run out of gas and asked for help near his camper truck in which he lived in San Miguelito Canyon. According to Reed and Coleman, "Sandy" murdered Vern C. Smith in cold blood on Monday, June 3, 1963.

The next day, Robert George Domingos and Linda Faye Edwards were killed by an unknown perpetrator. "Sandy" was immediately considered to be a suspect by the investigators and a statewide search was launched, but "Sandy" was never apprehended. Years later, in 1972, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department announced that there was "considerable evidence" that the Zodiac may have been the killer of Domingos and Edwards. This led to speculation that the individual who was known as "Sandy" in 1963 might be the same perp who later became known as the Zodiac.

(snip)

Meanwhile, in the evening, while looking with others for Domingos and Edwards, George Domingos (the father of Robert George Domingos) saw his son´s car parked in some bushes near the beach. At about 10 p.m., Highway Patrolman Paul Schultz found the bodies of Domingos and Edwards in a driftwood shack which had been partially burned. Domingos had been shot 11 times and Edwards had been shot nine times by a .22 caliber gun. There were bruises on the face of Domingos. The body of Edwards (facing up) had been placed on top of the body of Domingos (facing down). The bathing suit of Edwards had been cut off from her body, but surfer shorts were still on the body of Domingos. When the autopsy was completed, Dr. John P. Blanchard did not find any evidence that Edwards had been sexually molested.

The investigators thoroughly searched the beach and found rope which could have been used during the crime and matches which could have been used to burn the shack. The investigators found ejected .22 caliber shell casings in a creek bed near the beach and there were also tracks in the creek bed, so the investigators theorized that the bodies were shot in the creek bed and then dragged to the shack. In the shack, the investigators found three ammunition boxes which each had some .22 caliber bullets. (There was also one empty ammunition box.)

More details regarding the murder of Vern C. Smith: While Smith was bent over refilling their tank from a portable gasoline tank, Sandy pulled out a knife and stabbed the old man in the back. The blade went right into his heart. Coleman and Reed were shocked, supposedly, but still rummaged through the deceased man's clothes to take 360 bucks. The trio fled. Coleman and Reed were unnerved by Sandy’s presence after this. Sandy sat quietly and calmly behind them in the stolen Sunbeam. At Arroyo Grande, a town north of Santa Maria, they gave him 20 bucks to rent a room at the Royal Motel. There they ditched him. The clothes he had left with them, they had tossed on the side of the road to Santa Cruz.

(snip)

Reed and Coleman had testified that when they asked Sandy why he had stabbed the man, he had replied: “I don’t know.” The police went and fetched the clothes, finding them exactly where the two boys had declared they were thrown from the car. In the clothes there was sewn a name tag with the name Bob Coffman thereon. Investigation proved that “Sandy” did tenuously exist. At the motel in Arroyo Grande, where he had been ditched, he had registered under the name of William Carr, giving a fake address in Bakersfield. The police searched high and low, but never found Sandy.

Sandy has remained as a su

Richard
11/26/2019 01:22:35 am

That about covers everything Roger - extremely useful tying it all together. I have never put too much credence in the Sandy connection to either Domingos & Edwards or Zodiac, but I suppose now its become part of the folklore of Zodiac. I also see little to connect the Domingos and Edwards murders to Zodiac. At least the Hood and Garcia murders fit the timeline of Zodiac and the Belli Letter, along with a knife - but for some unknown reason gets less recognition to the 1963 murders. The only reason I can see for that is the pre-cut lengths of rope. Thanks for your hard work putting these cases together.

Roger
11/26/2019 04:28:43 pm

Yes the pre-cut lengths of rope, use of similar ammunition (Western Super X .22 caliber), attempted use of fire, are probably the only things providing a loose Zodiac link: "by rope", "by gun", "by fire" etc. But it is all rather tenuous and vague, and so much of it could be put down to sheer coincidence. Many criminals use ropes, knives, guns, or fire. Maybe California was just going through a crime wave at the time (tell us something we don't know!), and not one of those crimes were committed by the same offenders, or the Zodiac for that matter.

BB
11/26/2019 05:30:25 pm

It is my understanding that James L. Coleman, and J. C. Reed, Jr. of Santa Cruz were sentenced for the murder of Vern C. Smith. And that the kid going by "Sandy" was a red herring that may have been a real person but to what degree, if any, participated in the murder there is only the word of Coleman and Reed. It sounds like a story that they made-up to blame someone else for their crimes. At the motel in Arroyo Grande he registered under the name William Carr. Across the country 13 years later Mike Carr and John Carr were the sons of Sam that David Richard Berkowitz said he went out killing with for the group known as "The Process". A group that were in the Los Angles area in 1966. But had several splinter groups which went around strongly coercing young people to join.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_Church_of_the_Final_Judgment

BB
1/15/2020 09:54:05 am

In Sept 69 Jim changed his last name from Phillips to Crabtree
The mystery murderer known as Sandy was the same age
He looked just like Jim Phillips.
Glasses - gaped teeth - 5' 8" - cowlick
So Cal connected
Smoker
I wonder if James L. Coleman, and or J. C. Reed, Jr. who seem to have served time already for the offence of killing Vern Smith - potentially they could say if Sandy was really Crabtree. If they could look at the "Unidentified man with Darlene" and say if he was Sandy.

BB
12/30/2019 10:56:15 am

Probably does not mean anything:

First suspected Zodiac killing was on June 5, 1963.

The Zodiac Killer's First Victims? PART 1 of 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Z-laW6Xb4

2:00 two minutes into the video.

Robert Domingos had one brother Frank, and two sisters Laura and Leona.

Zodiac cross hairs symbol stood for "D" Possibly for Domingos? Fk and LL?

Bobby was #68 on the Lompoc High school football team.

His families address in Drum Canyon was 6888 (Note 888).

Linda lived on "L" street in Lompoc.

Detective Bill Baker said Bill Armstrong called him in 1969 to say the murders in 1963 were linked to the Zodiac killer who began his spree in 1968.

Roger
1/15/2020 04:05:02 pm

I have tried to make sense of the Crabtree/Phillips connection for a long time BB. My understand is this -- Back in the day, Darlene Ferrin appeared in photos with a young man who some claim was her boyfriend at the time. In fact way back in 2013, the ubiquitous Sandy Betts had a long-running thread going on one of the forums about it. Posters claimed the man's name was James Phillips Crabtree. The man apparently used both names, Jim Crabtree and Jim Phillips. He preferred to be called Jim Phillips. He was in fact Darlene's first husband.

Sandy then posted up photos of Jim Phillips Crabtree and claimed they were the same man as the mystery boyfriend in the photo. Turns out this may have been a case of mistaken identity. The real Jim Phillips Crabtree did look similar, but when he was asked about the photo he denied that it was him standing next to Darlene in the school photo. He claimed he did not know who the man was.

Mike Morford looked into this and found that the mystery man was most likely a man named Ed Rezendes who graduated 1964. He was NOT from Darlene's High School. This guy is the only Ed Rezendes in the country that was the proper age to attend school with Darlene. He attended 1964 Live Oak HS in San Martin area.

Now with jokes aside about the horn-rimmed spectacles... this young man looks an awful lot like that sketch from another murder that took place at Penn State Library! This was the murder of Betsy Aardsma - an (in some ways) similar case to the one of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside. It would be interesting to know Ed Rezendes and Crabtree's movements for the remainder of the 60s and into the 70s.

Mike Mageau's description of the shooter matches Rezendes too. Mike also said that, as near as he could tell, the shooter's brown car was very similar to Darlene's brown 1963 Corvair. The interesting thing is Crabtree owned a brown 1963 Corvair. When asked about the car, Crabtree told police that he had abandoned the car in a parking lot and told the previous owner to come pick it up. This supposedly happened before the shooting. Crabtree told police that he did not even know Darlene was dead until they came to his jail cell. At the time he was apparently locked up (on another charge) awaiting questioning. Darlene's family all swear Crabtree was at Darlene's funeral so he must have been released shortly after.

Based on the ACTUAL witness statements in the files, the man who seemed to have sort of been "stalking" Darlene before her death was most likely a man who looked like Crabtree. But, at least one of those statements is undoubtedly about another young man named Richard Moncur (who owned a white Cougar) who lived across the alley and had a habit of sitting in his car, smoking and listening to the radio. The alley is very narrow, and it would have looked very much like he was parked more or less "in front of " Darlene and Dean's house. So who was really stalking Darlene: Crabtree, Moncur, or was it actually Crabtree's lookalike Rezendes??? The mind boggles!

Another thing that is interesting is that James Crabtree (Darlene Ferrin's ex-husband) sent a bizarre postcard to a company in the UK in 1969.

On the card he included the Zodiac crosshair symbol and drew a hand showing an obscene gesture.

He did not include enough postage and the card was returned for 3 cents postage.

The pair’s relationship was acrimonious and violent and even after Ferrin’s tragic death Crabtree would continue to talk about her in the most bitter and degrading terms. He was also arrested shortly after her death for possession of a handgun similar to the one used in the murder.

Despite the fact it would have been routine for Crabtree to have been considered a prime suspect, amazingly it wasn’t until months later that the police briefly looked into him in connection with Ferrin’s murder, and that was only after a psychic mentioned he could be a person of interest! Even the symbol on the postcard did not seem to prick their interest!

As a trained cryptographer, Crabtree had the credentials to have written the ciphers contained in the Zodiac’s first letters.
Crabtree apparently joined the army at some point and some claim he was an inmate of the Presidio Stockade during the Presidio Mutiny, however nobody can determine if he ever was one of the Presidio 27 or this is just a "tall tale". The Presidio Mutiny and the shooting of an inmate at the stockade took place one year to the day before Paul Stine was murdered.

Roger
1/15/2020 04:17:45 pm

I meant to include this link to the Penn library cold case. Scroll down for the suspect sketch. The similarity is uncanny. https://thetruecrimefiles.com/betsy-aardsma-murder/

BB
1/17/2020 04:00:08 pm

The truth is out Jim lies (shocker).
He is the guy in the picture with Darlene.

Roger
1/17/2020 05:12:28 pm

This does not surprise me BB. I think a LOT of people have lied in this case.

For one thing, I think Patricia Hautz may know a lot more than she has ever been willing to tell anyone. She wants us to believe the whole thing was just a coincidence and she only wrote the letter to the press because this was a "thing" she liked to do back then. Yet without telling anyone, she obviously knew about the bullied school classmate named Zlacket, who had called himself Zodiac in the early 60s. It seems unlikely that this could all be just a big coincidence, especially when we consider how interested Hautz would later become in the case! She has never, as far as I know, mentioned the name of the boy she may have "suspected".

Michael Zlacket ended up coming forward by himself many years later to plead his innocence, and I am sure most people would agree that he was entirely innocent and had no relationship to the later Zodiac at all. However, there is room to speculate that someone else may have stolen Zlacket's childhood persona and used it to establish an anonymous criminal identity at a later time. Could this man have been another student, a sibling, a parent, a brother, or a teacher of someone going to the school perhaps? Whether the Zodiac stole this kids persona in order to incriminate him or he just liked the kid's ideas that he allegedly put up on the blackboard from time to time, we may never know. But there is certainly a lot of cause to suggest this, especially when we look at handwriting samples.

The REALLY odd thing is the two different styles of handwriting on that envelope that Hautz mailed to the press, which appears to me to have been written by two different hands and perhaps even two different pens. The words ATTN. EDITOR are very much the form and style of the later Zodiac killer, and they are more heavily impressioned, yet the cursive was clearly Ms Hautz's. The thing is "letters to the editor" are generally things people write in privacy in their own home. It is unlikely she would have retrieved a discarded envelope with the words "ATTN: EDITOR" written on the bottom from the school trash bin for example. When asked about the letter Hautz claimed that the writing was indeed hers but she claimed she "could not remember" posting it. Yeah right? I do not believe her for a second. She knows exactly why she sent it.

I note some other websites seem content to just brush away all this Hautz stuff as an unusual coincidence and they seem willing to believe everything that Patricia Hautz has (vaguely and evasively) told them. When she was asked to provide writing samples, she did so willingly, but in her typically mysterious way, she seemingly pushes more smelly tuna in front of our noses, as if to see if we are still paying attention. She seemingly hands us another cryptic and obscure message (or "clew") by way of the content of her samples! If we read the poem and the words in her own writing in the margins about the poem, we see "By us: we two being one, are it / So to one neutral thing, both sexes fit" and her own words about death, resurrection and religious mystery are intriguing, given the context of the Cheri Jo Bates crime. She could have chosen any number of samples, but chose those. "By us!" is especially intriguing.

"By gun, by knife, by rope, by fire... By us!"???

I am the first to realize that people do odd things... but sometimes people do odd things for a reason, even if they are not willing to explicitly state those reasons.

One wonders exactly who is fooling who in this case!

Roger
1/17/2020 07:08:10 pm

I should add Michael Zlacket was supposedly questioned many years ago. Zlacket declared his innocence and was quickly cleared. So it is perhaps easy for us to believe Hautz was mistaken when she had presumed Zlacket was the killer. The problem of course is the Zodiac serial killer was not known back then. So it seems doubtful that Zlacket was the boy Hautz may have suspected of the murder of CJB.

However, there is room to speculate that someone else may have stolen Zlacket's childhood persona and used it to establish an anonymous criminal identity at a later time in the Bay area. Could this unknown man have been another student, or a student's sibling, parent, brother, or a teacher from her school?

Whether the later Zodiac stole Zlacket's persona with intentions of incriminating him, or he just liked the kid's ideas, we may never know. But there is certainly a lot of cause to suggest that Zlacket's juvenile uses of the Zodiac persona were re-used by the Zodiac serial killer later. Zlacket had used the name a long time prior to its widely televised use in the portrayal of a fictitious crime wave on the popular Batman TV show. In the mid-60s, a Zodiac was only two things: an inflatable boat used by Minute Men, or was something to do with astrology.

BB
1/17/2020 06:48:58 pm

Yes! Things are really making sense.


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    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.
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    The Zodiac Killer Map: Part of the Zodiac Killer Enigma by Randall Scott Clemons. Click image for color version
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