Captain Martin Lee The hostility exhibited by the Zodiac Killer toward police began on November 9th 1969 when he responded to what he believed were disparaging remarks by SFPD's Captain Martin Lee. In the San Francisco Chronicle on October 18th 1969 under the headline Zodiac Called a Clumsy Criminal, the newspaper listed the mistakes it believed were made by the Zodiac Killer.
Captain Martin Lee stated "His boast of being in the area we were searching was a lie. We had the whole area flooded with lights. We had seven police dogs and a large number of patrolmen searching the area tree by tree and bush by bush. The dogs are the best in the country". Captain Lee added that Zodiac's failure to mention the dogs and floodlights was proof "he wasn't anywhere in the vicinity". The Zodiac Killer responded on November 9th 1969 with "I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west + there was only 2 groups of parking about 10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west".
Captain Martin Lee also appeared on a KPIX News report on November 12th 1969, responding to the November 8th and November 9th communications. He mentioned the Zodiac Killer's aggressive temperament in the Bus Bomb letter, noting the shift in "tenor of this letter as opposed to the others. For the first time he has demonstrated a hostility toward police. Now we are blue pigs and such remarks as that. He has never been particularly interested in our profession before this". Just over three weeks later this hostility would continue, when on December 7th 1969 the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter from Fairfield promising to "kill again, so expect it anytime. The will be a cop". He would continue the threats on police in his following letter on December 16th 1969. In this letter he immediately began with "this state is in troulbe..I will go for the Goverment life", suggesting a shift in the Zodiac Killer's thinking to more high profile targets. Law enforcement operates primarily through governmental police agencies in the United States, so the threat to target "government life", bearing in mind his threat to kill a cop on December 7th 1969, it's a reasonable assumption that "government life" = cops. Especially when he listed a potential thirty-eight police targets at the foot of the December 16th 1969 letter.
Captain Martin Lee stated "His boast of being in the area we were searching was a lie. We had the whole area flooded with lights. We had seven police dogs and a large number of patrolmen searching the area tree by tree and bush by bush. The dogs are the best in the country". Captain Lee added that Zodiac's failure to mention the dogs and floodlights was proof "he wasn't anywhere in the vicinity". The Zodiac Killer responded on November 9th 1969 with "I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west + there was only 2 groups of parking about 10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west".
Captain Martin Lee also appeared on a KPIX News report on November 12th 1969, responding to the November 8th and November 9th communications. He mentioned the Zodiac Killer's aggressive temperament in the Bus Bomb letter, noting the shift in "tenor of this letter as opposed to the others. For the first time he has demonstrated a hostility toward police. Now we are blue pigs and such remarks as that. He has never been particularly interested in our profession before this". Just over three weeks later this hostility would continue, when on December 7th 1969 the Zodiac Killer mailed a letter from Fairfield promising to "kill again, so expect it anytime. The will be a cop". He would continue the threats on police in his following letter on December 16th 1969. In this letter he immediately began with "this state is in troulbe..I will go for the Goverment life", suggesting a shift in the Zodiac Killer's thinking to more high profile targets. Law enforcement operates primarily through governmental police agencies in the United States, so the threat to target "government life", bearing in mind his threat to kill a cop on December 7th 1969, it's a reasonable assumption that "government life" = cops. Especially when he listed a potential thirty-eight police targets at the foot of the December 16th 1969 letter.
The shift exhibited toward police was brought about by the comments of Captain Martin Lee, resulting in the introduction to the Bus Bomb letter of "This is the Zodiac speaking up to the end of Oct I have killed 7 people. I have grown rather angry with the police for their telling lies about me. So I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I committ my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc". Followed by the two Fairfield letters in December.
However, there was one other shift in the Zodiac Killer's communications subsequent to the KPIX interview with Captain Martin Lee on November 12th 1969. The police chief stated "I think the rambling, careless appearance of his notes is also a disguise. The cryptograms when he makes them can be absolute works of art as far as alignment both vertically and horizontally and space between the characters is concerned. I think that goes more toward the true picture of a man than the rambling notes that we've gotten". Captain Martin Lee believed the organized cryptograms structured like "works of art" were more toward the true picture of the Zodiac Killer. The next letter to a San Francisco newspaper was........
However, there was one other shift in the Zodiac Killer's communications subsequent to the KPIX interview with Captain Martin Lee on November 12th 1969. The police chief stated "I think the rambling, careless appearance of his notes is also a disguise. The cryptograms when he makes them can be absolute works of art as far as alignment both vertically and horizontally and space between the characters is concerned. I think that goes more toward the true picture of a man than the rambling notes that we've gotten". Captain Martin Lee believed the organized cryptograms structured like "works of art" were more toward the true picture of the Zodiac Killer. The next letter to a San Francisco newspaper was........
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