TWO SHOOTERS AT LAKE HERMAN ROAD ?

7/22/2016

There were no direct eyewitnesses to the murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on December 20th 1968, with some detectives and Zodiac researchers of the opinion these murders were not part of the Zodiac crimes, only a crime that the Zodiac Killer would belatedly lay claim to just over seven months later, after the murder and attempted murder of Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau at Blue Rock Springs Park. Some argue for multiple assailants at Lake Herman Road, or at the very least, more than one person being involved in the crime. There were claims by William Crow of suspicious activity between 9:30 pm and 10:00 pm that night, 75 minutes prior to the murders and detailed in the police report: "He stated he was driving his girlfriend's sports car and he was testing it out and adjusting the motor. He was parked in the open area by the pump station and he observed a blue car, possibly a Valiant coming down the road from Benicia towards Vallejo. They passed his location, stopped in the middle of the road and he saw the white lights of the reverse come on and the car started backing up towards them. Mr Owen put the car in gear and took off at a high rate of speed and the car followed him at a high rate of speed. They did not attempt to gain on him, but when they got to the turn off towards Benicia, William Crow turned towards Benicia and the other car went straight ahead. The subjects were both Caucasians and there is no further identification on the car or the subjects". William Crow would later change some details in his account, but this was the original statement typed up by police.

1967 Plymouth Valiant https://www.flickr.com/photos/greggjerdingen/

Approximately 30 minutes later, Stan (a 14 year old) described a 1963 Chevrolet Impala, blue in color, with two occupants heading from Lake Herman Road towards Columbus Parkway in the direction of Blue Rock Springs Park. In later years, William Crow would later recall "I never told the sheriff who interviewed me that the car I encountered was a Valiant. As I recall, as I was attempting to describe the car, the sheriff came up with a “Valiant”. In the years that have passed, when I have shared the events of that night, I have described the car as a four-door light-colored Chevy". The question arises, how do we interpret these overlapping features?

The recollection of William Crow often appears an overlooked feature of this case - and if true - the activity he described within 75-90 minutes of the actual double murder at the identical location should not be underestimated. Whether William Crow saw one or two Caucasians is open to scrutiny - and although he claimed the Sheriff 'suggested' the Valiant to him, his later recollection of the number of occupants was less than clear, stating "After some moments, the other car turned around in the roadway and went back down the road from which we had come. I kept making macho statements, but not totally without some sense about me, I drove home. I did not see the car again. I could not see the passenger seat, but the driver was a man with short hair and glasses. I did not see his specific facial features". Reading between the lines, if he couldn't see the passenger seat, there could have been two occupants. This may be significant when considering the sighting of Stan, and more importantly, the report issued by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, conducted by David Burd regarding the murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen.

Whenever a firearm is discharged, ballistic evidence left at a crime scene will come into play, such as firing pin impressions and breech marks on bullet casings. These can help identify a seized weapon, or be used to compare expended casings from a crime scene and determine whether they were fired from the same gun, or whether multiple shooters may be involved. The analysis of recovered bullets for imparted lands and grooves has similar benefits. So, was there more than one shooter at Lake Herman Road? Did it require two or more assailants to control a situation in which two people were removed from a vehicle in pitch darkness, unlike the scenario at Blue Rock Springs, where the lone assailant kept the couple contained within the vehicle? Did one assailant have control of David Faraday, while the other fired five shots into Betty Lou Jensen? Were both killed by the same person? - enter the ballistics evidence.

The logical approach would be to examine the bullets recovered from Betty Lou Jensen at autopsy, along with the single bullet recovered from David Faraday, hoping they haven't been completely disfigured on impact, and thereby make a comparison. The same is true for the casings. Here are some excerpts from the Department of Justice report.

'The following exhibits were submitted [1] Bullet from Faraday's body. [2] Two bullets from Jensen's body. [3] Bullet found in panties of Jensen. [4] Five Super X .22 cartridge cases found at scene by coroner. [5] Four Super X cartridge cases found at scene by Sgt Silva. [6] One bullet found on top of 1961 Rambler. [7] One bullet found in floor mat, left side storage area of 1961 Rambler. [8] One bullet found on ground near Jensen's body. [9] Purple dress of Jensen.'

What is important, is how you interpret these findings.The report continued 'Intercomparison of the cartridge cases in items [4] and [5] indicate that all were probably fired from the same weapon and all are the same make and type of ammunition. Due to the lack of sufficient unique structure it appears that considerable difficulty will be encountered in positively identifying the responsible weapon if it should be recovered.'

This seems to indicate that nine of the casings found at the crime scene were likely fired from one weapon. However, there were ten casings recovered. Did the final casing match the other nine, and why is this not mentioned in [1] through [9]? The following statement in the Department of Justice report is crucial: 'All bullets submitted were Western copper coated .22 long rifle bullets, Although some were damaged, it was possible to determine ALL had 6 right hand groove class characteristics. apart from item' [1]'

Item [1] was the bullet recovered from David Faraday and it didn't exhibit these characteristics. Is this the proof that more than one person was involved in the Lake Herman Road murders? It would seem highly unlikely that the Zodiac Killer fired 9 shots with one weapon, then switched to a similar model, but separate gun, to murder David Faraday. Was the murderer of David Faraday, the assailant given the responsibility of subduing him - possibly restraining him from behind by a left-handed shooter, while a second subject initiated the attack and murdered Betty Lou Jensen? Does this ballistics evidence suggest there were two shooters at Lake Herman Road on December 20th 1968, especially considering the suspicious activities experienced by William Crow only 75 minutes earlier, possibly involving two Caucasian males? The pervading notion is that the killer or killers were opportunistic by nature, cruising up and down Lake Herman Road looking for potential victims. Or, were the murders planned in advance by two or more assailants? The answer, in part, may lie with 'Item [1]'.

Greg H.

7/22/2016 10:45:08 pm

I hope this question doesn't appear crude, but how was a bullet found in Betty Lou's panties?..She was shot five times in the upper right side of the back.. I realize questions of sexual motivations have never been especially pertinent to the Zodiac case, but I find it perplexing that a bullet winds up in her panties. Even if the bullet somehow travelled downward and out her midsection, wouldn't it rip through her underwear? Is it possible that a found bullet was placed there deliberately?

John Corbin link

2/1/2019 06:25:14 pm

Most people don't seem to realize the human body slows a bullet a LOT! Take into consideration and trajectory, as well as internal organs, deflection, etc, that lowest shot [bullet] could very easily have angled downwards, deflecting, perhaps off of her pelvic bone or slowed by the more dense kidney, reaching to just below her panty line. Also, by the time the round reached her clothing, the fabric could have been enough to complete the cessation of the bullets travel without ripping through.

Richard

7/22/2016 11:38:36 pm

You're making me blush Gregory. I really hadn't given it much thought until today, but I doubt it was placed there deliberately. Betty Lou was shot several times from around 8-10 feet away and there were three exit wounds, one of which exited laterally and 3 and 3/4 inches to the right of the umbilicus. I am not an expert on the underwear styles of 1968, but I hazard a guess the panties they wore were likely a little bigger than many today, with a high line around the navel. Therefore this bullet likely exited just under the high line of her panties by her belly button and dropped in place.
http://www.zodiacciphers.com/uploads/4/9/7/1/4971630/2215234.gif?250

Greg H.

7/23/2016 02:23:54 pm

Thanks Richard..Hey, it was their first date, I wouldn't rule out the possibility she may have been wearing a cast-iron chastity belt which proved to be impenetrable for the bullet. Which is not to make light of this horrific ordeal. Okay, I'm completely making light of it. #gallowsjokes

Ray Grant link

7/23/2016 06:33:50 pm

"I hope this question doesn't appear crude, but how was a bullet found in Betty Lou's panties?..She was shot five times in the upper right side of the back.. I realize questions of sexual motivations have never been especially pertinent to the Zodiac case, but I find it perplexing that a bullet winds up in her panties. Even if the bullet somehow travelled downward and out her midsection, wouldn't it rip through her underwear? Is it possible that a found bullet was placed there deliberately?"

This question appears crude, but not from a moral standpoint. It's criminologically crude. A bullet (or, as it's often called by cops, a "slug") isn't like a shell casing. It would have to be fired from the gun and then retrieved somehow by the shooter, either from the gravel or the nearby field or from Betty Lou's body. None of those possibilities seems even remotely likely, particularly in a pitch dark turnout where one can't see his own hand in front of his face. Whereas a shell casing just falls on the ground, and is cylindrical and may tend to roll, and can thus be accidentally relocated, as the stray bullet in this case was when the perpetrators exited the turnout, the casing being caught in their rear wheels and spun toward the rear of the turnout.

If Greg H. is suggesting that the killer actually brought a spent slug with him and deposited it in Betty Lou's panties, the problem is then you may end up with police finding one more slug than the number of shell casings, unless you have the killer also bring an extra spent casing to the party which he then drops on the ground. But now we're leaving Occam's Razor in our rearview mirror, aren't we?

As those of us familiar with criminology are aware, slugs which don't come to rest IN the victim very often turn up in close proximity to the victim. Let's use what is perhaps the most famous example of this phenomenon to illustrate it, the bullet that went through BOTH JFK and John Connally. Here's Wikipedia:

"The bullet was found on a gurney in the corridor at the Parkland Memorial Hospital, in Dallas, after the assassination. The Warren Commission found that this gurney was the one that had borne Governor Connally."

In other words, that singular bullet lodged at some point in Connally's clothes, and then fell out and landed on the gurney. Happens all the time.

Greg, you haven't answered any of the points I made in the Comments section of the Death On A Driveway - Cheri Jo Bates article. Just in case you hadn't noticed my responses, here's a link to the article:

http://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/death-on-a-driveway-cheri-jo-bates

As always, I speak to be instructed.

Ray Grant link

7/23/2016 06:35:26 pm

Richard Grinell: I'm gratified that you're gradually (very gradually) coming around to my view of the case. You've admitted that Cheri Bates was never in the RCC Library, that she couldn't have charged out the books in her car, and now are at least open to the possibility that more than one killer was involved in the murders on Lake Herman Road.

However, I have to question some of your conclusions:

1. Just to deal quickly with the issue of the make and model of the cars, to reiterate what I've said elsewhere, the 1959 Chevy Impala was a design outlier: it had tail fins which flared upward, and an embedded stripe which ran the length of the car. The 1960 Impala's tail fins were horizontal, and the side stripe only ran about half the length of the car. After that, the Impalas reverted to the boxy design characteristic of other Chevrolet midsize sedans like the Chevelle and Malibu.

It's clear that William Crow was an unusual male for the 1960s, in that he wasn't make-and-model savvy. For example, he never tells us what make and model his ex-girlfriend's sports car was, even though he was fiddling with its toggle switches in the turnout. He says that the responding officer in 1968 suggested the rogue car might be a Valiant, whose design did not resemble an Impala. He himself says, in his 2004 memo, that the car was a "light-colored Chevrolet." That's consistent with the descriptions of Bingo Wesher, Robert Connley, and Frank Gasser, who all say it was a Chevy Impala. I tend to believe the car was either a 1959 or 1960, since Stan-the-14-year-old also identifies the car he saw as an Impala, and the 1959/1960 models LOOKED like Impalas and not just a standard Chevy.

So we have a description consistent with a Chevy Impala from five witnesses in chronological order: Crow (9:40pm), Wesher (10pm), Connley (10pm), Gasser (10:20pm), and Stan (10:37pm). In other words, I tend to believe they all saw the same car, and two of those witnesses (Crow and Stan) said there were two people inside it. Plus, we know from three of those witnesses (Wesher, Connley, and Gasser) that a white Chevy Impala was definitely parked on the left side of the turnout facing south with no one inside it, at least from 10pm until 10:20pm, and more likely from about 9:50pm until about 10:30pm.

2. I'm sorry, but I don't agree with your description of the Gate #10 turnout in 1968, and therefore with the position of the Rambler.

I've looked carefully at the 1968 photograph, both the color version on your website and the black-and-white picture in my book, and I don't agree that the ground is tilted or banked in any particular direction. You're looking at a two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional space, and staring at it may produce an optical illusion. If you Google LES LUNDBLAD LAKE HERMAN ROAD, and then click on IMAGES, you will see both color and b&w photos of Lundblad standing in the turnout, and the ground appears flat, or at least ralatively flat. There is also a picture of Pierre Bidou among those pictures, standing there more recently, and again, the ground appears flat. Finally, if you go to Google Maps and look at the image of the Gate #10 turnout, it appears relatively flat. It's certainly possible that the turnout was resurfaced or regraded or both in the past five decades, but there's no evidence strong enough, in my opinion, to conflict with what the sketches and witnesses have said. If the blood on the ground flowed in an usual pattern, that is likely from the uneven surface.

3. The police didn't listen to the witnesses, make some sketches, and then run with those. It's clear that they showed the sketches to the witnesses, because Robert Connley is said, in the witness statements, to have insisted that the Rambler was on the right side of the turnout when he passed, and facing south. Since I can't think of any logical reason for the car to have moved that way between passing eyewitnesses, either in the single Zodiac scenario or my own scenario, I have to assume that Connley was simply mistaken about the position of the car, just as he was mistaken about the time he arrived on the road (he says he arrived at 9pm, when it's clear he arrived circa 10pm).

4. It is impossible to believe that the police would ignore two witnesses who said the same thing (Stella Medeiros and James Owen), when that positioning also conforms with where the Rambler was found. The Rambler was facing east, not south.

5. It is equally difficult to believe, however historical Richard Grinell's willingness to accept the possibility of at least two killers in the turnout that night, that they would have killed Betty Lou before shooting David. As I've said many times, David was shot in the left side of the head, in the upper earlobe, and fell at a 45° angle toward the front of the car with his feet at the right rear wheel. In other words, his shooter was wedged in between David and the station wagon. The killers could not possibl

Richard

7/24/2016 01:12:45 am

The turnout has without doubt altered down the years, so I guess the angle of the turnout will be a point of contention, but despite the obvious unevenness of the turnout 4/5 blood trails are heading north and one northwest. The blood may have been channelled, but the overall pattern seems to indicate gravity at work. But hey this is a matter of opinion. In terms of of the position of the Rambler I have always believed the sketches are a combination of the eyewitnesses and the casing distribution, that in fact never actually occurred, other than Stella Medeiros. In several sketches the Rambler has moved around more than a freshman with itching powder in his pants and the casing distances are marked incorrectly. The bottom line is that these sketches must be taken with a huge dose of salt, even the compass was 45 degrees off. We have differing views on the events that night (for now at least), but I have yet to be convinced it is possible for the Rambler not to have changed position from the James Owen recollection to its final resting position. I don't know if you have read it, but there are three great articles on http://crack-proof.com/zodiac-killer/, called Lake Herman Rd error, Lake Herman Rd fix and Lake Herman Rd reboot. This goes into extensive detail using fixed points such as telegraph poles and other points of reference in alarming detail and pretty much comes to the conclusion I did, the Rambler being more central to the turnout facing south easterly at best, with the stray casing well over towards the western bank. I know you like using mathematics and science in this case, this being the perfect example when approaching a subject that still has many answers. When I present this photograph to people http://www.zodiacciphers.com/uploads/4/9/7/1/4971630/u88_1.gif?281 and it is still insisted that the two bodies are 90 degrees to one another, I don't know where to turn. If people accept that Betty Lou's feet were facing west, how on earth can the Rambler be facing east in this photograph. You cannot have both. I am trying not to be pig-headed about the subject, but unmanipulated photographic evidence is the best evidence we have, so in a case where so often people are a closed book, even this they refuse to believe, when presented as photographic proof. The photograph does not show Betty Lou's feet facing west, or any direction for that matter, with the vehicle facing the opposite way, no matter what perspective you want to view it from. What proof do people require, obviously 2+2=4 isn't fact any more. I had a 'chat' with Thomas Horan on Youtube about his claim the window shot into the Rambler was fired from beyond the assailant's car ie;the passenger side. I said a shot from this distance was impossible to create the 17 degree trajectory observed by this bullet. In fact it's not me saying it, the science of simple ballistics and trigonometry proves 100% this shot was fired from close up. His depiction of likely 16 feet is impossible, but he has written a book, made a video, so will never be convinced, even by scientific principles, he has too much to lose, not unlike Graysmith, a closed book who has never been wrong.
Opinion is fine, and we are all entitled to disagree with one another, but basic scientific principles I thought were agreed upon.
Ray, I am always reassessing this case, so I am open to anything that sounds compelling. This needs a lot more yet mind.

"However, I tend to doubt more than one gun was used, since it would have been unnecessary under the circumstances and would defeat the whole purpose of the exercise, which was to suggest that the victims were attacked by a single shooter."

What therefore is your reasoning to explain why Item 1 did not have the same 6 right hand twist features like all the other bullets tested.

Ray Grant link

7/23/2016 06:42:13 pm

5. It is equally difficult to believe, however historical Richard Grinell's willingness to accept the possibility of at least two killers in the turnout that night, that they would have killed Betty Lou before shooting David. As I've said many times, David was shot in the left side of the head, in the upper earlobe, and fell at a 45° angle toward the front of the car with his feet at the right rear wheel. In other words, his shooter was wedged in between David and the station wagon. The killers could not possibly have gotten David into that position if David believed he was about to be shot. The logistics of his murder are consistent with him being walked at gunpoint into position and then abruptly shot with the gun barrel against his skull. It would be much easier for a second man to hold Betty Lou while David was shot, and then release her and tell her to run when the shooter was ready.

However, I tend to doubt more than one gun was used, since it would have been unnecessary under the circumstances and would defeat the whole purpose of the exercise, which was to suggest that the victims were attacked by a single shooter.

Richard

7/24/2016 02:45:33 am

The J C Higgins Model 80, a 10 shot autoloading pistol, was the nearest gun to the characteristics they found on the bullet casings with firing pin impressions at 12 o'clock and extractor markings observed at 3 o'clock. The bullets fired from this weapon produced 6 right hand grooves, ratio 1:1+. This pistol has been described as being extremely accurate, to a grouping of 1 to 2 inches at 50 feet in distance, totally negating the claimed shooting prowess of the killer, who fired every shot from much closer quarters, although one must bear in mind the darkness and a crude sighting implement. This weapon was sold in Sears stores from 1957-1961 until the name changed to Ted Williams.
The bullet removed from David Faraday's skull did not have 6 right hand groove characteristics, actually bolstering the idea a second weapon and possibly a second shooter involved. I thought you would be welcoming these ballistic records with open arms, like a warm cup of cocoa, a hearty Branston Pickle sandwich or a hot bowl of steaming porridge on a cold December night, not "I tend to doubt more than one gun was used." Surely Ray this helps your cause, embrace it with open arms, chuckle in your sumptuous armchair, grin like a Cheshire cat, make smugness fashionable again This is the golden chalice. In the words of somebody famous, this takes the bloody biscuit.

Richard

7/24/2016 03:04:21 am

David Faraday autopsy; "A bullet wound (3/16” diameter) of entry is seen penetrating the upper slight posterior area of the left ear and entering the scalp and skull bone beneath. The bullet follows a straight horizontal course but angling forward and to the right, going through the left temporal lobe. The base of the frontal lobes in the midline and inferior borders of the left frontal lobe and anterior margins of the left temporal lobe. The irregularly flattened bullet is recovered here. In the dura, without injury to the skull bone. There are no tumors to the brain. Subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages are present. There are comminuted fractures of both left and right temporal bones and sphenoid bones."

Irregularly flattened bullets are not bullets completely fragmented, allowing the groove markings to be still characterized and thereby used comparatively to distinguish it from the other bullets recovered. The idea each victim at Lake Herman Road was killed by a separate individual remains plausible.

Richard

7/24/2016 05:08:37 am

Putting aside your team Zodiac for a minute, and start with a blank sheet, we can both agree the William Crow sighting is significant, not only because of the proximity of this encounter to the eventual murders, but the likely sighting of two Caucasians, one described in his second account as wearing short hair and glasses, and also the likelihood that William Crow and his girlfriend may have been the initial target for murder, after all they were a couple (remember, forget the pre-planned target hypothesis for now). The actions of these two males was threatening by nature, likely driving a light coloured Chevrolet, similar to the one observed by Bingo Wesher, Robert Connelly and Frank Gasser parked in the turnout shortly after at about 10.00pm to 10.20pm, however it was unoccupied. Let us take an alternative scenario that the young male Caucasians had left their vehicle for a brief time to 'hunt' for victims on foot, possibly by Lake Herman, necessitating the use of a sighting implement, where no lighting was available, unlike within the turnout where headlights provided some. This again is suspicious activity, 10.00pm at night in freezing conditions, vacating the vehicle in pitch darkness. Two strange occurrences within 60-90 minutes of a double murder. Coincidence or not. I am not convinced we can just overlook these key sightings of a White Chevrolet Impala, and I am convinced the older and more experienced witnesses are highly unlikely to have misidentified the vehicle in question, partly corroborated by William Crow. So let us say that at least two people were plotting in tandem, both armed with a different weapon, likely friends, Caucasian and young, one wearing glasses. One dominant, one submissive. Two shooters, one who fired off 9 rounds and one who held David Faraday and executed him at point blank range. 10 casings ejected, 9 of which were probably fired from the same weapon according to the report. However there were 10 casings ejected, one of which has been omitted from the items listed. No mention of whether this casing was fired from the same weapon, but my guess is it wasn't, because it likely had different characteristics, just like the single bullet removed from David Faraday at autopsy.
It states in the police report "Sgt Little photographed the crime scene. Charts and measurements were recorded. .22 caliber shell casings were recovered at scene." Five casings found by Dan Horan and turned over to responding officers at crime scene, four found by Sgt Silva and turned over to responding officers at mortuary, but no mention of the 10th casing likely ejected when David Faraday was killed. Well this is the likely answer; it was the casing found on the front passenger floorboard of the Rambler. If David Faraday was either shot by a left handed assailant holding him by the throat from behind by the right arm, or shot by a right handed assailant to his left ear standing near parallel to the Rambler and facing north, then the ejected cartridge from a J C Higgins 80, being ejected behind and to the right is on a direct line to the Rambler's open door, either deflecting off the door into the Rambler or entering direct. This is most likely the ejected cartridge from David Faraday's murder, not catalogued with the nine casings above. Why. The 1961 Rambler was likely towed away with the casing in situ within the vehicle for closer inspection in better lighting. The other 9 were recovered as stated. I am assuming this casing was compared to the others, however it is not mentioned in the David Burd report, was it misplaced or lost, it wouldn't be the first time. There is no confirmation this casing matched the other 9, but we certainly know the bullet taken from David Faraday didn't match the other ones tested. So the bullet from David Faraday had different characteristics, its connected casing, the one found in the vehicle has not been recorded or its characteristics revealed. This is one hell of a coincidence don't you think.
http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=923&fullsize=1

Ray Grant link

7/24/2016 11:11:14 am

"The blood may have been channelled, but the overall pattern seems to indicate gravity at work."

My family has a tombstone and plot in Section 21 of Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh. That's where I'm headed, eventually, if you were wondering. The surface currently is smooth, but when I originally picked the site in 1996, at the time of my father's interment, the road accessing Section 21 was extremely pitted with potholes. If someone shot me while I was visiting the grave, and I fell on the road, there's really no telling which direction the blood would flow (north, south, east, west), but it would conform to the shape of the road under me. I don't find the blood flow evidence compelling enough to override the police placement of the Rambler in the sketches.

"In terms of of the position of the Rambler I have always believed the sketches are a combination of the eyewitnesses and the casing distribution, that in fact never actually occurred, other than Stella Medeiros."

As Pierre Bidou has pointed out, crime scenes were not treated as gingerly in 1968 as they are today. I doubt seriously that the police were nonchallantly kicking casings this way and that as they moved around the vehicles, but basing an opinion that the police sketches are wrong about the position of the Rambler on where the blood was flowing and how the casings were configured is the tail wagging the dog.

"I have yet to be convinced it is possible for the Rambler not to have changed position from the James Owen recollection to its final resting position."

This is essentially where all the speculation about the blood flow and positioning of the casings is headed, so let's put the cart before the horse:

1. Here's page 1 of the police report: "The front of the station wagon was pointed in an Easterly direction."

2. Peggy Your's statement on page 12 of the police report says, "The car was facing East towards the field at the left of the gate."

3. The James Owen sketch shows the car facing east or perhaps southeast, but certainly more east than south.

4. The Connley sketch shows the car facing south toward the fence, but way over on the right side of the turnout. Again, I discount this positioning because it conflicts with the other two sketches, and because I can't think of a good reason for the car to have moved that way in between the Your sighting at 11pm and the Owen sighting at 11:09:25pm.

5. The sketch on page 5 of the police report, presumably made by police at the crime scene after the murders, shows the car facing east, and more parallel with the road than the James Owen sketch. If anything, the car has rotated counterclockwise, not clockwise as in the Richard Grinell sketch.

If you believe, as I do, that the teenagers were never inside the car in the turnout, but were brought to the turnout in the white Chevy Impala between Robert Connley's drive-by (11:05pm) and James Owen's drive-by (11:09:25pm), then it makes sense that the car never moved after it was parked by the Zodiacs circa 10:45pm.

There are, as I've stated elsewhere, additional reasons to believe the kids were never inside that car while it was parked in the turnout, chief among them that the engine had to have been turned off (because it was lukewarm when Benicia PD pulled in) but there was no frost on the windows, despite there being cuddling teenagers inside. If David and Betty Lou were inside an unheated car between 10:45pm and 11:07pm (when "the Zodiac" pulled in), the windows should have been frosted over.

But if David Faraday was really at the wheel of the Rambler when "the Zodiac" pulled in circa 11:07pm (between the Connley and Owen drive-bys), why on Earth would he cause the car to turn clockwise TOWARD the other car? Wouldn't he turn the car in the opposite direction? And there was no need to turn the car, since if he just starts it, puts it in reverse, and then stamps the accelerator, that would take the Rambler directly out onto Lake Herman Road.

In other words, I get that you think the car moved, and that you keep citing aspects of the physical evidence to back that claim up, but I don't get any logical cause-and-effect here that makes sense of that movement. Whereas I point to a logical sequence of events that backs up my interpretation of the evidence.

Ray Grant link

7/24/2016 11:13:04 am

"I am trying not to be pig-headed about the subject, but unmanipulated photographic evidence is the best evidence we have, so in a case where so often people are a closed book, even this they refuse to believe, when presented as photographic proof."

I'm also trying not to be pig-headed about the subject, and I agree about the shot into the rear window. But again, Horan's theory is false on the face of it, since no hoaxer would have an incentive to keep quiet after July 1980, when the statute of limitations would have run out. So I don't need to disprove every specific detail of his theory when the theory itself doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

And let's be clear: I'm NOT saying to Horan what people invariably say to me, which is that my theory is INCONCEIVABLE, and therefore I don't need to even try to disprove the specifics. I look at Horan's theory and say, There are so many specific details he cites that are nonsensical (see my You Tube video on the subject), and the overall theory doesn't follow, because such a successful hoaxer would have every incentive to come forward by now, and nothing to lose.

I say the same thing to the people on those websites you cite that I say to people like traveller1st on ZodiacKillerSite,com, which is that I don't think you can analyze handwriting on a computer screen, when Sherwood Morrill was an experienced document examiner who had the physical documents, had the appropriate magnifying equipment and so forth, and came to the conclusion that the Zodiac letters and the graffito at Lake Berryessa and the messages in Riverside were all written by the same person. And I'll concede that he was wrong about the April 1978 letter, but I'll still take his word that the other letters were authentic and therefore tie the messages to the crimes.

In theory, I encourage analysis of the crime scene based on a meticulous interpretation of the positioning of the physical objects . . . but I'm not willing to assume the police could be that wrong about where the car was, when the analysis is being done on a computer screen, particularly when no satisfactory explanation for the movement of the car is being offered.

Okay, if the car moved between Owen's drive-by and that of Stella Medeiros, why do you think that happened? I'm guessing it's going to come down to whether or not David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were inside the car. I get that you WANT David to be at the wheel of the car when "the Zodiac" pulls in, but you're going to have to do better than producing diagrams citing details of the various object placements as they appear on a computer screen.

I have made the case, EXHAUSTIVELY, that too much is wrong with the standard scenario that David and Betty Lou were PARKED in the turnout when "the Zodiac" pulled in:

1. It assumes a very conscientious teenager (David) suddenly threw caution to the wind, on a night when he was on his best behavior;

2. It assumes he went out of his way to relocate the car circa 10:40pm, unless you want to throw the eyewitness acounts out the car window;

3. It assumes that David, who was intent on giving Betty Lou his class ring and asking her to Go Steady, somehow never got around to doing that in two solid hours of cuddling in the car;

4. It assumes two romantically inexperienced teenagers suddenly lost their minds and put themselves in harm's way, well past the curfew imposed by her parents.

I have gone on, and on, and on, about all the incongruities of this standard scenario that Zodiac hobbyists believe like religious dogma. The self-destructive behavior of the teenagers that night is more exaggerated than that of victims in a slasher movie, but Zodiac hobbyists believe it because they've always believed it.

If I'm being impolite here, tell me what you'd like me to say, and I'll say it. But David's behavior can be explained very simply and logically: he wasn't moving around under his own power, because he and Betty Lou were abducted circa 9pm that night, and that's why they were in the Gate #10 turnout between 11:10pm and 11:14pm that night, in time for their murders. Unfortunately for them, the appointment was made by their killers.

Ray Grant link

7/24/2016 11:14:31 am

"The bullet removed from David Faraday's skull did not have 6 right hand groove characteristics, actually bolstering the idea a second weapon and possibly a second shooter involved. I thought you would be welcoming these ballistic records with open arms, like a warm cup of cocoa, a hearty Branston Pickle sandwich or a hot bowl of steaming porridge on a cold December night, not "I tend to doubt more than one gun was used.""

I'd have answered your post sooner, but I got hungry for some reason and stopped to eat. Here is what the DOJ ballistics report says:

"Although some were damaged it was possible to determine that all but Item 1 contained the same (6 R H) class characteristics . . . Each of these was microscopically compared with the others but in no case was an absolutely positive identification possible."

Item 1 is the bullet fired into David Faraday's skull. I will give you that the Faraday autopsy allows for the possibility that that bullet was fired from another gun, since it was relatively intact and should, perhaps, have displayed the same rifling characteristics as the other slugs, but didn't. On the other hand, the report doesn't say that that slug and the other slugs are mutually exclusive.

Since I believe that the killers intentionally fired a shot (the first Zodiac shot) into the left side of David's head, just as a single shooter intentionally fired a shot (the last Zodiac shot) into the right side of Paul Stine's head, so that the first and last shots served as bookends or parentheses—( )—I have to believe that first shot was planned and executed, rather than being impulsive or a reflex action, and that therefore it was fired from the same gun as the others. I will agree that each of the killers in the turnout likely was holding a gun, but only one of them was intended to go off.

"Let us take an alternative scenario that the young male Caucasians had left their vehicle for a brief time to 'hunt' for victims on foot"

Parking their vehicle in the Gate #10 turnout would be self-defeating in this regard, since it would discourage couples from pulling in, as it did with Helen Axe and her sailor boyfriend, who otherwise would certainly have parked in the turnout. And since James Owen was not surprised to hear a gunshot, we have to assume the raccoon hunters were doing something—small game hunting—that wasn't unusual in that area. So the most likely victims the two male Caucasians would run into would be guys wielding guns.

"One dominant, one submissive."

I don't want to upset Greg by using the word 'hobbyist' again, but why do hobbyists insist on psychoanalyzing serial killers? If Mike Kelleher, who has a Ph. D., wants to do that, fine, but even then, it's a stretch when we don't have the killers to interview in a clinical environment. By the way, which of the two Hillside Stranglers was the dominant one? Which of the In Cold Blood killers was dominant, and which was submissive? And while we're at it, between Connley and Gasser, which was dominant and which was submissive?

"No mention of whether this casing was fired from the same weapon, but my guess is it wasn't, because it likely had different characteristics, just like the single bullet removed from David Faraday at autopsy."

Why wouldn't that be in the police report? What did they have to gain by omitting it? Are you saying that law enforcement has known since 1968 that "the Zodiac" was at least two people? If so, why would Riverside PD then abruptly deny the Zodiac link, since if the Riverside and Bay Area latents were mutually exclusive, the Zodiacs could still be involved (as, in fact, they were).

"So the bullet from David Faraday had different characteristics, its connected casing, the one found in the vehicle has not been recorded or its characteristics revealed. This is one hell of a coincidence don't you think."

Now we seem to be arguing two different multiple Zodiac theories: mine (where almost everything was preplanned), and yours (where the killers essentially acted like our familiar random, spontaneous Zodiac, except that there were two of them).

This is the Zodiac equivalent of eating one's porridge and having it, too. You want to allow for the incongruities of the ballistics, while keeping your standard serial killer in the Jack the Ripper tradition by twinning him.

But we don't just have the ballistics and murder scene logistics to explain away; we also have the strange behavior of the victims to account for. Plus we now have two killers who clearly preplanned much of what they did (see the entire Lake Berryessa sequence, and the cutting off of Paul Stine's shirt). And then we have killers whose cryptographic skills were such that they were able to stump the entire codebreaking community, despite its having hardware and software unimaginable at the time Z340 was constructed.

I like my theory a lot better.

Richard

7/25/2016 08:10:51 am

"The Rambler was facing east, not south"
This is the last thing I will say on the Rambler position. You are of course totally entitled to believe this. My position hasn't changed; I choose to believe photographic evidence over crude police sketches, that in themselves are not consistent. I have changed the photograph of the crime scene so it now looks like the sketches, for comparison. But if you choose not to believe your own eyes, I clearly am not going to continue trying to convince you otherwise. The Rambler was facing east.... case closed.

"Since I believe that the killers intentionally fired a shot (the first Zodiac shot) into the left side of David's head, just as a single shooter intentionally fired a shot (the last Zodiac shot) into the right side of Paul Stine's head, so that the first and last shots served as bookends or parentheses—( )—I have to believe that first shot was planned and executed, rather than being impulsive or a reflex action, and that therefore it was fired from the same gun as the others. I will agree that each of the killers in the turnout likely was holding a gun, but only one of them was intended to go off."
I admire your conviction with all that believing.

"Item 1 is the bullet fired into David Faraday's skull. I will give you that the Faraday autopsy allows for the possibility that that bullet was fired from another gun, since it was relatively intact and should, perhaps, have displayed the same rifling characteristics as the other slugs, but didn't. On the other hand, the report doesn't say that that slug and the other slugs are mutually exclusive."
It doesn't say the other slugs are mutually exclusive, but it surely is an interesting feature of the report.

"This is the Zodiac equivalent of eating one's porridge and having it, too. You want to allow for the incongruities of the ballistics, while keeping your standard serial killer in the Jack the Ripper tradition by twinning him."

I am going to bicker like a married couple here, because what you have written here is hogwash. I have told you countless times that unlike many Zodiac investigators who have their ideas cemented in stone and have done for 20+ years, I remain fluid, constantly listening, learning, probing and questioning the supposed facts as you have read recently. I put a question mark after the title above, did you see it. I'm posing a question in this article for people to consider. Point out one place in the above article where I said this is the answer, you can all go home now and cement your brain in stone. I am still open to the possibility that all the crimes were not as we perceive, but I thought you already knew that. I haven't taken the Zodiac 'hobbyist' line of accepting the shot in the window was fired from 20 feet odd or the Rambler was facing east or the Presidio murder was at Washington and Cherry or Cheri entered the library. If you believe that, then you have misread me. Every article I write, bar a few, are designed to provoke dialogue on different ideas. I may believe some and not others, but they are a point of discussion. The single Zodiac theory, double shooter at LHR or team Zodiac theory is by the by, I have not closed the book, bolted down the hatches and finished learning. Once I get to that stage Ray I will leave the Zodiac community for good [1] Because I will have nothing left to learn and [2] I will have nothing left to give. That may possibly be good news for many. Then I can sit looking at my Lake Herman Road photograph in years to come by the campfire thinking, maybe the Rambler was facing east after all and it's just a matter of perspective. From your loving wife or husband Richard.

Richard

7/25/2016 08:45:22 am

"In theory, I encourage analysis of the crime scene based on a meticulous interpretation of the positioning of the physical objects . . . but I'm not willing to assume the police could be that wrong about where the car was, when the analysis is being done on a computer screen, particularly when no satisfactory explanation for the movement of the car is being offered."

The police originally thought a .38 and .22 caliber was used, they were wrong. The police marked 9 bullet casings in one sketch and 10 in another, this was wrong. The police marked one casing at 14', but never noted any 14' casing in the report, they were wrong. The police marked the 20' casing from Faraday's head and in another 20' from the right of the Rambler, they weren't right twice. The police sketch marked Betty Lou 28 feet from the Rambler and in the police report 10 feet, they weren't right twice. They marked the front of the Rambler 53 feet from the telegraph pole, they were wrong. The compass direction on the sketches were wrong. You don't have to assume they were wrong, they actually documented their errors. The Rambler was drawn against the fence, then it was drawn about 30 feet from the fence, the bullet casings hopped around the turnout like jumping jacks in the sketches. It's a good job this was a double murder investigation and not something serious, otherwise they may have employed anyone other than Mr Magoo. The police at Lake Berryessa scooped all the belongings up in the picnic blanket, the police dispatcher informed patrolmen to be on the lookout for a black male, Donald Fouke denied talking to Zodiac and said in the memorandum that he didn't know if Zelms had seen anything, and this is a month later, are you being serious.
You are correct Ray, I am not willing to assume the police could be this wrong, they actually were very wrong and they documented every amateurish mistake along the way for all to see for 48 years and counting. But hey what did the Romans ever do for us.

Ray Grant link

7/25/2016 07:15:59 pm

Before I proceed with further discussion, I'm going to stop and review Richard Grinell's argument, point by point. I believe Richard is the most meticulous Zodiac researcher, other than myself of course, and I want to make absolutely certain I understand what he's saying, since he's changed my mind about several details I used to feel sure about.

"Any of the old police photographs, including the one above, clearly show a distinct gradient to the turnout, a gradient that falls towards the road and slightly left to right (or westerly)."

Well, we don't agree. I will concede a possible slight left-to-right gradient, since that's consistent with the hillside itself (i. e., cars traveling west are heading down the hill). However, in every picture of the Gate #10 turnout that I've examined, the ground is more or less flat, and that's true of both the photos from 1968 and the more recent ones. There is certainly nothing I've seen to suggest any significant tilt, with the south of the turnout sufficiently higher than the north to cause free liquids to automatically flow in a northerly direction. One has to assume that when that turnout was carved into the hillside, the earth movers did their level best to leave the parking area as level as possible, and I would venture to say that that's consistent with similar turnouts elsewhere.

"The blood pattern clearly moves away from his head and body."

Well actually, that's not true. Most of the blood pooled next to David's head and stayed there. I just saw a Forensic Files last night that focused on the separation of the clear serum or plasma from blood as it coagulates, which it normally does in 10-15 minutes. If you look carefully at the blood on the ground, you will note that the darker material has stayed in that initial pool, and the clearer plasma has begun to move away in two directions. Assuming the original position of David's body, one rivulet is to the west, which would be consistent with the slight east-to-west tilt of the hillside, which may just be the ground assuming a (slight) normal slant after the leveling. The other rivulet is to the south, which I'm assuming is simply following the grade of the ground in that particular spot. In either case, most of the momentum behind the movement of the plasma would have come from the coagulation process itself.

"If we are to believe the police sketch on the left, then the blood coming from his head wound is traveling toward the gated fence, uphill and against gravity. Even with imperfections in that gravel turnout this is not possible."

While I think this reasoning process is sound, it assumes a significant tilt in the turnout, with the south side being sufficiently higher to cause liquids to roll north, and I don't think that was the case. In any event, I think the phenomenon can be explained by the natural separation of the blood into its component parts, without assuming that the police were wrong about where David's body was.

If the casings are connected to the car, and must move when you move the car, that is also true of the chalk outline and the blood on the ground. So if we assume that the car came to rest in the position it was moved to by David Faraday between the Owen drive-by (11:09:25pm) and the murders (11:10-11:14pm), then it was pivoted clockwise from easterly to southerly. And then the police sketch artist, for reasons of his own, moved the car counterclockwise to a position where it wasn't when the police got there, and moved everything else with it (the casings, the chalk outline, and the blood on the ground).

By the way, if you assume David Faraday pivoted the car clockwise toward the other car—and don't ask me why he'd do that—that essentially ties that swiveling movement to the single gunshot heard by James Owen about half a minute after he passed the turnout. We know a shot rang out, and we know that pivoting the car was almost certainly the last act of David Faraday as a motor vehicle operator, because his doing that had to precede being directed out of the car and being pushed up against the right rear wheel and then being shot in the left side of the head, and then Betty Lou's murder, and the killer only had a four minute window to accomplish all that.

We also know that the engine had to be off between 10:45pm (when David would have had to pull into the turnout) and about 11:07pm (when "the Zodiac" pulled into the turnout and pulled alongside the Rambler), because the motor was only lukewarm when the cops arrived. So the sequence had to be David turning on the engine immediately after Owen passed by (11:09:30pm), and then pivoting the car toward the intruder's car (11:09:45pm), and then the intruder firing a single shot (11:10pm).

Ray Grant link

7/25/2016 07:17:29 pm

To pivot his car toward the intruder's car, David had to turn the engine on, and then shift the gears from PARK through REVERSE through NEUTRAL to DRIVE, and then cut the wheels sharply right and step on the accelerator. Would it not have made much more sense, once he turned the engine on, to simply shift into REVERSE, step on the accelerator, and back the car directly out onto Lake Herman Road? As I say in my book, there are several instances during the week leading up to the murders that illustrate the Eagle Scout's presence of mind, and yet here he seems to have panicked and done things that don't make any sense.

"Below you can see that the blood from Betty Lou Jensen is roughly following the same direction as David Faraday's. In other words both blood trails are conforming to gravity, falling toward the road in a northerly direction."

Again, I don't agree. First, the separation—more than a foot—between Betty Lou's head and most of the blood suggests very strongly that she was at least rolled over, probably by the first responders in an effort to determine if she was still alive.

Second, the movement of the blood is east-to-west, which is consistent with the turnout's having a very slight east-to-west tilt, consistent with the slant of the hillside itself. I see a very slight movement north-to-south, which may just be the blood pooling because of the original position of her head—blood may have flowed out of her nose, for example.

"The alignment of the Rambler is the same as Betty Lou's blood trail. ie; on the north/south axis."

I would say along the east/west axis.

"You can see by the photograph below that David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were lying virtually parallel, not at 90 degrees to one another as shown in the police sketch."

Well, it's possible she was turned over by the first responders, and then the picture was taken, and then when they did the sketch, they reoriented her body to its original position for the sake of accuracy. That might not be standard operating procedure, but there was a reporter on scene, Thomas Balmer of the Fairfield Daily-Republic, who took photographs prior to the scene's being released:

http://www.zodiackiller.com/FairfieldArticle2.html

"When he arrived, law enforcement officers were on the scene. A young couple had been shot. Only the female's body was there, covered by a blanket. The male victim has [sic] been transported to Vallejo General Hospital via an ambulance but died enroute. Balmer was told to stay back until the sheriff's investigator arrived. When he did, Balmer set about doing his job and quickly snapped off what he remembers as two frames of film.

"I got the shot I needed," he said. Then, he was informed by one of the officers on scene it was illegal to photograph a dead body and that he must turn over his film. "I was still naive," Balmer said. "They told me I'd spend the night in jail. I took it out of the camera and gave it to him."

"Balmer, who graduated from Armijo High School in 1966, returned to Fairfield and reported what had happened to then Daily Republic editor Al Donner. Donner called the appropriate officials and Balmer's film was returned to him the next morning. One photo of three men, standing by a patrol car, looking at a body covered by a blanket, ran on page one of the Sunday, Dec. 22, 1968 newspaper. It was the only newspaper photograph of the actual crime scene."

In any case, I think I've adequately addressed the issue here, and I don't think the car was moved. In other words, I think the police sketches are (reasonably) accurate.

"Every article I write, bar a few, are designed to provoke dialogue on different ideas. I may believe some and not others, but they are a point of discussion."

Richard, as I said, I consider you the best researcher on the case other than myself. We've both been wrong about details, and there's no shame in that, because you have to be willing to be wrong to have any chance at being right. You've changed my mind about several of those details, for which I thank you, and you have also provided the service of forcing me to think about aspects of the case I hadn't thought of. However, I don't see any point in provoking discussion just for the sake of doing that, when the vast majority of those who are interested in the case don't seem to believe in criminology.

As to mistakes made by the police, you're preaching to the choir. But I'm not saying I can't imagine the police making mistakes; I'm saying I can't imagine them making that particular mistake, when the alternative to it is a car movement by David Faraday that doesn't make any sense.

Comments are closed.

TWO SHOOTERS AT LAKE HERMAN ROAD ?

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