Arthur Leigh Allen, circa mid-1960s
By Tom Voigt | Founder: Zodiackiller.com | tomvoigt@zodiackiller.com
In early October 1969 — a couple of years before Arthur Leigh Allen’s former best friend, Don Cheney, came forward to police with incriminating statements indicating Allen was the Zodiac killer — someone had already contacted police with a Zodiac accusation against Allen. Unfortunately, no information about the accuser was documented, making them impossible to identify.
Who was that first accuser, and why did they suspect Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac killer?
Those questions bring us to the most recent piece of Arthur Leigh Allen misinformation circling the Internet drain: That Allen had originally faced police scrutiny because the Zodiac killer had been proven to drive a Volkswagen Beetle.
The claim — initially posted at Reddit and then regurgitated elsewhere — is nonsense. However, that hasn’t stopped it from gaining traction among the misinformed. So, why do I care what misinformed individuals think? That’s easy — I want to catch the Zodiac killer…and the more of us looking in the right direction, the better.
The silly story goes something like this: Following the Zodiac killer’s September 1969 attack in its jurisdiction, the Napa County Sheriff’s Department measured the tire impressions left by the Zodiac killer’s vehicle while it was parked along a road above Lake Berryessa. That much is true. Now the false parts: According to the story, the tire impressions were determined to have been made by a tiny VW Beetle. As a result, Napa investigators were on the lookout for such a vehicle, to the point that Napa detectives phoned the Vallejo Police Department — already investigating earlier crimes of the Zodiac killer — and said “The Zodiac killer was a huge guy driving a VW Beetle!” (Never mind the fact that nobody had ever described the Zodiac killer as being “huge” — more on that in a bit.) The Vallejo police then contacted a local man who owned a service station — a fella named Bob Luce — and asked Luce if he knew of any huge guys who drove a VW Beetle. It was a question that prompted Luce to remember Allen, thus getting the police on his trail.
Reminder: In the above paragraph, the only true detail is the part where the police measured the Zodiac killer’s tire impressions.
Back to nobody ever describing the Zodiac killer as being “huge.” At Lake Berryessa, victim Cecelia Shepard saw the Zodiac clearly and did not describe a huge man. Meanwhile, her lake companion and fellow victim, Bryan Hartnell, made it clear he was a horrible judge of height. And while it appeared the Zodiac had a pronounced stomach, Hartnell stressed that it might have simply been the effect of a puffy jacket. As for investigators, while they did perform what was called “a compaction test” on the depth of the footprints left by the Zodiac killer, those same investigators admitted such a test was not scientific.
So, you might ask, why would Napa investigators tell the Vallejo investigators that the Zodiac killer was a huge guy? Easy answer: They didn’t.
And what about this nonsense of the Zodiac killer driving a VW Beetle? It’s simply more bunk.
There is no factual corroboration of any kind for either the VW claim or the HUGE claim. Instead, it’s “trust me, bro.”
KNOWLEDGE BOMB:
While the Napa investigators did measure the tire impressions left by the Zodiac killer, it was never concluded the impressions were made by a small car. In fact, quickly thereafter the focus was on finding a man who was driving a Chevy sedan, which were large cars. The Chevy sedan being sought was driven by a man who had alarmed a few female sunbathers in the area. Napa investigators went all-out trying to locate that Chevy sedan, a rather strange thing to do if they knew the Zodiac was actually driving a VW Beetle.
Was Bob Luce the original tipster who gave the Vallejo police Allen’s name back in October 1969, as being the possible Zodiac killer? Nobody knows for sure one way or the other. However, what is certain is the story of the Zodiac killer having been proven to drive a VW Beetle is nonsense.
For those who wish to contribute:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XULCL3G2K2986