Bryan Hartnell, surviving victim of the Zodiac killer. Attacked on Sept. 27, 1969. Pictured from late 1969
By Tom Voigt | Founder: Zodiackiller.com | tomvoigt@zodiackiller.com
In early October 1969, a suspicious man had gotten the attention of Captain Don Townsend of the Napa County Sheriff’s Department. Townsend had been warned of the man by a couple of young women who had encountered him in downtown Napa at a bar called Aquarius. The bar was located at 1018 First Street, only a minute’s drive from the phone booth where the Zodiac had called the police a couple of weeks earlier.
(Photo credit: Uncle Sporkums)
The suspicious man was obsessed with the signs of the Zodiac, and had told Captain Townsend’s female informants that he worked in a rose garden at one of the nearby wineries. According to Captain Townsend, who refused to elaborate, during conversations with the female informants, the suspicious man had actually referenced details of the Lake Berryessa attack the police hadn’t yet made public. Captain Townsend grew so impressed by the possibility of the suspicious man being the Zodiac killer that he organized a stakeout at the Aquarius.
The stakeout involved plain clothes police officers inside the bar with Captain Townsend’s female informants, while positioned outside the bar were unmarked police cars. Safely inside one of those unmarked police cars was the surviving victim of the Zodiac’s Lake Berryessa attack, Bryan Hartnell, who had recovered enough from his wounds to participate. The hope was that Hartnell could recognize the voice of the mysterious rose gardener as having the same voice as the Zodiac killer.
But there was no luck. The suspicious man never returned, at least not that day. And by 1970, the Aquarius closed for good.
Soon after, the Zodiac killer vanished forever.
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