Top Zodiac killer suspect Arthur Leigh Allen was the subject of three search warrants. During one of those searches, police confiscated Allen’s infamous Zodiac wristwatch.
That watch is now missing and officially listed as stolen.
After Allen died in 1992, police offered all of the confiscated items — including the watch and numerous weapons — to his brother, Ron. However, Ron Allen only accepted certain firearms, as they had originally belonged to his father, Ethan.
Exactly how the watch went missing isn’t much of a mystery: It is strongly suspected that, decades ago, a now-deceased police captain took the watch in order to show it off to friends.
Of the remaining unclaimed items, also missing from custody is a large knife that fit the general description provided by a surviving victim of the Zodiac killer.
The fate of the missing knife remains unknown.
Should Arthur Leigh Allen’s stolen watch turn up for sale, its specific serial number is logged into a national database of stolen items, and the seller will be busted. Unfortunately, nabbing the Zodiac killer will be a bit more difficult.
Cheri Bates was an 18-year-old college freshman in her hometown of Riverside, Cal. On Halloween morning in 1966, Cheri’s body was discovered on the grounds of her own campus; her car had been sabotaged and her throat had been cut. Cheri’s killer somehow vanished, and the police were baffled. Case # 352-481 quickly went cold. Then, a month after Cheri’s murder, someone typed and mailed a letter confessing to the crime. Was this confession the big break police desperately needed, or was it some kind of a sick joke? The anonymous confession letter was specifically intended for the Riverside chief of police, with an exact copy also sent to the local newspaper. At that time, the chief of police in Riverside was an experienced lawman named Kinkead. The unknown author wanted their confession to the police chief to be published in the newspaper for all to read. Chief Kinkead knew the confession could be a hoax, so he searched for proof that the author of the confession letter was truly Cheri’s killer. As police chief, Kinkead had direct access to the evidence room that held the many clues pertaining to the murder of Cheri Bates. After reviewing that evidence — in Chief Kinkead’s expert opinion — there was no doubt the author of the confession letter was also the killer of Cheri Bates. From Kinkead’s Oct. 20th, 1969 letter to the sheriff of Napa County, Cal., Earl Randol: “There is no doubt that the person who typed the confession letter is our homicide suspect.”
Chief Kinkead’s letter to Sheriff Randol had been prompted by California’s notorious Zodiac killer, an apparently random killer on the other side of California who had recently struck again. This time, the Zodiac had surfaced at Lake Berryessa, a lake located in Sheriff Randol’s jurisdiction. The Zodiac killer’s attack at the lake resulted in the death of a 22-year-old college student named Cecelia Shepard. Chief Kinkead had noticed many similarities between the Zodiac’s 1969 attack at the lake, and Kinkead’s own 1966 unsolved homicide of Cheri Bates. In both cases, the killer had used a knife. And, in both cases, the killer had actually called the police to report his own crime. However, what interested Chief Kinkead the most: At the time of their murders, both Cheri and Cecelia were attending college in Riverside, Cal. Coincidence? Or, could Cheri Bates have been murdered by a serial killer who had since moved to a different part of the state? To make matters even more urgent, the Zodiac was now threatening to target and kill school children. Chief Kinkead knew that if the Zodiac killer had also been the murderer of Cheri Bates, Kinkead’s own evidence room might hold the key to stopping the Zodiac once and for all.
Note to the reader: This original article is based on: Official police documentation; my exclusive interviews with law enforcement officials; my interviews with the friends and family members of the victims. This article is also based on verified tips provided to me by the public going back 30 years. And, based on my own unique research discoveries.
About 15 years after the murder of Cheri Bates, history was rewritten. Today, in popular culture, the Zodiac killer’s link to the Cheri Bates murder is often portrayed as being nothing more than a theory from an enterprising newspaper reporter who was fooled — along with investigators — by the work of a hoaxer. The truth, as you will learn, is quite the opposite. I’ve gone back to the beginning, 1966, and put everything in its proper context. What began in Riverside finally ended at Lake Berryessa, just as predicted by the author of the Bates confession letter, which would prove to be as much of a curse as a confession.
CONFESSIONS & CONFUSION: The Murders of Cheri Bates and Cecelia Shepard
On the warm evening before Halloween, it was already dark when Cheri Bates’s college library opened at 6 PM, as the time change had occurred early that morning. An aspiring airline stewardess, Cheri needed at least two years of college before she could fly the friendly skies. For the time being, she worked part time at a local bank and took classes at Riverside City College. Cheri had driven to her campus library to check out a few books she needed for a class assignment. Chief Kinkead theorized that while Cheri was in the library shortly after it opened, her eventual killer tampered with her Volkswagen Beetle so that it wouldn’t start. At which point, when Cheri returned to the car with her library books, she either left willingly with the unknown subject — or was somehow forced — before eventually being killed in a nearby alley. Curiously, when Cheri departed her car for the very last time, even though it was dark outside, she left her car unlocked; her windows rolled down; and the library books she had just checked out were left on the passenger seat. She had also left her car key in the ignition — which was odd, as Cheri had no idea her car had been disabled. For all Cheri knew, the next time she turned that key, her car would start as usual. By leaving her car unlocked with the key in the ignition, she could have allowed her precious VW Beetle to be stolen. Also, if Cheri was like most other people on the planet, she would have kept her car key together with her house key, attached on the the same key chain. So, the question is: If Cheri had gone by choice with her eventual killer, why would she leave behind her keys? The library was scheduled to be open until 9 o’clock that night. While nobody knows for sure, the possibility exists that when Cheri was trapped in her disabled car, her killer approached quickly, displayed a gun, and demanded that she go to his nearby vehicle. All conjecture aside, Cheri’s killer did not take her directly to that dark alley where she was eventually attacked. Based on the timeline of events as established by Riverside investigators, Cheri Bates had already departed the library and was experiencing car trouble by 6:15 that evening. 6:15 PM was estimated to be the beginning of her ordeal. However, according to the autopsy report that I obtained, Cheri wasn’t dead until three to six hours after she left the library. What in the hell did her killer do with Cheri Bates — for up to six hours — before finally cutting her throat, killing her almost instantly? Cheri was left dead in a dark alley not far from her Volkswagen, face down in the dirt. According to the police timeline and autopsy report, the possibility exists that someone intended to keep Cheri captive long enough to kill her after midnight, the official start of Halloween. Was Cheri Bates intended to be some kind of a bizarre sacrifice? Later that day, when most people were having fun celebrating Halloween, Cheri’s parents, Joseph and Irene, her brother, Michael, and her fiancé, Dennis, were all trying to figure out how to deal with the brutal murder of a loved one.
The night before Halloween, a little boy named Dana was having trouble falling asleep. For reasons he didn’t quite understand, his parents had turned their clock backwards an hour, and by his usual bedtime, Dana just wasn’t tired. It was also very hot that night. Dana’s bedroom window was open, and at some point during the night, he heard a woman scream. The next day, Dana learned about a dead girl found in an alley that wasn’t very far from his open bedroom window. At that point, Dana’s parents told him that he was no longer to go anywhere near that alley. That was fine with Dana, because in the little boy’s imagination, the dead girl’s body might still be there. However, it didn’t take long for his natural curiosity got the best of him, and Dana mustered the courage to explore the area where the girl had been killed. Eventually, while exploring, Dana found a knife. He already knew the dead girl had been killed with a knife, and he also knew he should give the knife he found to his mom and dad. However, at Dana’s age, getting caught disobeying his parents wasn’t an option — and they had told him in no uncertain terms to stay away from that alley. Dana put the knife back where he found it. From that moment on, he’s lived with a huge weight on his shoulders: The guilt of knowing that if he had given that knife to his parents, they would have turned it over to the police…and the police might have found a clue that could have lead to justice for the dead girl in the alley.
At time of Chief Kinkead’s letter to Sheriff Randol (mentioned earlier in this article), police in the entire Bay Area of San Francisco were very busy. It was late October 1969, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, the many crimes of the Zodiac killer had police overwhelmed with investigative work — so much so that it took just over a year for Bay Area Zodiac detectives to travel south to Riverside and join a task force with detectives handling their jurisdiction’s first-ever unsolved homicide: The murder of Cheri Bates. On Nov. 18, 1970, in Riverside, each police jurisdiction involved in the task force exchanged evidence and other information, and jointly reached the same conclusion: Cheri Bates was definitely a victim of the Zodiac killer, murdered more than two years before what was thought to be the Zodiac’s first attack. The Riverside task-force meeting was prompted by a handwriting match made just days earlier by expert document examiner Sherwood Morrill. The Zodiac killer was known to mail handwritten letters confessing to his own crimes, and nobody was more familiar with the Zodiac’s unique handwriting than Morrill. Curiously, five months after the typewritten Bates confession letters were sent, someone had also anonymously mailed handwritten letters taking credit for the Cheri Bates killing, and promising more victims. After intense scrutiny, it was concluded by Sherwood Morrill that those handwritten Bates letters had definitely been written by the man who was now known as the Zodiac killer. From that point forward, California’s Department Of Justice (DOJ) kept the entire task force updated on the progress made by each police jurisdiction involved in the hunt. With the Zodiac killer’s crimes now spanning all of California, the DOJ created a top secret report titled “ZODIAC HOMICIDES” that contained information about the confirmed Zodiac cases. The report was distributed to police departments throughout California and included Bates case # 352-481. The Cheri Bates murder was now officially a confirmed Zodiac crime. But long before the task force had found actual evidence linking the Zodiac and Cheri Bates cases — and before Sherwood Morrill confirmed the handwriting match — Chief Kinkead had already spotted his killer on the other side of California, now calling himself the Zodiac.
With its confirmed link to the Zodiac killer having just been established, the city of Riverside was on edge. The murder of Cheri Bates was bad enough, but the idea of the notorious Zodiac killer being so close to home was downright terrifying. The man who called himself the Zodiac was straight out of a scary movie; an evil, criminal genius who not only committed multiple murders — sometimes while wearing a horrifying costume — but who also reported his own killings by calling the police, and offering detailed confessions to those crimes in many handwritten letters to authorities. The Zodiac killer’s taunting letters included his personal symbol: A circle over a cross, resembling a gun site. In those letters, he challenged the police to catch him. In some cases, the Zodiac’s letters contained actual physical evidence, such as a bloody scrap of a victim’s shirt. The Zodiac even went so far as threatening to use a bomb to blow up full elementary school buses. Occasionally, the Zodiac killer sent coded messages, some of which have not been solved to this day. The Zodiac killer was like the Joker from the Batman movies. However, in reality, there were no superheroes to save California; just normal, everyday detectives who had never before seen anything like the Zodiac killer.
Behind the scenes within the Riverside police, there was no doubt the Zodiac was their man, having killed in Riverside before inventing the Zodiac persona. However, in interviews with the local media, officials from the Riverside Police Department portrayed skepticism, assuring the public that Zodiac might have simply lied when he took credit for the Cheri Bates murder. By acting skeptical, the Riverside police were actually emulating a strategy used earlier by Bay Area detectives. Back in July 1969, not long after the Zodiac killer first began killing around San Francisco, his attacks were followed by letters confessing to his crimes. Law enforcement officials knew the more letters they received from the Zodiac, the more evidence they would have to possibly catch him. So the police went public, saying they weren’t convinced the letter writer was actually their killer. It was a strategy that resulted in the Zodiac killer sending additional letters and providing additional proof that he really was their man. That ploy of skepticism eventually paid off again, this time for Riverside police, as the Zodiac soon wrote a letter to the nearby Los Angeles Times newspaper acknowledging his murder of Cheri Bates in Riverside, and claiming he had taken even more victims in that area of California. Perhaps the Zodiac killer was telling the truth. On the night of Nov. 22, 1966, just a few weeks after Cheri Bates was killed, another young Riverside woman was walking on her college campus — heading to the library — when a stocky white man pulled up in his car and offered her a ride. The incident began at almost the exact time of evening as the Cheri Bates encounter the previous month. The driver of the car even made reference to Cheri, saying “You heard about that girl at City College, right?” When the young woman still refused a ride, the man said “I’m not Jack the Ripper!” The encounter escalated into a kidnapping and assault situation. Fortunately, the young woman eventually escaped the car. The driver got away, and according to Riverside police, that driver might also have been the killer of Cheri Bates.
Allow me to briefly jump ahead. In the 1980s, there was a massive change within the Riverside Police Department that saw the department entirely abandon the “Zodiac killed Cheri Bates” conclusion, and replace it with the theory that Cheri had been killed by someone from her graduating class in high school. That massive departmental change was the direct result of Detective Granville ‘Bud’ Kelley taking over the Bates investigation. When Cheri Bates was murdered, Kelley was a Riverside patrolman, not a detective, and Kelley played no meaningful part in the original murder investigation. By the early 1980s, after becoming a detective and inheriting the Cheri Bates case, Kelley became fixated on the suspect I’ll refer to as Bob Barnett. Barnett and Cheri had attended school together at Ramona High, and Barnett was one of many male students who got a close look by police, only to be ruled out as Cheri’s killer. Sadly, by the time Bud Kelley took over the Cheri Bates case, Chief Kinkead and the other original investigators had retired. There was nobody to pull the reigns in on Kelley, who used the Cheri Bates case to suit his own agenda. Meanwhile, on the other side of California, a cartoonist for a San Francisco newspaper was writing a book about the Zodiac killer, and his book preparation occurred during the very time that Bud Kelley was telling everyone who would listen that Zodiac had definitely not been the killer of Cheri Bates. Unfortunately, Kelley influenced the cartoonist, and when the book was finally published, Cheri Bates was not included as an established victim of the Zodiac killer. The book was very successful, and was eventually made into a film which also cast doubt on Zodiac being Cheri’s killer. Over time, the case that Bud Kelley had built against Bob Barnett as being the killer of Cheri Bates, was rejected by Riverside prosecutors on at least two occasions. Eventually, DNA testing cleared Bob Barnett. Still, Bud Kelley’s unprofessional bias succeeded in influencing younger Riverside detectives, convincing them that Bob Barnett was the killer. It wasn’t long before Kelley retired and one of those younger detectives took over the Bates case. By the year 2000, it was Detective Steve Shumway who was in charge of the unsolved Cheri Bates homicide. Shumway was very familiar with my website, Zodiackiller.com, and I had many detailed conversations with him. During one of those conversations, in May of 2000, Shumway dropped a bombshell directly on my head: Cheri Bates, he told me, had been stabbed 42 times. To put it mildly, I was completely shocked. Every report I had ever read indicated Cheri had suffered far fewer than 42 stab wounds. But Shumway was adamant. He told me “Tom…Cheri Bates was stabbed 42 times. And you can quote me!” On May 4, 2000, I published that quote at Zodiackiller.com. The result was tremendous controversy. Detective Shumway’s claim of 42 stab wounds greatly contradicted Cheri’s autopsy report which I had just recently acquired. And Shumway suddenly became strangely silent, offering no explanation for the vast discrepancy between his claim, and what Cheri’s autopsy report clearly showed. I was left with a grim conclusion: The Riverside detective now in charge of the Cheri Bates case hadn’t even read her autopsy report. On TV, cold case detectives always start fresh and from scratch. They consult the murder book, and look under every rock for clues missed by the previous detectives. But all too often, in reality, all those detectives know about their own cold case is misinformation they read on the Internet. As for Bud Kelley, in the year 2011 at the age of 74, Kelley plead guilty to nine felony counts of child molestation and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Bud Kelley will likely die behind bars if he hasn’t already. Meanwhile, Kelley’s pet suspect, the man I referred to as Bob Barnett, retired to the Big Island of Hawaii.
(In late 2021, Riverside police released an intentionally confusing and misleading press release, the goal of which was to create distance away from two no-win situations for them: The unsolved murder of Cheri Bates, and the unsolved case of the Zodiac killer. The desperate press release was, in reality, nonsense. Details and in-depth discussion can be found at the Zodiackiller.com forum.)
In the early 1960s, Cheri Bates’s family had next-door neighbors that included a 13-year-old girl named Susan. From Susan’s bedroom window, she had a clear view of the Bates’s kitchen window. What Susan remembers most is how Joseph Bates, the dad, would make silly faces at her while he was doing the dishes next door. Joseph was born in New York and when he bought the Riverside house back in 1951, he still had that Brooklyn accent. It was once a house occupied by Cheri, her brother Michael, and their parents, Joseph and Irene. The address was 4195 Via San Jose. The Bates family occupied the home, in some capacity, for the next 21 years until Joseph finally sold it in 1972. Thirty years later, in 2002, I was invited inside the home where Cheri Bates had once lived. Cheri’s old bedroom was tiny, and I couldn’t help but notice how easy it would have been for someone to spy on her from busy California Avenue, which was just yards away from her bedroom window. In doing so, that someone could have become very familiar with Cheri’s entire family. Maybe that’s why the Zodiac killer eventually wrote one of them a letter. On April 30th, 1967, exactly six months after Cheri Bates was murdered, the Zodiac killer sent a letter to Cheri’s father, Joseph. To Joseph Bates, the Zodiac wrote “She had to die, there will be more.” And sadly, the Zodiac’s promise quickly came true, when Cheri Bates’s mother, Irene, was poisoned with strychnine. Her death was eventually ruled a suicide. But within several months of the poisoning death of Irene Bates, the Zodiac killer wrote another letter, this time claiming that he would disguise his murders, making them appear to be anything but murder. Soon after, the Bates mother and daughter were joined in death by Cheri’s grandmother. Within just three years, daughter, mother, and grandmother, all dead. And ironically, Cheri’s grandmother was named Cecelia. As for Cheri’s father, Joseph: Following the murder of his only daughter, Joseph Bates patiently waited for justice that was never served. In 2016 — 50 long years after losing his daughter, Cheri — Joseph Bates died at a care facility in New Mexico. He was 96 years old.
In March of 1910, Lambert Kinkead was born on a farm in Oklahoma. As a child, Kinkead’s older brother had given him the nickname of Curly, a nickname Kinkead grew to prefer over his real name. Kinkead’s natural ambition eventually lead him away from the family farm. In 1932, after graduating from Oklahoma State University with a degree in animal husbandry, the 25-year-old Kinkead found his way to Riverside Cal., and took a job caring for horses. It didn’t pay too well, so Curly Kinkead successfully applied for a job as a police officer. His career in Riverside law enforcement began in 1938, and by 1965, Kinkead had advanced all the way to the top of the ladder to become police chief. And Curly was no pushover. The tough-talking chief was often the subject of controversy, as Kinkead sometimes used politically incorrect language to make it clear that crime and criminals had no place in his community. A year after joining the police force, Kinkead married a woman named Zelda Zink. By the mid-1960s, Curly and Zelda were well-known figures in the quiet community of Riverside. The unsolved murder of Cheri Bates stayed with Chief Kinkead even after he finally retired in 1972. As fate would have it, Kinkead only had a few years to enjoy his retirement. Unfortunately, tragic deaths and mysterious coincidences did not just effect the Bates family; the curse of the confession also reached Police Chief Kinkead. On Nov. 29, 1976 — the exact, ten-year anniversary, to the day, of when he first received his Bates confession letter — Lambert Thomas Kinkead jr died in Long Beach, Cal. He was buried near Cheri Bates at Crest Lawn Memorial Park in Riverside. Curly was just 66 years old.
In November of 1970, investigators concluded that it was the Zodiac who had killed Cheri Bates. And, in the Bates confession letter, the Zodiac had warned Chief Kinkead that he was now stalking those very Riverside girls the chief had sworn to protect. If line six of the confession letter was to be believed, on one of those Riverside girls the Zodiac killer was again going to use a knife. And that is exactly what happened. At the time Cheri Bates was found dead at Riverside City College, Cecelia Ann Shepard was a 19-year-old sophomore at nearby La Sierra University, also in Riverside, and not far from the spot where Cheri was murdered. Cecelia was a full-time student who lived on campus. During that same 1966/1967 school year when Cheri was murdered, Cecelia had a college roommate named Sue who took a night course at Riverside City College. According to Sue, on at least two occasions Cecelia went with her…and while Sue was in her class, at night, Cecelia would study in that same small Riverside City College library where Cheri Bates had last been seen alive. The main route between the two colleges was Magnolia Avenue, the location of the only mental hospital in all of Riverside County. Which brings to mind the confession letter that took credit for the murder of Cheri Bates and had warned “I am not sick. I am insane.” According to Riverside newspaper reporter John Montgomery, soon after Cheri’s murder a local mental patient told his psychotherapist that he believed he had “killed Cheri Bates.” Additionally, in late 1969 — before anyone knew anything about a possible Zodiac connection to the city of Riverside — at that same mental hospital, someone left a note claiming to be from the Zodiac killer…and threatening to burn down the entire hospital. Unfortunately, due to privacy laws, the identity of that mental patient will never be revealed.
It was Friday, Sept. 26, 1969. 22-year-old Cecelia Shepard had just recently begun another year of college. Already a graduate of La Sierra University, as well as Pacific Union College (PUC), Cecelia was now a 5th year music major at U.C. Riverside in Riverside, Cal. It was a busy Friday morning, as Cecelia and her friend Delora were leaving on a road trip: A long drive north from the Riverside area to spend a couple of days back in the Bay Area of San Francisco, where Cecelia had graduated college a few months earlier. The plan was to retrieve the last of Cecelia’s belongings from her alma mater, PUC (which was not far from Lake Berryessa), and then to return to the Riverside area for good on Sunday, Sept. 28. Sadly, Cecelia never made it back home. Carolyn Shepard, Cecelia’s sister, told me that on the morning Cecelia departed for the San Francisco Bay Area, she mentioned that when she ever died, she wanted to be buried at the cemetery in a small town called St. Helena, which was very close to PUC. And that same morning, while saying her goodbyes, Cecelia ran back to her mother, Wilma, and hugged her for a second time. According to Wilma, Cecelia had never done that before. Carolyn Shepard believed that Cecelia somehow knew her own death was coming soon. Beginning the road trip, Cecelia looked forward to seeing her former steady boyfriend, Bryan Hartnell. The two had dated off and on for several years, and things were once again getting serious. In fact, Cecelia had recently confided to her sisters that she expected Bryan to soon propose marriage. Cecelia and Delora took turns driving north. And by the next morning, Cecelia and Bryan were finally back together once again.
It was Saturday, Sept. 27. In the far corner of the PUC parking lot, two freshmen, Carol and Holly, saw Cecelia and Bryan together by Bryan’s car. The foursome knew each other; in fact, Carol was dating one of Bryan’s previous college roommates. In the parking lot, Bryan was having trouble with his Volkswagen, and was working inside the engine compartment. Carol asked Bryan if she could be of some help, but Bryan seemed confident he could solve the problem…so Carol and Holly went on their way. Amazingly, just as in Riverside nearly three years earlier, a Volkswagen was experiencing mechanical difficulties on a college campus, shortly before a deadly knife attack that Zodiac would take credit for. And that’s not all. According to Cecelia’s good friend, Lori, on that same morning and in that same parking lot, the car that Cecelia had driven north in with Delora had issues with its battery, and Bryan had to go to great lengths to get it to run. Oddly, the day Cecelia was eventually attacked, both cars associated with her had mechanical issues. Did someone tamper with those vehicles, perhaps as he earlier did with Cheri Bates’s Volkswagen Beetle back in Riverside? Unfortunately, Bryan’s car eventually started, and he and Cecelia went on their way. At Lake Berryessa later that day, after completing his knife attack, the Zodiac killer targeted Cecelia’s passenger door to leave his symbol. Somehow, Bryan Hartnell survived the attack. But just as the Bates confession letter had promised three years earlier, another Riverside girl had been murdered. And just as promised, it was with a knife. About a week later, Cecelia Shepard was buried at that cemetery in St. Helena. And right around the time when the Zodiac finally admitted to killing Cheri Bates, someone went to Cecelia Shepard’s former church near Riverside and signed the name ZODIAC in the guestbook.
The parallels between the Zodiac killer’s Riverside and Lake Berryessa attacks are quite numerous. In Riverside, Cheri Bates had been lying face down on the ground when the Zodiac delivered the death blow with his knife. Later, at Lake Berryessa, face down on the ground was how the Zodiac positioned Cecelia and Bryan immediately before stabbing them with his knife. Also, in both the Bates murder and the attack at Lake Berryessa, the killer had involvement with the vehicles of his victims: In Riverside, Cheri’s Volkswagen Beetle had been disabled by her killer, and at Lake Berryessa, the attacker wrote his symbol on a car door of Bryan’s Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. Cheri and Cecelia were both Riverside college students when murdered in early fall. In both attacks, the killer telephoned the police.
Though he was also attacked by the Zodiac killer, Bryan Hartnell fortunately survived. In the hospital the day after being stabbed ten times with a foot-long knife, Hartnell was able to answer questions from detectives. According to Bryan, he and Cecelia were alone on a picnic blanket near the shore at the isolated lake, when Cecelia saw a stranger approaching them. When Bryan finally got a look at him, he observed the man was wearing a bizarre costume. Artistic recreations of that costume resembled an executioner’s hood with a butcher’s apron. On the chest area of the black costume was a white symbol: A circle over a cross. The man in the costume was holding a gun and he claimed to be an escaped convict who needed to steal Bryan’s car in order to reach Mexico. The man with the gun had brought with him bindings, and he demanded that Bryan and Cecelia be tied up. To Bryan, the voice of the Zodiac killer definitely made an impact. Here is an actual quote from Bryan Hartnell’s hospital interview with police a day after the attack, and discussing the voice of the man behind the mask: “His voice, I can remember, almost like I’d heard it before.” You can read the entire interview at my website, Zodiackiller.com. The fact that Zodiac’s voice actually seemed familiar to victim Bryan Hartnell is perhaps the most significant — and overlooked — detail in the entire Zodiac case…especially from the perspective that Cecelia Shepard might have been targeted just like Cheri Bates.
Bryan and Cecelia had known each other for years and, at times, were much more than just friends. Could the Zodiac killer’s seemingly familiar voice have been the result of his lurking somewhere on the fringe of Cecelia’s life, and therefore somewhat familiar to Bryan? Perhaps the Zodiac was a twisted, obsessed admirer of Cecelia, pathologically compelled to destroy the object of his desire? From that hospital interview, here’s what Bryan Hartnell said about the demeanor of the Zodiac killer, specifically when the Zodiac touched Cecelia Shepard. Zodiac became “very, very nervous, his hands were shaking.” When the Zodiac was done stabbing, believing both victims were dead, he simply walked away. Before leaving the lake area, the Zodiac wrote his symbol on the passenger door of Bryan’s Volkswagen. 70 minutes later, the Zodiac killer called the Napa Police Department and spoke to Officer David Slate. Zodiac’s voice was so quiet that Slate described it as “barely audible.” First Zodiac was shaking, then he was barely audible. A far cry from the confident and taunting killer who spoke over the phone to police dispatcher Nancy Slover following a gun attack just a few months earlier. Curiously, in that Napa phone call to Officer Slaight, Zodiac seemed to make it clear that his focus had been on just one of those lake victims. To Officer Slaight, the Zodiac actually had to correct himself, first reporting just one murder at the lake before remembering there had actually been two victims. Cecelia Shepard had already chosen the place where she would be buried. Sadly, by going to Lake Berryessa that day, she also chose the place that killed her.
At nine years, Guy Darsow was the oldest of his five brothers, each in elementary school. At just past seven in the warm evening of Sept. 27, 1969, the Darsow brothers were patiently waiting to check a phone booth for any change left behind. Their mother was at the car wash next to Sam Kee’s laundry, located at 1245 Main Street in Napa, Cal. Whenever the Darsow brothers found themselves near one of Napa’s many phone booths, they always looked for change in the coin return. This time, the phone booth was occupied by a man wearing a long, light-colored rain coat. The brothers patiently waited, and after just a minute or so, the man left the booth. Guy and his brothers never saw the man’s face, but once inside the booth, Guy noticed the phone receiver was dangling. With no luck finding any change, the brothers began playing nearby. The next thing Guy remembered, there were police cars everywhere. Guy actually believed that he and his brothers were somehow in trouble, and he was terrified that his mother would finish at the car wash in time to see what was happening. Luckily, the police got occupied talking to some nearby adults, and Guy and his brothers found their way back to their mother’s car. Within two weeks, that man from the phone booth was threatening to target and kill school children just like Guy and his brothers.
By 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. 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. By 1970, the Aquarius closed for good. Soon after, the Zodiac killer vanished forever.
Tom Voigt | tomvoigt@zodiackiller.com
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On this 56th anniversary of the Zodiac killer’s first mailings (in the Bay Area, at least), I thought I would provide a case update.
Bad news first: There is no meaningful investigation — DNA or otherwise — happening within the relevant police jurisdictions. While things can quickly change, nobody is in danger of waking up to *legitimate* news of the Zodiac having been identified, at least not any time soon.
Now the good news: If the right Zodiac candidate is presented, it could be the motivation necessary for law enforcement to pull a Golden State Killer and apply the necessary resources for a proper, final investigation.
And now some advice: Forget about the Zodiac’s two remaining unsolved codes. (The police already have forgotten, long ago.) Simply put, those short codes could fit anyone and anything. “Solving” one or both — if you think you already have, get in line — won’t impress the powers that be.
I do have some experience in this area (see the “evidence room” link below).
Your Zodiac candidate should be caucasian and male. In 1969, he wouldn’t be elderly or a teenager. His handwriting should be impressive enough that you don’t feel the need to hide 99% of a handwriting sample by cropping it. And you should never superimpose anything on his photograph, such as glasses.
Easy enough, right? Now hit those old yearbooks and find him.
And please help support responsible Zodiac research and investigation. Here’s the link:
NOTE:I’ve allowed this issue to be one-sided for far too long. Initially, my approach was to ignore the personal attacks directed at me by Michael Butterfield. However, he has now spent almost a dozen years dishonestly smearing both my name and my website. God knows how many people have been duped by this jealous and spiteful wanna-be author. But now, ironically, one virus (Corona) has given me the necessary time to deal with another virus (Butterfield).
Thanks to David Fincher’s film, titled ZODIAC, a new generation of Zodiac buffs was created back in 2007. Many of those individuals found their way to a website called Zodiackillerfacts.com, where they might have eventually noticed a strong, anti-Tom Voigt sentiment: “Voigt’s a liar, Voigt’s a fraud, Voigt’s a hypocrite, Voigt’s an opportunist!” At Zodiackillerfacts.com, owned by Michael Butterfield, that sentiment exists to this day. But that website wasn’t always that way. At the beginning of 2007, you might be surprised to know that I helped Butterfield get his website online. I already had my own website, Zodiackiller.com, that I had launched in 1998. However, Butterfield and I were on good terms, he thought a website would benefit him, and I was glad to help.
It was late 2006. For almost a dozen years, Michael Butterfield had been preparing a book about the Zodiac killer, and it was finally finished. Butterfield knew that I was formally trained as both a writer and editor. My father, James, was a Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist, and he had taught me well. Butterfield asked if I would edit his book, and I said yes. The book was in the form of a PDF file, and Butterfield put the file on a CD-ROM and mailed it to me. “The PDF file is too big to e-mail,” Butterfield said. That was because, as I soon found out, the number of pages in Butterfield’s book had to be seen to be believed. Now, I already knew that Butterfield was a very wordy writer — the equivalent of ask him what time it is, and he’ll tell you how to build a watch. It’s a good writer who can properly communicate a thought, while using the fewest words possible. Butterfield isn’t a good writer. I believe he has since shortened it, but back at that time, even the title of his book was wordy. I said “Mike, if that many words are going to fit on the book cover, the font will have to be so small that nobody will be able to see it.” I wasn’t entirely kidding. As it turned out, Butterfield didn’t really want me to edit anything. Instead, he wanted me to read his book and tell him how perfect it was. I finished chapter one and sent him my edits. That was when Butterfield made it abundantly clear he would not be making even the most simple of corrections.
My relationship with Michael Butterfield began on the Internet back in 1997. I immediately found him to be extremely egotistical, constantly bragging about his own prowess as a writer, while simultaneously criticizing an array of successful, published authors. These days, if you’ve authored a book, there’s an option called self-publishing; literally anyone can do it, and it’s quite popular. But self-publishing is not ideal, as every writer would prefer their work be published by a traditional publishing house such as Penguin Putnam, or Simon & Schuster. It’s the difference between putting some videos on TikTok for your 50 friends to watch, compared to starring in a successful documentary on NetFlix. Joe Blow compared to Joe Exotic. And unlike with self-publishing, having your work published by a publishing house can guarantee regular paydays, a book tour, an interview on Good Morning America, celebrity status, and your own book well-stocked in book stores at the mall. To this day, for the most part, only the best of the best writers earn the great rewards of having a publishing house behind them. It was what Butterfield wanted, and for some reason, what Butterfield thought he deserved. On the Internet, as early as 1997, Butterfield talked as though his massive success was already a done deal. Butterfield imagined himself as Joe Exotic. But as a writer, he Joe Blowed. Not only wasn’t his Zodiac book finished yet, Butterfield had never gotten anything published…ever. But he still acted like he somehow had more credibility than others, both as a writer and a person. As I would soon find, the truth told a much different story.
In early 1998, when I worked for CBS Radio, Michael Butterfield and I agreed to exchange Zodiac materials. The mailing address he gave me was for the ZODIAC INFORMATION CENTER, and it included a suite number. “Wow,” I thought, “does this guy actually operate a Zodiac killer business of some sort?” Nope. Turned out the “suite” was his basement bedroom in his mother’s Phoenix home. The reason I know that is because within 48 hours of our agreement to share materials, I had already packaged and shipped to him everything I had promised. A week later, at the CBS studio where I worked, the materials were returned to me with NO SUCH ADDRESS stamped on the package. I immediately contacted Butterfield and explained what had happened. He responded with “That stupid postman! I told him my bedroom is the suite!” Now, an individual can pretend their basement bedroom is a suite if they wish…but the postal service doesn’t play pretend. As a result, Butterfield had to tell me the truth about his living conditions. I remailed everything to the correct address, and he received the shipment within 72 hours. And the items Butterfield had promised to send me in exchange? Butterfield didn’t bother to send them to me until six-months later. That’s right, he made me wait six freakin’ months. I should have dropped him like a bad habit right then and there, but fellow Zodiac buffs were in short supply back then.
As an author, wordiness wasn’t the only issue with Michael Butterfield. As I studied his book closely in late 2006, I saw entire chapters devoted to “exposing” individuals such as Howard Davis, whose only crime was to have a theory about the Zodiac’s identity. I knew the ridiculing or “exposing” of random people is not what readers want to experience in a Zodiac book. People want to read about the Zodiac case; they don’t want to read about some guy whom the author has a petty beef with. Around that time, the world had learned that David Fincher’s Zodiac movie would be released in theaters on March 2nd, 2007. I naturally assumed Butterfield would quickly send his book to publishers to get the process started. We knew Fincher’s Zodiac movie had a huge advertising budget, and we also knew that every penny spent advertising that Zodiac movie, would also indirectly help advertise Zodiac books, Zodiac websites…all things Zodiac. For a publisher, investing in Butterfield’s book would have been a no-brainer — the coincidental timing with the movie’s release turned out perfectly. Of course, Butterfield would definitely need to swallow his ego and allow his book to be properly edited. But surely, Michael Butterfield would come to realize that he was not Michael Crichton. Right? Indeed, it seemed the stars had aligned perfectly to allow a bad writer to get a good book deal. Or so I thought.
As we were planning his website, near the end of 2006, Michael Butterfield revealed to me that he hadn’t even begun sending his book to publishers. “I want to wait until I see the Fincher movie, so I can put my review of the film in my book,” he said. Once I realized Butterfield wasn’t kidding, I actually had to struggle to stay composed. “Mike,” I said, “what if the movie is a dud at the box office? If that happens, NO PUBLISHER will want anything to do with a book about the Zodiac killer!” Butterfield still wanted to wait. I said “Mike, simply tell readers of your book about your new website, and let the readers know your movie review will be right there, online!” No, he still wanted to wait. I told Butterfield point blank: “As your friend, I am telling you that you are making the mistake of a lifetime. EVEN IF the Fincher movie is a huge success, why would anyone want to buy a book about a movie they had just recently watched in the theaters?” My advice was not taken. Butterfield did it his way….and he blew it.
By late February 2007, Michael Butterfield’s website was finally online. I had recently uncovered the never-before-seen Eureka card, thought to be from Zodiac. It was a big deal. However, rather than adding images of the Eureka card to my own website, Zodiackiller.com, I decided to help Butterfield jump-start his new website by e-mailing scans of the Eureka card to Butterfield, for him to share at Zodiackillerfacts.com.
— TIMELINE OF THE ENSUING MELTDOWN / GET POPCORN READY —
At some point, Butterfield began using his website to ridicule those who had promoted a popular theory. That theory involved the Zodiac killer intentionally choosing crime scenes in order to form a radian angle:
Butterfield ridiculed them even though Michael Butterfield himself had been a huge proponent of that exact radian theory, to the point of singing its praises in 1999 on a nationally televised documentary called Case Reopened —
“Penn’s radian theory became a prominent part of the Zodiac legend and was promoted by many believers, including Zodiac researcher Jake Wark and myself. During my 1999 appearance on the Learning Channel documentary Case Reopened, I explained the radian theory. My endorsement of Penn’s radian theory was later cited by Grant and others in support of that theory. However, my presentation of the radian theory was largely influenced by and based on Gareth Penn’s previous presentations. As a result, I had no idea that my presentation was actually severely flawed and inaccurate. In later years, my own desire to find the truth about the radian theory compelled me to re-examine the facts and to reassess my own beliefs. I had long-believed that the radian theory was valid, but my renewed research forced me to conclude that I had always been wrong.”
Fair enough, right? But no, later in that same entry at Butterfield’s website, he concluded by attempting to rewrite history:
“The facts which debunk the radian theory are readily available to anyone who cares to look. Promoters of the radian theory use erroneous maps with the wrong locations and the wrong measurements, an irony which serves as the final proof that the radian theory is invalid – even its promoters failed to do their homework. Gareth Penn, Raymond Grant and Steve Hodel promote the radian theory, but, in order to do so, they must discard the facts in favor of falsehoods. Gareth Penn’s radian theory may have been compelling and entertaining, and, many people – including myself – may have been fascinated by its simplicity and its possible implications. At its core, the radian theory is the kind of answer so many people seek from the Zodiac mystery, some sort of explanation which would help us understand why this tragedy occurred. Like most sensational “answers” in the Zodiac case, the radian theory seems initially impressive until one examines the facts.”
SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT —
According to Butterfield…Gareth Penn, Raymond Grant and Steve Hodel were wrong for not doing “their homework” before endorsing the radian theory. Yet that is exactly what Butterfield did, until years after he had promoted the theory on national television. However, Butterfield has never taken responsibility for doing exactly what he criticized the others for doing. Instead, he blamed Gareth Penn —
Butterfield: “My presentation of the radian theory was largely influenced by and based on Gareth Penn’s previous presentations.”
So when others don’t do “their homework” before endorsing a theory, it’s their own fault. However, when it’s Butterfield not doing his homework before endorsing a theory, it’s someone else’s fault. Gotcha.
WATCH CASE REOPENED BELOW (the relevant portion begins at 38:19):
**********
March 3, 2007 — I was shocked to learn that Michael Butterfield had illegally filmed David Fincher’s ZODIAC at a screening in San Francisco. I might not have believed it, except he sent me a copy of the film on DVD about a month later. In addition, within the previous year, Butterfield had also bragged about intentionally breaking the non-dosclosure agreement he had signed with David Fincher’s film company. I had also signed such an agreement, but chose to live up to my word.
Butterfield would eventually use Gaikowski as his platform to repeatedly attack me at his website, fooling people into believing Butterfield had some kind of a righteous motive behind his actions. “Michael Butterfield: Noble Defender of the Accused!”
History clearly tells a different story as you shall see.
**********
Mid-2008 — I had driven to the San Francisco Bay Area from my home in Portland, Ore. to film a television show called “Haunting Evidence.” (At my suggestion, weeks earlier, Michael Butterfield had been offered a role in the show, but he had turned it down because “it might conflict with my book tour.” What book tour?) At my hotel in Vallejo, Cal., I awoke to see two new anti-Howard Davis threads posted by Butterfield at my discussion forum. I had already asked Butterfield to please stop posting such things at my forum, so I immediately deleted both hate threads. That evening, several of my forum moderators, including Angie, Dahlia and Tracers (plus many other users) were in my Zodiac chat room when Butterfield logged-in. Butterfield immediately claimed that I had hacked into his website earlier that day, destroying it. And that the FBI had verified the hacker had used my specific i.p. address in Portland to do the dirty work. The problem with Butterfield’s lie, I told the users in chat, was that I was actually in Vallejo filming a TV show…and had been there for a couple days. Butterfield immediately left the chat room and wasn’t heard from for months. All because earlier in the day I had deleted two of his anti-Howard Davis discussion threads. I chalked up his bizarre behavior to his many personal problems, including his humiliating public book failure, his wife having left him, his being forced to move back in with his mother, etc. The next time Butterfield was heard from was in late 2008 — he was still under the delusion that he was getting a book deal. “Once my book tour starts,” he asked the chat room, “does anyone have couches I can crash on? I’ll be going all around the country.”
During this time Butterfield also removed me as a source, removed the Eureka card credit, and removed a link to Zodiackiller.com.
**********
“MysteryQuest: San Francisco Slaughter” (which aired on The History Channel, now called simply HISTORY) was filmed in spring 2009, right around the time of the March 24, 2009 snapshot of Butterfield’s website — the snapshot that clearly showed I was still in his good graces more than a year after Gaikowski surfaced as a Zodiac suspect. Both Butterfield and I appeared in the MysteryQuest show. We stayed in the same Benicia (Cal.) hotel, had numerous conversations, and never once did Butterfield mention any issues he had developed with me. I pretended to forget the lies he had told about me in the chat room back in mid-2008. And that was the last time I ever saw Mike Butterfield. He was still listed as a source of mine, I still linked to his website, and he was still a moderator at my discussion forum.
Early April, 2009 — I learned that Butterfield had actually lied to the producers of MysteryQuest by claiming he had secured a book deal and therefore wanted to be billed in the show as an “author.” I knew Butterfield had no book deal, but his scheme worked — if you watch the episode of MysteryQuest, when Butterfield first appears on camera, on the screen it says “AUTHOR.”
The MysteryQuest show can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/380168202 — Scroll to the 3:25 mark to see the result of Butterfield’s deception. —
ABOVE: A screenshot of the “AUTHOR” selling his soul.
That show was filmed back in 2009, and almost a dozen years later, Butterfield is STILL not a published book author. But he is still a liar. Butterfield’s clear intent was to use the fake “AUTHOR” title on MysteryQuest to boost his own credibility. And it worked, at least on those who didn’t know better. By the time the show debuted later that year, the “AUTHOR” was using his fake credibility to lend believability to all of the lies he began directing at me, and at others as well.
On top of everything else I had done for him, I had actually gotten Butterfield the MysteryQuest gig. I had previously worked with The History Channel several times and now worried Butterfield’s lie might actually get me in trouble with the television network. And I wondered what else Butterfield might have lied about during the extensive on-camera interviews we had both separately given in the conference room of our Benicia hotel.
As a result of his lying, Michael Butterfield was no longer welcome at Zodiackiller.com as of April 26, 2009. I removed references/links to both he and his website; additionally, he was no longer a moderator at my discussion forum and his forum account was deactivated.
And that was when Butterfield’s smear campaign against me began.
**********
By late 2008, Michael Butterfield realized he’d never be a published author, therefore his dozen-year dream of being the number one Zodiac book guy, was over. But could Butterfield possibly become the number one Zodiac website guy? Butterfield did indeed have an established Zodiac website — ironically, I had personally helped see to that. However, his website was considered vastly inferior to my website, Zodiackiller.com. For one thing, my site had been established nearly a decade earlier than Butterfield’s and had a ton more content, much of it exclusive. Also, I had an active discussion forum, which Butterfield’s website did not have. So Butterfield knew the only way he could beat me was to cheat. First, Butterfield stole my copyrighted material and added it to his overseas web server, a server he knew didn’t follow our copyright laws here in the United States. Butterfield followed up by targeting my then-friend and main forum moderator, Ed Neil. Butterfield spent months getting into Ed Neil’s ear, telling lies about me and making it appear as if I was somehow bad for Ed Neil. The tactic eventually worked, and Ed Neil left Zodiackiller.com and became a moderator at the new version of Butterfield’s website, which was all of a sudden more focused on spreading hate than spreading facts. Butterfield’s forum did become successful, but it was short-lived. Ed Neil finally wised up, realized he’d been conned by Butterfield, and left the online Zodiac community in embarrassment.
Facing yet another Zodiac failure, this time his discussion forum, Butterfield intentionally broke his forum while blaming me for it just as he had a few years earlier in the chat room. Since then, Butterfield has rarely updated his website. Instead, he finally resurfaced in an attempt to cash in on the podcast fad. But that has failed, too — Butterfield’s first podcast did well, approaching 60,000 downloads. However, listeners apparently didn’t like what they heard, as the subsequent 35 or so episodes have tanked. And now, on average, a typical Butterfield podcast gets barely 900 listeners.
I’d feel sorry for him, but he doesn’t deserve it.
“Voigt’s a liar, Voigt’s a fraud, Voigt’s a hypocrite, Voigt’s an opportunist!”
Michael Butterfield was subconsciously describing himself.
The most recent piece of Arthur Leigh Allen misinformation is the nonsensical claim that Allen originally faced police scrutiny because the Zodiac killer had been proven to drive a Volkswagen Beetle.
The claim — posted at Reddit — is nonsense.
As the silly story goes, following the Zodiac killer’s September 1969 attack in its jurisdiction, the Napa County Sheriff’s Department allegedly measured the tire impressions left by the Zodiac killer’s vehicle while it was parked along a road above Lake Berryessa, and those tire impressions were determined to have been made by a tiny VW Beetle. Therefore, 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!” The Vallejo police then allegedly 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. And that’s how Bob Luce was allegedly responsible for getting police attention to Arthur Leigh Allen.
For a moment, let’s ignore the fact that nobody ever described the Zodiac killer as being “huge.” At Lake Berryessa, Cecelia Shepard saw the Zodiac clearly and did not describe a huge man. Meanwhile, her lake companion, 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. And when the local investigators performed what was called “a compaction test” on the depth of the footprints left by the Zodiac killer, those same detectives 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.
While the Napa investigators did measure the tire impressions left by the Zodiac killer, they 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 were aware the Zodiac was actually proven to be driving a VW Beetle.
This entire story was concocted by a reddit user called u/241waffledeal. The reason? Hilariously, u/241waffledeal used a modern technique to interpret the tire impressions left by the Zodiac killer. If that’s not silly enough, u/241waffledeal then concluded the modern technique had been used by the Napa County Sheriff’s Department back in September 1969, even though the modern technique hadn’t been invented yet. Oh, and since u/241waffledeal believes Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac killer — and since Allen was what some might describe as huge (at least his weight), therefore the Zodiac killer was also huge.
Opinion confirmation, passed along as proven fact to the poorly informed and/or gullible. It’s what I call Richard Grinell 101.
Was Bob Luce the original tipster who gave the Vallejo police Allen’s name back in October 1969, as being the possible Zodiac killer? Maybe. I have a much better candidate whom I’ll introduce in detail in my forthcoming book. However, what I know for sure is the story of the Zodiac killer having been proven to drive a VW Beetle is nonsense perpetuated by a Reddit user called u/241waffledeal.
Dec. 20, 2011) On this 43rd anniversary of the Zodiac’s attack on Lake Herman Road near Vallejo, Calif., I’ve added a comprehensive collection of vintage newspaper articles detailing the double murder. Click here to read and discuss.
Sept. 1, 2011) As we enter the anniversary month of the Zodiac’s 1969 attack at Lake Berryessa, I have received news of an exciting development:
————————————————– “Mr. Voigt,
My partner, Detective Shulman, said he would let you know once we got to the Cecelia Shepard case. We have reviewed the case completely and sent all of the evidence we have to the California DNA laboratory in Richmond. We do not expect to have any results back for some time. Routinely, the turnaround time for cases like this is measured in months if not years.
— REDACTED INFO —
Thank you for the access to your site. It has proven valuable for vetting out some of the theories we have received. We hope you will continue to allow us to view your research.
Thank you again for your assistance!
Detective Patrick McMahon
Napa County Sheriff’s Department
Cold Case Unit” ————————————————–
Discussion of this development can be found at the Zodiackiller.com message board.
July 5, 2011) It’s my pleasure to yet again share an exclusive and never-before-seen Zodiac case document. This time, it’s a 1971 Zodiac PERT chart, as prepared by the California Department of Justice. Until now, the chart was only available to police. One of the more interesting tidbits contained in the chart is the revelation that Zodiac rode in the front seat of victim Paul Stine’s cab, as discussed here. (For decades it was believed he sat in the back.) For discussion of the PERT chart, click here.
— CLICK IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW EXCLUSIVE ZODIAC PERT CHART — (PDF | 1.1 MB) For best results, zoom to 150% or more.
Feb. 19, 2011) Tonight’s episode of America’s Most Wanted featured a photo of Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin that was first seen here at Zodiackiller.com last November. Pictured with Ferrin is a man of unknown identity. Click the image below for a huge version, and if you recognize the man, please contact me:
> A full-length documentary about the unsolved 1963 murders of possible Zodiac victims Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards is now available to watch online for free. The film, which is the work of John B. Averitt Ph.D., a former classmate of the victims, can be found at this link.
Jan. 31, 2011) At the end of January 1974, almost exactly 37 years ago, the Zodiac mailed a letter in which he seemed to claim 37 victims. It was the first Zodiac letter in nearly three years and its arrival sparked a renewed attempt by San Francisco police to catch him. To mark the occasion, I have updated the Zodiac Magazine Rack with a story about the investigation from the April 1974 issue of San Francisco Magazine.
> Click the image below for an amazing late-1960s aerial view of the neighborhood in San Francisco where the Zodiac killed cab driver Paul Stine:
Dec. 1, 2010) Retired Zodiac detective Ken Narlow has passed away after a strong battle against cancer. Narlow, who was a great friend to this website, worked for the Napa County Sheriff’s Dept. for several decades and was the original detective assigned to investigate the Zodiac’s attack at Lake Berryessa. He died in Napa on the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 29, 2010.
A recent e-mail from Ken: “This cancer is going to get me it’s just a matter of time. I rarely get out of the house anymore and when I do Marie takes me where I want to go. I still get a few leads, that I pass on to the boys in blue.”
Ken Narlow is pictured below with his son, circa 1960:
Oct. 6, 2010) In the Sept. 19, 2010 update, Zodiackiller.com showed how the Zodiac mimmicked Count Marco’s odd writing style. Just a month later, it appears we have solved yet another mystery. Click the image below for the latest:
Oct. 1, 2010) The 2008 Zodiackiller.com task-force meeting, which was held on Dec. 20, 2008 at the Roxie theater in San Francisco, is now available to watch online for free. Hosted by author David Van Nuys, the 100-minute video features several guest speakers, including Nancy Slover (she spoke to the Zodiac back in 1969).
Sept. 19, 2010) Ever since Zodiac wrote a letter referencing San Francisco newspaper columnist Count Marco back in July 1974, speculation has remained over why Zodiac adopted such an unusual handwriting style for that particular letter. See below for my recent discovery (Click for a larger version):
I believe Zodiac was very familiar with the nuances of Marco’s handwriting. If so, that potentially narrows the suspect pool immensely.
July 29, 2010) It has been nearly 41 years since the Zodiac murdered cab driver Paul Stine in San Francisco. Since then, most of us only know Stine through one published picture. Exclusive to Zodiackiller.com, I am thrilled to bring you a look at Paul Stine the public has never seen: MEET PAUL STINE.
Also see: Click the image below for the 13-page scrapbook that was kept by Paul’s mother, Audra: (PDF | 99.2 MB)
Jan. 1, 2010) As we enter 2010, I believe the time is perfect to revisit places the Zodiac haunted more than four decades ago. Click here for a Zodiac flashback.
Dec. 20, 2009) 40 years ago today, the Zodiac killer mailed a letter to famed attorney Melvin Belli. For the bizarre events that preceded the mailing, including exclusive photos, click here.
Nov. 9, 2009) Today I received this e-mail from the FBI’s cryptography expert, Dan Olson, concerning the Zodiac’s unsolved 340 cipher:
————————————————– “We havent seen any recent solutions or ideas that have generated a second look as of yet. If you can point us in the right direction we’ll be all over it. FYI, if we ever do see a good partial or full solution we will forward it with our endorsement to the cold case squad at SFPD, but we will give credit to where credit is due.
I dont have a graphic to share but here are more details you can post instead: Statistics for repeated characters for each line of text show a distinct higher randomness with the lines we’ve discussed (1-3 and 11-13). The higher randomness may be due in part or whole to greater care by the writer to not repeat characters on these lines. This indicates homophonic substitution. The opposite is true for lines 4, 10, 14, 17 and 18, these lines have many repeats. Additionally, there is far greater randomness for rows versus columns. This rules out any form of columnar or diagnal transpositions (a big step forward).
These same statistical tests were done on Z408. The results suggest that 340 is similar to 408 except for the bogus rows: overall randomness of 408 is .48, 340 is .50. Row randomness of 408 is .22, 340 is .19. Column randomness of 408 is .48, 340 is .68. By way of comparison, row and column randomness should be near identical if the 340 does not contain any message, or if there is a message that is evenly scrambled.
Thanks again for your help Tom.” ————————————————–
If you have a solution to the 340 cipher you’d like to share, I can pass it along to the FBI. Contact me. Discussion can be found here.
Sept. 22, 2009) Here’s the YouTube trailer for a TV project involving Zodiackiller.com:
Aug. 10, 2009) Before you check out the free, exclusive, two-hour Zodiac video below, keep in mind that even though I do my best, often I don’t have time to formally update Zodiackiller.com each time I receive interesting and valuable Zodiac information. Sometimes it can take me weeks or months to get the news to you, or it can just slip through the cracks and never get published. There is now a way for you to get all the good stuff delivered to your e-mail box immediately. Click here to find out how.
> Exactly five years ago, I filmed my own video of the various Zodiac crime scenes and other relevant locations. Click below for the free, exclusive, two-hour ULTIMATE Zodiac video on YouTube:
July 15, 2009) The recent Zodiackiller.com task-force meeting was a blast, and extremely informative to boot. Thanks to all who participated.
> I’ve written a feature article about the events of the last year or so in the Zodiac world. Click here for “The 13th Sign”.
May 14, 2009) About two weeks ago a woman came forward claiming to be the Zodiac killer’s daughter. She was the same woman who recently claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of President John F. Kennedy. Obviously her story is nonsense, as none of the witnesses to the Zodiac’s crimes ever described him as traveling in a motorcade.
In any event, discussion of these recent events — along with thousands of other Zodiac-related topics — can be found at the Zodiackiller.com message board.
> The next Zodiackiller.com task-force meeting is less than two months away. See the Jan. 5, 2009 update below for details.
Jan. 29, 2009) It was exactly 35 years ago that the Zodiac mailed one of his last letters. Today I updated the Zodiac Letters page to include two new additions. (Thanks to Howard Davis.)
Jan. 5, 2009) The Zodiackiller.com task-force meeting at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco might be history, but please enjoy the video at the bottom of this update of the subsequent Zodiac bus tour that 50 of us enjoyed.
> The next Zodiackiller.com task-force meeting will be held this July 5th (Sunday) at Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, Calif. That date is the 40th anniversary of the Zodiac’s attack of Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau. Fittingly, the section of the park reserved for the event is called “The Pines” and was the site of the very first task-force meeting back in 2002, as pictured at left. “The Pines” features 22 picnic tables, two BBQs, plus nearby restrooms, water, and shade. (We will most probably tent a portion in case of heat/rain.) Best of all, it’s free. Beer and wine are permitted. Kids are welcome. After the recent hectic task-force meeting, we are looking forward to a mellow affair. Mingling! Discussion! Make your plans to be there. I can’t wait! (Starting a new diet tomorrow.) I’d like to thank the Dahlia for her help.
> I’ve put together a page of vintage Zodiac television programs that you can either view online, or save to your computer. Here’s a link. Enjoy!
Oct. 18, 2008) Welcome, viewers of TruTV’s Haunting Evidence: Zodiac Killer! If you watched the show and are curious about the man behined “the voice,” or if you just want to read about the most compelling Zodiac suspect to ever come along, click here.
> For in-depth discussion of all things Zodiac, including exclusive information not available anywhere else, don’t miss the Zodiackiller.com message board.
Sept. 27, 2008) Today is the 39th anniversary of the Zodiac’s attack at Lake Berryessa in Napa County, Cal. I’ve updated the page of his victims at the lake, Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell, with eight new images.
Sept. 6, 2008) After more than 30 years of scrutiny, Rick Marshall has finally been dismissed as a Zodiac suspect…and Zodiackiller.com played a huge part.
Here’s how it went down:
It all started a couple of months ago when I received a phone tip (415 267-4818) from a woman who worked at a care facility in the Sacramento (Cal.) area. She told me that Marshall was a patient where she worked, and that he had spoken about the Zodiac case. She found him to be extremely suspicious and was not sure what to do. Thinking Marshall might finally be ready to talk due to his advanced age and deteriorating health, I contacted my sources at the Napa County Sheriff’s Dept., the agency that originally investigated Marshall back in the 1970s. Two detectives made the trek to Sacramento and spent a significant amount of time interviewing Marshall. I have yet to find if DNA testing was involved, but whatever data was gleaned was enough for investigators to finally dismiss Marshall as a viable Zodiac suspect after more than three decades.
I’m hopeful to have an official statement in the next few days. A big thanks to those of you who have supported this website and helped make this possible!
> Is missing nurse Donna Lass a Zodiac victim? Many think so. Today is the 38th anniversary of her disappearance and here is a big update.
Aug. 15, 2008) On Monday I will be departing for the San Francisco Bay Area for seven days of Zodiac research. My focus will be on obtaining information about Zodiac suspect Richard Gaikowski. The results of my search, including relevant pictures, documents, handwriting samples, etc., will be posted as quickly as possible and available exclusively to registered users at the Zodiackiller.com message board.
April 16, 2008) While research continues into Zodiac suspect Richard Gaikowski (see the March 26, 2008 update below), a new photo has recently surfaced of one of the original top suspects, Rick Marshall. Exclusive to Zodiackiller.com, click here to see how Marshall looked in the 1970s.
> Howard “Buzz” Gordon, who dated Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin in the months before her murder, recently passed away from natural causes. At the time Gordon dated Ferrin, he worked for the Solano County Sheriff’s Dept. and was eventually a suspect in her murder. Here’s a link to notes from a 1991 interview with Gordon.
Jan. 25, 2008) To most Zodiac buffs (as well as newcomers to the Zodiac case who have seen the recent David Fincher film Zodiac), Don Cheney is no stranger. Cheney is, afterall, the man who went to the police back in 1971 because he thought his former friend Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac.
In the recently released director’s cut of Zodiac, one of the special features on the two-disc DVD is a documentary about Allen. Cheney was interviewed on camera and made several statements about Allen that made Cheney appear suspicious, even to a retired detective also featured in the documentary. Was Cheney lying all along about Allen? Or, could Cheney have actually helped Allen commit the Zodiac crimes?
Click here for a look at a suspicious letter Cheney sent me several years ago. To order the two-disc director’s cut of Zodiac featuring the Allen documentary, click the image directly below this update.
Dec. 12, 2007) My library of Zodiac-related video has grown quite large over the years, and some is extremely rare. One such rarity is a campy (but very good) production from around 1979 called Zodiac: Sign Of Death. At just under 10 minutes in length, Zodiac: Sign Of Death is packed with excellent footage and a funky 70s soundtrack. My favorite part is the voice of Zodiac; it’s the same actor who was the voice of the computer “HAL” in the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Click the numbered links below to listen to select MP3 clips of Zodiac: Sign Of Death.
Dec. 1, 2007) A newspaper based in the United Kingdom recently published a story claiming mega-celeb Britney Spears is a regular user of this website. Could it be true? I’ll never tell. (I make it a habit not to reveal the identities of site users who prefer to remain anonymous.) Click here to read the story.
Nov. 7, 2007) While I prefer to make all Zodiac-related information free for users to access, sometimes financial issues make it necessary for me to offer certain information for sale only. However, I believe the Zodiac case benefits greatly when people are more informed. That’s more rewarding to me than the occasional Internet sale. Therefore, the Zodiac FBI Files, Historical Newspaper Archive and High-Resolution Zodiac Letters — three items that were previously available for purchase only — are now free to download. Click the links below:
Nov. 4, 2007) In a little more than a year it will be the 40th anniversary of Zodiac’s first-known attack. Since then, much has changed in the locations where Zodiac was active. Click the images below for a high-resolution view of life (circa 1960s) in Vallejo, Lake Berryessa and San Francisco, Cal.
(Images may be saved for free.)
Oct. 11, 2007) Today is the 38th anniversary of Zodiac’s murder of Yellow Cab driver Paul Stine in San Francisco, Cal. While recent details of Stine’s life have recently emerged and are being researched for possible clues (see the Sept. 12, 2007 update below), vintage photos from the files of the San Francisco Police Dept. are available to view. Taken within hours of Stine’s murder, here are: the cab | the crime scene 1 | the crime scene 2
Sept. 26, 2007) It took hours of work, but 30 high-resolution images are finally available to view of top Zodiac suspect Arthur Leigh Allen’s 1966-1968 personnel file. Several years ago I obtained the file from the Calaveras County (Calif.) Unified School District where Allen had worked as an elementary teacher. Within the file are many handwriting samples, including his two-page job application. If Allen was the Zodiac, the file might contain important clues.
Sept. 12, 2007) Recently I learned that Zodiac victim Paul Stine was allegedly hired as a reporter by the San Francisco Chronicle shortly before his murder. If that information is true, Stine — who worked as a reporter for his high school newspaper and was an English major at San Francisco State — was just days away from beginning his new job at the very newspaper Zodiac chose to write a vast majority of his letters.
The potential implications are staggering. However, it’s extremely important that I verify this information as best I can.
If Stine was indeed telling others that he was a reporter for the San Francisco newspaper (even if he was simply exaggerating), it stands to reason that Zodiac may actually have known him and perhaps even targeted him for that specific reason.
If you knew Paul Stine or anyone in his family, circle of friends, classmates, fellow employees, etc, please click here to contact me. You may remain anonymous.
July 21, 2007) In just a few days, David Fincher’s Zodiac will be available to rent and buy on DVD. While not exactly a factual portrayal of the Zodiac case, the film is packed with excellent performances. One of the best was turned in by Robert Downey Jr. in his portrayal of real-life reporter Paul Avery. (Avery was highly instrumental in the evolution of Zodiackiller.com.) In Zodiac, Downey Jr.’s character displays mostly annoyance toward the case. However, the real Paul Avery was very much involved in the Zodiac investigation. Here’s a case report Avery prepared for the police back in 1971.
April 2, 2007) In the last few weeks, an incredible amount of tantalizing information has been collected about the person of interest (“Sam”) this website developed in connection to the recently-discovered Eureka card. Several weeks ago I e-mailed a certain police department and asked if it would be interested in seeing the information compiled about “Sam.” I have yet to receive a response. Quite unfortunate. In my opinion, “Sam” has surpassed Arthur Leigh Allen in terms of interesting Zodiac-related coincidences/circumstances.
It’s now plainly obvious to me that before I again attempt to approach a law-enforcement agency about “Sam,” I will need to have all of the bases covered so that “Sam” can’t simply be ignored. Most likely a trip back to California will be necessary in order to accomplish all of the needed intimate background research and collecting of handwriting samples, as well as for me to approach “Sam” in person (along with a retired homicide detective).
> As expected, March 2007 was the busiest month in the history of Zodiackiller.com, as the March 2 release of David Fincher’s film Zodiac helped boost my hits to a total of almost 30 million. Therefore, I almost feel guilty that Zodiac was such a total bomb at the box office. Of course, had the film spent more time on the Zodiac’s victims, as well as the other aspects of the case that people actually find interesting, I have a feeling things would have turned out much differently for the film.
March 13, 2007) This morning at 9 o’clock (Pacific Time) I’ll be a guest on Eureka (Cal.) Radio Station KSLG-FM to discuss the possible 1990 Zodiac correspondence (see the Feb. 25, 2007 update below). UPDATE: Click here for an MP3 file of the show (approx. 30 min. | 28 MB).
For much more on the Eureka card, including high-resolution scans, visit the all-new Zodiackiller.com message board.
> The 2007 Zodiackiller.com Task-Force Meeting was a huge success, as everyone who attended seemed to have a great time. David Van Nuys did an excellent job of hosting the event. Guest speakers Howard Davis, Nancy Slover and Bill Baker were terriffic. And of course, John Mikulenka’s Hunting The Zodiac documentary definitely lived up to the high expectations.
> Thanks primarily to the heavy marketing campaign for the David Fincher movie Zodiac, so far this month Zodiackiller.com has already received more than 16 million hits! If you’d like to inquire about advertising opportunities, please contact me.
Feb. 25, 2007) In the last week, the San Francisco Chronicle discovered an envelope in its library of Zodiac materials. Inside the envelope was a greeting card. Apparently its importance had never been recognized, or it was thought to be a hoax.
A few days ago I was shown images of the envelope and card to help determine authenticity. I believe it is authentic. (I promised I wouldn’t publish any images until they appear in the Chronicle.)
The Chronicle is busy preparing a huge story about this amazing and important development.
The date of the postmark left me in a state of shock.
> There’s an all-new Zodiackiller.com message board. Click here to check it out.
> I’m departing for San Francisco this evening and won’t be back for more than a week. During that time, I’ll be extremely busy preparing for the upcoming Zodiackiller.com Task-Force Meeting (see the Feb. 14, 2007 update below for details) and I may not have the opportunity to update this site with new information. Therefore I suggest keeping an eye on the new message board, as the board moderators will post when I’m not able to. (I’ll still be checking my e-mail several times a day.)
Feb. 14, 2007) A huge update this time, so make sure you scroll down for everything.
First and foremost, I’m deeply saddened to report the passing of retired San Francisco Police Dept. Inspector Michael Maloney, who died of a sudden heart problem this past weekend. Maloney was a great guy and a big friend of this website. Just last week he e-mailed me and was very excited about attending the upcoming 2007 Zodiackiller.com Task-Force Meeting (see below).
In the few years preceding his 2004 retirement, Maloney had a big involvement in the Zodiac investigation (along with his partner, Inspector Kelly Carroll). Together they gave renewed attention to the Zodiac case and were involved in the important accomplishment of securing the Zodiac’s DNA profile, which may one day prove the key to solving the case. In late 2005, Maloney contributed this special report to Zodiackiller.com.
Meehall, I appreciate your contributions and will miss you. The next pint is on me. (Click above image to enlarge)
> The 2007 Zodiackiller.com Task-Force Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, March 3 at the 4 Star theater in San Francisco. The meeting is open to the public and will run from noon until 3 p.m., featuring the debut of John Mikulenka’s documentary film, Hunting The Zodiac. Special guests at the meeting will include Nancy Slover (the police switchboard operator who spoke to the Zodiac back in 1969), as well as David Van Nuys, the emeritus professor of psychology at Sonoma State University and co-author of This is the Zodiac Speaking.
> I’m happy to announce that my predictions of another delay were wrong. David Fincher’s Zodiac will definitely be in theaters on Friday, March 2. And early reviews have been excellent. I’ll be there for opening night.
> A new feature has been added to Zodiackiller.com! It’s called SHOUTcast and it’s my audio blog of all things Zodiac. So far I’ve only done one, but more are on the way. Hope you enjoy it.
> I haven’t yet seen any ads for it, but apparently, FOX’s America’s Most Wanted will be devoting an hour to the Zodiac case on Saturday, Feb. 24, beginning at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).
at Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, Calif. That date is the 40th anniversary of the Zodiac’s attack of Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau. Fittingly, the section of the park reserved for the event is called “The Pines” and was the site of the very first task-force meeting back in 2002, as pictured at left. “The Pines” features 22 picnic tables, two BBQs, plus nearby restrooms, water, and shade. (We will most probably tent a portion in case of heat/rain.) Best of all, it’s free. Beer and wine are permitted. Kids are welcome. After the recent hectic task-force meeting, we are looking forward to a mellow affair. Mingling! Discussion! Make your plans to be there. I can’t wait! (Starting a new diet tomorrow.) I’d like to thank the Dahlia for her help.
Cheney is, afterall, the man who went to the police back in 1971 because he thought his former friend Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac.
