I think taping lights to guns probably goes back to early wars too. We know Zodiac didn’t come up with this idea on his own. I think the true question lies on whether it would work or not in the manner Zodiac said it did.

Did he really do this and it worked? Maybe…maybe not. Obviously, for David it didn’t matter. Did it help him shoot Betty Lou? Could be it did at a closer distance, then he just popped the rest off. "Sprayed"…and that to me sounds like something the guys in war using an automatic rifle would say. It’s probably even used in a movie.

It’s a night hunters tool….Raccoon, Possum, Rabbit hunters have used it for years. When Z came out with his letter I wondered if that meant he grew up hunting night critters, or he just came upon this information and thought it was unique. I know the light is used to freeze the critters, making them an easy shot. I’m not sure how it is on accuracy, like hitting a moving target….Anyone here on the board a night time hunter, ever used this method? I was with my cousin and his HS friends around 1964-65, they were about 5 years older than me, and went with them once and they pulled out in the middle of the Nev. desert they had flashlights taped to their barrels, but that night just used the headlights from their cars, rabbits came from everywhere. I was more concerned with rattlesnakes, then the rabbits. To me it wasn’t anything like hunting, the rabbits just sat there. The kids did take what they shot, and they shot quite a few in about 10 mins time.

Well my opinion is, and it is only that, an opinion, is that a pencil light, or any small and narrow beam of light attached to a gun barrel would be absolutely useless unless at close range because the beam would simply not be strong enough for the light to travel from the source to the target for it to appear as a small circle on whatever it is your aiming at.

Laser beam’s would yes, little pencil flashlight, can’t see it. I think Zodiac is, umm, how do you say it, oh yeah, full of it. Blue Rock Springs car park is, at night, a dark and unlit lot. In this case we have a survivor to give a statement that yes, the shooter most certainly did use a light, but it was no small pencil beam. Mike Mageau described the moment as Zodiac approached he and Dee saying:

"He got out of his car and he had this blinding light, like a big beamer that blinded my eyes. That’s why I thought it was a policeman. That’s why I rolled down my window so I could have my ID ready."

Surely Zodiac would use this most practical, tried and tested, of devices again? This device had served him so well at Lake Herman, he felt the need to brag about having used it when telling police how he pulled off the double homicide?