User Coffee Time provided us with 2 scans of newspaper articles about the murder of James Micheal Gardner. Thank you Coffee Time!

Here is the second one…

Why am I posting about this crime?

– Caliber .22 like most of the Z shootings
– James was shoot 5 times in the right side of his back. The same m.o. as with Betty Lou Jensen (a moving target away from the shooter).

And it reminds me of the Bates case as well. There was a lot of online discussions about the watch found at her body and the time it stopped etc.

There is also something really strange with the smashed watch found near James Gardner’s body…
James left his fiance’s home at 2:00 a.m., he was found by a passing motorist at 2:30 a.m. but the smashed watch found at the scene was stopped at 1:55 a.m.??? What happened to it?

Why am I posting about this crime?

– Caliber .22 like most of the Z shootings
– James was shoot 5 times in the right side of his back. The same m.o. as with Betty Lou Jensen (a moving target away from the shooter).

And it reminds me of the Bates case as well. There was a lot of online discussions about the watch found at her body and the time it stopped etc.

There is also something really strange with the smashed watch found near James Gardner’s body…
James left his fiance’s home at 2:00 a.m., he was found by a passing motorist at 2:30 a.m. but the smashed watch found at the scene was stopped at 1:55 a.m.??? What happened to it?

The watch must’ve been running late half an hour or was smashed at about the time he had left..time from his mother’s home to the place he was found must have taken him approximately 20-25 minutes. So if she’s telling the truth, the watch – if running correctly – could not have been smashed during the accident. But if his watch was simply running late, there’s no problem with it. If his body had been found quickly after the ‘accident’, the watch was probably simply running late. If the watch was ok, however, then she was lying about the time he had left.

I guess the motorcycle had been seen by the person who found James Michael quite quickly, so we can assume that his watch had been smashed during the crash, while running late.

Alternative:
Or he had a fight shortly after he had left her home, leading to a killing about half an hour later. Would be interesting to know if he was on his way home? Because imo he was not on his direct way from his mothers place towards home..he could have chosen to drive via Edinger Av or Bolsa Av, which would have been much shorter. Instead he had decided to continue on the freeway towards Ward Street..

QT

Quicktrader, Could well be that the watch was running late 25 min. Maybe I read too much zynchronity in this case.

I agree, it does sound very similar to LHR. I wish we knew more about what they recovered. Graysmith went into detail about the ammo from LHR and SB, but I’m not sure if that "six lands and grooves" business was ever corroborated.

I was still wondering about the watch. Then i noticed something interesting:
5 minutes before 1 o clock? If you look at the position of the arms you can clearly see that a Radian (57.296 degrees) has been made. Coincidence or a clue?

Interesting, but if it was Z, he would have been bouncing back and forth a lot between north & south CA in 1968

Morf13 wrote:

Interesting, but if it was Z, he would have been bouncing back and forth a lot between north & south CA in 1968

Don’t think so, Morf. There are more possible pre Z murders in that area of California:
– June 4, 1963 Robert Domingos and fiancée Linda Edwards near Lompoc
– October 30, 1966, Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside

In the timeline he wouldn’t have to been bouncing back and forth between north & south CA to have killed James Micheal Gardner.
He could have moved to the Bay Area after August 1968 and started his Zodiac activity on December 20, 1968 with the murders at Lake Herman Road.

Interesting find Eduard Versluijs! Thanks for sharing.

Zam*

Morf13 wrote:

Interesting, but if it was Z, he would have been bouncing back and forth a lot between north & south CA in 1968

Don’t think so, Morf. There are more possible pre Z murders in that area of California:
– June 4, 1963 Robert Domingos and fiancée Linda Edwards near Lompoc
– October 30, 1966, Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside

In the timeline he wouldn’t have to been bouncing back and forth between north & south CA to have killed James Micheal Gardner.
He could have moved to the Bay Area after August 1968 and started his Zodiac activity on December 20, 1968 with the murders at Lake Herman Road.

Which brings up an interesting question: If Z had killed someone in the time between CJB and LHR…who was the victim? Z mentioned one weapon to be bought out of state, the others by mail order. So obviously he DID spend some time away from California,..

QT

I’m back with you all….

Hi Guys,

I found new articles about this cold case. Interesting new info in this article is the talk of a stolen car found near the scene.

How easy is it to disrupt the position of the watch’s hands? This guy was run down on the highway. So if the watched was broken as a result of him being hit at a decent speed, that could mean the glass was smashed in and the position of the hands disrupted. I mean anything could happen in a wreck like that.