I have pm’d Tom Voight, AK Wilks, Sandy, Tommy T with identifying info. re. my poi. I don’t think I listed all his employers (the last one was LLNL). I don’t want to publicly state what his job was as it would be too easily recognized by anyone who knew him from the lab. It can be found by Googling his name and LLNL which those mentioned have. If they want specific information, they can contact me.

I will say he had a unique and very responsible position at LLNL! This is simply another co-incidence that I come across reading here that applies to him in addition to all the others I have posted extensively about.

Too bad someone doesn’t give a progress report of some kind. We’ve been tuned in for another long time now. Who is in charge of these investigations and where are they located? What is the status of dna/fingerprints?

Another company that Joseph Bates apparently worked for, at some point in time, was Motorola in their Research Electronic Warfare Division.

http://p47pilots.com/P47-Pilots.cfm?c=i … C.%20Bates

This might actually be named, or might have been part of, or might have become, the Military Electronics Division (That’s what’s listed in the 1961 annual report), which became the Government Electronics Division in the mid-1960s.

https://www.motorolasolutions.com/conte … Report.pdf

In the 1961 annual report, it list the following locations for military electronics.

Proprietary product development has assumed an important role at each of the Military centers in Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Riverside, California.

Motorola was headquartered in Chicago. It appears the Military Electronics Division was, as well, at least according to Wikipedia.

Also, from the 1961 Report:

A long-range planning group has been established to study and monitor Air Force and NASA needs for aerospace systems extending into the 1970’s. Prominent among
the space programs in which Motorola is now participating are the "Mercury," "Saturn," "Ranger," "Mariner," "Advent," and "Midas" programs. In the missile area,
Motorola equipment is found on nearly all present and proposed missile systems including "Atlas," "Minuteman," "Pershing," "Polaris," "Bomarc," "Quail," "Sidewinder," and many others

.

In the 1966 report, there is no mention of a Riverside location. Interesting. Did they close it?

The Motorola Military Electronics Division (same thing with name change, maybe?), listed as located in Scottsdale, Ariz., made oscillators on the Surveyor lunar missions.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/197 … 066682.pdf

This means Hughes Aircraft, Motorola, and Bell and Howell all worked on the Surveyor missions. That means:

Hughes Aircraft – Boles Family
Bell and Howell – Valerie Percy
Motorola – Joseph Bates

The Surveyor mission starts in 1960 at NASA JPL. Hughes wins the contract in 1961.

I’m not convinced that, even if the missile theory is true, that Motorola is the right connector to Bates. Nonetheless, interesting.

As always, Zodiac might have worked for any, all, or none of these companies.

Doing a little research on Letterman General Hospital at the Presidio, where Donna Lass worked. One interesting thing is that the hospital was undergoing a massive upgrade in the Sixties. They built a new 10-story building that opened in Feb. 1969. They also built a research center that opened in 1973. They had some high tech stuff there. And as I mentioned, aerospace companies were starting to re-purpose their stuff for medical purposes by about 1970. I’m curious what it means to modernize at that point in time.

http://npshistory.com/publications/goga … spital.pdf

I would also like to know what it means by modernization. People tend to think of DNA being a more "modern" thing, but knowledge of DNA has been around for quite awhile. By "awhile", I mean the double helix form was verified and documented in the late 50s, though it was discovered in the 1860’s. It just wasn’t used it court until the mid 1980s. It’s very possible that the hospital could have been involved in that type of research. I also think it’s very possible the Zodiac may have had an idea of what DNA was and that his DNA may possibly be used against him in the future, and he may have attempted to not leave any behind, or used something that would damage or destroy DNA at crime scenes. I think it’s very possible.

Doing a little research on Letterman General Hospital at the Presidio, where Donna Lass worked. One interesting thing is that the hospital was undergoing a massive upgrade in the Sixties. They built a new 10-story building that opened in Feb. 1969. They also built a research center that opened in 1973. They had some high tech stuff there. And as I mentioned, aerospace companies were starting to re-purpose their stuff for medical purposes by about 1970. I’m curious what it means to modernize at that point in time.

http://npshistory.com/publications/goga … spital.pdf

I would also like to know what it means by modernization. People tend to think of DNA being a more "modern" thing, but knowledge of DNA has been around for quite awhile. By "awhile", I mean the double helix form was verified and documented in the late 50s, though it was discovered in the 1860’s. It just wasn’t used it court until the mid 1980s. It’s very possible that the hospital could have been involved in that type of research. I also think it’s very possible the Zodiac may have had an idea of what DNA was and that his DNA may possibly be used against him in the future, and he may have attempted to not leave any behind, or used something that would damage or destroy DNA at crime scenes. I think it’s very possible.

In 1962 Crick, Watson and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of DNA and the double helix shape of the DNA molecule. It was written about in journals and newspapers, along with speculation from doctors and scientists that further discoveries in DNA could lead to more knowledge about health and diseases, and eventually that DNA could yield a "genetic fingerprint". In police forensics books in the sixties it was written that from saliva police could discern blood type.

The Motorola Military Electronics Division (same thing with name change, maybe?), listed as located in Scottsdale, Ariz., made oscillators on the Surveyor lunar missions.

Do you know if Motorola made any technology for satellites, spy satellites, military aircraft and/or computers?

My father moved and worked for Motorola in Arizona in the 70s when he got out of the Navy. They were for sure manufacturing ICBMs and doing other military applications. Any "chips" that were sub par were sent to Tandy.

The Motorola Military Electronics Division (same thing with name change, maybe?), listed as located in Scottsdale, Ariz., made oscillators on the Surveyor lunar missions.

Do you know if Motorola made any technology for satellites, spy satellites, military aircraft and/or computers?

My father moved and worked for Motorola in Arizona in the 70s when he got out of the Navy. They were for sure manufacturing ICBMs and doing other military applications. Any "chips" that were sub par were sent to Tandy.

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

Another company that Joseph Bates apparently worked for, at some point in time, was Motorola in their Research Electronic Warfare Division.

http://p47pilots.com/P47-Pilots.cfm?c=i … C.%20Bates

This might actually be named, or might have been part of, or might have become, the Military Electronics Division (That’s what’s listed in the 1961 annual report), which became the Government Electronics Division in the mid-1960s.

https://www.motorolasolutions.com/conte … Report.pdf

In the 1961 annual report, it list the following locations for military electronics.

Proprietary product development has assumed an important role at each of the Military centers in Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Riverside, California.

Motorola was headquartered in Chicago. It appears the Military Electronics Division was, as well, at least according to Wikipedia.

Also, from the 1961 Report:

A long-range planning group has been established to study and monitor Air Force and NASA needs for aerospace systems extending into the 1970’s. Prominent among
the space programs in which Motorola is now participating are the "Mercury," "Saturn," "Ranger," "Mariner," "Advent," and "Midas" programs. In the missile area,
Motorola equipment is found on nearly all present and proposed missile systems including "Atlas," "Minuteman," "Pershing," "Polaris," "Bomarc," "Quail," "Sidewinder," and many others

.

In the 1966 report, there is no mention of a Riverside location. Interesting. Did they close it?

The Motorola Military Electronics Division (same thing with name change, maybe?), listed as located in Scottsdale, Ariz., made oscillators on the Surveyor lunar missions.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/197 … 066682.pdf

This means Hughes Aircraft, Motorola, and Bell and Howell all worked on the Surveyor missions. That means:

Hughes Aircraft – Boles Family
Bell and Howell – Valerie Percy
Motorola – Joseph Bates

The Surveyor mission starts in 1960 at NASA JPL. Hughes wins the contract in 1961.

I’m not convinced that, even if the missile theory is true, that Motorola is the right connector to Bates. Nonetheless, interesting.

As always, Zodiac might have worked for any, all, or none of these companies.

Nick no Nora:

This means Hughes Aircraft, Motorola, and Bell and Howell all worked on the Surveyor missions. That means:

The Surveyor mission starts in 1960 at NASA JPL. Hughes wins the contract in 1961.

AK Wilks: Aside from the possible Surveyor space program mission they all have in common, Mr Boles was an aerospace engineer at Hughes Aircraft which was involved in the satellite program, Joyce Walker worked at Space Technologies Laboratory, which was involved in the spy satellite program and Mr Percy was CEO at Bell & Howell, which made camera equipment for military aircraft, including spy aircraft. So that is an intriguing possible link, as we have previously noted and explored.

And Mr Bricca was a chemical engineer at Monsanto Chemical, which you showed was also involved in the space program. Valerie Percy was killed in a home invasion on September 18, 1966. Her stepmother was alerted by Valerie’s screams and hit the burglar alarm, causing the killer to flee and likely saved the lives of Mr Percy and the rest of the family. Mr Bricca, his wife and daughter were bound by female stockings and mens ties, with socks as gags,and killed in a home invasion on September 27, 1966. And Mr Sims, his wife and daughter were bound by female stockings and mens ties, with socks as gags, and killed on October 22 in Florida. The newspaper noted that Mr Sims was a top "nationally recognized" "computer expert". Of course Cheri Bates, daughter of Joseph Bates, employee at the Naval Weapons Laboratory, was killed on October 30, 1966.

June 4, 1963……………………….December 20, 1968
Domingos & Edwards………………Faraday & Jensen
Santa Barbara, California…………Vallejo, California
Gun 6 Right Twists……………….Gun 6 Right Twists
JC Higgins Pistol…………………JC Higgins Pistol
.22 LR…………………………...22 LR
Super X Ammo…………………..Super X Ammo

August 13, 1965…………………..June 25, 1968
Boles Family……………………….Robison Family
Crestline, California………………Michigan
Gun 6 Right Twists……………….Gun 6 Right Twists
JC Higgins Pistol…………………JC Higgins Pistol
.22 LR…………………………..22 LR
Ammo Brand Unknown…………..Super X Ammo

Do you know if Motorola made any technology for satellites, spy satellites, military aircraft and/or computers?

Based on information from Nick, no Nora and alphadeltarho, Motorola was involved in making missiles, both as weapons and for use in the space program, including launching satellites.

The Z researcher Michael Cole, author of the 3-volume Zodiac Revisited series, posits that Zodiac had knowledge of celestial navigation. Basically that means steering by the stars, the way mariners (and eventually airmen) have done since ancient times. That requires knowledge of constellations, and particularly the alignment of the 12 constellations known as the Zodiac. Here’s a web page on his theory:

https://zodiacrevisited.com/the-zodiac- … avigation/

I’m going from memory on this next story. As always, Zodiac could have worked at any, all or none of the following companies.

Having studied aerospace companies, I’ve run into the term several times. Celestial navigation is the way that Hughes Aircraft ended up with a research center in the Santa Barbara area. (Goleta in 1964.)

Howard Hughes, the company’s very famous founder and aviator, did a round-the-world flight in the 30s. He hired a young whiz kid to do the radio stuff for the flight. After the flight, he invented a research unit in one of his companies for the kid.

After the war, that unit split into two factions. The radio whiz kid (now a little older) wanted to concentrate on an Air Force project for celestial navigation during the daytime. The unit was taken over by two genius engineers, R and W, who wanted to work on missiles. The R and the W are the R and the W in TRW. They left a few years later to create what became Space Technologies Laboratory and TRW. Which is where possible Z victim Joyce Walker was employed as a secretary.

The radio guy (too old for Z, IIRC) left Hughes sometime around the late 40s or early 50s and started a new company. The Air Force was still interested in the celestial navigation idea, and that would be the new company’s starting point. His wife liked Santa Barbara, so the company started there, instead of joining the growing tech presence in LA. In the 1950s, company ownership changed hands a few times. Naturally, it ended up being bought by ….. Hughes Aircraft. Somewhere along the way, it became the Santa Barbara Research Center.

So yeah, one of their areas of expertise was celestial navigation, along with sensors, radar, infrared, and work on components for missiles, spacecraft and weapons systems. They developed a daylight star tracker. They took on a good chunk of NASA projects, since they didn’t need to mass produce the inventions. As the space race heated up, celestial navigation had a renaissance. Including a device developed at the SBRC. Which I’ll go into in the next post.

The SBRC develops a reputation for eccentricity. It sounds like something out of that Val Kilmer movie Real Genius. A lot of very smart scientists doing out-there things that someday might be applicable but maybe not, all while dressed like beach bums. It exasperated the suits downtown, who kept trying to make it more corporate and less academic. If I were looking for an anti-authoritarian pseudo-hippie super-scientist involved in Southern California’s military industrial complex of the 1960s, this wouldn’t be a bad place.

Here’s a big website on SBRC:

https://sbrc-sbrs.com/robert-talley-july-3-1995/

Here’s a blurb on a book about SBRC:

https://books.google.com/books/about/Sa … TazQEACAAJ

Gathering superior talent, Dave and five men pulled together to build something deemed impossible, a daylight star tracker for navigation. The journey was not easy, but their innovations produced instruments and results that were ultimately in high demand by United States defense forces and NASA’s space explorations …. For over fifty years, SBRC provided the technologies for star navigation, for soldiers to see at night, for astronomers to peer into deep space, and for tracking world-wide weather.

Hughes Aircraft was the prime contractor on the Surveyor unmanned lunar missions that I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts. The flights took place from 1966 to 1968. Work began in the early 1960s. That project had several subcontractors that could theoretically link to the murder series.

In terms of celestial navigation, the Santa Barbara Research Center made a major contribution on the Surveyor flights. They developed a machine called the Canopus Star Tracker that helped orientation of the ship in space by using the star Canopus. And in a way, it’s a camera.

https://sbrc-sbrs.com/robert-talley-july-3-1995/

This sensor was designed to acquire Canopus automatically by measuring the brightness of the star, which was positive identification since Canopus is the brightest star in the sky. Continuous calibration was achieved by measuring the ratio of the signal from the star to an attenuated signal from the sun. Unfortunately, the absolute brightness of stars was not well known so the brightness had to be measured in the same wavelength interval as was used in the sensor. This required a trip to the Southern Hemisphere in order to see Canopus. Fortunately, NASA had a laboratory in Santiago, Chile … to measure the absolute brightness of Canopus.

From the Surveyor A press kit:

Canopus acquisition is commanded from the ground about six hours after launch. The gas jets fire to roll the space craft at 0.5 degree-per-second. When the sensor sees the predicted brightness of Canopus (the brightest star in the Southern Hemisphere) it orders the roll to stop and locks onto the star. The brightness of the light source is telemetered to Earth to verify that it is locked.

The Star Tracker was built something like a camera, including a lens, but with photo sensors where the film would be. (Note: Cerium compounds are used to polish/treat glass/lenses.)

http://www.spacealliance.ro/articles/vi … 1002250904

It appears there were other organizations with star tracker devices. I read briefly during the research that NASA JPL had something for star tracking replaced by the Canopus ST. On this document, appears to be from 1966, the company supplying the Canopus Star Tracker for a lunar orbiter mission is ITT Federal Labs, located in San Fernando. Did they license or buy the tech from Hughes? Hughes received the patent, applying in 1965.

https://books.google.com/books?id=XzQVA … bs&f=false

My primary POI not only worked at JPL but was a pioneer of Surveyor, Lunar ranging and computer coding for these programs.

At the time of these events he lived on JPL Campus and had connections to Riverside, Southern California, San Francisco, Berkeley and Albany, NY.

Has a direct connection with the Chronicle as well.

The JPL program worked closely with ST Laboratories.

The Star Tracker was built something like a camera, including a lens, but with photo sensors where the film would be. (Note: Cerium compounds are used to polish/treat glass/lenses.)

I dont like the "cerous" spelling. It could mean ANYTHING. Im sure he intended to do that.

Cerium compounds are also in products geared toward polishing the lens of your watch face, he could have seen that chemical listed on the packing while he was cleaning his Zodiac watch. If he even had one.

Cerium is also part of the compound the German Secret Police (after the fall of Nazi Germany…1950ies ish??) anyway……used during the Cold War in invisible ink to write hidden message, which is why I feel the Zodiac letters should be re-analyzed under different light spectrums or have chemical analysis preformed, if found, the "part B" can be added to see if it reveals the hidden message. It may still be used today. They’ve probably never looked. Most people wouldnt know to look for it, and if they did, then they probably work in military or national intelligence, and even they probably wouldnt be expecting a crazed killer taunting the cops to use it.

Cerium Uranium Blue, is also a name for the fuel in Nuclear Reactors. They mostly just get called "fuel rods" or "uranium rods", but they are actually formed using Cerium and the resulting material used for fuel rods are a type of uranium oxide. I guess you could say the fuel rods are "Cerous". ….. its a stretch.

As others have pointed out, its also used in cracking hydrocarbons. Its scary to think this guy could have worked near a CatCracker, because the explosion radius on those things could be rather large. Much bigger than the refinery.

There are 1000s and 1000s of processes involving cerium though.

My primary POI not only worked at JPL but was a pioneer of Surveyor, Lunar ranging and computer coding for these programs.

At the time of these events he lived on JPL Campus and had connections to Riverside, Southern California, San Francisco, Berkeley and Albany, NY.

Has a direct connection with the Chronicle as well.

The JPL program worked closely with ST Laboratories.

I’ve read your thread. And I’ve been re-reading your thread. It’s interesting.

One of the weird thing about cerium is that it’s rare and has only a few uses, but all of those uses seem to correspond to a previously theorized Zodiac career.

One thing that tends to pour a little cold water on Hughes Aircraft …… I’ve theorized the shift to possible nurse victims indicates that Zodiac has switched from missiles/military/space uses to medical uses. Many aerospace companies were moving in that direction. Hughes Aircraft was limited in their ability to do that.

In the 1950s, Hughes set up the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as a non-profit. Nowadays it is a power medical researcher funder. But it was mostly a tax shelter originally. The Medical Institute owned Hughes Aircraft. They chose to avoid going into the medical space to avoid conflicts of interest. Or so I’ve read.

Now …. I don’t know if that means that they couldn’t be involved at all. They still designed/made some of the equipment. So there might be more to it.