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Napa Phone booth

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(@rjsisco)
Posts: 10
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

They both look like newspaper clippings. The phone has a label "Yountville, Napa" and appears to have fingerprint powder on it.
The photo properties show they were edited in Picasa 3.0 on July 4, 2010, so they were probably cropped from a magazine or newspaper. Considering the Edit Date, it may have been a 40th anniversary story. I bought them and some other documents for a few bucks & saved them on a CD

I’ve never seen them before, anyone know the source of these?
(If not, consider this a share post. When I die my kids will probably throw my zodiac files in the garbage)

 
Posted : July 2, 2019 1:17 am
Quicktrader
(@quicktrader)
Posts: 2598
Famed Member
 

Great input, thanks

QT

*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*

 
Posted : July 2, 2019 8:21 pm
CuriousCat
(@curiouscat)
Posts: 1328
Noble Member
 

‘ve never seen them before, anyone know the source of these?

I’m guessing those are news photos since the police report says the police took color photos.

 
Posted : July 2, 2019 9:31 pm
Quicktrader
(@quicktrader)
Posts: 2598
Famed Member
 

Won’t be color anymore if printed in the newspaper.

QT

*ZODIACHRONOLOGY*

 
Posted : July 2, 2019 10:48 pm
buyerninety
(@buyerninety)
Posts: 166
Estimable Member
 

There has been some discussion about the location of the telephone booth.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiack … 6bc#p69659
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiack … tml#p71021

https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-ne … ain-street

Google Maps for 2007 shows a wooden annex attached to the rear (north-west)
of the Sam Kee Laundry Building (aka ‘Vintner’s Collective’ building in present day)
at 1245 Main St, Napa. (2009 pic is clearer);
https://goo.gl/maps/AjVPPQxJ3ajAYJvV6
and THAT wooden annex is still there as at 2019.

However, circa 1979, that wooden annex did not exist;
(click the side arrows to see the 1979 picture);
https://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyl … 002e0.html

At risk of confusing you, we can see that circa 1978, there was a different
wooden annex present at the rear of the Sam Kee Laundry;
(click on the picture),
https://napahistory.pastperfectonline.c … 4740322606

For info;
https://explorenapa.org/items/show/16
"The laundry closed in 1977 due to rising rent and declining business."

Interestingly, a picture which accompanied the 1974 application for the
building to be added to the National Register of Historic Places, shows
a structure sitting next to the south-west wall of the Sam Kee Laundry,;
https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/74000540
and this structure is better seen here;
https://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyl … 002e0.html
Note the similarities between this structures’ south-east dark coloured fascia on
its eave and the dark coloured fascia on the eave above the telephone booth in
the picture of the telephone booth seen in the first URL I cited in this post. Also,
there may be a similarity to be seen in the design of the windows.

Reasonable Conclusion; there was a structure, probably a very small building
sitting next to the south-west wall of the Sam Kee Laundry. That structure’s
south-west wall is probably what the telephone booth is seen sitting against,
and that structure was probably a small office/storage shed/car washer’s
rest room belonging to the Car Wash business. (Something akin to the small
structure you might see at the entrance to some car-park business lots.)
That small structure may or may not have been in existence in September
1969 (the time of the Lake Berryessa murder), but the structure’s presence
behind the telephone booth in the picture, gives us a better confirmation of
where the telephone booth itself was located, i.e., not at the rear of the
Laundry, but rather to the south-west of the Sam Kee Laundry and easily visible
to anyone driving along Main St in Napa.
Also, the upper part of the windows in the south-west stone wall of the Laundry,
sit above the small structure, and the small structure might not block the sound
of anyone talking inside the Laundry (especially voluble Chinese), even when
the Laundry windows were closed – hence, a possible source of the ‘voices’
that Officer Slaight heard.
So current discussed positioning of the phone booth is correct, just not
against the Laundry but separate from the Laundry and probably against a
small structure to the south-west of, and next to, the Laundry.
————–
P.S. the wording seen above the telephone unit in the picture is difficult to
make out, but I think what it says is something like;
TO CALL (MORE? / OTHER?) (NUMBERS? / PAYPHONES?) IN
YOUNTVILLE
NAPA
ST. HELENA
(and smaller non-visible writing or the smaller visible writing to the right,
would give instructions in how to call those others.)
Of course, Yountville, Napa and St. Helena are towns strung along
State Route 29, that part of it known as the St. Helena Highway.

 
Posted : July 4, 2019 4:16 pm
(@rjsisco)
Posts: 10
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

Thanks for the input. I was hoping to find the magazine or newspaper they appeared in, and I regret not asking.

 
Posted : July 5, 2019 2:02 am
buyerninety
(@buyerninety)
Posts: 166
Estimable Member
 

No need for regrets rjsisco, and thankyou for spending your coin on a Zodiac matter.
So in the absence of anything else, I’m thinking the picture of the telephone booth
with the car wash in the background is probably the actual telephone booth in Napa
that Zodiac called from in September 1969. That was already the commonly held
belief, although your post resulted in a bit more information coming to light, that the
telephone booth was probably sitting against a small structure south-west (almost south)
of the Laundry, rather than the Laundry itself. (Explains why the wall the phone booth
is seen sitting against is not [Laundry] stone & explains why the phone booth is seen
sitting under an eave near a different window [as the Laundry had no eave on its south-west
wall and it’s windows were of a different style to those seen in the telephone booth picture]).

The other picture of the dangling telephone handset itself, i.e. this picture seen here;
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiack … tml#p65918
….well, as Tracers said here;
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiack … tml#p65924
"I saw this photo in a Time-Life book entitled True Crime: Unsolved Mysteries.The picture
appears on p. 22 of the book and the photo credits at the back of the book attribute this
photo to Robert Graysmith, not any law enforcement agency or news agency, while other
photos in the book ARE attributed to LE or the press."

So the dangling telephone handset picture was sourced originally from Graysmith – which
means there’s a bit of a question mark still over that picture (Graysmith was not always
100% accurate as to the facts, I believe would be a fair comment.)
Cheers

 
Posted : July 5, 2019 6:33 am
shaqmeister
(@shaqmeister)
Posts: 227
Reputable Member
 

Interestingly, a picture which accompanied the 1974 application for the
building to be added to the National Register of Historic Places, shows
a structure sitting next to the south-west wall of the Sam Kee Laundry,;
https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/74000540
and this structure is better seen here;
https://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyl … 002e0.html

Hi, buyerninety.

Unfortunately, owing to being in the EU and subject to GDPR, I can’t access the second of the two links above. However, it looks like I can still see the images through Google search. I’m pretty sure that the one that you are referring to is this one:

Can you confirm whether we are, indeed, looking at the same thing?

Thanks

Also, lots of excellent info, together with a very convincing analysis.

[Edit: confirmed]

“This isn’t right! It’s not even wrong!”—Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958)

 
Posted : July 5, 2019 11:11 am
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