9/27 – stabbing and report from ranger white that hartnell told him perp said he was from a prison in colorado
9/28 – interview in hospital where hartnell says he can’t remember the name of the prison. cop replies it was something "lodge". then suggest "mountain lodge prison" indicating even the officer didn’t know it was deer lodge.
9/29 – police reports start saying it was "deer lodge montana", although ncsd report, page six still mentions ranger white report that it was "colorado"
10/3 – nicolai doj report says "montana deer lodge"
unknown date – hartnell "official" transcript lists "deer lodge in montana" – this was a follow-up to his hospital interview.
so basically, hartnell never said "deer lodge" anything until prompted by the police and then subsequently it shows up in police reports and the official transcript as "deer lodge" even though hartnell initially said colorado and then said he couldn’t remember the name of the place.
my 2 cents = connecting deer lodge to zodiac even if he HAD said that would be far-fetched, but i can’t even find evidence that’s what was said. if i’m missing some document or fact, please point me in the right direction.
if i’m missing some document or fact, please point me in the right direction.
Wish I could – but I can’t and I don’t think you are missing anything. The Deer Lodge thing has puzzled me for a long time – posted about it in another thread too. For my money it’s not obvious at all what Z told Bryan. The latter goes from "Feathers" to "Fern Lock" and then Robertson more or less concludes on Bryan’s behalf that it’s not "lock" but "lodge". And that’s it. Robertson doesn’t get the "Deer" part right, which should be noted – he says "Mountain Lodge…or something" (or words to that effect).
My take on this is that it seems as though "Deer Lodge" comes from the fact that Bryan says "Montana" more than anything – what he actually seems to recall is closer to "Fern Lock" than "Deer Lodge". The latter comes from the fact that Robertson knows there’s such a prison in Montana. And that’s well and good – but if Bryan is mistaken about Montana, then it’s all a bit pointless.
And he said Colorado, not Montana, to White.
Well, I don’t know – I don’t think it actually matters either way, to be honest. Z was lying about everything – of that I have little doubt. I don’t think he had any connection to Deer Lodge, Montana, even if this was the place he mentioned (and not, say, Feather Ridge, Colorado). Which means that I personally wouldn’t build the tiniest part of any theory on the presumption that Deer Lodge has any significance.
This article was published just 5 days prior to the events at Lake Berryessa. It also mentions a stolen car and other items that Zodiac may have adopted in his story to Bryan Hartnell. It may suggest something about where Zodiac was living, or travelling, or vacationing.
I hate to sound like I’m tooting my own horn, but does anybody have any thoughts about this article? It was published in the Helena Montana Independent-Record on September 22, 1969. If this has been analyzed previously, I have not seen that analysis. I’m just interested in what this may mean for establishing Zodiac’s identiy.
My take on this is that it seems as though “Deer Lodge” comes from the fact that Bryan says “Montana” more than anything
I agree. The detective was attempting to tease out info that Hartnell just could not recall. “Deer Lodge” is just an assumption.
That was too much!
