may be he used daddy`s wwii war souvenirs the gun from a tour in Europe and a knife from a tour of duty in the South Pacific. Pretty much untraceable.

Like the one in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=80

Those whole set for the taking.

Knife description: Appeared to be a long bread knife, 12” long blade, 3/4” wide, hardwood handle, two brass rivets holding handle in place, cotton surgical tape wrapped approximately 1” around handle of knife. Knife case possibly made of wood.

Something like this perhaps:

If only he’d attacked at night with a candelabra.

Thanks for the information regarding the weapons used. I had read somewhere,(or at least I thought I did), that the knife
was long bladed with "no cross guard", and was in a wooden sheath. I think it was also mentioned the blade was double edged. There are so many discrepancies in the descriptions and accounts it is a very tough job to sort it all out.

Thanks for the information regarding the weapons used. I had read somewhere,(or at least I thought I did), that the knife
was long bladed with "no cross guard", and was in a wooden sheath. I think it was also mentioned the blade was double edged. There are so many discrepancies in the descriptions and accounts it is a very tough job to sort it all out.

Absolutely – I don’t think we can know with 100% certainty what sort of knife it actually was.

If you look at the reports, including the coroner’s, it varies between "bread knife", "home-made" and "bayonet". It was a long bladed, fairly thin affair – I think we can be sure about that. But exactly what it was remains unclear.

You’re right about that. I guess without recovering the knife at the scene we will never know. The zodiac was a bum anyways, so one can think he had a cheap old piece of junk from the scrap heap.

I would think it most likely the knife was homemade from an old file or something of the sort. They are not hard to make and would be untraceable unless caught with it on your person. It would also not fit the puncture wounds/slashes found from any other knife on the market at the time, again making it harder to figure out what it was. I have made some of these types of knives and they are easily sharpened and very easy to make. If it was truly a wooden scabbard though, that would be odd, as that would imply a bit more thought and knowledge on the maker. I would think it more likely it was a leather scabbard that was not properly tanned and was hard, giving the illusion of wood and possibly even sounded like wood when the blade was sheathed.

I would think it most likely the knife was homemade from an old file or something of the sort. They are not hard to make and would be untraceable unless caught with it on your person. It would also not fit the puncture wounds/slashes found from any other knife on the market at the time, again making it harder to figure out what it was. I have made some of these types of knives and they are easily sharpened and very easy to make. If it was truly a wooden scabbard though, that would be odd, as that would imply a bit more thought and knowledge on the maker. I would think it more likely it was a leather scabbard that was not properly tanned and was hard, giving the illusion of wood and possibly even sounded like wood when the blade was sheathed.

That’s a thought I’ve never heard before. The only problem I have with it is that if Zodiac was that into knives, I’d expect him to have used them more often.

However, with this thought in mind, it is worth noting that MIke Kelleher’s POI was a knife-maker.

I would think it most likely the knife was homemade from an old file or something of the sort. They are not hard to make and would be untraceable unless caught with it on your person. It would also not fit the puncture wounds/slashes found from any other knife on the market at the time, again making it harder to figure out what it was. I have made some of these types of knives and they are easily sharpened and very easy to make. If it was truly a wooden scabbard though, that would be odd, as that would imply a bit more thought and knowledge on the maker. I would think it more likely it was a leather scabbard that was not properly tanned and was hard, giving the illusion of wood and possibly even sounded like wood when the blade was sheathed.

That’s a thought I’ve never heard before. The only problem I have with it is that if Zodiac was that into knives, I’d expect him to have used them more often.

However, with this thought in mind, it is worth noting that MIke Kelleher’s POI was a knife-maker.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say Z was a knifemaker, though I can say from experience that making one from an old file is pretty simple and would be the same length as what is said to be the length of Z’s knife. A file is already the proper length and thickness for a knife "blank", and often they even had wooden handles on them….here is an example of an old file made into a knife with a wooden handle:

As you can see it is pretty simple and crude….all it takes is grinding the file down to a sharp edge…

I would be not supprised if this was how the knife looked. I have actually seen types like this many times. There is one have around here somewhere, in my barn….very common….Back in those days people were always making such tools.

How about something like this?

Seems too ornate based on Bryan’s description. According to him the knife had a rudimentary, possibly home made look. The one above looks anything but home made.

Hard to get an idea of the scale. The sheath seems far too big for the knife. If the former is of a regular – or even large – size, the latter seems very small, like a letter opener almost.

It belonged to Ted K., I presume?