When my poi shocked me by appearing suddenly in this costume (as I’ve posted about elsewhere), I remember the hood as being made from a paper grocery bag and spray painted black. It was much like Sandy Betts describes being found in her car!

He had aviator-type sunglasses and brown curly hair was seen from the side of the right eyehole (as Bryan Hartnell IIRC described). I don’t remember if the eyeholes were round or rectangular. There was no hole for the mouth. It had a horrible smell. He told me he’d painted it black with shoe polish or ink (don’t remember which) and that is how I remember the smell. He’d had the whole thing rolled up and carried it in a shoeshine kit he’d kept in his garage.

A box on your head and a hood over it is an absolutely ridiculously inconvenient piece of attire for a gun toting criminal to wear. Your vision is reduced to near peripheral and central. Then we add sunglasses to it and that’s even worse yet again. No one was expected to live through this encounter. So obviously what he has going on has nothing to do with protecting his identity. It is obviously part of a fetish.

So we dig into the history of serial killers that have done this sort of thing. Worn something as a fetish and was hidden from the view of people.

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, wore his sweater as an undergarment with his legs through the sleeves exposing his genitals through the neck opening for easy access.

Joseph James DeAngelo likely wore his police belt during rapes. One target even said she thought it was a police belt he had on. A kid also saw the belt which appears on a composite of him.

David Russell Williams wore his female victims underwear and lingerie.

Dennis Rader did the same as Williams.

IMO, the Zodiac has an officer’s cap under the hood with glasses clipped to the short peaks these have. viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5199

Clearly is into dressing up like they are. So I go with this being a Fetish.

My thought is that the offender wanted his intended victims that day to "recognize" his zodiac cross-hairs stitched onto his hood. The offender wanted them to realize that he was the zodiac criminal. That would have given him tremendous gratification.
Recall that in a letter communication the offender wanted San Fran residents to wear his "cross-hairs" symbol as pin-on buttons. And the offender later wrote back that he was upset that people had not been wearing such buttons. The offender really wanted to imprint his infamous persona and have that fame fed back to him.

My thought is that the offender wanted his intended victims that day to "recognize" his zodiac cross-hairs stitched onto his hood. The offender wanted them to realize that he was the zodiac criminal. That would have given him tremendous gratification.
Recall that in a letter communication the offender wanted San Fran residents to wear his "cross-hairs" symbol as pin-on buttons. And the offender later wrote back that he was upset that people had not been wearing such buttons. The offender really wanted to imprint his infamous persona and have that fame fed back to him.

If this is true, then why did he lie about his actual identity? (escaped prisoner from Montana needing a car)

A box on your head and a hood over it is an absolutely ridiculously inconvenient piece of attire for a gun toting criminal to wear. Your vision is reduced to near peripheral and central. Then we add sunglasses to it and that’s even worse yet again. No one was expected to live through this encounter. So obviously what he has going on has nothing to do with protecting his identity. It is obviously part of a fetish.

So we dig into the history of serial killers that have done this sort of thing. Worn something as a fetish and was hidden from the view of people.

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, wore his sweater as an undergarment with his legs through the sleeves exposing his genitals through the neck opening for easy access.

Joseph James DeAngelo likely wore his police belt during rapes. One target even said she thought it was a police belt he had on. A kid also saw the belt which appears on a composite of him.

David Russell Williams wore his female victims underwear and lingerie.

Dennis Rader did the same as Williams.

IMO, the Zodiac has an officer’s cap under the hood with glasses clipped to the short peaks these have. viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5199

Clearly is into dressing up like they are. So I go with this being a Fetish.

I’m going to regret engaging you, but what the hell?

All of your examples are serial killers who were sexually motivated. There is absolutely no evidence that the Zodiac cries had any underlying sexual component to them.

That’s right. But why do we have to fit him into some tiny box. We talk about personality traits like we’re aliens discussing something that we can only understand from afar. I mean, does no one here have any fetishes? Can no one here put themselves in the Zodiac’s shoes, murder aside and imagine why he might have gotten a kick out of wearing a costume? I’ll tell you flat out, if I was serial killer, perish the thought, but if I was, you can be damn sure I’d be doing it in a pair of ostrich skin boots and big feather boa. Of course I have empathy and a conscience. But the Zodiac didn’t care and he did this for fun. So how hard is it to ask yourself, "what would I wear if I was going to do something fun?". I know it’s a bit gross, but really would his motives be any different than ours, aside from the whole murdering people bit? I think he wore a custom for kicks, to feel like a total badass, and also because it offered a little more anonymity. What’s wrong with that? Am I the only one who likes dressing up?

As for the police hat theory, I nearly spat my coffee across the room when I first read that. Sounds totally nuts. Then I looked at the pictures, then I considered that all of them show virtually the same flat top and I wondered if Hartnell had any input and then I wondered if it was as crazy as I thought it was.

All of your examples are serial killers who were sexually motivated. There is absolutely no evidence that the Zodiac cries had any underlying sexual component to them.

Sure, if you exclude the focus on couples in intimate situations, more aggressive stabbing of Shepard (possibly suggesting piquerism, same with Bates if she was a victim), comparison of murder to sex ("better than getting your rocks off"). I don’t see the basis for making such a definite conclusion.

One thing of interest is Richard Ramirez, he stated that it was the fear that he saw in his victims face which provided him with gratification, not the killing itself. The larger the fear the better the thrill.

Could this possibly be the reason for the custom ? To maximise the terror thus maximising the gratification?

All of your examples are serial killers who were sexually motivated. There is absolutely no evidence that the Zodiac cries had any underlying sexual component to them.

Sure, if you exclude the focus on couples in intimate situations,

Or it could be that couples parked in isolated areas make easy victims.

more aggressive stabbing of Shepard (possibly suggesting piquerism, same with Bates if she was a victim)

Shepard was rolling around and screaming, thus the "more aggressive stabbing".

, comparison of murder to sex ("better than getting your rocks off"). I don’t see the basis for making such a definite conclusion.

That he enjoyed killing doesn’t make it a sexual perversion for him, however we don’t know his mindset so it is possible he derived some sort of sexual pleasure from killing, but there is nothing showing that. An off-handed remark about how much he enjoyed killing is nothing to base any conclusion on either.

Fact is there was no sexual component to Zodiac’s murders. Not the four accepted Zodiac murders. There are others that if they were the work of Zodiac could indicate a sexual component, but even then saying sexual pleasure was a motivation would be a stretch.

Could this possibly be the reason for the custom ? To maximise the terror thus maximising the gratification?

I assume you meant costume?

Yeah, he might have meant for it to instil intense fear but if so it was a miserable failure, at least with Hartnell. It must have screwed with Zodiac’s mind the way Hartnell reacted, offering to write him a check, give him his phone number. I have to give Hartnell some credit for his courage, I admit if I saw that guy coming at me he would have had to shoot me in the back because I would have shit myself and ran screaming.

I’ve always wondered about something though. Did he ever use the costume on other occasions? We generally think that was the only time Zodiac wore his hood, but really all we know for certain is, it was the only time he wore it and someone lived to tell about it.

Another POSSIBLE explanation for the limp/impaired walking could be that he had a weapon holstered to his leg such as a gun or a knife!

Also that he was wearing the wrong size shoes or had altered them in such a way as part of his disguise that they were uncomfortable and affected his gait.

Nobody described a limp or impaired walking until elderly Fouke said "semi limp."

Why do the limp advocates — who are more and more like a cult — always leave out the "semi" part of Fouke’s impaired description? And that he added details as his brain slowly declined due to advanced age?

See if you recognize the difference:
If someone says you’re good looking
If someone says you’re "semi" good looking

Wrong size shoes? Why? In case someone measured his feet before he could escape??? Certainly you understand the rich neighborhood of Presidio Heights was paved?

Well considering it was Pacific Heights, he may have been wearing some new Italian loafers that were too big or too small with slippery soles; he had to walk carefully so not to slip.

Or as my boyfriend (poi) was wearing when he scared me with what was purported to be a Halloween costume (much like Sandi Betts described being left in her car). He had boots that were similar to what has been discussed as wing walkers/engineering boots. In them, he had lifts that he’d ordered to make himself appear taller or he’d stuffed newspaper in them for the same purpose. He kind of staggered out from his bedroom in the getup.

Normally, my friend walked normally.

I’m sure most people have had the experience of having difficulty walking for various reasons at some point in their life due to shoes or a temporary condition.

Well considering it was Pacific Heights

That is an entirely different neighborhood in San Francisco.

The Zodiac events happened in Presidio Heights.

As for the police hat theory, I nearly spat my coffee across the room when I first read that. Sounds totally nuts. Then I looked at the pictures, then I considered that all of them show virtually the same flat top and I wondered if Hartnell had any input and then I wondered if it was as crazy as I thought it was.

The way I see it the Zodiac has no niche in forensic psychology. We label him a thrill killer but that isn’t mutually exclusive to other labels. He isn’t your typical thrill killer either because his emotional signature is in taunting LE and society with puzzles to his identity. The killings a means to an end, rushed, so he can call it in and write up his letters. His M.O. changing because it seems its not a big deal to him. He can’t be linked by M.O.

The Little List letter contains extreme sadism. There was voyeurism activity at LB. I don’t think it was a coincidence that there was an alleged romantic interaction between the couple before he struck either. He hog tied them. That’s fantasy more than necessary. Overkill is also a term I would use, even though he still failed to kill. Multiple stab wounds. Multiple gun shots at other scenes. Overindulging including his letter writing. Tearing pieces of Stine’s shirt off.

The Zodiac probably lived his entire childhood devoted to the hero concept and saw himself becoming a hero by joining LE. Everything he did was geared towards this, but it went badly wrong somewhere, likely after joining LE in some capacity.

The reality of LE vs. fantasy probably disappointed him, and he was let go somehow, rebuked, fired, demoted, belittled, given a dressing down by authority, and it rocked his world.

Then he turned 180 degrees and flipped all of that on its head. He went right back to the start again, of childhood devotion to the hero and turned this into the devotion of the villain because he believed he understood villains just as much.

At Lake Berryessa and the costume, we see the fantasy’s pinnacle, and from there he had nowhere else to go. He wanted to abduct, hog-tie and knife a couple while wearing a comic book villain’s costume and then taunt LE and society after like comic book villains do. Back in the 1960s he didn’t have access to clinical papers on his psychopathology because that research was quite minimal. He explained his compulsions by turning to Hollywood and comics. Modern serial killers don’t do this because they are forensically aware of what they are by reading the modern literature.

Hartnell survived, and probably why the Zodiac avoided writing about his costume because the fantasy was extraordinarily private and probably embarrassing.

He identifies with villains. Count Zaroff. Executioner from the Mikado. The Zodiac creation isn’t too dissimilar from the Riddler.

Power over so many people but not as a hero, but as a villain. It fed the same emotional need, and he was getting revenge with his dangerous LARP.

IMO, I really like one of my POIs because he had a severe head injury. 12" scar from a tree branch basically scalping him because it fell on him. Now that’s the story. Maybe something else happened. If he suffered brain trauma then here we have the potential for an organic explanation behind the Zodiac. A clinical explanation. I like this because the Zodiac doesn’t make any sense, isn’t a regular criminal and isn’t even a regular serial killer. In fact I am surprised why so many people seek regular explanations for the Zodiac at all. This is really at the center of what I am trying to say here.

The Zodiac is clearly an anomaly. His thinking is warped because his brain is probably altered. That’s why even sexuality for the Zodiac would likely be warped. Mostly nothing can be analyzed with the Zodiac in terms of anything rational. It’s all irrational infantile behavior turned violent. So a cop hat under the hood squaring it off like that is the sort of thing I would go for to explain that part of the costume. Some Navy hats also have the same shape. Might even be vintage gear.

Dennis Rader claimed he was dropped on his head as a kid. You can actually see the dent in the larger picture below.