Ok. I’ve convinced myself to write out a possible scenario for the CJB timeline after dwelling on the information I’ve been pouring over from previous researchers and the new info from the RCC archives. I’m not married to this scenario but maybe it’s a good starting spot. For the record, I got interested in Z because of Ross Sullivan and I think he’s a good suspect for CJB. I find the Jo Ann Bailey letter compelling. I’m a little cooler on him being Zodiac. Despite that, while I will talk about him a bit here, I am not discounting other suspects and you might find something for a different one here.
1. CJB goes to the library earlier in the day to work on her paper for the electoral college. It closes for the afternoon. She goes home. She realizes she doesn’t have her bibliography. She calls the bank to see if it’s there. It isn’t. She calls her friend to go with her back to the library but the friend doesn’t want to go. She writes the note and heads to the library, possibly packing a sandwich or some food with her.
2. She’s seen by the 4 guys going into the library and by the 1 Mexican American student. Apparently they testified this happened 5:30 – 6:15. She goes to get some books – possibly the three she checked out – and realizes she needs books that are now located in the Harvard annex. Problem is: that building is closed on the weekend. She asks the male librarian about it or another library worker there who is not on the clock. Ross Sullivan worked there according to Jo Ann Bailey. However, the library had student workers and any number of suspects could have been volunteering or working there that weekend. She’s charming, attractive, and well liked according to all and she says “Please, is there any way I can get in there?! I lost my bibliography and my paper is due next week. I need the info right away to either type or write it out? Can I study in there?” Or “Can I use the typewriter in there?” (That building was previously used for ordering, cataloguing, and as an office for the head librarian. It’s equipped.). The Librarian says “Well, I could get in trouble for this but ok I’ll go let you in” or “Here’s the key”. CJB goes to the Harvard annex. After CJB is killed, the on duty librarian, if he did open it for her but didn’t do the killing, decides it’s a bad idea to confess he saw her and let her in to the place next to the alley where she was killed. He could get into trouble and lose his job for doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. He instead says “Yeah, I think I saw her maybe.” That covers him if someone saw him with her.
3. No one sees CJB because she’s in the Harvard library annex that’s supposed to be closed on the weekends. But the killer knows she is there. Perhaps it’s the librarian or off duty student worker librarian or just someone who sees her walk in there around 6:30. Perhaps it’s Ross Sullivan. He works for the library. His job could be cataloguing or sorting in that building, particularly on weekends to clean up the week’s mess. He is said to have painted the white lettering on the book bindings. Maybe he is doing a lot of that there since a lot of books had just been moved there. He was living at the Y according to Bailey – perhaps on the weekends to get out of the room he knows the building won’t be used that day so he sleeps over there, using a key or leaving a window open. He either lets Bates in or is surprised to see her coming into the area while sitting nearby in the cool of the night. At any rate, he figures out why she is there and that she’ll be there for awhile. They also are claimed to have been acquaintances through mutual friends and have a Ramona connection.
Alternatively, the off duty librarian sticks around there claiming work or to keep her company.
4. He suggests they go out after. She declines. Or he had done so in the past and stews on that as she sits in the Harvard annex. He’s infuriated. She’s working like mad on the bibliography, perhaps eating some food she brought with. He knows which car is hers. He goes and disables the engine knowing she won’t discover him. Or he walks her back to the library after 9 and she rejects him then. He doesn’t kill her in the annex or before because it’s early and people might see or
hear and then there would be the question of why she was in the Harvard Annex in the first place.
5. She is killed 9:30-10:30. Either way, this is well after the library is due for closing. I’m sure those workers wanted out of there on a Sat night so it’s hard to imagine they let anyone stay after. A librarian looks really suspicious here. The worker or killer let’s her in after hours to check out books she still needs. She was rushing like mad to finish the paper and needed extra time. Either she turns in a Harvard annex key now and gets some last second books. He’s got some time and the other students are gone so he won’t be discovered messing with her car.
6. He sitting outside, perhaps smoking, when she comes out. That’s not weird, he works there or did work there. She turns the engine. It doesn’t start. She tries for a bit. He nonchalantly comes over. “Need help?” She gets up and he tries the keys. Doesn’t work. Shoot. “Well, you know, I work at the annex so I park over there” or “I park over the way to leave room for library patrons” or “I’m over this way cause I was going somewhere close that direction. I’m coming back tomorrow morning or tonight, just leave the keys, I’m a good mechanic, but it’s too dark to fix now. You can grab it tomorrow afternoon if i can get it working.” Or he just puts her at knife point and forces her to the alley telling her he’s just gonna rape her and not kill her but he’ll stab her if she screams. She goes.
Ross was claimed to have a VW by friends and Bailey said he had a motor bike. A noise like an old car started after the scream – motorcycle? Also Ross may have parked a motor bike in the alley or porch of the place he worked. He would have known how to get in and out of there and what foot traffic there was on weekends, and whether Little Theater had play practice that night for their upcoming production of Blythe Spirit.
Fair enough, however, other suspects could have known the same things.
…
Thoughts? Refutations?
This is really interesting, but here are my thoughts;
One critique is that you are ascribing diff motives to diff ppl for their Sat night. You say workers "want to get out of there" and yet CJB wants to work or study late on Sat eve. So I’d have to disagree in the sense that it could be the other way around – the workers are used to working on Sat eve and sometimes stay a hair late, while the students want to be out partying.
The missing time is a real problem – so confusing and no apparently easy answers.
The more I read about CJB, the more I think that the ruse to offer help with her car didn’t work. I think maybe the killer had to improvise and pulled her out of the car (aren’t there unknown finger and palm prints on it?)
Also – regardless of ear-witnesses, is there any hard proof the murder didn’t take place a little earlier rendering the missing time a non issue?
Appreciate the feedback! That’s a good point. Thanks.
This is really interesting, but here are my thoughts;
One critique is that you are ascribing diff motives to diff ppl for their Sat night. You say workers "want to get out of there" and yet CJB wants to work or study late on Sat eve. So I’d have to disagree in the sense that it could be the other way around – the workers are used to working on Sat eve and sometimes stay a hair late, while the students want to be out partying.
The missing time is a real problem – so confusing and no apparently easy answers.
The more I read about CJB, the more I think that the ruse to offer help with her car didn’t work. I think maybe the killer had to improvise and pulled her out of the car (aren’t there unknown finger and palm prints on it?)
Also – regardless of ear-witnesses, is there any hard proof the murder didn’t take place a little earlier rendering the missing time a non issue?
Just to correct one detail Cheri Jo was murdered on a Sunday night not Saturday so it was a "weeknight" with work and school
the next morning.
One important clue the crime scene photo tells us is her large tote bag purse underneath her, if she was struggling with her
assailant at her car her tote bag purse would have remained in or near her car, so the purse seems to indicate she was not
under duress until she reached the spot where she was attacked. IIRC it was reported the Detectives found her shoe prints
in the soil of the driveway/alley and it indicated she was walking a normal pace heel to toe and was not running or struggling
or being pulled or dragged down the alleyway.
I find it interesting there are no photos of Cheri Jo’s car at the crime scene, I wonder if that is something the Detectives are
keeping secret because it holds clues to what happened. I read the windows were down and one of the doors ajar, I wonder
what condition the engine lid was found, was it open or closed and latched or closed and unlatched or ajar ? this could tell
us a lot.
I guess what I was getting at was maybe he flashed a knife at her through the window of the car and said come with me.
I’m just trying to imagine how the supposed unknown handprints on the car got there – but yes, if there was any scenario like this, I doubt she would have brought her bag.
Sorry – didn’t answer this before but some people think based on forensics of the food digesting in her stomach that it indicates a pre 9pm killing. The test results may even favor that depending on if you believe the food in her stomach was eaten at home before she came. However, the scream was reportedly heard at 10:30PM (from what I understand from other researchers time change was happening in the region so the person reporting might have been mistaken and it was actually 9:30). Something like 70 people used the library that night and several people were questioned who were sitting out in front of the library for a time. That isn’t a particularly large number but is enough in my opinion to make it unlikely she could have been killed before the library closed without the struggle being noticed. It would have been a substantially greater risk for the killer, at any rate.
It seems salient to me that the act of disabling the car itself was a risk – not just being noticed disabling a car that was well known as hers -but also because if the timing was off and if she came earlier than expected it could have thrown the whole plan off and if that happens the mechanic comes to fix it and finds the engine deliberately tampered with which raises the alarm. It makes me lean heavily toward the belief the killer kept close tabs on her whereabouts and further knew that she would be at the library until it closed and maybe after.
daylight saving ended Sunday, 30 October, 2:00 am not sure of any timeline consequences?
Khrys, but do you think it might have gone unnoticed that he was in the trunk if the car, which is where the VW engine would’ve been? In other words, if the "trunk" lid is open wouldn’t that be somewhat ordinary to people walking by on the sidewalk? They may not have thought twice about that sight.p
Good point! Maybe. IthinkIknow – there is an article with a list of new faculty that year somewhere in the Summer to November Tiger Times ‘66 collection. I didn’t think to look for your guy’s name at the time but you may want to check for it.
Had another couple questions pop into the mind thinking about this today. What do you all think?
1) Why did she leave the books she checked out in the car if she went to the library that night specifically to get them?
2). She had a pretty large bag. Why didn’t she put the books in it when she checked them out?
Good point! Maybe. IthinkIknow – there is an article with a list of new faculty that year somewhere in the Summer to November Tiger Times ‘66 collection. I didn’t think to look for your guy’s name at the time but you may want to check for it.
I’ve scoured all the RCC documents. My guy is in none of them.
Good point! Maybe. IthinkIknow – there is an article with a list of new faculty that year somewhere in the Summer to November Tiger Times ‘66 collection. I didn’t think to look for your guy’s name at the time but you may want to check for it.
Had another couple questions pop into the mind thinking about this today. What do you all think?
1) Why did she leave the books she checked out in the car if she went to the library that night specifically to get them?
2). She had a pretty large bag. Why didn’t she put the books in it when she checked them out?
#2: She parked very close to the library entrance so she likely just carried the books in her hand until she got to her car then
placed the books on the passenger seat as she got in.
#1: I think she intended to return to her car that’s why she left the windows down and the doors unlocked, I think she thought
she was going to use the phone and call her father or someone to come and help her.
My guess is an RCC employee or someone claiming to be an RCC employee told her he has a key to one of the vacant houses
and could let her in to use the phone. that’s why Ross is my favorite suspect, She likely knew he was an employee and a good
chance she knew him to be the brother of her classmate Tim so she would have had some degree of trust in him. this scenario
would make perfect sense as to why she would walk into that dark deserted alley/driveway.
#2: She parked very close to the library entrance so she likely just carried the books in her hand until she got to her car then
placed the books on the passenger seat as she got in.#1: I think she intended to return to her car that’s why she left the windows down and the doors unlocked, I think she thought
she was going to use the phone and call her father or someone to come and help her.
My guess is an RCC employee or someone claiming to be an RCC employee told her he has a key to one of the vacant houses
and could let her in to use the phone. that’s why Ross is my favorite suspect, She likely knew he was an employee and a good
chance she knew him to be the brother of her classmate Tim so she would have had some degree of trust in him. this scenario
would make perfect sense as to why she would walk into that dark deserted alley/driveway.
Makes sense.
Sorry – didn’t answer this before but some people think based on forensics of the food digesting in her stomach that it indicates a pre 9pm killing. The test results may even favor that depending on if you believe the food in her stomach was eaten at home before she came. However, the scream was reportedly heard at 10:30PM (from what I understand from other researchers time change was happening in the region so the person reporting might have been mistaken and it was actually 9:30). Something like 70 people used the library that night and several people were questioned who were sitting out in front of the library for a time. That isn’t a particularly large number but is enough in my opinion to make it unlikely she could have been killed before the library closed without the struggle being noticed. It would have been a substantially greater risk for the killer, at any rate.
It seems salient to me that the act of disabling the car itself was a risk – not just being noticed disabling a car that was well known as hers -but also because if the timing was off and if she came earlier than expected it could have thrown the whole plan off and if that happens the mechanic comes to fix it and finds the engine deliberately tampered with which raises the alarm. It makes me lean heavily toward the belief the killer kept close tabs on her whereabouts and further knew that she would be at the library until it closed and maybe after.
Yes, I believe he stalked/followed her all night from her house. Good point about the difficulty in disabling the car without being noticed, but maybe he saw her leave to go somewhere without her car and waited for her to return. I have always felt Bob Barnett holds some answers as do the RPD.
Good point! Maybe. IthinkIknow – there is an article with a list of new faculty that year somewhere in the Summer to November Tiger Times ‘66 collection. I didn’t think to look for your guy’s name at the time but you may want to check for it.
Had another couple questions pop into the mind thinking about this today. What do you all think?
1) Why did she leave the books she checked out in the car if she went to the library that night specifically to get them?
2). She had a pretty large bag. Why didn’t she put the books in it when she checked them out?
She loved her car and surely thought she would be returning to it. A woman wouldn’t leave her purse…but she’d surely leave books behind. I imagine Cheri simply thought she’d be right back and was probably thinking she was just going to make a phone call.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
I agree with this theory, I think it makes the most sense. The killer told her he had the to the abandoned building and that he would let her in to make a phone call. I agree she was under duress and maybe for the first time in her life, she was an 18 year old girl, not a seasoned veteran, If she thought she was getting a ride home, she would have never left her car that way. Keys in the ign. and windows rolled down. I say this because she had the " presence of mind" to grab her hand bag. I think monarch hit it right-on with his theory. For me, the big question is WHY. What could stirr-up this much rage and hatred in somebody, If somebody can find out the WHY maybe you can do a "reverse trajectory" and find out the WHO.
