The link was sent to me and others by Tom V.
http://viewpointsonline.org/2013/11/05/ … mment-3424
It’s time to remember Cheri Jo
Cheri Bates illustrated by Celeste Walter
Cheri Bates illustrated by Celeste Walter
VALERIE OSIER |STAFF WRITER
It was something that simply did not happen then, not in peaceful Riverside.
Many have said it, “stripped Riverside of its innocence.” And 47 years later, people still haven’t forgotten.
“Nobody from my generation is going to forget this, it rocked the town,” said Jeannie Casil-Miller, who knew the victim.
It not only shook the town, but it shook Riverside City College even more.
“I remember students and faculty were on high alert for a long time after it happened,” said Jan Schall, a part-time professor at RCC at the time.
A murder on campus
Cheri Jo Bates, 18, left the RCC library at 9 p.m. to head home in her little green Volkswagen Bug on Sunday, Oct. 30, 1966.
At 6:30 the next morning, she was found dead, face down and fully clothed on the RCC campus in a dirt driveway on Terracina Drive between two unoccupied houses.
Her throat was slashed and several stab wounds were in her back. Police found her car near the scene, where she had parked it before going into the library.
It had the keys still in the ignition and the engine had been tampered with to prevent the car from starting.
The killer had disabled the engine to prevent Bates from leaving.
The only evidence the police have are scrapings from underneath Bates’ fingernails that contained bits of skin and hair, a result of Bates fighting her attacker, as well as greasy palm and fingerprints found on the victim’s car.
They found a man’s Timex watch with its leather band broken at the crime scene and footprints thought to belong to the suspect, also found at the scene.
From the fingernail scrapings, police know the killer was a white male.
“We recently went through all the physical evidence and resubmitted it to the lab, but it came back inconclusive,” said Jim Simons, who is the current detective on the case.
A continuing mystery
Police had a suspect whom they felt confident killed Bates, but they lacked enough evidence to press charges.
The suspect has been living out of the country, but several years ago, he flew into California. Detectives obtained a warrant for his DNA and tested it against a hair fiber sample they had from the crime scene. It didn’t match, but, according to Simons, the police aren’t sure if the hair fiber sample they have is even that of the killer.
A month after the murder, a typed letter titled “The Confession” was sent to The Daily Enterprise newspaper, which is now The Press-Enterprise.
The letter gave an eerie account of the murder and contained accurate details of the crime scene not yet released to the public, and therefore was believed to be from the killer.
The ‘Zodiac’ rumors
Six months after Bates was killed, a handwritten note was mailed to the Riverside police and The Daily Enterprise. It simply said, “Bates had to die. There will be more.”
Handwriting experts from the Criminal Identification and Investigation Bureau said the “Zodiac Killer,” reportedly responsible for several murders in the San Francisco Bay area, had written the note.
This has long been discounted by police because the “Zodiac’s” habits and pattern apparently didn’t match those in the Bates’ killing. There has also been several previous handwriting misidentifications in the “Zodiac” case.
Although, no matter how often the police refute the connection, the legend has stuck.
Despite police working around the clock to solve the case when it occurred and in the years since, it has become a cold case with an even colder trail.
An ordinary day
That sunny, warm morning started out like any other Sunday.
According to regional newspapers at the time, Cheri went to Mass at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church with her father, Joseph Bates, and she ate their usual breakfast with him after.
After breakfast, Joseph asked Cheri if she wanted to go to the beach with him.
The Bates family usually enjoyed going to the beach together, but this time Cheri was unable to go because she had to work on a research paper. Joseph left for the beach and later came home to read a note Cheri had left: “Dad – went to the RCC library.”
According to witnesses, she studied in the library until closing time.
After she left, police speculate and the confession letter later states that she went to her car and found it would not start. There, the killer, suspected to be someone she knew, approached her and offered her a ride home. The police think the suspect led her down the dark driveway on Terracina, where he attacked her.
The victim
Cheri Josephine Bates was only 18 years old when she was murdered. She was born on Feb. 4, 1948 in Omaha, Neb. According to most, she was a “sweet, outgoing girl.” She was a cheerleader during her junior year at Ramona High School and was involved in student government.
She was a “Junior Princess” candidate at her high school as well.
She always seemed to have a lot of friends, but she wasn’t clique-ish,” said her brother, Michael Bates.
As a student, Cheri studied hard and got good grades. She went to RCC, and had plans of becoming a stewardess.
She played the piano and made a lot of her own clothes.
She also liked to make things for others, according to her brother.
Joseph Bates had always raised his children to earn what they got. Cheri had a part-time job at Riverside National Bank to help pay for her Volkswagen, something she was proud to have earned.
In high school, she was often busy with friends and activities.
At the time of her murder, Cheri’s brother – one year her senior – was in the Navy.
In the year prior to leaving for service, Michael recalls he and Cheri not spending a lot of time together.
Michael was working at Sears and going to school at RCC, and Cheri was busy with school and work as well.
“Without realizing it, we weren’t doing a lot together,” said Michael. “You don’t think about it when you’re young.”
Cheri had a boyfriend of two years, Dennis Highland.
He was also reportedly her fiancé. He had gone to RCC and then transferred to San Francisco State College to play football.
The weekend before her death, Cheri and Highland’s parents had visited him in San Francisco. Friends recall they were head over heels for each other.
In high school, she baby-sat quite often. “What a sweetheart, she was such a sweet gal, she never talked to me like a kid,” said Jeannie Casil-Miller, who was 12 years old at the time Cheri baby-sat her and her young brother. “Everybody liked her.”
Bates was also known for being a sweet and giving girl. One friend recalls when, in junior high, they competed in a talent show together, dressed up like sailors and sung “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair” from the musical “South Pacific.”
“For me, the best part of our story was, I was an underclass person who she wanted to help out,” said Cherie Curzon, a friend of Cheri. “The people who were going to do the talent contest with me backed out and she volunteered to be my partner.I will never forget her kindness… We had so much fun rehearsing and then performing, I loved her generosity and kindness toward me…She did it because of who she was; just a wonderful person.”
Joseph Bates set up a memorial scholarship at RCC in Cheri’s name called “The Cheri Jo Bates Memorial Endowed Scholarship,” awarded to a student majoring in music, preferably piano or organ.
“She always had a smile for everybody,” said Casil-Miller. “She needs to be remembered.”
Thanks for that Deb.
This has been on my mind for quite a while.
as well as greasy palm and fingerprints found on the victim’s car
I obviously can’t make or prove any direct correlation but we all remember the LB aftermath. The phone call, the prints, "still wet". Were they still wet because they were greasy?
I’m a diabetic, alcoholic (recovering for many years before you ask lol, from the latter at least). Your body can do many weird things when it comes to excreting. There’s probably nothing in this as we all relate to info when it relates to ourselves but greasy prints, overweight and "shaking" (as mentioned by Bryan Hartnell). All of these things caught my attention because they are symptoms of conditions that I have first hand experience of. Even changes in handwriting although I would limit that to similar styles, even within Z’s own writing.
An interesting article for sure. Something came to Riverside that night in 1966. Something alien and foreign and most certainly not welcome. Did it begin there? I don’t know but the more I see and discover the more I’m convinced that it moved on to become Zodiac.
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
did Cheri usually attend mass ONLY with her dad that day? I find this interesting as whoever killed Cheri made sure to address/taunt her father as well. It’s as if in theory that the killer saw Cheri and Joseph Bates together or knew them both. So if Cheri and her dad were the only two in her family typically to attend mass and they attended mass the morning of her death then the church members should be looked at closer.
Also Cheri’s killer mentioning that she went like a lamb to the slaughter – that’s religious/Christian/Catholic rhetoric. Sounds like something someone would hear in church.
I wonder how closely police were able to look at the church? I know with the Irene Garza case in McAllen TX that many cover ups were committed to keep the church out of hot water when one of their priests murdered Irene. The priest is retired and elderly now with a wife and grown kids/grandkids – finally a new DA may bring charges on him. Not saying at all a priest or man of the cloth murdered CJB! Just saying that for many believing a murderer was a leader or even member of their own church could have felt almost sacreligious and this goes for the police investigating the case who may have had respect for the church. I remember Irene’s sister saying that no one wanted to believe someone from the church could have killed Irene that day Bc it felt blasphemous or sacreligious, even though everything pointed to the church.
Cheri’s mother did not live at the family home, she was in some type of assisted living facility. Cheri’s brother was in the service and did not live at the family home either. Just Cheri and her dad lived at the family home.
Thanks Seagull. That clears A LOT up for me. So would the murderer then have to be someone close enough to know that only Cheri and her dad lived in the family home?
Was it publicized that CJB and Joseph were the only two to live in the home before the letter was sent to Joseph bates?
It’s just interesting to me that the murderer didn’t address the whole family, as if in theory he was fimiliar enough with CJB to know she only resided with her father.
Otherwise the killer specifically wanted to taunt Joseph and wasn’t aware of the living situation. Why not taunt the whole family? Was the letter to Joseph a personal jab? I know that’s been asked a million times by many.
I’m beginning to think it was just he killer slipping and showing us that he knew the family well enough to know Joseph was the only one in that home when he sent it and that Joseph was the only family member Cheri was able to regularly spend time with before her murder (unless the info was publicized before the letter). This again makes me think of contacts of Joseph, contacts of Cheri’s brother, and of course Cheri’s contacts including contacts from Ramona HS, RCC, and most important IMO Bc I haven’t heard much about it – her church contacts.
Yes, it was in the newspaper that the two of them lived without the mother and brother in the home. Read the first article here-
Thank you! 
I’m still thinking the church might have something to it. Who knows, maybe the church even had events that helped out the homeless and underprivileged and that could be an angle. I wish I knew if Cheri volunteered for the church with programs like these. Maybe the Zodiac was underprivileged – someone she had compassion for through the church and he took advantage of her naievity.
The killer still had to use a ruse to lure her though he claims she had blown him off before implying that she knew him. I could see it being someone who frequented the church and was underprivileged that tried many times in vain to hang out with her outside of the church (and maybe outside of RCC?) – I never liked how the letter writer called Cheri "stupid" … As if her trusting him when he tricked her made her stupid. She was naive in trusting him, but not stupid. But it’s almost like the killer is saying to us that it should have been obvious to Cheri that he wasn’t a great guy and that she likely knew he was a bit sketchy, but she walked with him anyways like "a lamb to the slaughter".
All theories of course. Just ideas.
Also interesting that she worked at a bank. if she was a teller this might have given someone the chance to see her on a regular basis whole doing banking. Wonder how much that angle was looked at.
As I remember, Joseph Bates and his wife divorced, and his wife then sold Mary Kay (or similar) products. Later, she committed suicide. The poor Bates family suffered much grief… .
Wow that is tragic. It both saddens and enrages me what the murderer to did the Bates family. What a POS.
