Considering that there were only 51 Tucker’s made, ever, I find that hard to believe. It seems to me that if there were a Tucker parked anywhere on RCC’s grounds at that time, there would be a flock of people around it and it would be remembered by more than a few people. Thus, more people would have a point of reference for seeing Cheri’s car.

There were scores of people in the RCC LIbrary that evening including her close friends, and not one single person remembers seeing her, even though the library was ‘cramped’ and she took the time to check out three books. This seems to me that unless she was wearing an invisible cloak, she was in disguise, everybody in the cramped library were temporarily rendered blind or all were subsequently suffering from severe memory loss, what remains is likely the truth, that she never set foot in the library that night, despite the fact her card was used. It clearly wasn’t used by her. The library shuts at 9.00 pm and she was murdered at 10.30 pm approximately. This missing time has to be explained. She supposedly exits the library, her car won’t start, but it takes 90 minutes to seek assistance, reach a phone etc. Any prolonged conversation or interaction with a friend or foe would have been noticed by the many people exiting the library that evening. So nobody inside or outside ever set eyes on Cheri Jo Bates that evening. I grant you we may be in a ‘pickle’ with the perceived order of events in this case. As for the ‘Tucker Torpedo’, it depends on what time it arrived en scene and what time it parked behind her car. I presume many people parked up that night, it could have great significance or none at all. Parking by somebody else’s car is not a crime. If this witness had told police, it would have been routine to cross check with patrons of the library, but who knows if they even bothered.

For whatever reason,I can’t even remember seeing mention of this car before

I don’t have much faith in ZU.

Seagull posted a nice link the other day to a really good article about the car that was missing from the re-enactment.

A ’47-’52 Studebaker with "light-colored oxidized paint". – http://www.zodiackiller.com/InsideDetective7.html

UK–it also mentions that someone DID see her at the library. While she may not have been there later on, she was there for a bit before opening and she did go inside and check out her books. I still believe she was killed closer to 9:30 and the time-change simply came into play. The girl probably had not "fallen back" her clock.

Of course she was obviously not seen after about 6:30…which is odd and certainly makes us wonder.

A Studebaker and a Tucker did have some similarities, mainly in the center of the hood. While the Studebaker had an emblem in the center and the Tucker had a headlight, at a glance the frontend of the two cars were somewhat alike.

Yah, could be an honest mistake, but certainly a noteworthy car. And maybe that is why people remembered it not being there.

Seems if the car was involved and it was someone who knew Cheri, they’d know that car. Or, they’d know Joe Blow drove it and he is now MIA. Too bad they didn’t put a photo of a similar car on the front page of the paper! I believe they did mention it, but a photograph would have helped, imo.

If there were only 51 made, I don’t see how police could have failed to track down the owner. We might still be able to.

Here ya go, Nick, no Nora, Wiki has a complete list of what happened to all of the Tuckers. Contact all the current owners for the previous owners of the cars, I bet they all have the history of each car. They are worth a fortune!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_48

Oh, I just was going to post about Tucker cars on Wikipedia. You’re all over it.

A Studebaker and a Tucker did have some similarities, mainly in the center of the hood. While the Studebaker had an emblem in the center and the Tucker had a headlight, at a glance the frontend of the two cars were somewhat alike.

The entire point of Zodiac Unmasked was to tie Allen to all the crimes (using questionable evidence). I don’t know why he wrote a Tucker was at the scene (although this would favor Mr. X).

FWIW Allen did at one time own a Kaiser.

Hi,

This whole Tucker thing is very interesting. I have done extensive research on this car and spoken to a very knowledgeable expert on them. He said that by 1966 Tuckers were considered "novelty" cars, not collectors’ items. Now, I could see mistaking a Tucker for a Studebaker. BUT, if you were knowledgeable enough about Tuckers in 1966 to even know what one was, since I am certain the average person did not, then I think it is highly unlikely that you would mistake a Studebaker for a Tucker! Why? Because you know what a Tucker is!

The clear problem with this is that it comes from ZU and is unreferenced as to source. That carries with it a big red flag…however, I am trying to think about why he would make something like this up and how even he knows what a Tucker is (unless he watched the movie!).

Mike

Hi,

A bit more about the possible presence of a Tucker Torpedo in Riverside: a tiny little birdie told me that RG knows little about cars and would not have been able to gin up the presence of a Tucker in Riverside if he wanted to. This means he either read or heard about the Tucker somewhere. The fact that KQ purchased a Tucker out of the blue the year after Riverside given how Z apparently either admired or had some sort of relationship with the Riverside killer is very tantalizing. Did Allen or Gaik purchase one by any chance?

There was a search for a light-colored Studebaker or a Tucker Torpedo with oxidized paint. Leigh Allen owned a light-colored Kaiser-Frazer with oxidized paint, which can both be easiliy mistaken for – they’re very similiar cars both front and rear (vide 2nd attachment).