I have often thought Faraday and Stine (especially if Zodiac was in front when he shot him) where shot with the left hand.

Very good point Tahoe.

I’ve always assumed that he was in the back seat when he took the shot, and then went into the front seat in order to tear off a piece of Stines shirt, take his wallet and keys and so forth. But if in fact he was in the front seat the whole time, then yes, he most definitely could have done the shooting with his left hand.

Faraday is hard to say. It really depends on how each individual was actually standing when the shot occurred. Was there ever an autopsy of the actual trajectory of the shot into Faradays head? I know it entered behind his left ear, but which way did the bullet travel from there….forward, straight across, or towards the back of his head?

I have Ballistics classes next week, if someone can provide me with the diagrams of the scene and the victims wounds I can ask my lecturer about it after class, if you’d like?

Interesting topic for sure. There are guns designed specifically for left handed shooters, as to not have shells ejecting in their face, or hitting their bodies.

Very interesting.

I keep forgetting where the damn thing is, but there’s a sketch of Z at LB posted here somewhere (not Graysmith’s but one done by a forensics guy, it has plenty of notes on it based on BH’s description): In which hand is the gun? I seem to recall left, but I’m not sure.

The likelihood of either hand changes depending on whether Z was in the front- or the back seat when he shot Stine.

Which leaves LHR. Can a left handed shooter be ruled out here?

I agree with the analysis in the OP – seems logical to me. So, left hand for BRS.

The (preliminary) conclusion would have to be that Z was either left handed or ambidextrous. I know left handed people who use their right for certain tasks where you’d normally use your stronger hand (or if we bring feet into it, I’ve known left handed guys who were more comfortable using their right foot when playing football [soccer]). But I’ve never seen a right handed person use his or her left in the same way.

My guess, unless he was ambidextrous, is that he was right handed, going on his writing skills. When writing a T bar, a right handed person invariably strokes the T from left to right, a left handed person strokes from right to left. One almost certain correspondence from the Zodiac Killer was the Presidio Letter on October 13th 1969. You will notice the separate paragraphs on this letter. Subconsciously a person will rest or pause momentarily during paragraphs, before continuing on with the letter, particularly if he is recalling events. At the start of each paragraph when the ink from the pen has fully replenished, especially with a marker pen, it can produce a blotch of ink where the pen is initially laid onto the paper. His T of ‘This is the Zodiac Speaking’, his T of ‘The SF police’ and the S of ‘School children make nice targets’ all show this blotch. Aside from the S, the two T’s exhibit right handed characteristics. A left handed person would usually rest the pen on the right side of the T and move right to left and would be highly unlikely to leave a blotch on the left side, as the hand immediately lifts off the paper. Of course this blotch would vary from pen to pen, depending on its manufacture, tip size, ink reservoir, but with some this result will be found. Three paragraphs, three blotches. Therefore it is more likely that if he wrote his letters right handed, he used his weapon right handed, and I stress more likely, not certainly. I am sure that either Michael Mageau and Bryan Hartnell would have indicated which hand the killer used, or at least Bryan Hartnell, after all the killer showed him the gun was loaded, as well as the tying up of the pair and the stabbing itself. It also may be significant that all five entry wounds on Betty Lou Jensen’s back were on the right side, in particular at close range, it depends if right handed people err to right!

Traits having significance indicating a person is a left-handed writer:

Crossing of the lower case t from right to left.
Leftward drag of elongated i-dots.
Long initial stroke of letters at the beginning of a word which may proceed either in an upward or downward direction.
Hooks and curves at the beginning of some small and capital letters which commence in a leftward direction.
Prominent eyelets in beginning part of the small a, d and g, representing an initial underhand motion.
Overhand motion in forming lower case v (made with retrace or eyelet at bottom) and the lower case h (eyelet formed where loop and hump are joined).
Tenting of lower case h, l, and t; and tenting of the upper part of capital i and j.
Open lower part of the final lower case g and y with the ending stroke curving to the left; also triangular or v-shaped lower parts of those letters.
Absence of terminal endings of such letters as lower case d, l, and t, as well as lower case h, m, and n, with slight pen drags to the left.
The terminal of the lower case s with an absence of a retraced bottom coupled with a leftward extension of the closing part.
Similar to the lower case s, the lower case f and k, as well as capital G, also are found to have considerable leftward extension in their closings.
http://www.jjhandwriting.com/left-hand-and-opposite-hand-writing-features-useful-as-a-basis-of-forming-expert-opinions-of-authorship/

Most of the sketches I’ve seen of the LB scene is that he had the gun in his right hand. I don’t know which one has been verified by Bryan Hartnell. If anyone else does, please feel free to chime in. I really am wondering if he in fact switches hands on each crime scene. Yes, I know he didn’t actually use the gun at LB, but he did hold them at gun point, and again, most people would use their dominant hand.

Being around guns most of my life, and being a right handed person, I’ve always shot with my dominant hand, and in fact, when trying to shoot with my left, it feels quite uncomfortable.

As far as writing goes, it definitely does look like his preferred hand is right, as per what UKSpyCatcher said, and in the fact that the letters slant to the right. Isn’t that usually attributed to right handers? I know when I write, my letters tend to lean to the right.

Looking at where the casings fell at LHR, you can tell he shot David right at the car, but then, he stepped out away from the car at least a few feet in order to shoot Betty. Casings are ejected out of the right side of the pistol, so he would have had to have been just to the left of the majority of the casings, facing and firing toward the road. And from what I have seen of how the bullets penetrated Betty, they went from a right rear to front left path…which makes me feel he shot with his right hand. It’s definitely open to discussion though.

Handwriting means little. He could have been using the other hand for that (it would have been an obvious way to disguise his writing). If it can be demonstrated that he likely used his left hand for shooting (or that there is good reason to suspect he used BOTH hands for shooting), this is far more weighty than the writing for me. The latter is far from substantial. He could have been playing around with it in all sorts of ways. Zodiac’s handwriting might be anything from a) the way he normally wrote to b) a distortion completely beyond recognition.

If we could be reasonably sure Z was either left handed or ambidextrous, that would actually be a proper "clew". And probably not a false one either.

no way to know..ill let all you writing analysis guys have at it..what i can say is there is zero possibilty of knowing what handgun brand Z used in relation to Z being right or left handed..now we can offer some theory if in fact Z is left handed would he have bought a left hand eject handgun??????
…that brings me to only 1 brand that i know of is in fact left hand eject

german walter P38 (there are other walter’s that are left hand eject as well)

walter P38 is 8 plus 1 capacity and there is some belief Z did not do a reload?..i pretty much discount this as a reload is quick..so..that brings to my next choice in Z handgun brand

Browning high power 9mm

13 plus 1 capacity and also readily available in the 60’s (like P38)..right hand eject but who cares its a handgun and thats of little concern to a leftie or rightie when using a handgun..some have also said Z may be canadian since the browning 9mm was used by canadian armed forces but i consider this more internet hogwash..some also may say the higher capacity points to browning since there was more that 9 rounds of spent casing found at 1 of Z’s crime scenes..see above-Z could have easily and quickly reloaded so i discount that theory as well

some others..smith and wesson 9mm (first used by chicago PD in 68??? I kinda remember) and a host of others (mostly off brands)

9×19 is the same as 9mm parabellum is the same as 9mm LUGAR-exact same thing
9mm kurtz or short 9mm is basically a .380
9mm makarov is russian and i think case diameter is slightly smaller than 9×19

so who cares right?..guess only question is if Z is left handed would he have been sold or sought out a left hand eject handgun???..dunno but its possible

almost certain Z would have mail ordered any handgun and prior to 68 gun control act this would be possible so no FFL paperwork required..so its a complete dead end unless by chance we find Z and he did not dispose of the handgun used..which me thinks he tossed them right after off a bridge and they are gone 4 ever

now lets just look at my last statement and let me say I am not convinced Z was a california native..this I believe may be a justified theory as calif buyers of handguns had to have local police or sheriff to sign off on purchase (5 day wait after 65 and sign off may not have been state wide??? and i think sign off only applied to CCW but some local ordinances may have restricted handguns??? but paperwork on purchase of handgun must be sent to the state if bought at a gunshop)..but Z could have stolen a handgun or done a face to face buy with somebody who didnt care about the law or did not know..course he could have walked right into nevada and bought whatever with a fake ID or other falsified document (within reason so no ICBM type stuff)

i know useless if but I havent a clue if Z was left or right handed..ill shut up…

No need to shut up snooter. Informative post. And I agree…no way to know.

Actually a very informative post about the brands of 9mm Snooter. I, like you, don’t think it mattered to him which way it ejected, and I to believe he possibly reloaded, especially at BRS.

My main post was mostly just me wondering if he used different hands in different crime scenes. Did he use his right hand to shoot at LHR, his left at BRS, his right again at PH? If so, he was definitely ambidextrous…or, as I’m sometimes starting to believe, there was more than one "Z" responsible.

I know this next part goes off topic just a bit, but it has been something that always bugged me, and I think even Buckwheat Flowers mentioned it somewhere in another thread…who in their right mind plans to go murder 2 people, and in that planning decides to use a .22? Yes, it got the job done, but a .22 is not a weapon you think of using to commit murder. It’s one of the least powerful guns there are. The bullet itself is about the same size as you’d see in a pellet gun. And you know you could possibly only have a short window of time to get the job done. Why take a chance with a small caliber weapon such as that? It just doesn’t add up to me for some reason.

I think that is one of the reasons some have questioned these murders as the work of Zodiac. At times, it comes across as more juvenile. But, it worked and did so better than BRS.

If the shooter were right handed and Betty Lou was standing to the left of David, it would seem he would go to David’s right side to shoot him. That’s just a personal observation of course…either way would work.

i have no idea why Z used a 22 either..kinda lame if You ask me..may be Z did not know much about guns/ballistics or May be he wanted to prolong suffering?..not saying I want to get shot but id almost take a hit from a 22 than a 45..my bottom line answer is I dont know why he used what he used..could be thats all he had access to or was able to get/find in a back alley deal..none of this of course answers left or right handed..and ballistics would only give us position Z was in in relation to the victim. (course caliber, etc)..i am fully ambidextrous and can write left or right..i bat left throw left but prefer right hand for writing..i am also right eye dominant..what could any crime scene tech determine if I was Z?…even if the police had a full complete set of handprints (same for dna) that would be of little use if Z did not have a criminal history and had never been fingerprinted before..some times I kinda think Z is none of our POI’s and is the all american guy next door who played football for nebraska and married the prom queen and owned the pharmacy on main street and gives free candy to the kids when they come in…Z also appears to have intelligence..only time he lost control of his emotions would in my opinion be the stine murder..seems that was some sort of I have balls and can hit in a major city right under the cops nose and can get away with it because I am the Z…after stine things started to wane for the most part and may be Z wanted it that way (lesson learned with stine??).