It would appear we have a pretty good idea of what the killer’s car looked like. Interesting, Mageau said the car was a lighter color of brown than Dee’s car.
And the Zodiac says his car is brown. But you choose to think Zodiac is lying about that.

Here’s my thoughts. I would never personally mistake a Corvair for a Ford Falcon, a Ford Mustang, or a 62 Buick Special. But that’s just me. I work in the automotive field, so I know a good bit about cars. To me the Corvair is a unique looking vehicle. Also, there wasn’t near as many types of cars on the road back then as there is now, which should make differentiating vehicles easier. I tend to agree with OneWhoKnows on this aspect, and always figured the perp to be driving a Corvair. The only exception would be if Mike didn’t know much about cars, which I realize may be the situation. Did he drive? Have his own car? I don’t know… so I don’t have a clue what he knew/knows about cars.

Hope that helps.

It would appear we have a pretty good idea of what the killer’s car looked like. Interesting, Mageau said the car was a lighter color of brown than Dee’s car.
And the Zodiac says his car is brown. But you choose to think Zodiac is lying about that.

Pretty good idea doesn’t make it a Corvair though. So to state as a fact the car was a Corvair is misleading, imo.

At first Mike said he didn’t see the color at all. Which was it? Was it tan?

Could it have been a Corvair? Yes. Could it have been similar? Yes.

There is already a thread here at this site about possible Zodiac cars:

viewtopic.php?f=96&t=867&p=7122&hilit=MERCURY#p7122

the amount of energy and time that has been used-up to give a definitive answer on the corvair astounds me…somebody mentioned owen which i know is an interesting theory but consider ownen just drove by and seen a car..what owen did not know was it was or soon would be a crime scene..i pass cars every day sitting along the road or parked and can i tell you what model/color-No….i believe if you want to spend the time and energy on DF look for a link between her and gaik,,my first question is what would a editor hippie (not really a hippie bacause he was too old) want with a single mom with a kid other than to sell a dime bag (manson wanted breeders and I dont see any manson in gaik)..just my take-god speed

ps: MM does not know the suspect vehicle..its just that simple

pss: not a knock on owen…owen is interesting theory that has intrigued me but there is a plethora of outs in regards to owen ever being considered a poi

I cannot believe Michael Mageau ever saw the back of any car exiting the Blue Rock Springs car park. As already stated he said he couldn’t tell the color of the car, then it was maybe light brown, but could spot the California license plate. There is another major discrepancy: He stated ‘he climbed over the back seat to get away from the shooting. Finally the subject quit shooting him and turned the gun on Dea and started shooting her again and again. The subject then turned around and started to walk back to his vehicle. Michael stated he could not tell if he meant to yell at the subject or yell from pain, but he let out some type of yell. At this time the subject apparently hearing him came back and shot him once in the back and once in the left leg’. He goes on to say ‘he reached outside and opened the car door and fell outside on the ground. As he fell onto the ground, the vehicle the subject was in, backed up in a turning movement and then took off’.
He appreciates his yelling probably attracted the Zodiac back to the vehicle, where the killer fired two more shots into him. He also stated the killer exited at high speed. So knowing this he effectively exits himself onto Blue Rock Springs tarmac either before or while the killer was in the process of backing up. Surely he knew what happened last time the killer realized he was still alive, he came back, yet here he is outside on the ground so soon, in plain view, before the killer has even reversed. If Michael Mageau had the energy to lift himself to reach for the outside handle, he surely had the energy to look out of the back window, before exiting the vehicle. The Zodiac Killer never showed any mercy, so despite Michael Mageau being on the floor, the killer just drove off or didn’t even see his arm grappling for the outside door handle and despite probably having at least three bullets left, never returned for one final time. Since the Zodiac supposedly exited at high speed, surely your self preservation kicks in and you wait at least a few seconds until the coast is clear, exactly like Bryan Hartnell did at Lake Berryessa, he feigned death, for self preservation. I am not saying Michael Mageau was lying, it was clearly a terrifying event, but it seems like he was saying things just to please the investigators or his recollection is very confused. In other words the light brown Corvair, the California license plate and seeing the rear of Zodiac’s car we really cannot put any faith in whatsoever.

Zodiac confirming his car was brown makes me think it wasn’t. Why mention it at all? "yah, yah…my car was brown".

The flashlight wasn’t always in Mike’s eyes. He did get a look. What he wasn’t sure about, he said so.

So many cars looked similar back then. If Mike KNEW it was a Corvair, he would have said so. He simply wasn’t sure.

I think Z had a blue-ish car at LB but at BRS he seemed surprised that the police reported they were looking for a man in a brown car. Z failed to read the Vallejo paper explaining that MM described the car as brown. Z seemed to conclude that the police knew his car color by interviewing the black man that saw Z making the call to police.

I just think he was more thrown off by the info police had than an attempt at misdirection.

Big question is, did he sell the brown car and buy a new blue one after BRS?

The car’s color has always been of interest.

*White Impala seen on LHR the night of the attack there, plus Darlene’s older stalker possibly had a white Impala. Also, the car seen by Bill Crow was possibly a white Impala.

*Brown car at BRS

*Lt Blue car seen by the girls at the lake

I wonder if the ‘White’ car seen by people on LHR, could be actually, light blue?

The car’s color has always been of interest.

*White Impala seen on LHR the night of the attack there, plus Darlene’s older stalker possibly had a white Impala. Also, the car seen by Bill Crow was possibly a white Impala.

*Brown car at BRS

*Lt Blue car seen by the girls at the lake

I wonder if the ‘White’ car seen by people on LHR, could be actually, light blue?

I have often wondered about the white possibly being a very light silvery-blue as well morf. We also have TWO blue cars on LHR closer to the time Crow was out there as reported by VPD officer Meyring.

I have no idea of American cars, so the question is did the Lincoln car series of that era look similar to what has been described.. the Lincoln town car bonnet emblem is a zodiac symbol.
and just interesting that the stamps were of Lincoln.
just thoughts of randomness

I have no idea of American cars, so the question is did the Lincoln car series of that era look similar to what has been described.. the Lincoln town car bonnet emblem is a zodiac symbol.
and just interesting that the stamps were of Lincoln.
just thoughts of randomness

Only the Pines card had Lincoln on it.

I have no idea of American cars, so the question is did the Lincoln car series of that era look similar to what has been described.. the Lincoln town car bonnet emblem is a zodiac symbol.
and just interesting that the stamps were of Lincoln.
just thoughts of randomness

Only the Pines card had Lincoln on it.

… and the three ‘Bates’ letters.

I have no idea of American cars, so the question is did the Lincoln car series of that era look similar to what has been described.. the Lincoln town car bonnet emblem is a zodiac symbol.
and just interesting that the stamps were of Lincoln.
just thoughts of randomness

Only the Pines card had Lincoln on it.

… and the three ‘Bates’ letters.

Ah yes. Must have been this one?? Looked like some bald dude.

Ah yes. Must have been this one?? Looked like some bald dude.

Yup that’s the one. Lol. It does actually look like some bald bloke. Now I remember why I made that comp of the envelopes with good quality images of the stamps.

Yah…Lincoln probably wouldn’t have been too happy with those bad copies. Not a good likeliness.