My guess would be, why risk it? "Sam" kept hanging up so they couldn’t trace it, yet the still manages to find out where the calls come from. Even if someone told me that there was no way it could be traced back to me I still wouldn’t have made the risk. Not when it was so easy to make the call from another location AND after I just committed such a horrible crime. We also don’t know for a fact that he did live close. He may have gotten rid of the evidence on him, either wherever he was staying or somewhere far enough away from the crime scene that it was unlikely that it would be discovered, then couldn’t resist the temptation of return close to the scene, knowing there was no evidence on him and couldn’t resist making the call.

Yes I believe he may have disposed of the weapon at some location, one possibility could be the Lake at Lake Herman Road or any other body of water, before returning to make the call. Eric Weil eventually got caught because they set up a trace on the line, however the Zodiac calls were random, they didn’t know when he would call or from where, making a trace virtually impossible. He may not have lived in Vallejo or Benicia, that is true, so why not make the call from a distant payphone somewhere en route to his distant residence. For example, if he lived in San Francisco why not make the call somewhere en route, equidistant from the crime scene and his home, minimizing any risk. Why travel a distance from the crime scene to dispose of any evidence, then backtrack and put yourself back in the firing line, if you were in no way connected to the area.

even if you think you know how a call trace works, why take the risk? they managed to figure out what payphone he used.

That is very true Masootz, but not via a trace.

Could be he just wanted to be close to the police station there, to give him a bigger thrill. Although he never got caught, he was not always risk averse. His whole operation was illogical so to try to figure out his movements using logic may not work.

I agree, why risk your phone being traced. The 40 minutes to me gives him enough time to go home, stash the gun, and possibly the car, then head to the phonebooth with nothing tying him to the crime. Who knows, maybe he would even taking a shower thinking it would get rid of gun powder residue

Just for reference, here is the link to info about the call being traced to the Vallejo phone booth via the operator:

http://www.zodiackiller.com/DFR13.html

There is another slight mention of the station again on page 15.

Putting myself in Z’s place (and trying to remember back to what it was like to use a pay phone), it seems a person would either use one that was very familiar, or they would use one conveniently located en route. Both scenarios here would lean toward Z living in the Vallejo area.

There is this weird thing about Z in that he didn’t seem particularly rushed or paranoid after killing, as evidenced by his so-described limpy gait away from the Stine scene, as well as his departure from Berryessa where he takes the time to write on the car door. The message, post-killing, seems very much a part of his ritual. And he seems particularly calm and lucid while doing it.

If there was any way to see regular users of that phone booth at the time, that might have held clues (and who knows, maybe they did look.)

Even more important than the "shuffling lope" at the Presidio Heights scene is the fact that he stopped after the murder to cut a piece of Paul Stine’s bloody shirt to send to the SF Chronicle. And actually we don’t know with one hundred percent certainty that the guy Foukes saw was the Z. But we do know the Z stopped and cut a piece of shirt. Beginning with the post BRS phone call, the self-publicizing began to take on more importance than the crime itself. There’s no telling why he waited 45 minutes to make the phone call or why he chose that particular phone booth. Maybe he was wrestling within his own demented mind whether or not he wanted to make the call. Doesn’t prove he lived in Vallejo.

Nothing except finding out who Zodiac was will tell us if he lived in Vallejo. I think we can say, with certainty, he was quite familiar with Vallejo. Whether living, having lived, working, or having worked…he knew Vallejo and was comfortable there.

Nothing except finding out who Zodiac was will tell us if he lived in Vallejo. I think we can say, with certainty, he was quite familiar with Vallejo. Whether living, having lived, working, or having worked…he knew Vallejo and was comfortable there.

I agree he likely lived in Vallejo or Benicia, but as for finding out who Zodiac is, I’m afraid this is a non-starter for the Zodiac community. Without the support or will of the police departments and the will to identity suspects from the standpoint of DNA, there is zero hope to ever identity the Zodiac. From what I have taken from the Zodiac case, only a partial DNA profile has been secured from the letters and we all know this can be used to rule out suspects, but not definitively identity one suspect as the sole donor. That being the case, solving this case is beyond all of us and we are fooling ourselves if we believe otherwise.
We likely need a shovel and full DNA template, without these two precursors the best we can ever do is speculate. I am sorry to put a dampener on the pursuit of Zodiac, but reality has to be faced.

I don’t trust the DNA from the letters even to rule people out. It’s possible he lived up there but also possible he lived down in the metro bay area. Let’s say he decided to do some lovers’ lane murders—-fairly safe attacks since the couples are in isolated spots on purpose. Not that easy to find these spots in the more crowded metro area, so he had to go out in the country a little.

This seems the proper place to add a couple of asides. My "POI", who attended Ramona High during Cheri’s freshman year, and who graduated in ’63, appeared in a car ad in that Year’s RHS Yearbook. He was grinning from behind the steering wheel of a new car. I wonder if he was known for being a car buff, and therefore picked to "star" in that ad. Worth contemplating, considering that Z was a highly mobile murderer. Further, my "POI" honeymooned in SF-Carmel in Sep. ’66 and, ca. ’68-’68, moved to San Jose from Riverside, whoch would have required considerable traveling to and fro in finding a place to live. Incidentally, one address he had in San Jose was on Morrill Blvd. or Ave. which intriguing, considering that the desktop poem was identified by Sherwood Morrill as being Z’s handwriting, and Cheri lived on Via San Jose at the time of her death. Kinda spooky, huh?

No, not spooky at all. Sheer coincidence.