I doubt the night he attacked Mike & Darlene and made this call he wore a disguise. It was late, he made sure they were alone and his plan was to kill them.

But, Mike did live and described his build…in a t-shirt.

While weight in lbs. might be difficult for some, describing them is something else. Beefy, heavy build. Not fat.

Yeah good point. Tell you what I did also notice Mike had said that’s consistent with Officer Fouke up’s description of the way the man walked is that both Mike and Officer Fouke Up said that the guy walked slightly bent forward and head down. Mike specifically states he remembers this about the shooter as he observed him walking back to his car to reload. Fouke recalls it about the Zodiac as he eludes them by going up some steps…..

Apparently if your going to commit homicide in the Bay Area then you can get away with it by walking up a couple of steps as this seems to leave police baffled and confused and they drive straight past. Kinda similar results that you get fom turning a shark onto his back. A shark turned over seems to go into a trance and simply cannot move due to confusion and disorientation. SFPD apparently have this same sort of bewilderment when someone stands on some steps.

Welsh Stated….

" Apparently if your going to commit homicide in the Bay Area then you can get away with it by walking up a couple of steps as this seems to leave police baffled and confused and they drive straight past. Kinda similar results that you get fom turning a shark onto his back. A shark turned over seems to go into a trance and simply cannot move due to confusion and disorientation. SFPD apparently have this same sort of bewilderment when someone stands on some steps."

To be fair to Fouke he was looking for a black robbery suspect, not a white murderer. One thing has bothered me about the encounter. We were doing a reenactment one night, my buddy Dave was Z coming down Jackson, I was in the car, in Zelm’s seat. Dave went up the steps, turned and looked at us as we slowed down, and then we sped off. Timing wise it seemed perfect to me from what Fouke’s had stated of their encounter. But as soon as Dave turned at the top of the steps and we looked at each other, something occurred to me that seemed weird about the scene. We discussed it later that night. What hit me was if I was Z coming down the hill and saw Fouke approaching, and decided to head up the stairs, like I lived there to fool Fouke’s/Zelms, the only reason I think I would stop isn’t if their car slowed down, as we had done, but they would have to call out to me, to stop me. Otherwise I would continue on towards the house, and not turn around at all (turning around made Dave look suspicious), since we didn’t call out to him at all to stop. When I asked Dave later, "Why did you turn around and look back at us, he said I thought I was supposed to, and he was, but then I asked him "would you have done that naturally if you were a killer trying to fool me"?
And his answer was, huh, I guess not, huh…
So I’ve always taken Fouke’s word for it, and it doesn’t matter that much, except he’d be eliminating what Z sounded like. I don’t think he’d do that. I certainly would hope he wouldn’t do that. Just a weird observation.

The phone call to Nancy Slover was said to be traced to Springs and Tuolumne, the killer said "I wish to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to a public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They have been shot by a 9 mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year…. Good-bye" . This I have calculated would have taken no more than 25 seconds from beginning to end. They did not have the capability to trace a call in this amount of time in 1969, especially considering it was a surprise call. Operators in those days used manual switching circuits and it took many minutes and certainly wasn’t achievable anywhere close to under a minute.
So how did the payphone location get discovered. Zodiac said "The man who told police that my car was brown was a negro about 40-45 rather shabbly dressed. I was in this phone booth having some fun with the Vallejo cop when he was walking by." My reading of this, is the black man overheard Zodiac as he was passing by and later contacted police to inform them of what he heard along with the payphone location. The reason this black male doesn’t appear in any of the police reports is totally logical from a witness protection standpoint, fearing possibly the Zodiac may return to the area for retribution. The Zodiac appeared to have no reason to invent this negro out of thin air and it is my guess he is the key to the payphone’s location being found. Not forgetting there was a different version of the phone call wording in the papers other than the one supposedly recalled by Nancy Slover. You have to ask yourself where did this alternative transcript come from, other than a second person to hear the call.

The reason this black male doesn’t appear in any of the police reports is totally logical from a witness protection standpoint, fearing possibly the Zodiac may return to the area for retribution.

I’m not sure this makes sense given that we’re talking about internal reports. He doesn’t appear in any of those – unless there are parts we haven’t seen.

At 12:47 AM Mrs Johnson PT&T operator called. The above call was traced to a coin operated telephone at Joe’s Union, Tuolumne and Springs Road. The call was traced by Betty MAIN whose supervisor would not allow her to make a statement at this time…

Let’s say you’re right: It would’ve been technically impossible for them to actually trace the call. And the reason why they knew precisely where he had called from, is that there was a witness (the shabbly dressed negro) who overheard him. I can buy that, as such, not least if it can be demonstrated that it was technically impossible to trace the call.

But I don’t see any logical reason why they would think it necessary to include the above (fictional, blatantly untrue) detail in an internal report.

The phone call is in the BRS report. According to the report the phone call was traced by Betty Main and her supervisor called VPD to report that the phone was at the corner of Tuolume and Springs Rd. Apparently the operator, Betty Main, also heard the call as Zodiac called the operator in order to be connected to VPD is what I gather from the report. Nowhere in the police report does it say that VPD asked for the call to be traced.

VPD received the call at 12:40 am and the supervisor phoned VPD at 12:47am.

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

Z places a call to the operator, asking her to put him through to the police. The operator notes where he calls from (as she’s supposed to in the event of an emergency call). And there you have it.

That the call was "traced" doesn’t imply an elaborate process. By 1969 there were systems in place where the operator could gather where a call was placed from without asking the caller.

Doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

Z places a call to the operator, asking her to put him through to the police. The operator notes where he calls from (as she’s supposed to in the event of an emergency call). And there you have it.

That the call was "traced" doesn’t imply an elaborate process. By 1969 there were systems in place where the operator could gather where a call was placed from without asking the caller.

Doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

I think that’s debatable. The switching systems that would allow this feature were just being implemented and did not become the norm until the mid 70s. If Vallejo was using the older mechanical switch configuration, a trace seems almost impossible given the time span of the phone call. Perhaps the caller gave the phone number or a phone number to the operator when he dialed 0. Operators would ask for the number.

I do know that Betty Main was in Ukiah CA when she traced the call. I’ve looked her up and that is where she was living and working at the time. When Z called the operator to be connected to VPD he reached Betty in Ukiah. The trace was partially completed even before the call was put through to VPD.

‘The call was traced by Betty Main whose supervisor would not allow her to make a statement at this time.‘ Why, all she did was supposedly trace the call, what could she say "I traced the call." When people withhold simple things such as this, alarm bells ring and one has to question the mechanics behind her tracing the call. Tracing a call means unearthing, discovering, of which being given the payphone’s number would not apply in this instance. Their use of the word trace is flawed, unless Zodiac had a picnic by the payphone as he was calling in.

Alright, let’s try it again:

If the police were trying to cover up the fact that this phone call was not traced (in order to achieve what? protect the shabbly dressed witness?), why did they put the bogus story in the police report?

Give it to the press, sure – that’s what you do. But why put it in the report? They presumably didn’t count on that report being made public decades after the fact. And, again, omitting what actually happened from said report seems excessive to say the least (not to mention irregular or even a violation of protocol) if the intention was to shield the witness – unless we presume that Z was in the habit of reading police reports…which some admittedly claim that he WAS, but that’s a slightly different story.

Perhaps the caller gave the phone number or a phone number to the operator when he dialed 0.

Perhaps he didn’t mind telling – could have been part of the thrill for him. After all, there was no pressing need for him to call at all. The victims were in a parking lot and would have been found soon enough anyway.

As for 1ESS switching and so forth, I take your point: Seems that wasn’t properly spreading until just around the time we’re talking about, so it’s very possible they didn’t have that. Then again we can’t say for sure that they didn’t.

Alright, let’s try it again:

If the police were trying to cover up the fact that this phone call was not traced (in order to achieve what? protect the shabbly dressed witness?), why did they put the bogus story in the police report?

Give it to the press, sure – that’s what you do. But why put it in the report? They presumably didn’t count on that report being made public decades after the fact. And, again, omitting what actually happened from said report seems excessive to say the least (not to mention irregular or even a violation of protocol) if the intention was to shield the witness – unless we presume that Z was in the habit of reading police reports…which some admittedly claim that he WAS, but that’s a slightly different story.

Yes Norse I fully take on board what you are saying, but what I reckon is when the report states ‘traced’, they should have said found out, because they couldn’t trace calls that quickly in 1969. The alternative is that the negro informed them of the payphone location and they didn’t bother to highlight this in the report, just condensing it to ‘traced’. There were also different versions of this phone call transcript, notably released in the papers before the Nancy Slover version, one on July 5th and the other on the 7th. One said "I shot them. I used a 9mm Luger automatic". The other said "I shot them. I used a 9mm automatic". Only then came the Nancy Slover version, so my question is who gave the papers this version if only the police knew. (police reports were supposedly free from prying eyes as you suggested). But clearly the papers had hold of certain information only privy to the police and the only other person to have heard the Zodiac speak on the phone that night other than Nancy Slover was the negro. These shortened versions of the phone call in these two papers I believe had to have originated from his recollections.
Nancy Slover gave her version that tallied with the extended third version.
In summation; If the police released the first versions to the press, as they were supposedly the only ones privy to the call, why would they withhold the proper and full version, only to release it 2 days later. The only noticeable difference between the versions are the directions and the reference to Lake Herman Road. Why not be transparent in the first place, as they certainly weren’t after the Presidio Heights episode. No wonder people question their motives.

UKS: I’m not being deliberately obtuse here, just to make that clear – I’m genuinely slow witted:

What you suggest is that the witness (the shabbly dressed one) was the source of the initial reports in the press? The press talked to him?

Here’s what it looks like to me:

Nancy Slover’s report follows, chronologically, a version of the same events printed in the papers. That’s clear enough. But what happened (that the call was "traced", whatever this actually means) was surely known by the detectives (by the police as such) before Nancy Slover typed up her report? The latter is a matter of form, so to speak, it has to be done at some point – but exactly when it’s done, isn’t all that relevant.

1: Slover takes the call.
2: Slover informs whoever is in charge of what happened.
3: The police brief the press/the press get information from the police.
4: The press prints a version of what happened (worded so and so but based on info from the police).
5. Slover types up her report.

Isn’t that quite plausible?

What could also be noted here is that if there was a witness, who overheard Z, then the police report doesn’t simply omit this fact as such – but also, one has to assume, a description of the caller: If the shabbly dressed negro heard what Z said, it’s reasonable to presume that he was close enough to get a visual on him.

Almost totally plausible (does that sound right.. never mind).
Apart from number 4.The press prints a version of what happened.
I don’t know of any press in the world given the whole meaty version by police of "I wish to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to a public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They have been shot by a 9 mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year…. Good-bye.", would then print the watered down version of ‘I shot them. I used a 9mm Luger automatic,’ not including the Lake Herman Road connection. The press are voracious animals who squeeze every last ounce out of a story and wouldn’t just leave this out. This is the biggest news story in Vallejo in it’s entire history. So I am guessing what you are saying is the police gave the press the condensed watered down version.
If so we’ll call a truce…till next time