@darvinho If you switch around [1] to, if the Zodiac Killer had pulled into the turnout with the express intention of murder, is it likely he sat there for 30s/1 minute, to effectively lose the element of surprise? Also, like I said in the podcast, why do you think the statements of Robert Connelly over two interviews, that the Rambler was on the west bank and why Pierre Bidou may have missed it, is routinely ignored as inconvenient to the Zodiac story. The final statement and eyewitness (Connelly) prior to the murders has the Rambler on the west bank not the east bank, making the story of a killer pulling alongside the right side of the Rambler to initiate the attack, a claim not supported by the last eyewitness that night. However, this inconvenient fact will not change the Zodiac narrative that has been persisted over the last 53 years.  

@richard-grinell Sorry, I did not mean to make it sound like I was ignoring inconvenient facts, such as the moving of the Rambler, for the sake of a simpler narrative. I’m still trying to get to grips with all the respective sightings and clarify the most logical chain of events. I certainly am not trying to hold onto the static Rambler story, which definitely does not hold up.

Reading your description of events on your site makes a great deal of sense in regards to the changing position of the car and what could have happened. Specifically, “If the Zodiac Killer arrived at the turnout from Vallejo, he could easily have approached the Rambler from the rear, as it was sitting on the west bank, thereby forcing David Faraday back across the turnout as he attempted to leave. The turning circle of the Rambler may have required this movement. The Zodiac Killer then pulled up alongside the Rambler and forced the couple to halt their vehicle in its tracks with shots to the window and headliner”.

I also completely agree with this estimation: “James Owen never saw the Zodiac Killer enter the turnout, so at a bare minimum, it is reasonable to argue that Zodiac had already been present in the turnout for approximately half a minute prior to James Owen passing it. It may have been much longer”. Indeed, I also agree with you when you say “The idea the couple were forced from the vehicle and hidden out of sight makes equally little sense”.

Could it be then that the killer enters the turnout, approaching the Rambler from the rear, this forces Faraday to move the car back across to the east side, at some point (maybe not immediately but a minute or so later) the killer then pulls up alongside the Rambler, this is when Owen drives by, he doesn’t see anyone in the cars (as I said, maybe just because he didn’t notice them, not because they weren’t there), once Owen is 30 seconds down the road that’s when the killer gets out and starts shooting.

As I said, I didn’t mean to come across as being one of those people pushing a false narrative for the sake of it fitting. I’m definitely not trying to do that. I’m just wondering perhaps the way Faraday behaved after being disturbed first might not be the way he would react a second time. Equally, is it that strange for the killer to sit in his vehicle doing nothing? Because Owen didn’t see the victims on the ground and the crime pretty much in progress, then something like that surely must have happened?

@darvinho I wasn’t referring to you personally Darvinho, I was just highlighting the Zodiac scene in general. Your questions are totally relevant. There are many problems, because even if Zodiac pulled behind the Rambler and “ushered” it across the turnout, then your argument still applies. He would then have to pull alongside the Rambler at the exact time that James Owen passed, otherwise we would have to explain why David or why Zodiac sat there for a protracted length of time before either Faraday left, or Zodiac started the attack. If James Owen’ statement is correct then it’s more likely he just didn’t notice the occupants inside the vehicles. But imagine if when Owen passed, those two vehicles had been sitting alongside each other for 2, 3, 4, 5 etc minutes without anybody having been murdered – because he surely would have noticed the bodies on the turnout floor, just like Stella Medeiros. Trying to fit the story of James Owen into the overall picture is extremely problematic, including a possible gunshot, which I find unlikely. Whatever the story in the run-up to the moment Owen passed the turnout, what we are led to believe is that two vehicles sat alongside each other with apparently no occupants, and no bodies present in the turnout for that minimum of 30 seconds. But what if the Zodiac Killer had pulled into the turnout 3 minutes before Owen arrived? The explanation gets ever more problematic. David Faraday, by all that knew him, indicated a level-headed conscientious young man, so had a vehicle of unknown occupants pulled alongside him in a lonely turnout, in near darkness and just sat there for one minute doing nothing, I suspect he would have had reservations concerning their intentions. But as you stated – not a surprise – had he already been ushered across. The person inside the other vehicle may already have made dialogue or presented himself as a member of law enforcement. Of course, all these problems go away if Owen’s statement was false. But that cannot be proved. However, the scenario you described is feasible.

Many thanks for your understanding and clarification.

So, if I have this straight, in order to mesh all eyewitness statements as best as we can, what we have is: Faraday initially parks on the east side, they are disturbed by Your, Faraday moves the car to the west bank, this is when Connelly sees the Rambler (seats are down meaning Faraday and Jensen cannot be seen), some time later the killer arrives behind the Rambler forcing Faraday again to move the car across to the east side, at some point after Faraday has moved his car across the killer also moves his car across to come alongside Faraday, shortly after this Owen drives past seeing no-one (again, this could just be that he didn’t notice anyone, not that they weren’t there), as soon as Owen is out of sight the killer gets out, fires the warning shot, and it all starts.

Now, the odd parts of this are the apparant non-reaction of Faraday to an unknown vehicle arriving, and I agree, it certainly would spook me. But perhaps Faraday just thought it was another couple arriving and moved his car back across to the east side to allow them some space, maybe he didn’t look too hard at the occupant of the killer’s car, thinking that maybe there were two people inside. Now you have Faraday on the east and the killer still in his original position behind where they were on the west side. At this point Faraday and Jensen focus on each other again, thinking that the other car is also a couple or just ignorning it. Minutes pass (two or three, maybe more) and then the killer pulls up alongside them. Likely Faraday and Jensen notice this, maybe its disconcerting, maybe its annoying to have someone pull up near to them, but the other car has already been there for a bit, so it’s not a shock as though it had suddently arrived; plus, they might still think its a couple and are not paying too much attention. Faraday and Jensen have the seats back, so when Owen goes by at this point he sees nothing untoward.

While it’s still somewhat strange, I’ll admit, for me it’s the least outlandish sequence of events that could have happened. Afterall, we know that, for whatever reason, Faraday did not up and leave the moment the killer arrived, and that the killer doesn’t just turn up, get out, and start shooting, he does seem to wait.

But as you said, “All these problems go away if Owen’s statement was false”, which very well could be the case if he was actually the killer, and as morf13 also said, “Due to how tight the timeframe is, I think it’s entirely possible that Owen was Zodiac based on the timeframe, and the things I previously mentioned above about Owen. It simply would take the greatest luck for Zodiac to slip in to the scene without being seen just prior to Owen arriving, and slip out just before Borges finding the bodies, and Owen happens to be there at that time. He should have been properly ruled out as a suspect”.