The only thing I can think of is that perhaps Zodiac caught wind of Michael Mageau’s description of a large flashlight (was this published anywhere before August 4?) and, for whatever reason, wanted to steer police away from this clue. If the "small pencel flashlight" worked so well on Lake Herman Road, why not use it at Blue Rock Springs?

To me, Zodiac’s bizarre, insistent description would indicate that the high-powered flashlight is a significant clue, not because it would be a particularly unusual thing for someone to carry, but because for some reason he really didn’t want the police to focus on it, so to speak.

That’s an interesting suggestion — thank you. Some have suspected that the Zodiac may have been in law enforcement. Perhaps he was concerned that either the flashlight itself or the way in which he held it — or both — might have pointed in this direction. Since Mageau had drawn attention to the flashlight following the Blue Rock Springs attack, we could imagine a scenario in which Zodiac was scrambling to throw a bit of dust in investigators’ eyes. Was the goofy stuff about the ‘pencel flash light’ in the August 4th ’69 letter part of an effort to paint himself as a gadgets nut? It would offer an alternative context for the Blue Rock Springs flashlight on which for investigators to concentrate — a context behind which Zodiac may have been seeking to hide.

I’m one of those people who has considered that Zodiac may have been in law enforcement, or that he was at least somehow privy to details of the investigation that were not made public. I think it’s plausible that the "small pencel flashlight" stuff was his attempt to say "It wasn’t a police flashlight!"
But it could also be that he was trying stuff out in his basement as he wrote the letter and simply wanted to sound cool/scary.

Another line (among many) from that letter that strikes me as ‘off’ is "They did not openly state this, but implied this by saying it was a well lit night…" It sounds weirdly careful. Why mention that the police didn’t openly state something?

I agree. I think the line you quote sounds more than weirdly careful — though I agree that it sounds that. It sounds aggrieved, too. But the odd thing is that it’s not really clear what there is to be aggrieved at. Why should he have cared that the police believed that he’d shot at his victims’ silhouettes? And, as you say, why should he have cared that the police may have implied this rather than stating it outright? We’re dealing with a disturbed mind, of course — that caveat bears restating — but the whole thing seems souped up to me. I think we’re agreed that it may be a pretext for shoehorning in some sort of misdirection. If so, that could reveal important clues by showing us where the Zodiac’s raw nerves lay.

Silkweaver

Captain Pitta’s report on the Jensen/Faraday attack states that the ‘entry holes’ of the bullets that were fired at Betty Lou Jensen ‘were in a remarkable [sic] close pattern’. Was the story spun by the Zodiac in his August 4th ’69 letter about a ‘small pencel flash light’ intended to mask the fact that with possibly only car headlights to work by he had proven a crack shot? Worthy of comment in Pitta’s report…

Is it firearms training of some (identifiable) kind that the Zodiac was trying to hide?

Silkweaver

If I may present according to my understanding of the evidence and chronology,

In my estimation, Z needed 1 part icy soul, 1 part determination or plan, and 1 part familiarity with the firearm (muscle memory developed from shooting at squirrels…).

You can have determined a plan but without an icy soul your logical brain problem solving will not be accessible due to emotion.

Why use a pencil light at Lake Herman but headlights at Blue Rock?

He does not have to be a crack shot at 10 to 15 ft at Blue Rock. Just no emotional distractions.

At Lake Herman, Jensen was running not standing still at 28 ft away where her body laid. She was moving away from car. Count the seconds 5 ft, 15 ft (still easy shot), 25 ft, fell at 30+ ft. including reaction time 4 secs maybe? And she probably was running in a straight line.

Maybe he switched from the M.O. of having them exit the car to pointing headlights so mentally disarmed they "thought the Police" were investigating. More control, less shots and sound report, less time at scene.

Anyone concur?

Silkweaver:

I went back and read the article to which Zodiac was presumably responding. It states, "Lundblad explained the killer needed no artificial lighting for accuracy in shooting the girl, since she was running on a plateau and her body was silhouetted against the sky." I wonder what prompted this statement. A question at a press conference? Anyway, I think that my flashlight theory is probably not right — if Lundblad didn’t believe Zodiac used a flashlight at Lake Herman Road and Zodiac didn’t want the police to believe that he had used a particular kind of flashlight, it wouldn’t make a lot sense for Zodiac to bring flashlights up in his letter at all. (Not that any of this makes any sense.)

I agree that Zodiac sounds aggrieved at the proposition that he was shooting in the dark. Maybe, as you say, he was trying to downplay his skill. Or maybe it was the opposite: he bristled at the implication that his target was easy to see, and wanted everyone to know that it was dark and hilly, but that with his ingenious technology the murder was easy for him. Or maybe he had been playing with the pencil flashlight in his basement after the fact and simply had some retroactive fantasy about using it.

Just some thoughts. I agree with you that the whole thing is strange.

Many thanks, brubaker. I agree that a press conference may have been where the question of lighting came up — perhaps Lundblad’s al fresco interview with the press a snippet of which we see in the documentary which accompanied Fincher’s movie? All things being equal, if the Lake Herman Road investigators were ruling out artificial lighting I can see that it would be better for a flashlight-anxious Zodiac to keep schtum. But all things were not equal, because I think Zodiac’s flashlight at Blue Rock Springs may already have become a talking point in connection with that later attack — as you suggested in an earlier post.

Morf has posted a couple of newspaper articles about the Blue Rock Springs attack to this website. One, which admittedly describes Mageau as having been in an intensive care unit for ‘weeks’ (so perhaps dating from later than August, when the Zodiac wrote the letter we’re discussing), reports as follows: ‘A powerful beam of light then was shone on the couple from within the other car. They thought it was a policeman’s spotlight and they "started digging for identification," Mageau said.’

Ed Rust’s police report on the attack similarly states: ‘…the subject got out and walked toward the car. He had a large high-powered flashlight, the kind you carry with a handle. This subject walked up to the car and Michael stated that both he and Dea believed that it was a policeman and that he wanted to check their I.D. or something. Stated subject stepped up to Michael’s side of the car, which is the right side, shining the flashlight on them. Subject did not say anything to them, nor did they say anything to him. Michael stated he started to reach for his wallet as he felt it was a policeman who wanted to see his I.D.’

It seems to me to be entirely possible that if Zodiac was getting anxious about the Blue Rock Springs flashlight, and a possible law enforcement connection, he might take the opportunity which Lundblad’s comments presented to him to insinuate a new and less sweat-making connection: not law enforcement, but gadgets nut (or something like that). Misdirection: the desperateness of which is reflected in the weird tone of the whole thing. I don’t think your flashlight theory is ruled out by any means, brubaker…

Hi,

I think that Lundblad was quoted somewhere as saying all of the shots into Jensen could have been covered by a 50 cent piece. That was clearly not true. Don’t recall where I heard it but it was a long time ago. I know I heard this somewhere at some point because I recall thinking that it would have had to have been a huge 50 cent piece.

I think Z was very proud of his pencil flashlight sighting mechanism even though it was not original. Maybe he was ignorant of the fact that his idea was not original and felt that he had improvised it? If so, he clearly would have been offended by Lundblad saying that no sighting mechanism was needed, thus minimizing hat he had "invented" to overcome the darkness out there. The fact that he took pride in the sighting mechanism is that he mentions it in a second letter.

Thanks, Silkweaver. The reason I asked about the context of Lundblad’s question is because I wonder whether he was bluffing — trying to goad Zodiac into saying more about the lighting that he used. It seems like a such strange conjecture to make public. What evidence did he have that Zodiac didn’t use a flashlight at Lake Herman Road? And why talk about this detail at all? Perhaps the witnesses reported not seeing any lights and Lundblad was addressing that point. Or maybe someone at a press conference simply asked, "How did he shoot them in such darkness?"

Anyway, I like the term "flashlight-anxious." I think Zodiac was certainly that.

From what I’ve read the shots in Jensen’s back are not close at all. the start low down and go up to near her shoulder.

From what I’ve read the shots in Jensen’s back are not close at all. the start low down and go up to near her shoulder.

You can see the autopsy photo. They cover more or less the whole right side of her back, spread out. It is believed that there were two stray shots as well, which may well have been two missed shots fired at BLJ. They just never found the bullets. Did the attacker use a flashlight? Possibly, it certainly was reported for the BRS attack.

As for the flashlight story, I think it is that whoever is trying to "invent" the Zodiac thought it would be more fun to come with this gun-flashlight combo idea and just based that on Mageau reporting the use of a flashlight (which was actually reported as a high caliber flashlight). It’s completely made up, and explains why this would never be featured again in future attacks, just like how the guns used are never the same in each attack; it’s someone making things up from the information he manages to pull off from police reports.