For years the widespread belief is that Betty Lou Jensen was shot after fleeing, or being forced to flee westwards across the Lake Herman Road turnout, directly away from the Zodiac Killer, with him standing directly behind. The autopsy results of Betty Lou Jensen totally discredit this notion. The problem has arisen from the incorrect and misleading police sketches, that do not tally with the photographs, and thereby create a false construct in our minds.
In the photograph below I have marked the entry wounds 1 through 5, and the positions of the in situ bullets and exit wounds in red. (yellow marks the exit wounds). THE EXIT WOUNDS WERE ON HER FRONT SIDE, BUT MARKED ON HER BACK TO PROVIDE A COMPARISON TO THE ENTRY WOUNDS. It can be noted that all but one of the red circles are left of the entry points. Admittedly bullets can deflect off internal structures, but all five of the bullets went on a right to left trajectory from their entry point, fully discrediting the notion of a Zodiac Killer standing to the rear of a fleeing Betty Lou Jensen. There are two possibilities, either [1] She was running across the line of the Zodiac Killer from left to right or [2] She was likely shot at least 3 or 4 times while prostrate or kneeling on the ground, facing east, with the killer standing almost or very close to a stationary target.
With the cars 10 feet apart the Zodiac Killer could still stand between the two vehicles, with the expended shell casings being ejected to his right and rear, in the pattern exhibited in the police sketch, however the relationship between the Rambler and Betty Lou Jensen in the sketch is totally inaccurate. I have designed a new sketch depicting a second vehicle 10 feet to the right of the Rambler, Zodiac standing between, or slightly front of them, showing the casings can still be ejected to the right of the Faraday Rambler, and still facilitating the killer to be standing close to Betty Lou Jensen. From this position, Betty Lou is facing east, perpendicular to the two vehicles, but effectively a sitting duck, either lying prone or crawling. From this position the shooter creates approximately a 45 degree angle to the horizontal, and a trajectory that mimics the autopsy results where every exit point or bullet resting position is considerably left of the entry point in each and every example. It is these autopsy findings that makes a rear firing shooter, standing behind Betty Lou Jensen, while she is running for her life, a myth that is simply not backed up by the scientific facts.
In the image below the rough position of Zodiac can be shown, or somewhere close to the white circle.
It’s hard for me to see visually exit wounds on her back. For those marks in red to be exit wounds, the bullets would have had to travel under her skin and pop back out again. I don’t see that happening and there are no signs of that. Unless I am misunderstanding you.
The autopsy clearly reports exit wounds on her front side.
http://zodiackiller.com/BLJAutopsyReport.html
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Yes you are. I cannot mark them on the front of her body, because it’s not visible. If you project a line into or through the body with a straight line, these are where they either rested in her body or came out of the chest region, or front of her body. The entry and exit wounds are just placed on her back to show their relationship to one another. Have amended the article for clarity.
OK, so the whole episode appears murky. Sometimes it is speculated that the Z had to be a good marksman to shoot the girl at LHR but that’s hogwash. If he shot her while she was prostrate or kneeling he wouldn’t have to be a good marksman. Plus, I don’t think it’s known how many times he missed.
I believe he missed 4 times. 10 shots were fired. 5 hit Betty and 1 hit David. Three hit vehicle. 1 bullet unaccounted for.
UK,
Would it be too much trouble for you to show a black and white version of what you speak of similar to the police sketch? I feel I’m following with regards to Betty but would like to see something flat in terns of where Z might have been.
Thanks
Size
Green circle – bullet casings
red dot- Zodiac
This is only rough sketch, but from this position Zodiac is standing virtually between the cars, very close to a prone or crawling Betty Lou. The shots from this 45 degree angle of trajectory would strike Betty Lou in a right to left trajectory shown in the autopsy, not possible from a standing rear position. The bullet casings ejected to the right and rear of the shooter would still land in between the cars, in the position the police sketch shows. The problem with the police sketch mind, is it shows an incorrect relationship between Betty Lou’s body position and the Rambler. Look at the above diagram I’ve made and the exact position of Betty Lou and the Rambler in the photograph, it is identical, then look at the police sketch and see they do not match the photograph. This means the Rambler was never found by police facing the eastern edge, it was facing more towards the fenced gate. Betty Lou could not have been shot as depicted by the police sketch, running westwards, with Zodiac standing behind her [1] Because the autopsy tells a different tale, and [2] The police sketch is incorrect. The police sketch shows Betty Lou aligned on the east/west axis, the same as the Rambler, the photograph however doesn’t concur with this. The police sketch shows Faraday and Jensen positioned 90 degrees to one another. In the photograph they are virtually parallel, and this skews our conception of how events unfolded. The mystery vehicle is 10 feet to the right of the Rambler, and Betty Lou was found 10 feet to the rear of the Rambler, borne out by the sketch above.
Police sketch;
Photograph;
I agree with your theory, but the second description about the errors in the sketch confuses me.
The sketch is based on an above view and is not to scale. It doesn’t indicate any distances, so it seems to me it’s only meant to show relative positions.
Edit: it does show one of the shell casings as being found 20 feet from the car, if you take that as accurate relative distance, that places Betty Lou over 30 feet away from the car, which is clearly not true. So that to me confirms that it was not meant to show accurate scale, and not that the sketch was wrong about her body position.
The angle of the photograph is not determined because we don’t know the position of the photographer. But it’s a perspective shot, so the positions are distorted and it clearly was taken after the scene had been altered.
Either way, I would be more inclined to believe the general accuracy of the sketch because it was created by someone who actually viewed the scene, as opposed to an interpretation based only on what is shown in that photo.
UK,
I disagree in terns of Zodiac vehicle location, 3 to 10′ away from the Faraday vehicle, because that position doesn’t adequately explain the casing found 20′ away or Owen’s inability to see the ssecond vehicle. I feel that it is more likely that the Zodiacs vehicle was to the right of the 20′ casing with the Zodiacs car door parallel to the rear window of Faraday’s car. However, I don’t think it makes much difference where the Zodiacs vehicle is outside of that 20′ casing.
Casings drop, back and to the right, of a shooter. It would seem that the Zodiac being at a near tail end of his vehicle, even at a 10′ distance, would not produce the casing pattern shown as the Zodiac would be to far of a distance away from the casings. I think it is more likely, even if his car was 10′ away, that the Zodiac was standing in the vicinity of the 4′ casing when he fired his first shot at a victim. Unfortunately this opinion is not a flattering one for those who believe that Faraday was shot first. I no longer believe that line of theory myself and its thanks in part to your theory of trajectory. At the 4′ casing the Zodiac is in no position to fire on David and produce the evidence to Davids head. He is not even in a position to do it even at the 3′ mark and quite possibly the 1′ mark. That’s 4 casings showing the fired at something other than David and I think three of those in quick succession were to the upper right portion of Betty’s body. If you think about it, Betty being in a position near the rear wheel and facing directly towards the car door in search of David exiting, puts Betty in the trajectory you speak with zodiac standing at about the 1′ mark by his third shot. David exits the vehicle at this point and in unison, David and wounded Betty, are making their escape. At this point the Zodiac is between the 1′ mark and the two shown beside Faraday’s body. When David reaches the wheel the Zodiac fires at Davids head producing the casing found closest to the front of the vehicle. Faraday drops at rear wheel and the Zodiac steps over Davids body and fires the final two shots at Betty pproducing the two casings at dDavids feet. The shot to David and every shot to Betty, I think, would be in line of the ttrajectory you speak.
Soze
The scenario could have unfolded several ways as you detailed, but the upshot is we can agree that in no way was Betty Lou shot into the right side of her back, with Zodiac squarely behind, unless every bullet magically deflected left, shown by the autopsy.
Yup
Soze
How about this crazy idea: The first two shots were the ones near the center line of the body. After absorbing those shots, Betty Lou’s erector muscles on the right side contracted to "guard" her back and her torso consequently twisted to the right as she ran. This placed the lateral part of the right side of her back closer to the shooter and also exposed that portion of her back to him while making the previously exposed midline more difficult to hit. It also made the trajectory of a straight shot from the rear have a definite right to left component due solely to the position of her body despite the fact that she was still running away from the shooter in a straight line. There are two shots that exited near the midline, with three being more right to left in trajectory. This scenario makes more sense than imagining that she was running from side to side like a duck in a shooting gallery. People are not stick figures and can twist, turn, bend and contort when being shot at.
My friend Jim Dean is a certified firearms expert who always reminds me that .22 and .25 slugs can readily deflect and bang around once they get inside a body, especially if they nick a bone. They can really travel from the stories he told me yesterday. That can also account for some of these deflected shots. That is also why I have always been reluctant to try to match the entry wounds with the exits on BLJ, since it may not be as linear and left-brained as we think and shots may not have traveled in nice straight lines.
Mike
Mike Rodelli
Author, The Hunt for Zodiac; 3.9 stars on Amazon and
In The Shadow of Mt. Diablo: The Shocking True Identity of the Zodiac Killer, a second edition in print format. 4.3 Amazon stars and great Editorial reviews. Twitter:@mikerodelli
That is also why I have always been reluctant to try to match the entry wounds with the exits on BLJ, since it may not be as linear and left-brained as we think and shots may not have traveled in nice straight lines.
Fair point, that.
