Did Zodiac really have any unique information about the Lake Herman Road murders?
The number of slugs (10) was noted in newspaper articles at the time.
The direction the victims faced was noted on police diagrams of the crime scene with compass directions superimposed. The same information might have been known by persons who saw the crime scene and discussed it locally.
The type of ammunition was in police reports. Again, this would be difficult to know, but in the course of the investigation who is to say that information didn’t get out or wasn’t discussed in law enforcement circles.
Sometimes I look at the four events and think you can group the first two together and the last two together and that there is some bridge between those two sets of murders that nobody has hit on. If that is the case I think so much time has gone by there is almost zero chance the case will ever be solved.
Stella Borges was the last person to pass the turnout that night, discovering the bodies and noting that Betty Lou was on her right side facing the road. The Zodiac Killer described exactly the same thing: "the girl was on her right side feet to the west". Investigators arriving shortly thereafter, described her position as face down. This should indicate that the Zodiac Killer and Stella Borges were at the crime scene in the critical window of time when Betty Lou Jensen shifted position – and hence validate the letter writer and killer as one person. This is the likeliest answer with the path of least resistance. But as so often occurs (like the Stine shirt piece), the more unlikely path is often touted, such as Stella Borges recounted the details of that night to a friend (specifically stating that the girl was on her right side). This friend told person B in exact detail, which passed to person C, person D, etc, before finally arriving at a very nasty person who decided to hoax a letter, ultimately morphing into the Zodiac Killer. The other widely touted idea, is a member of law enforcement read the police report and decided to hoax the letters. All of which there is absolutely no evidence for, other than an idea constructed as a more unlikely alternative. We know that the Zodiac Killer’s description of the body position and Stella Borges’ recollections marry up. We either accept this as corroborative proof of his involvement, or we construct a hypothetical alternative we can never prove. It’s your choice what to believe. I could say that the Zodiac Killer arrived at the LHR crime scene in an ice-cream van, or pedalling a unicycle. This cannot be proven to be incorrect, but it doesn’t help advance the case, and is in essence, just a construct of my imagination. The same could be said of somebody slipping into the morgue undetected and tearing off a piece of Paul Stine’s shirt, then hoaxing a letter. These are made up stories with less foundation than the original premise – and as such, don’t get us anywhere.
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/
“I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story, two equal and logical sides to an argument.” Edward R. Murrow.
Points taken, but a follow up. What about the .38 caliber slug? Was there an accomplice?
From the Benecia Herald of December 23, 1970
“The maniacal boast of Zodiac, the psychopathic ‘horror-scope killer,’ that he shot to death two Vallejo teenagers on Lake Herman Road two years ago today has been challenged. Local authorities have obtained statements from two persons implicating another man and his accomplice as the slayers. But officers lack sufficient evidence to charge the men, later imprisoned, with the murders. For example, the death gun, a .22 caliber automatic pistol, reportedly was hurled into the Bay.
“The primary witness against the pair is a member of a motorcycle gang. His story is substantiated by a young woman. But neither their identities nor those of the accused killers, for obvious reasons, can be disclosed. Officers hope to ‘make the case’ in the future.
The .38 was a mistake, also mentioned in the Vallejo Evening News Chronicle:. "The new evidence of a possible accomplice at the murder scene consists of a .38 caliber bullet hole in the roof panel of the Faraday station wagon. The hole is on the passenger side of the vehicle and is slightly forward of a .22 caliber bullet hole in the rear window on that side. Lunblad declined to speculate on the importance of the .38 hole. He did say Faraday’s parents had said the hole had not been there before, and the hole appeared new to him".
This was corrected on December 24th 1968 in the Vallejo Times-Herald under the title Single Gun Used in Slayings.
"Only one gun was used in the double slaying Friday night on Lake Herman Road, of Vallejo teenagers David L Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, and in shooting up their car, it was learned positively Monday by Sheriff’s Sgt Leslie B Lunblad. The investigator said that what appeared to be a .38 caliber bullet hole in the roof of the Faraday station wagon actually was made by a small caliber bullet as the same size as those that killed the two youngsters".
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/
“I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story, two equal and logical sides to an argument.” Edward R. Murrow.
Thanks. Obviously I didn’t know that.
Stella Borges was the last person to pass the turnout that night, discovering the bodies and noting that Betty Lou was on her right side facing the road. The Zodiac Killer described exactly the same thing: "the girl was on her right side feet to the west". Investigators arriving shortly thereafter, described her position as face down. This should indicate that the Zodiac Killer and Stella Borges were at the crime scene in the critical window of time when Betty Lou Jensen shifted position – and hence validate the letter writer and killer as one person.
Is it possible that both different descriptions of the BLJ’s body are describing the same thing? Out of curiosity, I showed the picture to some different people and asked how they would describe the position of her body. A couple said “face down” and the other said “sort of in the recovery position on her right side”. Could the differences just be two ways of writing down the or describing pretty much the same position…? After all, she is still sort of slumped on her right side and face down in those photos and if Z was involved in LE or the press but wasn’t the murderer, he might have seen the photos and still describe it as he did.
To me she looks face down with only her left leg slightly bent.
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/
“I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story, two equal and logical sides to an argument.” Edward R. Murrow.
The stick figure in the crime scene sketch could be interpreted as depicting the victim lying on her right side.
Yes. I’d say it’s far from conclusive that Z proved without a doubt that he was there.
To be fair what other info could he have given? He wasn’t there long. The fact he described the scene similar to the lady who discovered the bodies is significant.
