He wanted to be a supervillain.

I think he wanted to hide his face.

Assuming that Cecilia had known him from Riverside, it would have been very strange seeing this guy suddenly @ Lake Berryessa. Especially if she was already afraid of him she immediately had stood up and alerted something to be going wrong. In that case it may have become difficult for Z: Someone could hear the shots, risking him to get caught or at least his car to get realized. A knife attack as well as binding them together would have become impossible.

Opposite it is unlikely that Z had prepared the hood for the attack as the decision to go to LB was made late. The only thing Hartnell had done inbetween the market and LB was to bring his new TV to his place before picking up Cecilia again. Therefore it may have been someone from the market or his college, imo. Z’scar had stopped directly behind Hartnell’s, therefore I don’t think it was someone incidentially passing by their site. Rather someone was looking for them before finding them at the less frequented northern area of the Lake.

I doubt that someone on the market had met them, then started to prepare nylon ropes and hood, and later followed them without even knowing where they would go. I 100% prefer the scenario that Hartnell went to his room to dispose of the TV, told someone there (roommate?) that he’ll meet Cecilia to spend time at LB. Then, in rage, he prepared the hood and the ropes in less than 2-3 hours, following them to LB. Searching them he couldn’t find but finally was successful finding their car. Then prepared, he went down without being recognized, stabbing both.

Wasn’t there even one guy driving around at LB and even greeting Hartnell?

QT

I think to both hide his ID,and to look like a super villain

I agree with the super villian thing. There is no other reason he would create something like that unless it was made to instill fear in his victims. Zodiac was calculating. If it was a simple matter of disguise he would have just used a ski mask. The custom made hood always intrigued me. The care he took to make the hood is astounding. One question I have always wanted to know is why he would go through with using such a disguise when the end game was to murder his victims. I wonder if he somehow wanted one of his victims to survive to let people know how he was dressed.

I agree with the super villian thing. There is no other reason he would create something like that unless it was made to instill fear in his victims. Zodiac was calculating. If it was a simple matter of disguise he would have just used a ski mask. The custom made hood always intrigued me. The care he took to make the hood is astounding. One question I have always wanted to know is why he would go through with using such a disguise when the end game was to murder his victims. I wonder if he somehow wanted one of his victims to survive to let people know how he was dressed.

That is one of the things I think is possible. After killing Darlene,and wounding M.M.
M.M was able to give a description. The next attack he did was the LB one, and this time he wore something covering his head. Used a gun to control them, then stabbed them with a knife. Well a knife is quieter, but they still screamed, and made noise.

I often wondered if he it was deliberate to try and leave Bryan alive. When he made the phone call he said,"I want to report a murder-no, a double murder". jmo

The other reason I thought he could of worn the hood, was just for scare tactics. Someone in a hood is scary and intimidating. With or without a gun.

I think to both hide his ID,and to look like a super villain

I would echo this mostly.

Obviously the hood was for disguise. The level or purpose of that is open to conjecture but at it’s base level, it’s a disguise. Makes sense as it’s in a public area in daylight albeit it at a slightly off peak time.

I’m not sure about the super-villain angle per-se. It may have been an inspiration in styling but for some reason I get the feeling that even for Zodiac, that being a direct purpose or reason may have been a little bit too hokey. One thing that I’ve always thought about the design was that it would seem that it is designed to be flat packed. In other words, easy to conceal if need be. The other, rather more gruesome, thing that occurs to me is that it covers a large area of his front as well as his head … it’s a splatter guard.

As for the symbolism of it resembling an executioner’s hood, as mentioned before, well I’m sure that wasn’t lost on Z although it’s hard to say of this was an inspiration. It could well have been.

And so to the symbol. Well Zodiac, IMHO, did progress to demonstrate that he was visually aware. I can see that in his letters and communicae that he sent to LE and the newspapers. Consider the suggested possibility that he echoed the font style from Belli’s house number in the address on the envelope for the letter he sent to him. There’s even the placement of the cipher blocks within their own pages, slightly elevated above center, to sit visually comfortably within the the page. With the hood, I think once he’d worked out how it would function and had actually made it (possibly after one or two prototypes) he couldn’t just leave that big black nondescript square on the front alone. Visually it was just begging to have something on it and since he had already solved the hard bit (the what) and was staring at the where, from a design conscious POV it was almost inevitable. This is also, I feel, echoed in the apparent care he took (according to BH’s recounting of its appearance) in creating it. Makes sense as I feel he was already pleased with his flat-pack hood with integral splatter guard to why ruin it with a shoddily reproduced symbol. No, that had to look good too.

So, in a nutshell, I think that the majority of decisions regarding the design and appearance of the hood were self-serving, insular, perfunctory. The inspiration/s may have been an executioner, super-villain etc but those are still styling issues and hark back to being visually aware, or simply put, how good something looks.

It was a branding thing. I think that BH surviving to describe it was a bonus for him. The branding on the hood just tied the whole theme together in Zodiac’s head. Like having branded beer coasters at a PR event, most of them will get ruined and discarded but that’s ok because at Berryessa the main event was personalized by the signing of the car door, not least by the gruesome event itself.

I think to both hide his ID,and to look like a super villain

I would echo this mostly.

Obviously the hood was for disguise. The level or purpose of that is open to conjecture but at it’s base level, it’s a disguise. Makes sense as it’s in a public area in daylight albeit it at a slightly off peak time.

I’m not sure about the super-villain angle per-se. It may have been an inspiration in styling but for some reason I get the feeling that even for Zodiac, that being a direct purpose or reason may have been a little bit too hokey. One thing that I’ve always thought about the design was that it would seem that it is designed to be flat packed. In other words, easy to conceal if need be. The other, rather more gruesome, thing that occurs to me is that it covers a large area of his front as well as his head … it’s a splatter guard.

As for the symbolism of it resembling an executioner’s hood, as mentioned before, well I’m sure that wasn’t lost on Z although it’s hard to say of this was an inspiration. It could well have been.

And so to the symbol. Well Zodiac, IMHO, did progress to demonstrate that he was visually aware. I can see that in his letters and communicae that he sent to LE and the newspapers. Consider the suggested possibility that he echoed the font style from Belli’s house number in the address on the envelope for the letter he sent to him. There’s even the placement of the cipher blocks within their own pages, slightly elevated above center, to sit visually comfortably within the the page. With the hood, I think once he’d worked out how it would function and had actually made it (possibly after one or two prototypes) he couldn’t just leave that big black nondescript square on the front alone. Visually it was just begging to have something on it and since he had already solved the hard bit (the what) and was staring at the where, from a design conscious POV it was almost inevitable. This is also, I feel, echoed in the apparent care he took (according to BH’s recounting of its appearance) in creating it. Makes sense as I feel he was already pleased with his flat-pack hood with integral splatter guard to why ruin it with a shoddily reproduced symbol. No, that had to look good too.

So, in a nutshell, I think that the majority of decisions regarding the design and appearance of the hood were self-serving, insular, perfunctory. The inspiration/s may have been an executioner, super-villain etc but those are still styling issues and hark back to being visually aware, or simply put, how good something looks.

It was a branding thing. I think that BH surviving to describe it was a bonus for him. The branding on the hood just tied the whole theme together in Zodiac’s head. Like having branded beer coasters at a PR event, most of them will get ruined and discarded but that’s ok because at Berryessa the main event was personalized by the signing of the car door, not least by the gruesome event itself.

The use of the symbol and creative elements of his letters in communications makes me think that Zodiac definitely was in a creative field. Possibly graphic design. I think he used his symbol as some sort of twisted brand. An instance of this would be his request for people to wear those zodiac buttons. I know you have done a ton of research on the subject and a ton of evidence points to that he may have been some sort of creator.

The use of the symbol and creative elements of his letters in communications makes me think that Zodiac definitely was in a creative field. Possibly graphic design. I think he used his symbol as some sort of twisted brand. An instance of this would be his request for people to wear those zodiac buttons. I know you have done a ton of research on the subject and a ton of evidence points to that he may have been some sort of creator.

That pretty much rounds it up. I am a graphic designer by trade and was fortunate enough to have had a career that spanned manual artwork and then the advent of computers being the norm. There are some things that appear to be designer traits in Zodiac’s missives but it’s not enough for me to say yes, he was a graphic designer. He may have been near or around such processes which is why the whole college/education aspect appeals to me. It’s a forum where you can draw inspiration from many sources. A place where you also would have access to a myriad of tools from graphic items such as lightboxes to sewing machines and so on. That’s just the physical tools but it’s also a melting pot for inspiration from threatening missives to bomb making or art/literature and chemistry as it was most likely advertised as lol.

The graphic side of things just won’t go away. ZGen picked up on it recently. http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtop … =97&t=1452

I think I mentioned it before somewhere. Might even have been back on ZKF.com but his symbol is actually a registration mark (as pointed out by Smithy on ZGen’s thread. That’s just one more element that harks towards him being near processes where it would have been used. I couldn’t tell you how many times I used that symbol over the years. Mostly I would have drawn it by hand with a rotring pen on to artwork layers but if I had time on a project I would have used the registration marks from the Letraset sheets (rubbing transfers for designers).

I have an experience gap though when it comes to college. I never went. I did some but that was on placement from my place of work for a few years and not proper art college/college as such. I joined a design firm straight from high school and was taught inhouse. Even the designers commented that I had learned more in my first year on placement than they had in four years of college because my experience was first hand, relevant and real world. That’s why I’m cautious about saying Z was a designer. There’s a lack of refinement there that, given his assumed age range, doesn’t fit. What is does fit though is college level experimenting and variation.

As you say, some sort of creator and as one myself inspiration is found from wherever you can find it. If that happens to be a college setting then it’s abundant, especially art college. Like I said I didn’t have the ‘normal’ route to my career but I did have some experience of art college, a kinda art college lite and the things I saw there and in later years as a qualified designer, going to final shows at the local art colleges, were myriad in their subject matter as you can imagine.

Sorry the post is so long. I’m just working through my own thoughts on this matter. I’m thinking about my own experiences and those Z might have had that could explain the hood and why he branded it. A criteria that would satisfy why he designed it like he did and why he branded it.

There’s also the ‘why’ he choose it. Actually maybe that’s not the right question, maybe it’s not a questions but more an observation. ‘How he used it’. He used it as a signature, a sign off, an apparel brand, a compass, a space filler (on the 340). There’s an adaptability implementation there that, to myself at least, is a graphic trait, he was making his brand modular. Not least the request to see it on badges as you mentioned. He wanted his brand implemented, rolled out. Doesn’t mean he was a designer but it does suggest that he was at least aware of that process/thinking.

At the very least, IMHO, he was in real life around such processes. He could well have been the sandwich guy who showed an interest when delivering his lunchtime orders or hung out in or worked in a bar frequented by creative industry types of the time. There are ‘clews’ a-plenty but are they runners or dead ends? I do think though that some of the things he did where not necessarily common knowledge. Sure you could say he could have looked it up in a book but even that betrays an interest in such matters (graphic/design/printing matters). The different handwriting styles not withstanding.

Bottom line is our guy was creative and I’m not convinced it was entirely amateurish. Some things you just can’t learn from books, well you could but you wouldn’t necessarily know to look for them. He also seems to employ graphic techniques that although we are familiar with them now, they weren’t necessarily common knowledge back then. Maybe most aren’t even familiar with them now. Registration marks, eh, eh? Oh and they’re called that because they were used to ‘register’ or line up the different plates in printing to produce a full colour image or even single colours.

He designed, created and branded that hood. He was the designer and the art director on that project.

Just my thoughts based on my own experiences in life and thoughts about this stuff over the years. Doesn’t mean I’m right, just offering my thoughts but I do find myself coming to the same conclusions. This guy was creative and not necessarily on an amateur level, just not sure yet if he was a creative professional. Not sure I ever will be until he’s identified.

Ok, I’m done lol. Apologies to M48 for such a long post on your thread. I guess subconsciously I was filling you in on a lot of the thinking over the years. I’ve really enjoyed reading your posts about LHR. Fascinating to read about your experiences from that time. So well written, with dates and all. Little snapshots into the past and the times, especially for a foreigner like me. Many thanks.

Why do people wear the clothes they wear? Sure, it’s partially about the way people want others to perceive them but I would suggest that it’s more about expressing the way they perceive themselves. Z apparently designed his Lake Berryessa outfit very meticulously and I don’t buy that he expected his victims to survive (after stabbing them in their torsos multiple times) to relate how he was dressed. He dressed that way because the outfit and the symbol held deep personal significance to him, IMHO.

I changed your where to wear. I’m that consciousness

I don’t buy that he expected his victims to survive (after stabbing them in their torsos multiple times) to relate how he was dressed.

Yes, possibly. And, possibly echoed by his phone convo correction. Maybe he thought he’d gone overboard? "A murder, no a double murder". Was he thinking on his feet? possibly but this wasn’t exactly a Paul Stine, Bullet to the head. He may have intended to leave one alive but then wasn’t sure if that would happen. Then why phone it in so promptly if he really did intend them to die? It’s almost like he was operating on the absolute fringe, kill them but leave them alive long enough to add to the legend. How do you equate for that though? Maybe he didn’t, maybe he just ‘had a go’ and it worked out?

I’m not sure there is a reason or pattern to it. As odd as it might sound, I’m not sure murder was his ultimate goal. Certainly a very real possibility but it’s almost like he enjoyed the randomness of the outcomes. If they lived or if he was spotted (presidio heights) he seemed to relish the attention to further communicate and show off.

It’s almost like early research for a book called "Murder for Dummies".

but I would suggest that it’s more about expressing the way they perceive themselves.

Tricky one that. I know of instances where clothes were an issue for other’s and their perception but it turned out that the perception of the person wearing the clothes was way off the mark. He just dressed the way he dressed and didn’t think that much about it. It was other’s that projected. A classic book and cover example.

Point is, from my own experience, there are people who dress a certain way and don’t think that much about it. It means nothing to them. No significance even if it’s obvious to the rest of us.

I think it was meant to possibly serve three purposes. The first and most obvious was to disguise himself. Secondly, it was meant to terrorize the prospective victims, ie. paralyze them with fear which would make it easier for him to gain control of the situation. Thirdly, this was out in a rural area and the outfit resembles a beekeeper’s outfit. IMO, Zodiac had/has allergies to bees. That hood and the outfit would have protected him against bee stings and hay fever attacks. He could not risk becoming disabled in any way. I think the limp was either faked by him or came from wearing the wrong size shoes or boots or possible something like paper stuffed inside to make him look taller which would have been part of the disguise.

He watched and waited for the precise time and figured he could safely get away and would have the time he needed to do just that.

I think it was meant to possibly serve three purposes. The first and most obvious was to disguise himself. Secondly, it was meant to terrorize the prospective victims, ie. paralyze them with fear which would make it easier for him to gain control of the situation. Thirdly, this was out in a rural area and the outfit resembles a beekeeper’s outfit. IMO, Zodiac had/has allergies to bees. That hood and the outfit would have protected him against bee stings and hay fever attacks. He could not risk becoming disabled in any way. I think the limp was either faked by him or came from wearing the wrong size shoes or boots or possible something like paper stuffed inside to make him look taller which would have been part of the disguise.

He watched and waited for the precise time and figured he could safely get away and would have the time he needed to do just that.

Ok.

I don’t want to sound discouraging. The beekeeper mask/hood isn’t an unreasonable idea. It may well have been suggested before. You have to take it further though. Way further. If he really did have allergies to bees then you would have to investigate every aspect of that at all times of the year and cross reference it against the other crimes.

As for the wrong sized shoes. Nah, sorry no dice and the limp? what limp? back to wrong sized shoes, have you tried wearing the wrong size? I have and it felt like I was crippled (more than usual lol). I know Foulke’s description describes his walk as a semi-limp (ambling?) but that was a split second snapshot, he may well have appeared to be doing that, and may well have been consciously doing it but there’ s no suggestion of that at LBR and Bryan Hartnell was quite detailed in his descriptions and never once mentioned a limp. In fact he mentioned Zodiac covering the distances between himself and them quickly.

Yes, I think if old limpy mc’limpy really was walk disabled in someway he wouldn’t have been out killing people and evading capture in the manner he did. Hmmmm, I walk with a limp on a flat surface going downhill, I know lets kill some people on a remote island with a steep upward climb to escape. Wouldn’t be my first choice if I really did have a walking impediment. And I actually do so I’m talking from experience.The walking bit that is lol.