I’ve just learned that Dave Slaight passed away on April 12th.

http://napavalleyregister.com/obituarie … f887a.html

Thank’s for posting that Seagull. That’s sad to hear. Seems to have been a nice guy too.

So that’s only one person, that we know of, left that’s heard Z’s voice.

Wow, that’s a shame. Sorry to hear this, he did seem like a nice guy, and he was pretty young too

That is sad..

In the space of of a year (or is it two?), the only two people in the world pass away that heard Zodiac speaking down the telephone. As an outsider who doesn’t know the two, I can only say what I know of them from public appearences. As a tribute to Nancy, once she was found after years of disappearing into obsecurity, she really did a lot to get involved in meetings where she would give talks, would try and help with anything she could and appear on crime shows if asked, and even got to play herself in the 2007 Hit Movie ‘Zodiac’.

As for David, every time his name is mentioned, the one thing that I always associate with him is consistancy. I’ve seen David recount what Zodiac said many times for many different shows/people/and books, and his account is always the same, word for word. That may seem like something that shouldn’t be appreciated, but simply expected, but people who know this case in depth will know how many times other names connected to this case have made the line between rumour, fictional story telling and outrite lies, and the actual events, locations and information regarding a whole range of thing in this case so blurred that people who first start researching Zodiac will be told 2 lies for every one truth from a lot of sorces.

It’s a testemant to these two, Nancy & David, that they were two who remained professional even long into retirement, and simply gave the facts and circumstances that led the call coming in, what Zodiac said in his short brag, and what they in trun tried to ask the caller. They never sensationalised any part of the accounts, never added or took away any details.

By the thousands of people Worldwide who know this case inside out, and even to thoes that have a fairly good understanding of it, the name’s of Officer David Slaigt & Police Dispatcher Nancy Slover, will never be forgotten.

Amen to that Welsh, well said. With Nancy I always imagined in the initial years following the Z crimes she probably kept a very low profile, I know I would have. RIP David, thank you for your years of service.

Amen to that Welsh, well said. With Nancy I always imagined in the initial years following the Z crimes she probably kept a very low profile, I know I would have. RIP David, thank you for your years of service.

I was only thinking a couple of nights ago how ironic it was that Zodiac’s phone call was answered by his absolute opposite. The caller: Intent on taking the lives of innocent young men and women who he apparantly doesn’t even know. Cares nothing for other peoples feelings. Killing the victim and destroying the lives of thoes close to them isn’t enough, he then recounts the details and demands they be printed so the families have to go through yet more pain.
Then you have the man who answered the call: Spent 35 years doing a job that, day in and day out, put his own life at risk in order to protect others. After 35 years doing this, Dave Slaight could have spent his remaining years relaxing, sat on a deck chair on the beach etc. But was Dave lying on a beach in the sunny Bay area? No, he could be found at St. Helena Hospital working as a volunteer to once again try and bring some help and assistance to thoes who needed it most.

One did his best to destroy life and cared nothing for the people he hurt. The other did his best to preserve and protect life and cared deeply for the people in his community.

Napa was lucky to have Dave as one of it’s residents, he really was a credit and wonderful example to other people.

TY, Welsh, for reminding me what a detestable coward Zodiac was (is?). He ambushed innocent, unsuspecting people, leaving them little or no chance to defend themselves. Whenever a sneaking admiration for Z skulks into my mind, I think of his true, vicious nature. Damn, I hope he’s caught someday!

TY, Welsh, for reminding me what a detestable coward Zodiac was (is?). He ambushed innocent, unsuspecting people, leaving them little or no chance to defend themselves. Whenever a sneaking admiration for Z skulks into my mind, I think of his true, vicious nature. Damn, I hope he’s caught someday!

Me too, Dag. But on the point about admiration sneaking into your opinion of Zodiac. I notice the same admiration creep into my unconscious regarding Zodiac and I don’t know why it happens because I am not one of the many people who think Zodiac is/was a Genius. That’s a fantasy image of him some like to see him as, but if your asking me do I think his ability to evade capture down to:

A. He really has been ‘too clever for them’ and has a Ph. D in being ‘Crack Proof’, or….
B. He was simply extremely lucky.

I’m opting for B He was just lucky. I mean only a genius could end up at the wrong street corner in Pacific Heights that is one block and two streets further away from his intended escape route. But this extremely intelligent personality doesn’t rush from the crime scene, he takes his time wiping down the interior of the cab, ripping bit’s of shirt off, then wondering around the exterior wiping that down also, before he decides to casually and calmly shuffle and stumble his merry way down Cherry Street, turn right onto Jackson, and head down the hill. And it’s at this point that we see the finest example of a criminal genius at work as he shuffles and limps his way down the hill straight into an oncoming police vehicle. Now see, that is just so genius! As any criminal will tell you, the best way to avoid capture is to walk directly into the arms of the police just yards away from the crime you have just committed.

Zodiac wasn’t some expertly elusive shadow that was always just out of reach and Crack Proof because he was too clever to make a mistake. No, quite the opposite. Oct 11, 1969 saw Zodiac slip away but this was down to a massive slice of luck on his part because the dispatchers call over the radio and alerted the patrol cars to respond to a cab driver assault and robbery in progress, also advised them to BOTL for a Black Male as the Suspect, a blunder that would have catastrophic consequences when a Stocky, Barrel Chested, White Male with thick black horn rimmed glasses who looked slightly hunched forward and also seemed unable to even walk normal, shuffled his way down Jackson Street and shuffled rite past the patrol car like some giant penguin.
This is how, in reality, Zodiac was described. Criminal Genius or Shuffling big clumsy Oaf who isn’t able to walk, only shuffle and even then he shuffles his big, lumbering, unsteady looking frame directly toward the responding police?